Back in November of last year, I wrote an article predicting that Jesus would not return in rapture on May 21, 2011, as predicted by Family Radio Bible teacher, Harold Camping. Now a new date and false prediction about Oct. 21 looms on the horizon.

Reason for failed prediction

But Camping, just like the pseudo-Christian cults of the past who made false predictions, made up an interesting excuse for the failed prediction. Logicians would call it an ad hoc rescue. When the May 21 prediction flopped, he held a press conference on May 23 essentially saying that Jesus came back “spiritually” and invisibly in judgment. Where have we heard that excuse from before? From the Jehovah’s Witnesses back in 1914.

“Judgment has come … the world is now under judgment where it was not prior to May 21. Spiritually there is a big difference in the world but we can’t detect it all with our eyes. But we can know from the Bible,” Camping said. That’s a convenient, cult-like excuse, but it doesn’t change the fact that predictions truly from God, like the prophecy in Isaiah 44:28-45:7, and are usually very specific and of a miraculous nature so that they cannot be rationally denied.

New date for world’s destruction

Now the focus for Camping is on Oct. 21, 2011.

“At that time the whole world will be destroyed … the world is under judgment … but it won’t be spiritual on Oct. 21 because the Bible clearly teaches that then the world is going to be destroyed altogether,” Camping stated at the May 23 press conference. So in other words, this judgment on Oct. 21 will be visible, unmistakable and undeniable.Or will it?

Strangely enough, not long after Camping had this press conference, he had a stroke and was hospitalized for a long time. After weeks of being unable to do his Family Radio Open Forum show, he recently produced an audio greeting on the Family Radio official website saying, “Oct. 21 … That looks like it will be the final end of everything … we know that [the unsaved] will quietly die, and that will be the end of their story.Whereas the true believers will quietly receive the new heaven and the new earth … there’s going to be no big display of any kind. The end is going to come very, very quietly, probably within the next month, it will happen, that is by Oct. 21.”

Maybe it’s just me, but has anyone noticed this glaring contradiction? On May 23 we were told that the end will be not be “spiritual” but will be literal and the world will be destroyed altogether. But months later, we are told that the end will come without a big display and pass away quietly. You can’t have it both ways, Camping. But it seems to me that because he’s had such a horrible track record with predictions not coming to pass as predicted, from 1994 to present, that Camping is trying to play both ends of the prediction game so that he “wins” no matter what. In other words, if something does happen on Oct. 21, he can say, “See, I was right.” But if absolutely nothing happens and the day passes without a bang or whimper, he can still say, “See, I told you so.” So it’s conveniently a win-win for Camping.

Discerning false claims

But in actuality, all this shows is that we simply can’t trust predictions of any kind from Camping. As Biola students who study the Bible regularly and may have to interact with Camping followers or confused unbelievers, it is important that we are aware of these false claims so that we can help people who have been deceived. As Bible students, we can simply point them to the Bible about the coming of Christ and how to discern false prophetic assertions:

We can point them to Matthew 24:36, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” Or to Deuteronomy 18:22, “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”