I’m spitting chips! I’m so angry I can barely contain myself.
Back in May I laughed with my friends about the so-called ‘Rapture’ that Harold Camping ‘prophesied’. We made a big joke of it. We noted the time had come and gone. And laughed. It was all fairly harmless, really. Poor misguided man forgot that the Bible says “Nobody knows the day or the hour expect the Father”, and the part about the “thief in the night”.
Well, today I’m mortified. I’m horrified. The impact of this False Prophet is far greater than I ever imagined.
As a missionary, I often get to see the impact of false teaching on people who only have a small piece of the theology pie. Misunderstanding about Grace, the Crucifixion, Works and Faith, Healing. And don’t get me started on the Prosperity Doctrine! I, along with many others, get to pick up the pieces of shattered lives due to Hit and Run Evangelists and Preachers, who come to do their 2 weeks a year, feel good about themselves and then leave.
But Harold Camping. He’s had the most devastating impact I have seen so far. All because he has a radio station.
According to John The Baptist TV, groups of Hmong in Vietnam heard a radio broadcast from Mr Camping about the May 21 Rapture. Imagine the excitement of these Faithful Followers of Jesus. After years of religious persecution from their government, they were to be liberated by their Lord and Saviour. So, they gathered on a mountain top to wait for Jesus to take them Home.
But it’s now clearer than ever that Mr Camping is a False Prophet (rather than a misguided old man), who unfortunately has the financial means to do far more damage than anyone ever realized. Here’s what really happened.
The police and military police slaughtered many of them at gunpoint, beheading two pastors. Others were arrested. I am told by Hmong pastors that so many were shot dead that they were buried in mass graves bulldozed over in an episode that I read about in Britain but did not understand the magnitude of until I got here. I am now trying to clean up the mess at the request of local Hmong leaders. I spoke to a secret convocation of Hmong pastors only yesterday who came to Hanoi, explaining to them about false prophets and false teachers.
Due to a combination of poverty, ignorance, and persecution these poor Christians don’t understand much so they believed Camping’s shortwave broadcast which is how most get their teaching in a certain village area with heavy persecution. Their families don’t know if their missing loved ones are among the many shot dead, among those arrested and imprisoned, or among those from the 7,000 hiding in the jungle.
(Excerpt from “False Prophesy Causes Hundreds Killed” by Jacob Prasch)
In Old Testament times, False Prophets were dealt with very harshly in Israel. They were stoned, swallowed up by the earth, cut down with the sword. To name a few. It sounds harsh, especially in this day and age of tolerance and peace. But the reason God dealt so harshly with False Prophets is because when His people were deceived by them it led to slavery to sin and idolatry, and often death at the hand of their enemies.
Not much has changed. Except our response. We see Mr Camping as a misguided Religious Nut who, steeped in pride and self-righteousness, has deceived himself into believing he’s somehow special and knows more than others. Some of us maybe even pity him. We certainly wouldn’t think of taking any action against him.
But the result of his prophesies is death. Both spiritual and physical. This group of Hmong are just one example of the Fruit of Mr Camping’s ministry. There are reports of people committing suicide when they thought they had been left behind, and others have left the faith as a result of this deception. And this is not the first time that Camping has been so blatantly wrong (see here and here).
I am relieved to find that Family Radio took Camping’s program, Open Forum, off the air. But more needs to be done. By the church and by the authorities. We cannot allow this man to keep preaching and deceiving on such a wide scale. God’s heart is grieved by these events. And I believe His wrath is stirred by the deception.
God doesn’t change. Mr Camping has a lot of blood on his hands and he will have to give an answer very soon.
Edit:
If you are a little more level headed than me, you might appreciate this article, Harold Camping and the Christian Hmong of Vietnam by Persecution.org. I found this after I had written my rant.
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