If you’ve seen the billboards around town headlined with, “We Can Know…” or “Save the Date…” with a statement, “Return of Christ May 21, 2011,” you’ve probably been a little puzzled. What is this? Is this serious? Does the Bible really say Jesus Christ coming back to judge the world on May 21, 2011? If you ask the organizer of this movement, Harold Camping, you will hear him say it is a certainty. Where does he get this information? Has he gleaned it from some supernatural experience? Has God told him personally? Does the Bible say this?
First, let’s see what Harold Camping got right. The Bible does communicate that Christ will come back to judge the world. OK, we’re done. This is the extent of what is true in this sensationalistic phenomenon. But Camping is no stranger to failed predictions. He claimed the same failed prediction for September 6, 1994, in his book titled 1994. After the failure, he simply claimed that he had done the math wrong. And what was this math that supposedly gave him this insight? He took the 2,000 pigs from Mark 5:13 that have absolutely nothing to do with years, and supposes them to represent years, then added 2,000 years to Christ’s birth, which he believes to be 7 BC and he came up with 1994. With regard to where we are now, we have the world ending and Jesus Christ coming back in 2011, 2012, 2014 as postulated by various false prophets.
Why the Failure of Jesus Christ Coming Back?
With regard to the current, and soon to be failed prediction, Camping points us to 2 Peter 3 as the passage that allows us to see that 2011 is the year of Christ’s coming. Now, the passage reads, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” He takes the passage horribly out of context, then uses what he claims is a date that he knows is when the flood of Noah occurred, 4990 BC. How he comes up with that date is beyond me. No one really knows when the flood occurred, and it is far more likely that it indeed occurred well before that. Then he says that since the week is 7 days, we can somehow multiply 7 by 1000 and get 7000, then subtract 4990 and account for the non-existence of year 0 to give us 2011. If this isn’t some heavy post-modernism, I don’t know what is. All he’s doing is pouring his own meanings into passages and doing some mystical mathematics to come up with a random number that appears to fit the current year. This, however, is nothing new. End-time prophecies have all had one thing in common; they have all been wrong. The same thing happened in 1988, 2000, 2005…
Now, what does the Bible really say about when Christ will return? There is no need to set any dates, use some weird numerology to twist the Bible into giving us dates that aren’t there. If we employ the methods used by Camping and all other false prophets we can easily make the Bible say whatever we choose to. There is really no warrant for any of it and no evidence in the Bible that gives anyone a clue. There is nothing more explicit in this regard than the Gospel of Matthew,
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man”(Matthew 24:36-39).
I think Camping and all other prophecy date-setters should give this verse a cursory reading. To every single prophet that claims to have some mystical insight, please first read the Word of God.
I LOVE this article… THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Matthew scripture shows us the TRUTH and how FALSE these people are. May God bless you for making sense out of it… The main thing: prayer, confess, be READY every day! Right? Praise the Lord Jesus Christ this day!
Thank you, Mia! Yes, I agree. There is way too much emphasis on dates and it is often a distraction for the way we ought to live today.
The year that the Great flood occurred can be derived from genealogies before the flood.
Gene, we would need to know the date of creation for that, wouldn’t we?
This would also assume that the hebrew “ben” in all instances means the literal next line of descendant and not skip generations.
Supermoons, earthquakes, sunspots, 2012 global destruction and solar flares happening any minute now… do you maybe get the feeling we’ve upset someone? LOL!
We will all find out whether or not Harold Camping is a false prophet or a modern day Noah in a very short time. I think, however, that the real issue for those who consider themselves Christian is how each of them really feels about Jesus’ imminent return. Are they joyous or fearful?
We don’t really need to wait to know that Harold Camping is a false prophet. We need to read our Bibles. According to the Bible if anyone claims to speak for God and is wrong, that person is a false prophet. In fact, the act is so blasphemous that in the OT they used to stone those who proved to be the false prophets. Harold Camping has been proved to be wrong on many occasions, including his infamous 1994 claim. Additionally, it is clearly evident that the age of prophets is over.
“it is clearly evident that the age of prophets is over.”
“And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)
Amen Arthur. The Holy Spirit would not have moved Luke to write “and all the prophets” if in fact that new Scripture was to be written. However, I do believe that there have been some pretty heart pounding ‘prophecies’ revealed in dreams and visions about the tribulation. For example; Ken Peters reveals a ‘vision’ that he said the Lord gave him in which he saw his own wife beheaded for her testimony in Christ. I will not be the same Christian after hearing this man talk about the things he said he saw happening when this present world is given over to the temporary control of the Antichrist.
Wes, I’m definitely not doubting that miracles are possible today. But we have to be careful about all claims. There are way too many charlatans out there who are looking to take advantage of people who do not think twice about what they believe.
Amen to that. The Word of God defends the Word of God.
“He claimed the same failed prediction for September 6, 1994 in his book titled 1994.”
Thus we find in the Word of God…
“And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”
Deuteronomy 18:22
Once again we find that the Word of God defends us from false prophets.
But think about this. Some people are going to die on or even before May 21st.
I want to thank the Lord for this great opportunity. Lord, thank you for the opportunity that this is bringing your people. The great opportunity we have through this news spectacle to share your Gospel of truth to those who are asking questions about the Day of your return. Your Word is truth.
Wes, thank you for the verse.
I’m not sure what you meant by:
Also, honestly I don’t see this as any sort of opportunity and it is actually much more detrimental to the Christian claim than it is any sort of benefit. All the countless false claims have tired people and have caused the masses to abandon the faith instead of taking the Gospel seriously. It is something to grieve over, not applaud.
Romans 8:28 “God works all things to the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose.”
Even though the claim for the return of Christ on May 21, 2011 is false, those who do not know the truth may start asking questions of those of us that do. Therefore, a door is opened for us to share the truth of the bible which can lead to faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
From my perspective, Wes was not thankful for the false prophecy, but for the possible opportunities to witness to those who may have questions as a result.
Shara, I agree so long as there are enough Christians to know this to be a lie and can articulate to their friends why it is so.
Shara,
Indeed. I am not thankful for the false prophecy. I am grateful that there are opportunities like this that we have to openly engage in public dialogue to share the truth of the Word of God to people who do not know the Lord or that have no idea what the Word of God states about the return of Christ.
With that being said, we are tragically off base as believers if we ‘want’ the end to come. What does the prophet Amos say?
“Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.” (Amos 5:18).
A lot of people are going to die in a short amount of time when the Judgments come and we as Christians had better start discerning the present days. The birth pangs of God’s judgement has started upon the house of God in America for our rebellion in refusing to wear the yoke of persecution in America. The days of hiding in plain site are over as Christians in America. The harvest is huge and are we a laborer or are we a tare that the enemy has sown?
Arthur,
I simply meant by stating that date that some people in this world will indeed spend their last day on earth on May 21st, and in an ironic sense, this date would be a horrifying reality for those that rejected the Salvation found only in Christ.
To the Lord Jesus Christ all the glory for His is Risen. We have the Gospel to preach.
I believe the opportunity is to let people know that they can’t know when their time is up. Whether it is May of this year, or December of 2012, or in the next 5 minutes, if you wait to get yourself right with God, you may end up waiting too long. As Hebrews 3:12-15 says, “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said:
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”
Very well put!
Try this calculations on 4990BC to 2011AD
Appointed Times
The Great Flood (4990 BC)
Birth of Jesus Christ (7 BC)
Day of Pentecost (33 AD)
Rapture & Judgment Day (2011 AD)
From 4990 BC to 7 BC = 4983 years
From 7 BC to 33 AD = 40 years
From 33 AD to 2011 AD = 1978 years
4983 years + 40 years + 1978 years = 7001 years
7001 years 1 (no year 0 “zero”) = 7000 years
http://true-sayings.blogspot.com/2011/03/watch-in-night.html
Tim, you’ve done a lot of homework on this and you’ve come up with a few good dates for events tied to historical events, but you’ve made a few presuppositions and I’m afraid you’ve taken a few Bible passages out of context.
Why are you presuming that the flood happened in 4990 BC? What evidence do you have for this? Where do you get the information? There is nothing I know of that can give you this year. If you have some hard evidence for this please present it. Otherwise, your initial date from which you count till the present cannot be substantiated.
On your site you state the following:
Nowhere in the Bible does that calendar present itself. You’ve taken this out of context. The round number 1000 is generally not to be taken literally in Scripture unless it is in an explicit manner. It is a hyperbole:
When 1000 is compared to 1, especially in terms of days it is done as a way to explain God’s infinite nature in human terms so that people can try to comprehend it. It is not meant to be take as a literal 1000.
this cannot be substantiated
This math is ultimately based on many false presumptions and mis-interpretations.
When May 22, 2011 arrives and after this false methodology is proved to be wrong yet again, people should start reading the Bible in context and without presumptions.
I think that Arthur is very right about this being more detrimental. Someone told me about this false prophesy and looking to see where it was coming from, I found an article on the “Agnostic Library” website. This prophecy does not constitute itself as much of an opportunity unless you can explain properly to an agnostic that there are and where and has always been false prophets, etc. The blogger for the Agnostic Library is a skeptic to say the least and this is the final judgement in his mind regarding Christianity. He is also aware of Harold Camping’s previous miscalculation.
Let’s just stick to The Truth, make Jesus Christ the LORD of your life and read your Bible! =0) Thank you Arthur for defining this and standing for Truth..
Thanks, Julie. Understanding the Bible properly does seem to resolve quite a few issues.
Just found this post on Google, was an informative read, thanks!
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I think this blog is really great. I’m glad that i found a place to get such good information. Keep up the good work!
I got to this blog from Facebook (my friend posted it). After reading the article, I then clicked “Like” and shared it.
There’s lots of information out there if anyone wants to read it. The book Adam When has all the roadwork done, all we
have to do is trace the timeline.
The book 1994? had a question mark in it. It also alluded to 2011, 8 times. A very good book is The Doomsday Code
by Fitzpatrick. With less than a month, why mock and scoff like everyone without some study.
Pedro, the information that’s out there has no grounding in the Bible text, or anywhere else for that matter. As demonstrated by the article it has very little to do with what Scripture says. This is no mocking. I’ve laid out my case using facts and examples.
Realy we must not interpret d bible 2 the way which will suit us but lets understand what the scriptures are saying. Matthew state all clearly ‘no1 knows d day’, dats it. We must always ready dats it.
The prophesy of JESUS coming on a particular day is immaterial. What matters is what the Bible has to say in this regard.Jesus Christ is coming as a thief in the night(1 Thess 5:2, II Pet.3:10, Rev. 16:15). The notion of “coming as a thief in the night” explains the unpredictability of the coming of our Lord. The most every believer should do is being watchful. I wish any sound Christian doesn’t make a mess of his faith in any attempt to predict Christ coming.
Beloveth, the second coming of Christ should not be a thing to deliberate as babies, but we should take it to heart in prayer and dedication in readiness for the day we shall see him appear in his glory. Remember Christ himself said, he does not know the day nor the angles, but the father himself that knows it. How come God did not tell His belove son, that He could then tell a mortal man, is not possible. So be careful, live ready. Christ is coming soon but no date.
thanks
Uh, I’ll get back to you with my decision as to whether or not Jesus is the savior on may 22.
Ron, whether or not Christ comes back on May 22, 2011 is irrelevant to whether or not He is the Savior. Faulty logic used to foretell Christ’s second coming does not negate the scores of evidence for what He did in the first century as the theanthropos. It does not negate the prophesies He fulfilled, and it does not negate the fact that He was raised from death. We can still trust the fact that He is the Savior because the Bible is explicit in telling us so, and because extra-biblical evidence solidifies the case further by giving us a consistent view of Jesus and His effect on the people. Click here to read why the resurrection of Jesus Christ can be trusted.
just wondering if anyone notices that Jesus said “no man knows (present tense) the day or the hour not the angels not even the Son of man,,,, could Jesus have been speaking to His generation at the time? Also Jesus must know sooner or later when He will be returning because He is coming .. . just wondering your thoughts
Thank you so much for trying to make it clear and easy to understand for people who normally wouldn’t. I firmly believe in the, “No man shall know the day or the hour.” IF God was to tell Jesus to gather his saints on Saturday May 21, 2011. It will NOT be because this guy made this prediction. God runs on his OWN time. So… I expect to see EVERY ONE of you in church on Sunday May 22! 🙂
HAHA Church . WTF do you people waste your time. do you people really think praying does any thing? Try getting off your asses ans knees and do something.
Haha, why do you think it is a waste of time? Have you looked into the claims of Christianity objectively? Were you to dig into it a bit I think you may be surprised.
P.S. Prayer works for those who know how to use it. You cannot turn God into a genie who is at your becking call.
I always get a kick out of people who think prayer is a waste of time. You can’t prove that prayer isn’t effective/affective, but there is proof after proof after proof of answered prayer. I agree with Arthur – check it out objectively.
The heavens and the earth shall be destroyed by fire…
There’s supposed to be, to the best of my knowledge, a massive solar flare (cme) that could, at the very least plunge us into “darkness” being as that our entire power grid could be blown. Just saying.
KNO ONE NOS WHEN CHRIST WILL RETURN BUT CHRIST HIMSELF.! THESE PEOPLE DONT KNO WAT THERE TALKING ABOUT.! ONLY CHRIST KNOS.!!
Hi Arthur,
Thanks for the article. Yes, Harold Camping is a false prophet. As you mentioned, Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour when your Lord will come. Jesus also said he will come like a thief when we least expect it. We need to be ready for His return by being born again and living for Him. Amen!
Blessings,
Judy
Yes, you are correct ”when we expect it last.” But don’t you think this is us expecting it last. Most people are saying ”oh every one else were wrong before so this guy will too.” If every one says he’s wrong they will think it won’t happen and thats when we will probably least expect it. Just want to know your thoughts.
I think it’s expecting it for the wrong reasons. The bottom line is to know the truth and live each consistently with the truth. I don’t think the means justifies the ends because there is such a loss of credibility for Christianity in the public eye. Bending the truth is never a good strategy.
Whichever way,let us all thank God that someone is reminding the world about his coming.As it is now,we must try as much as possible to prepare ourselves for his coming because he shall appear when no man expects.
Nice web, thank you! Awaiting this date 🙂
What if Jesus is here but we just dont know it…
Why would you suppose something like that?