In 1958, a Christian Reformed Church member and construction company owner, Harold Camping, invested in a series of radio stations, eventually becoming the president of what was to become Family Radio. For many years Family Radio provided a distinctively Reformed Christian message to the world. Even as late as 2002, Family Radio was still broadcasting sermons from the likes of R.C. Sproul and James M. Boice.
In 1988, Camping and his family left the Christian Reformed Church, joining a local fellowship in Alameda. By 1992 Camping was teaching that Christ would probably return in 1994. He then set to work writing his book 1994(?) in which he predicted the return of Christ in 1994 and declaring that true Christians must leave their churches. Like many cults before, when Camping's date passed without Christ's visible return, Camping, now 88, decided that 1994 was the when the "latter rain" pouring of the Spirit took place. Camping claims that the "great tribulation" began in 1988.
Several years ago we had learned that the silence in Heaven for about half an hour referred to the 2,300 days that were the first part of the 23-year (exactly 8,400 days) Great Tribulation period. This period began on May 21, 1988. - "No Man Knows the Day or Hour?", Family Radio
What does Harold Camping Teach?
Within the recent past, Camping has declared May 21, 2011 to be the date of the rapture, with Oct 21, 2011 the date of Christ's return and the destruction of the Earth. Camping claims that all churches are evil and that anyone attending a church when the rapture comes is damned and without hope.
The time line of Camping's eschatology as explained by Dr. David R. Reagan:
The Church Age ended on May 21, 1988 and the Tribulation began that day.
Between May 21, 1988 and September 6, 1994, the first six years of the Tribulation, almost no one was saved.
On September 6, 1994, God began to pour out His Spirit. This will result in a great end time harvest of souls during the last years of the Tribulation.
Since the Tribulation will last 8,400 days or 23 years, dating from May 21, 1988, the Rapture will occur on May 21, 2011.
Those left behind will be judged by Jesus for a period of five months, until October 21, 2011, at which time the world will come to an end.
Harold Camping: The Madness of Date-Setting, Dr. David R. Reagan, http://www.lamblion.com/articles/articles_cults16.php
Since his original declaration of 1994, Camping's views have drifted further and further from orthodox Christianity. Camping's latest heretical teachings include:
A denial of total depravity and original sin. (Harold Camping, "Please explain what Romans 2:14…")
Annihilationism; the view that life will end and existence will cease for the unsaved soul. - (Harold Camping, "To God be the Glory!")
Modalism/Oneness; a denial of the Trinity stating that Christ is a mere mode of God, not a different person within the Godhead - (Iron Sharpens Iron, Radio Broadcast, Debate with James White, http://mp3.sharpens.org/ISI/20090729ISI.mp3)
On May 23, 2011, two days after Harold Camping's predicted rapture of believers, Bible-believing churches around the world will open the doors and the Law and the Gospel will be proclaimed in Word and Sacrament and Christ will still commune with His people on Earth. Churches will welcome those who, deceived by Camping's lies, find themselves still here. More than likely, Harold himself will still be alive, pondering how to spin his latest failure. We hope that those misled by the false prophecies of Harold Camping find a Bible-teaching church and abandon the Family Radio cult.
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