Locusts and Wild Honey: Camping retires from doomsday business

In a minor victory for biblical sanity, perennial doomsday prophet Harold Camping has announced he will no longer engage in the practice of predicting the end of the world.

After numerous failed doomsday predictions, Family Radio founder Harold Camping announced this month that he has no plans to predict ever again the day of God's Judgment. He also issued an apology to listeners, admitting that he was wrong.

"We have learned the very painful lesson that all of creation is in God's hands and He will end time in His time, not ours!" a statement on Family Radio's website reads. "We humbly recognize that God may not tell His people the date when Christ will return, any more than He tells anyone the date they will die physically."

Camping, 90, has made predictions about Judgment Day, Christ's return and the end of the world for the past few decades – with the May 21, 2011, forecast receiving the most media attention. Each time the date passed, he did not admit to mistaking the timing but instead reasoned that the events happened "spiritually" rather than physically.

But once Oct. 21, 2011 – the day Camping said the world would be destroyed physically – came and went, the Christian broadcaster began to reevaluate his views about being able to calculate and know the exact date of the apocalypse.

"Even the most sincere and zealous of us can be mistaken," Camping and Family Radio staff stated in their March letter. "We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ's return. In fact for a time Family Radio fell into that kind of thinking.

"But we now realize that those people who were calling our attention to the Bible's statement that 'of that day and hour knoweth no man' (Matthew 24:36 & Mark 13:32), were right in their understanding of those verses and Family Radio was wrong. Whether God will ever give us any indication of the date of His return is hidden in God's divine plan."

Now, don't get too excited. After all, Chuck Smith is still out there.

Calvary Chapel movement founder Chuck Smith closed out the 2012 SoCal Prophecy Conference at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Sunday with a message of "blessed hope" for Christians during the end times.

More than 8,000 people attended the three-day conference held at the church that included several speakers addressing the difficult objections and misconceptions associated with the end times.

Smith, 84, who is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, is undergoing treatment for lung cancer. However, he had no problem delivering a strong message of hope in a fallen world.

"We're on the verge of, it looks like, a war in the Middle East that could expand into a global conflict of nuclear proportions. The economy is tanking. Many nations are on the verge of bankruptcy and our own nation is so many trillions of dollars in debt. It's just amazing," he said.

He began his talk on prophesy by quoting Bible verse Titus 2:13, which states, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."

"Surely there is a blessed hope that we have as believers," Smith told those in attendance. "As far as the world is concerned there's not much hope. When you look at the world that we live in today, the future doesn't look very bright."

Smith said he feels that the U.S. government is handling the nation's money incorrectly.

"The politicians seem to think the best way to get out of debt is to borrow money, but you know there's a basic law of economics that when your output is greater than your input, your upkeep is your downfall," Smith said.

"Right now at the present time there are several men (presidential candidates) who are making wonderful promises to us here in the United States. They tell us that they have the answers to the problems our nation is facing and they are trying to encourage people to have confidence in them and vote for them because they have the solutions to the problems.

"Well, maybe you are hoping in these men, but I've lived long enough that I've sort of lost hope in the programs of man and I am looking for a better hope – the hope of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," he said.

He went on to explain that the state of the world will not be getting better according to predictions in the Bible.

"The Bible tells us that things aren't going to get better. Evil days are going to get worse and worse. Jesus said in Matthew 24:12, 'And because iniquity of the earth will abound, the love of many will wax cold.'"

Smith, who regularly gives updates on the events of the Middle East at his church in Costa Mesa, often begins with news that shows the potential outbreak of war, but ends by referring to the current events as "exciting times."

"How can you make, you say, all these dire predictions with a smile on your face? Well, because the outlook for the Church is very bright," he explained. "We're almost there and I know how this story ends and that it's always comforting when you know that it ends and 'they all lived happily ever after.'"

In case you are not familiar with Chuck Smith, here's a little background from Gary DeMar.

In his 1976 book The Soon to be Revealed Antichrist Chuck Smith writes, “we are living in the last generation which began with the rebirth of Israel in 1948 (see Matt. 24:32–34).” You will search in vain in the three verse’s Smith references to find any mention of “the rebirth of Israel.” He repeats the claim in his 1978 book End Times: “If I understand Scripture correctly, Jesus taught us that the generation which sees the ‘budding of the fig tree,’ the birth of the nation of Israel, will be the generation that sees the Lord’s return. I believe that the generation of 1948 is the last generation. Since a generation of judgment is forty years and the Tribulation period lasts seven years, I believe the Lord could come back for His Church any time before the Tribulation starts, which would mean any time before 1981. (1948 + 40 – 7 = 1981).”[1] If this prophetic math sounds familiar, it’s because the same end-time logic was used by Hal Lindsey in The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970.

In order to cover himself against charges of date setting, Smith wrote that “it is possible that Jesus is dating the beginning of the generation from 1967, when Jerusalem was again under Israeli control for the first time since 587 B.C. We don’t know for sure which year actually marks the beginning of the last generation.”[2] A 1967 starting point to begin calculations and a 40-year generation would mean the rapture should have taken place before 2000. While it sounds like Smith is simply engaging in conjecture, in his book Future Survival, which was first published in 1978 and updated in 1980, his prophetic dogmatism is retained:

We’re the generation that saw the fig tree bud forth, as Israel became a nation again in 1948. As a rule, a generation in the Bible lasts 40 years. . . . Forty years after 1948 would bring us to 1988.

Keep in mind that it’s not only important to show where Smith was wrong in his predictions, it’s crucial that we understand that he is using an interpretive model that leads him to make these predictions.

Smith wrote in 1980 that from his “understanding of biblical prophecies, he was “convinced that the Lord [would come] for His Church before the end of 1981.” He did add that he “could be wrong” but went on to say in the same sentence that “it’s a deep conviction in my heart, and all my plans are predicated upon that belief.” Notice the last statement. He may have voiced some doubts, but actions speak louder than words. He made plans based on his beliefs that were founded on his “understanding of biblical prophecies.”

On December 31, 1979, Smith told those who had gathered on the last day of the year that the rapture would take place before the end of 1981. He went on to say that because of ozone depletion Revelation 16:8 would be fulfilled during the tribulation period: “And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun; and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.” In addition, Halley’s Comet would pass near Earth in 1986 and would wreak havoc on those left behind as debris from its million-mile-long tail pummeled the planet. Here’s how Smith explained the prophetic scenario in his book Future Survival which is nearly identical to what appears on the taped message:

The Lord said that towards the end of the Tribulation period the sun would scorch men who dwell upon the face of the earth (Rev. 16). The year 1986 would fit just about right! We’re getting close to the Tribulation and the return of Christ in glory. All the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

Nothing significant happened in 1986 related to Halley’s Comet, and there is no reason why it should have since it’s been a predictable phenomenon for more than two millennia as it makes its way around the sun every 75 to 76 years.