Awkward

[Josh]

[Josh]

Reading about the people who bought into this makes me think of when Paul says in 2 Tim. 2:

16 Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17 Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have departed from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” .

I read an article about a church that was there to help people pick up the pieces of their faith after following Camping's advice. Cool idea.

[robin]

I read an article about a church that was there to help people pick up the pieces of their faith after following Camping's advice. Cool idea.

The way the church handles this will be very important. I'm certain that those who believed that Jesus was going to return Saturday and now confused and embarrassed, and I'm sure there will be no shortage of people willing to rub it in a little. Hopefully the church does not partake in that Kind of destructive and divisive behavior.

I'm also not so sure that I would classify Camping, or his followers as false prophets. It appears to me that Camping believed that he was able to determine what scripture predicted about the exact date of the end of the world, but I never heard anything about Camping claiming that God himself told him that on May 21st the world would end. If misinterpreting scripture makes one a false prophet, then would it also be fair to consider John Calvin and others who teach false doctrine, false prophets?

Perhaps the only difference if that Camping's teachings are exposed as wrong in this life, and Calvin's in the next.

[Josh]

I wasn't intending to go that far, which I guess I did suggest in quoting the above Scripture. It was particularly the "and destroy the faith of some" part that flashed into my head when I was reading about this.

But also, these false teachers were destroying people's faith through a false eschatology, which is in some ways similar to this situation (without applying the false teacher label necessarily)

[robin]

My comments weren't directed at you, or anything you wrote. I was responding to a number of people that I have heard on the TV and radio recently.

I don't know if you heard this yet, but apparently Camping miscalculated a second time. He now says that October 21st will be the end of the world. I guess we have 5 more months before Camping has to rework him math.