The Revelatory Quote of the Day...

... comes from the Harold Camping camp, in this CNN.com article about the octogenarian doomster Camping and his predicted "Judgment Day" (tomorrow, in case you didn't know):

At the center of it all, Camping's organization, Family Radio, is perfectly happy to take your money -- and in fact, received $80 million in contributions between 2005 and 2009. Camping founded Family Radio, a nonprofit Christian radio network based in Oakland, Calif. with about 65 stations across the country, in 1958.

But not even all of his own employees are convinced that the world is ending on Saturday.

In fact, many still plan on showing up at work on Monday.

"I don't believe in any of this stuff that's going on, and I plan on being here next week," a receptionist at their Oakland headquarters told CNNMoney.

A program producer in Illinois told us, "We're going to continue doing what we're doing."

But if "what you're doing" is preaching that the true Christians will be "raptured" from earth on May 21, 2011, surely there will be some sort of career and faith crisis come May 22, 2011, if you're still terra firma bound. Right?

No, probably not, in large part because such failures have become something of a time-honored, even entertaining, tradition in the United States. Adventism came out of the ashes of William Miller's failed prediction—the "Great Disappointment"—that October 22, 1844, was The End (itelf a revision of his earlier and more general prediction that 1843 was The End). Adventistism then survived a series of failed predictions in the 1800s, and the Watchtower Society is still carrying on despite a rash of come-and-gone dates. And don't forget that Pat Robertson, nearly thirty years ago, said, "I guarantee you by the end of 1982 there is going to be a judgment on the world." (It could be that Robertson was referring to the Metallica's debut album, "Kill 'Em All", which included the song, "The Four Horsemen". Just a non-prophetic hunch.)

Paul Boyer, in his exceptional study, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Harvard University Press, 1992), wrote this of William Miller (d. 1849), whose beliefs (and failed prophecies) led eventually to the establishment of Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses and other "Advent Christian" groups:

No wild-eyed fanatic, Miller stressed the systematic nature of his method and the rationality of his conclusions. Prophecy study, he insisted, was precisely analogous of science's probing of nature's secrets. At a time when numeracy was increasingly becoming a culturally valued skill disseminated through the population by almanacs and by the public schools, Miller and his followers applied this proficiency to elucidation of the numerical mysteries of the Book of Daniel. (pp. 83-4).

A small taste of this approach can be seen in this passage from Camping's Family Radio site:

The timeline of history is God's predetermined timetable for the unfolding of God's Gospel program for this world. In other words the length of time between the day God created this world in 11,013 B.C. and the day he will destroy it in October 21, 2011. The discovery of this information built the foundation for what God would later reveal from the Bible as the date for the end. Judgment Day on May 21, 2011 is the culmination of five decades of intensive biblical study by Mr. Camping and other bible teachers who have discovered the same biblical data.

The Bible, in essence, is seen as a codebook-meets-mathematical-puzzle, filled with scientific data that awaits the diligent (and Spirit-filled!) researcher. As Boyer notes in a later chapter, 20th-century dispensationalists (of which Camping is a variation) insisted that their "methods paralleled those of the laboratory researcher. By Baconian, inductive techniques, one searched the apocalyptic scriptures, formulated a 'hypothesis' about their meaning, then tested that hypothesis by examining history past and present. (Needless to say, in the 'science' of prophecy investigation, the empirical evidence always bore out the hypothesis.'" (p. 294). Always! Until proven wrong, when "new evidence" and previously unobtainable historical data is unearthed that explains the error. Then the cycle begins anew.

 The CNN piece reports that while Family Radio insists that tomorrow is "Judgment Day" and that October will bring the End of the World, the organization has apparently positioned itself to keep on ticking if its prophecy clock turns out to be malfunctioning:

Also curious is why Family Radio requested an extension to file their nonprofit paperwork. The group is required to submit financial documents in many of the states where they solicit donations, and in Minnesota they requested an extension from their July 15 deadline to November 15.

July 15th was already well past their Judgment Day prediction -- when they say believers will ascend to heaven -- so why bother requesting an extension to November?

Probably because in the doomsday business, it pays to keep on predicting. After all, if you can get people to focus on their fear of the future, they won't be so curious about the mistakes in your past.

• A few thoughts about the not-so-rapturous May 21st Harold Camping Trip... (May 19, 2011)

Comments

[Ed Peters]

I find it all quite entertaining. It's something only Americans "get". We're heating up the grill tomorrow, irregardless. Who wants brats and cold beer?

[Carl E. Olson]

Me! Me! Me! Three brats. Two beers. Thanks!

[David K. Monroe]

The more I read about this, the less I find to laugh at. 80 million dollars has gone into the coffers of this foolish deceiver who's already been wrong before using the same methodology. 80 million dollars people have invested toward the shipwreck of their faith. It's not just the money, it's the anguish that will certainly happen when this fails to come to pass.

I saw an article today about a couple with four children, some high school age, who are caught up in promoting this Camping prediction. Problem is, the parents are dedicated to it and the children aren't. The eldest daughter said essentially, "I don't know what I wanna do with my life, because my parents, who are supposed to be my guidance and support, aren't interested." And of course the parents think that Jesus said that if your family gets in the way of your ministry, your priority is your ministry.

It isn't funny anymore. It's a travesty and it is poised to ruin lives. It already holds the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ up to ridicule and His Church to scorn.

I don't know if Harold Camping is a good man or not, but the effect of his "ministry" is undeniably, and perhaps incalculably, evil.

[Ed Peters]

Rats!, the Rapture was rained out here, Carl, and so were grilled brats. We'll reschedule soon.

ps: MKD, sure, it's never funny (and hasn't been for hundred-fifty years in the USA or whatever) instead, it's stupid. but stupid is funny, and if people want to spend money on stupid, i can laugh. this guy's not a fraud, in the conventional sense. he's creepy. so, lest the outside look in on Xtns and say what idiots they must be, it's ok for sensible Xtns to laugh at this guy, and at the next one, and the next one, and the next one.

as i told my kids, the question is NOT whether the world is going to end, or whether Jesus is going to come again in glory and trumpets, for He surely will. the question is whether Jesus himself told us, Yes there will be signs, but as for the exact hour, only the Father in Heaven knows it, so...quit trying to figure it out, and live each day ready to meet Him.

pps: Carl, Johnsonville and Coronas ok?

[tom sheepandgoats]

Ah, well. The formula was simplistic. The notion (nailing the day) was presumptuous. The baggage (trinity and hellfire) was typical. And he sure did flummox a lot of followers. But he is 'keeping on the watch.' No one can say he's not doing that. As so many before him have done. As you pointed out.