Sunday, May 22, 2011

To all those confused or angered, happy or sad about the whole Harold Camping mess

Well, six o'clock came and went.....no rapture......just a lot of mocking and laughing, undoubtedly some disappointed followers of Harold Camping who "invested" their life savings and their all to this cause.  The false prophet, Mr. Camping....no where to be found.  Christians who know the Word of God hopefully were not surprised by this failed prophecy.

I want to talk about what happened, why some believed it, and how not to be one of the causalities of this man or any other man who will surely show up again with another lie.

As I listened to this man and read some of his interviews over the last few weeks leading up to May 21, several things he said caused red flags to immediately go up in my mind.

1.)  First and foremost, Mr. Camping distorted the Word of God and manipulated it to say what he needed it to say in order to support his idea.  It is possible to pull verses out of context and make them say just about whatever you want them to say.  It is important that we look at Scripture in context.  Who was God speaking to, what were the circumstances surrounding these verses, do these verses apply to everyone of just the people of those times.

2.) Mr Camping had come to the conclusion that every other pastor, every church, every Bible teacher had it all wrong......everyone but Mr. Camping had it wrong.   BEWARE of any man who claims to be a teacher of the Word of God and claims that everyone is wrong but him. Mr. Camping teaches that all the churches and their pastors don't teach the Word of God correctly, in fact, he goes on to state that the devil runs the churches and the Holy Spirit has left the churches.  My friend, step back and think about that.  The church is not a building, rather it is you and me, we are the church.  The moment we accept Christ we receive the Holy Spirit and the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit will remain with us so that He can comfort us and counsel us.  He is the Paraclete.-a Greek word that means "Comforter" and "Counselor"

DON"T BE SUCKED IN BY ANY TEACHER WHO CLAIMS HE IS THE ONLY ONE WITH THE ANSWER.  Step back, pray and ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit who resides within you in order that He may help you discern right from wrong, truth from lie!

3.)  Mr. Camping taught a false doctrine on salvation-  In the end all Mr Camping could say was "I hope I make it"  You've got to be kidding me!  Mr. Camping is saying he is the only one with the truth yet the best he can say is I hope I can make it.   Jesus said I came that ye may know that ye have eternal life.

I John 5:13- (NKJV)- These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life; and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God

So why were people deceived, why did people fall for his teaching only to be disillusioned at 6:01pm?.  How can we guard ourselves from being entrapped by such teaching.

 1)  Know God!-  Do you have a relationship with God or do you try to feed off someone else that claims to have a relationship with God.  Let me explain through this example-  Have you ever heard something about someone that you know of but you don't really know.  Perhaps on your job someone will tell you something about another co-worker.  They may know that co worker better than you do so you just automatically take that juicy bit of gossip as truth....after all they seem to know that person.  All of a sudden we view that person through the eyes of another.  It can be that way with God.  If we don't personally know God, we will just live off of what someone else has to say about Him- it may or may not be true.  When we have Jesus Christ as our Savior we can know God.  When we know God we grow in discernment of the Truth and we will be less likely to be fooled by false prophets

2..)Know the Word of God, know the Word of God, know the Word of God!!!  The best way to detect the lie is to know the Truth.  We learn the Truth through :
    1) Our own study of the Word-  When you get ready to read the Word, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you and help you understand what you are reading.

    2)  Be in church- Look for a good, Bible teaching, Bible believing church where you can grow in your understanding of the Word.  Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to the right church.   Don't stay in a church that is teaching a false doctrine!- It is easy to get comfortable where we are at and just stay there even when we know it is not where we should be.

3)  Test everything you hear up against the Word of God.- When you hear someone say something about the Bible or God that just leaves you with questions- go home and search the Word of God and pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you discern Truth from error.-This is what a group of people, known as the Bereans
did as we read about it in Acts 17:10-12:

Then the brethren immediately sent Paul  and Silas away bu night to Berea.  When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.  These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.  Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

We are also reminded to do this very thing, as we read I John 4:1- Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits, whether they aer of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

4)  Remember that God never acts in a way that is contrary to His character. So much of what Mr. Camping had to say was not consistent with God's character.  That immediately poses a problem for Mr Camping.  God never goes contrary to His character.  As we know God and know the Word, we learn the character of God and we are better able to discern Truth from error.

5) Surround yourself with some godly men and women from whom you can seek counsel concerning any questions you may have about the Bible or something you have heard someone say about God or the Bible.  Make sure that your "cabinet of counselors" always take you to the Word of God to find your answers.  This is one thing I love about my pastor.  When my husband or I have had questions and we go to him to seek counsel, he immediately takes us to the Word and supports his answers with the Word of God.

6) Run from anyone that claims to be the only one with the answers concerning God-   When everyone else is wrong and this man is the only one that understands and the only one with this knowledge from God, step back.  Pray for discernment.  Do not take a man at his word when he makes this bold of a statement.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the truth!

7.)  Remember, God is not a God of confusion-  When someone stands before you and gives some mathematical equation in order to predict the date of the end of the world- run!  God desires the salvation messages gets out for He is not willing that any should perish. (II Peter 3:9)
 God is pretty black and white.  If  God went to such great lengths to offer us the gift of salvation- it makes no sense to think you need an abacus or calculator to figure Him out.

8)  When a man speaks something contrary to the Word of God- stick with the Word of God not the man.  Mr. Camping, in all of his calculations and calenders still had one HUGE HUGE problem.  There is a very simple verse in the Bible that, try as he might (he did and he failed), could not explain.  "NO MAN KNOWS THE HOUR OR THE DAY, NOT EVEN JESUS" When we hear falsehood from some Bible teacher, - At that point we must be bold, be ready reject the man, stand on the Word of God. and say "God said it, I believe it, that settles it for me."

 Matthew 24:36- (NKJV)- But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.-  This is Jesus speaking.

So what do we make of Mr Camping ?-  While I can judge his falsehoods using the only standard, God's Holy Word....I cannot judge his heart.  That must be left to God- and trust me, we can entrust that job to God with absolute certainty that He will handle the situation.  My job is not to judge Mr Camping's heart, my job is to reveal his errors using the Word of God and praying that people are not led astray by Mr. Camping's false teachings.

What do we make of Mr. Camping's followers- Once again, I cannot judge their heart.  They could have been, and probably were, innocently sucked in to his teachings.  This is the very reason that we must have the Truth hidden in our heart.  Discernment is easier when we are already armed with the Truth.  This armor will guard against false teaching even getting a foot in the door of our hearts and make attempts to poke holes in our faith.

Advice to us all-  Just because a man carries a Bible and can quote it and sound very confident doing so, does not mean he is a man of God or a Christian or anything else.  Yes, the world is getting a kick out of all this, mocking us, putting all Christians in the same camp as Mr Camping (no pun intended).  We are not in the same camp as this man- we stand on the Word of God.  There are false teachers by the numbers out there, there are deceptions in every field.  I have watched news shows about individuals who pretended to be doctors, some show how they were able to fool the hospital and the people that should be checking their credentials.  Some have even done minor surgeries (appendectomy, etc) in a hospital without even having a license to practice medicine!  That is scary.  How did this happen?  Well, my guess is if the people who were supposed to be carefully checking their credentials had done investigation properly, this would not have happened.  The fact that this fake doctor made it to the operating room and performed surgery on someone could come with some dreadful consequences, even death of the one who is under the knife.  The consequences are also great for the hospital.  When the word gets out the reputation of this hospital is marred by this one crazy man who faked being a doctor.

So it is in this false teaching of Mr Camping.  If we fail to check his credentials (teachings) up against the Word of God, there can be great consequences, even some walking away from their faith or, God forbid, some spiritually dying and facing an eternity without Christ, but rather in judgement and an eternity of suffering and torment of  a place called hell.

The reputation of the church will be marred in the eyes of the unbelievers.  We must rise to the occasion and speak the Truth with boldness and in love so that the eyes of the unbelievers will be opened.

The Lord is returning- all events seem to reveal that His coming is right around the corner.  Nonetheless, we don't know that day or the hour, so we must live our lives each day as if He were returning today.

Matthew 24:44 (NKJV)- Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Don't become discouraged by the mocking and such that the unbelievers and atheist are having a great time doing.  Don't let your faith be shaken.  Our trust is not in Mr Camping, our trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We have to just keep on speaking of and living out and standing on the Word of God!

Ephesians 4:14- That we should no longer  be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

God said it, I believe it, that settles it for me!

To God be the glory