Lessons from Failed Prophecy
I
knew of Harold Camping for many years, having listened to the
gentle hymns and soothing sounds played over Family Radio while living
in California. Mr. Camping made his money in the construction
business, which he sold to purchase a radio station that
expanded into the network he has today. As the owner, Mr. Camping
became the ministry’s primary teacher.
I listened in occasionally to his open forum where he would answer the Bible questions of callers. Often he would support his beliefs by appealing to an allegorical manner of interpreting the Bible. For example, once a caller confronted his belief in baptism by sprinkling. She argued that John the Baptist baptized in Aenon because there was “much water there,” (John 3:23) which wouldn’t have been necessary if he only needed to sprinkle. Mr. Camping’s reply was that one had to look into the spiritual dimension and that the “much water” in John 3:23 was a symbol of the “plenitude of the gospel”.
Using this same kind of spiritualized hermeneutics, Mr. Camping unearthed what he considered a hidden calendar upon which he based his end of the world predictions. To argue that this could have been prevented if he had “only read his Bible” wouldn’t carry much traction in Mr. Camping's world, because he and his followers believe that they are studying the Bible more faithfully and earnestly than most Christians.
Where Mr. Camping went wrong was not in the lack of Bible contemplation. It was in his lack of humility. Since we moved to Boone fifteen years ago, Mr. Camping began teaching that people should abandon the local church and read the Bible on their own while listening to Family Radio. This cultish warfare-mentality direction was a move towards isolation and the cutting off of the very voices that could have helped him.
My point is not to kick Mr. Camping. In an odd way, his courage to stand for what he believes is admirable, except for the fact that what he believed was nonsensical and tragic. Rather, the point is to take heed because we can fall into this same trap.
In my years of wandering the Evangelical streets I have heard men justify their affairs because their wives were so difficult. I have heard people leading worship, all the while planning on leaving their husbands as soon as the kids were grown. I have heard sin and abandonment justified because “God gave me peace about it.” I have seen way too many strong believers suddenly self-destruct because of shameful decisions that have the rest of the Christian community scratching their heads.
This isn’t so different from Mr. Camping’s dilemma. Our sinful hearts always call us to a world that makes perfect sense to us and seems justified. Reading the Bible alone is no help because we can be masters at selective comprehension and finding the proof texts that support exactly what we want to believe.
What is necessary is Bible reading plus humility plus strong, intimate relationships with other believers. This keeps us from a world that seems logical, Scriptural, thorough and sound, but is in fact miles off course. Christian fellowship in its truest form answers this question in the light of day, “Am I really living the Christian life?” In matters of major decisions, resentments, and significant conflicts, there is a much greater chance that I will get to the true mind of Christ if I am humbly listening to input from my Christian brothers than if I’m sitting in my cave of isolation trying to puzzle it out on my own.
This kind of fellowship may be more difficult for some to find than others, depending on one’s personality type, but it is essential that you seek it out and find it. The alternative is waking up a thousand miles away from home and having no idea how far away you really are or how you got there.