By Edwin Cooney
His name is Harold Egbert Camping. He’s a native of Colorado now living here in Alameda, California and he’ll be ninety years old this July 19th. Most of his life has been spent as a civil engineer, but during the past few decades he has dedicated himself to his religious faith.
In 1988, he left the Christian Reform Church believing that it and most other churches were corrupt to the extent that they no longer curried favor with God. His new “temple” (my phrase) is KEAR in nearby San Francisco, the world headquarters of “Christian Family Radio.” From that low power AM station he broadcasts Christian programming 24/7, designed to appeal to people of all ages. This includes a daily talk show format during which he takes calls from callers and responds to their questions. From what little I’ve heard of the broadcast, he’s gentle with callers and concludes even hostile calls with “thank you for sharing!”
Twice now in the last seventeen years (the first time was September 6th, 1994), he’s predicted the coming of “the Rapture.” According to Dispensationalist Christians, the rapture is when God’s chosen, living and dead, will rise from the earth and the grave and meet in the air with Jesus leaving 97 percent of us behind on this doomed planet. Five months to the day of the rapture, God would destroy the earth.
I must confess that I was drawn to this prediction, not as a believer, but as one who clearly admits that he knows less about the bible and what it’s all about than almost anyone. Furthermore, one of my combined intellectual/spiritual weaknesses is the lack of certainty in my capacity for relational expectations. It’s not that I lack spiritual or moral principles; it’s just that I don’t see myself as having a monopoly of knowledge about truth.
What fascinated and thus drew my attention to Harold Camping’s prediction was his absolute certainty. How could a man risk the reputation of his deepest convictions unless he was certain of their truth and that he was the chosen instrument to deliver that message? Was he perhaps a prophet or was he just a dismayed cranky old man?
As to the details: on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. in every part of the world beginning in New Zealand and Australia, mighty earthquakes would bring about fires, tsunamis, and crushing destruction far beyond anything man has ever experienced. Simultaneously, the Christian dead would rise from their graves (and one would suppose even from their cremation urns) and meet with Jesus. Supposedly, the parts of the world observing this destruction would be helpless to prevent it when the time arrived.
Thus when nothing happened in New Zealand at 11:00 p.m. Alameda, California time that Friday night, it was quite apparent that Mr. Camping’s prophecy had once again gone for naught. Hence, I had the answer to the above inquiry.
Was I surprised? No, but I was relieved. Was I silly to give any credence to his prediction? Oh, probably, but this isn’t the first or last time I’ve been silly! The real question is: what is our fate?
Mr. Camping obviously possesses a lot of money, a talent for organization and the marketing of ideas and beliefs. Disgusted as many other religious factions around the world are with the degradation of our humanist, materialistic and passion-driven ways, Mr. Camping makes a most un-Godly assumption it seems to me. He and many others attribute to God the same impatience and thirst for revenge of the world’s most dictatorial potentates.
I’ve spent a lifetime trying to fathom my relationship with God. I’m still trying. Unlike my atheistic and agnostic friends, I find it impossible to dismiss the beliefs handed down to me by those who instructed me on religious/spiritual matters since the time I was very young. After all, even the most coldly logical authors, screenwriters and producer types regularly ask me to “suspend believability” long enough to sell me their books, music, and movies which are predicated usually on those very same religious-oriented principles. Yet, they’re astonished when I freely invite them to consider the possibility that their creator is a loving God.
Were I to predict the opposite of Mr. Camping’s prophecy, I would be guilty of what I believe to be his misguided mindset. All any one of us is empowered to do is to offer our understanding of what God is all about. What God is likely to do or not to do is strictly God’s business. Hence, for your peace of mind, I invite you to…
Let go of your fears concerning your mortal fate and substitute those fears with an open, honest, loving concern for God’s greatest creation—you and me. Allow that God’s love is just -- not punitive. Finally, allow your worries to be caressed by the knowledge that you are most like God when you love what God created.
One more thing: whatever else they may do, God’s prophets do not run radio stations!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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