Harold Camping: An Untold Story

Now that it's no longer 6pm on May 21 anywhere on earth, Harold Camping, president of Family Radio, has once again proved through another false and failed end-of-the-world prediction that he is a false and failed teacher of Christianity.  I've thought about writing a series of posts on Camping given that I have a very personal and experiential tie to him.

You see, I was converted to Christianity through his gospel ministry, attended his church many years ago, sat for a bible study every Tuesday night in his living room, and experienced first hand the terrible fallout of his first failed end-of-the-world prediction back in 1994.  I also figured out where he went wrong in his prediction and personally confronted him...or tried to anyway.  And he would have none of it.  I repented of Harold Camping.

In some ways I am embarrassed to admit that I have had such a bad camping trip (ahem!), but in other ways I am glad that I have been able to some degree in helping others (including myself) avoid such bad teaching.  And his bad teaching hasn't been limited to end times predictions.

What I hope to accomplish in this series is to give additional information on Camping and his teachings that are little known, to correct some misunderstandings and common factual errors believed about his teachings, to show some of his errors and how his end times beliefs evolved over time, to offer some insight as to what it was like to be on the inside back in 1994, and to increase my blog site traffic.

First, before I get into the end of the world junk, let me just say that once upon a time, Harold Camping preached the real, true Christian gospel and had many very solid, biblical beliefs about Christianity.  It is because of this that I converted to Christianity.  And it is in spite of his many false teachings that I continued in the Christian religion the way that I did.  And the first thing I want to mention is that holding to false beliefs and being caught up in things one ought not be caught up in can lead to the ignoring of responsibility.  I heard the gospel from him, attended his church, and told many there of my conversion.  But he and his group were so caught up in his prediction that they failed to baptize me.  I'm not saying that the following passage is talking about being saved by baptism, but being baptized is part of the Christian religion.  More to come in another post.

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.  He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned."  Mark 16:15-16

Oops.

Read Part 2 here.

Read entire series here.