Cults - Family Radio

Harold Camping's Apology: Not True Repentance

By Dr. Paul M. Elliott
Camping's apology for his false prophecies does not constitute true repentance for decades of heresy.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Camping and the Family Radio staff have expressed regret for his failed prophecies. But this does not constitute true repentance for inventing and promulgating damnable heresies - including a false gospel - for decades. Camping and Family Radio have led souls to Hell.

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

March 2012 - Harold Camping and the staff of Family Radio have issued a letter apologizing for audaciously predicting May 21, 2011 as the date for the return of Christ and the end of the world.[1] But it seems that Camping and his staff still do not understand that his end-times prediction was the least of the damnable heresies which he invented, and his willing accomplices-in-falsehood promulgated, over many years. Harold Camping and Family Radio have led souls to Hell.

A Sampling of Camping's Heresies

On the night before the day on which he said the Bible "guaranteed" the end of the world would take place, Harold Camping seemingly went out of his way to openly demonstrate that he is a minister of Satan. On his May 20th, 2011 "Open Forum" program - which over the decades was never open or a forum, but merely the platform from which he made his ex cathedra pronouncements - Camping reiterated every one of his major Scripture-twisting heresies. Within one twenty-minute span during that broadcast, Camping:

  • Told one caller that "Jesus did not save anyone on the cross" and that His bleeding and dying were only symbolic.
  • Told another caller that while Camping knew the day and hour of the end of the world with absolute precision, "you cannot know you are saved".
  • Told callers that the unsaved are simply annihilated, and cease to have conscious existence the moment they die.
  • Told yet another caller the five monumental lies about the Church that Camping has repeated for decades: 1.) that the "Church Age" ended in 1988; 2.) that God removed the Holy Spirit from the Church; 3.) that God removed Christ from the throne of the Church; 4.) that God put Satan on the throne in Christ's place; 5.) that no one has been saved in a church since that time.

Camping and Family Radio have repented of none of this.

A Tragic Conversation

Camping's most tragic - and self-condemning - conversation of May 20th, 2011 was with a caller who feared that he would be left behind the next day, and wanted to know how to escape God's judgment. Camping's answer? "There is nothing you can do." Then, a few moments later, he added, "You can only beg God to have mercy on you, and perhaps somehow, some way, He might save you."

Somehow? Some way?

When the Philippian jailer cried out to Paul and Silas, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" did they tell him, "There is nothing you can do"? Did they tell him, "You can only beg God to have mercy on you, and perhaps somehow, some way, He might save you"? No! "So they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31). And "the same hour of the night" the jailer "rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household" (verses 33-34). They were not "perhaps" saved. They were not "somehow, some way" saved. They were saved, immediately, once and for all, by the blood of Jesus Christ shed on Calvary - and they rejoiced because they knew they were saved.

When the Jews on the Day of Pentecost were "cut to the heart" (Acts 2:37) by Peter's preaching of the crucified Christ and said, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" did Peter say, "There is nothing you can do"? Did he tell them merely to "beg God" to do something, "somehow, some way" for them? No! He told them to repent and believe on Christ. "Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added" to the Church (Acts 2:41). They were saved, they knew it, "and they continued in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship" (verse 42).

I have heard Harold Camping repeat his evil "you must beg God" and "you cannot know for sure" mantras many, many times over the years. Every time I have heard him repeat these lies, one thing has been telling: He never mentions faith in Jesus Christ. For Harold Camping, believing on Christ is a "work of the flesh." On the basis of that lie, Harold Camping held out no hope to this poor, frightened caller who sought hope. Harold Camping actually, deliberately, cold-heartedly led him away from the cross of Jesus Christ which is the only hope of sinners. And the staff and board of Family Radio did nothing to stop him - as they had for decades.

Harold Camping is a minister of Satan.

Camping Is Still No Christian

No one who truly knows Christ - and more to the point, no one whom Christ truly knows - could teach what Camping has taught. No one could actually, coldly, deliberately lead unsaved souls away from Christ and keep them on the path to perdition. He stands under God's condemnation. He has led people away from the light and kept them in darkness, because he himself is in darkness:

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (John 3:18-19).

This is Harold Camping's condemnation:

[B]ut there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed [literally, damned to Hell]. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:7-9)

The Apostle Paul said this of people who had infiltrated a few churches in one small geographical area. How much more must it be said of a man who has drawn untold thousands of people around the world out of sound churches; a man who has with the help of his Family Radio accomplices infiltrated not only thousands of local churches but also millions of homes; a man who has denied the efficacy of the atonement of the Son of God on the cross?

What Camping and His Enablers Must Do

Harold Camping and the staff of Family Radio seem to regret the trouble their prediction caused. No doubt they regret most of all the shambles that it has made of Family Radio's finances as contributors have fled in droves. Many other ministries and institutions have made meaningless apologies that stopped far short of true repentance, hoping to regain constituent goodwill and financial support.

Camping and his enablers must acknowledge and repent of the full scope of their sins. They cannot simply say, "We're sorry for all the trouble our false prediction caused." This may be the most publicized of their falsehoods, but in the grand scheme it is the least of them. Nor can Harold Camping, or anyone on his staff who believes his theology, merely repent of his sins by approaching God as though he were already a believer. Harold Camping, and those who believe his soul-damning theology, have demonstrated that they are no true believers in Christ.

Above all, and before all, Harold Camping and his enablers must receive the true Christ he has long rejected, the Christ who bled and died at Calvary for sinners, as Lord and Savior before it is too late. That necessitates removing Lord Camping from the throne of his heart, and crucifying him:

...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (Romans 6:5-6)

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God... (Galatians 2:20-21)

But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:23-25)

Likewise, the board, staff, and supporters of Family Radio who have facilitated Harold Camping's decades of damnable heresy must repent of enabling him:

A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject; knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sins, being condemned of himself. (Titus 3:10-11)

For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. (2 John 7-11)

References

  1. "An Important Letter From Mr. Camping - March 2012" as viewed on 3/12/2012 on the Family Radio website, http://www.familyradio.com/announcement2.html?keepThis=true&TB2_iframe=true&height=440&width=611

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