Thursday, May 26, 2011

Harold Camping

So everyone is probably sick of hearing me talk about this, but I don't apologize because it truly bothers me. Harold Camping. Instead of reaching out to help all the families his "rapture" prediction ruined, he states that the world is still going to end on October 21st. Luckily, he won't advertise it like the last one, which he is now claiming it to be some sort of "spiritual rapture" that he did not fully understand. It just upsets me all the lives he ruined with his false prophecy. He should instead commit the few years he has left to rebuilding all the lives he destroyed with his gospel of fear.

I mean I'm not even going to go into detail on how Jesus himself, the son of God as stated in the bible (which Camping claims to believe), stated seven times that no man could know when the end would come. I've actually been quite annoyed that Christians are defending their faith (and rebuking Camping) with this but, I won't get into that because that is irrelevant to the point I am trying to get across.

The point has nothing to do with the end of the world. The problem here is much bigger than Camping. People need to stop living like the end of the world is right around the corner. Christians especially have been living this way for far too long. It needs to stop. Jesus Christ spoke time and time again of what the kingdom of God looked like. He gave parables and taught lessons to many so that we, his followers, could live in a manner that can bring the kingdom of God to earth. We all want life to be easier. We all want things to get better. Part of us wants to be selfish, but that isn't what is meant to be. We are meant to work together in a culture of love, cooperation, sacrifice, and reconciliation. This will never be achieved if we continue to wait around to be carried away on the clouds or some similar nonsense. We need to STOP trying to get out of this world to a better place and start making this place into the place we want to go to. I feel most Christians will disagree with me on this point here but I'm going to say it anyway. We need to live like Jesus is never coming back. We need to live like what we do here in this life matters, REALLY MATTERS, a great deal and do as much good in as many places as we can. We were not meant to live in a secluded Christian culture where we reach out only to hand out a bible tract. We were meant for SO MUCH MORE than that. We are meant to get out in the dirty uncomfortable terrible situations that we want nothing to do with, and do our good THERE. That is what we are called to do as human beings created in the image of God.

If I could meet Harold Camping I think that I would just want to know one simple thing. I want to know if he honestly believes his tens of millions of dollars that were poured into all the advertising made more of a difference than if he poured it into feeding the hungry, healing the sick, caring for the lonely, and giving shelter to the homeless. In fact, I would challenge him that his money drove more people away from his Christ (I say that because that is NOT the Christ I know) because of his prediction being false. I just hope that somehow, some of the damage that has been done can be repaired. It would be foolish of me to assume the happy fantasy that all will be restored by our attempts with all the people this affected, but I hope that we do our best. I hope that all those who believed this prediction do lose faith in Harold Camping as he continues to believe in his fantasy god. I hope at the same time that they will gain faith in the true God. Jesus Christ.

1 comment:

soulseek22 said...

•Camping’s mistake is no suprise. Here is a link to an audio from a spiritual group which is getting a lot of attention right now. They explain how Christianity follows a false image of Jesus and is the false religion Jesus warned about. This recording is apparently causing a lot of controversy! http://www.merkaba.org/audio/sing144000.htm