Harold Camping apologizes for errors about end-time predictions; prays for mercy

The Christian Post reports on an October 28th broadcast in which the 90-year-old Camping acknowledges (some of) his errors and prays for God's mercy:

With his speech sounding somewhat slurred and labored, Family Radio Stations Inc. founder and chairman Harold Camping sought to address in a recent message why Christ failed to return on Oct. 21 as the Bible teacher had predicted. Camping confessed, after decades of falsely misleading his followers, that he was wrong and regrets his misdeeds.

In addition to attempting to correct his erroneous teachings on the Rapture and God's day of final judgment on the world, Camping, 90, also confessed, "incidentally," that he was wrong to claim that God had stopped saving people after May 21 – the date which God's so-called "spiritual" judgment had begun.

Here are excerpts from the transcript of Camping's audio address, which can be heard on the Family Radio website:

Why didn't Christ return on Oct. 21? It seems embarrassing for Family Radio. But God was in charge of everything. We came to that conclusion after quite careful study of the Bible. He allowed everything to happen the way it did without correction. He could have stopped everything if He had wanted to. ...

We're ready to cry out and weep before God: 'Oh Lord, you have the truth, we don't have it. You have the truth.' And this is another place where we have to cry out for... There's one thing that we must remember – God is in charge of this whole business, and we are not. What God wants to tell us is His business. When He wants to tell us is His business. In the meanwhile, God is allowing us to continue to cry to Him for mercy – oh my, how we need His mercy – and continue to wait on Him. God has not left us. God is still God. But we have to be very careful that we don't dictate to God what He should do. ...

Incidentally, I have been told that I said back in May that people who did not believe that May 21 should not be the rapture date, probably had not been saved. I should not have said that, and I apologize for that. One thing we know for certain, is that God is merciful, merciful beyond anything that we would ever expect. And so, we can pray constantly, and should be praying constantly: "Oh Lord, we look to Thee for Thine mercy, and we're so thankful that we know that Thou art so merciful."

Amen and amen. "Nothing", wrote Saint Ambrose, "graces the Christian soul so much as mercy."

Previous and related Insight Scoop posts:

• Just a quick reminder that the world will be annihilated tomorrow! (Oct. 20, 2011)
• Rapture, Rinse, Repeat (May 24, 2011)
• Call for Captions for a May 22nd, 2011 Billboard (May 21, 2011)
• The Rapture: A short history and some basic facts (May 20, 2011)
• The Revelatory Quote of the Day... (May 20, 2011)
• A few thoughts about the not-so-rapturous May 21st Harold Camping Trip... (May 19, 2011)

Comments

[Joe]

Well-done post, shows class.