Peter writes clearly about the Gospel of Jesus and the danger of false teachers. That Gospel offended many as Jesus taught on his work, on grace and on faith. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Let us pray that Harold Camping and his followers will come to embrace the Gospel as Peter did.
Originally posted on the Westminster Seminary California Blog. Should We Leave Our Churches? Teaching Series. Conference Messages. Tabletalk Magazine. Gift Certificates. Camping strongly embraced and taught the doctrine and piety of the CRC in which he had been raised.
The Christian Reformed Church, like all Presbyterian and Reformed churches, also stressed the importance of a carefully and thoroughly educated ministry.
The church certainly taught the Reformation doctrine that the Scripture is clear in its teaching of the message of salvation. At the same time it also recognized that the Lord had given his church pastors to open the Word of God and preserve the church in the truth Ephesians The faithful preaching of these pastors was a means of grace by which the saints were built up. For this vital calling, ministers were educated to read the Bible in Greek and Hebrew, to understand how to read the various genres in the Bible, and how to interpret each part of the Bible in light of the whole.
The best handling of the Scriptures required excellent education. Camping was a bright and studious man who had been educated as an engineer. In the s he owned a very successful construction company which built churches as well as other significant buildings. This educational background is critical to understanding Camping.
His education was not in the liberal arts or theology. He had not been prepared to read literature or ancient texts. He knew no Greek or Hebrew. He was not formally introduced to the study of theology. His reading of the Bible, as it evolved over the decades, reflected his training in engineering. He reads the Bible like a mathematical or scientific textbook. Camping developed, as a good businessman, his construction company and then sold it. With the money he began to build the Christian radio network called Family Radio.
This network was very much his own property and his skill developed Family Radio into a group of stations spread throughout the country. Family Radio appealed to many Christians through its programming of Christian music, Bible reading, Bible lessons and messages from various pastors and conference speakers. The teaching was basically Reformed and Camping sought to have as many recordings of Reformed speakers as possible.
He promoted a Reformed approach to the Bible and especially confronted and refuted dispensational, Pentecostal, and Arminian theologies. He had a broad and detailed knowledge of the Bible which he used to very good effect in answering questions. He was at one time a most effective and influential promoter of Reformed theology and won many listeners to the Reformed cause.
After Camping began to work full-time with Family Radio, he spent much time studying the Bible. His knowledge of Bible verses is impressive indeed. But his study of the Bible was undertaken in isolation from other Christians and theologians. He adopted a proud individualism. He did not really learn from Bible scholars.
He studied the Bible in isolation from the church and the consensus of the faithful. According to "When is the Rapture? On the day of the Rapture, "the believers in Christ who have not experienced physical death will be changed into their glorified bodies," Camping wrote.
At the time of the first prediction, Camping was the president of Family Radio , a non-profit radio network that, according to its website, acts "with the express purpose of sending the Christian Gospel into the world. When May 21, came and went with no sign of the Apocalypse, Camping still said he was not entirely wrong about the prediction. Speaking to the media outside the headquarters of Family Radio on May 23, Camping said that while the world had not ended, the spiritual Rapture had begun.
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