Sunday, May 22, 2011

Should Harold Camping be put to death?

Harold Camping, as you probably all know by now, is the guy at FamilyRadio.com who for years has been proclaiming that he had learned how to decode the Bible's timetable, and that it foretold May 21, 2011, as the Second Coming of Jesus.


That, um, kind of didn't happen.

I was thinking about this today, and I remembered this passage from Deuteronomy 18:17-20 (New International Version):
The LORD said to me: “...[A] prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.” You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously.
Camping clearly claimed to be speaking in the name of God. His web site today still shows all the May 21 crapola: "Judgment Day--THE BIBLE GUARANTEES IT."

Camping obviously believes in the literal truth of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. He spoke a prophecy about the "Rapture" that did not come true, making him a false prophet by a definition that he would presumably have to accept as being one handed down by God. I don't see how he can escape the conclusion that he is a false prophet and should therefore be put to death.

But my guess is that when he goes back on his radio show tomorrow, he won't be offering himself up for righteous execution by the faithful--which will further show what a major-league fraud and charlatan he is.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure he's going to be on the radio tomorrow -- he seemed to be a "real" true believer. He was honestly a little bit worried about not being selected for the Rapture, unlike what a charlatan would say.

I wonder if he's putting himself to death as punishment. He hasn't been seen since early Saturday morning, and no one answers the door at his modest suburban house, though neighbors say he's in there.

Anonymous said...

My guess is he is gonna come out and say "The seed of doom was planted..."

Or some other crap like that.

Anonymous said...

Stop the presses. New date is now October 21, 2011. Camping has since stated that May 21st was simply the "spiritual coming", not the physical event we had all anticipated.

Ye non-believers have been warned!