Harold Camping Oct. 21 Rapture: God Stopped Saving People in May, Family Radio Says
Family Radio says if you weren't among those who were saved by May 21, the date of Harold Camping's Rapture prediction, then it's too late.
When its general manager Camping made a doomsday prediction back in May that was a "physical" failure, Family Radio informed the world that God actually used the much-publicized event "to warn the whole world that on May 21 [His] salvation program would be finished on that day."
According to Camping and Family Radio, the whole world has been "under God's judgment" since May 21. Everyone, except for the elect, or "true believers," has been hanging under God's wrath, which will unfold on Oct. 21.
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God was only trying to shake up the world when He "hid" His actual plans from Camping, Family Radio purports in a document published on its website titled "What Happened on May 21?"
Although observers and critics agree that what happened on May 21 was Camping actually proving himself once more to be a poor student of the Bible, the California broadcaster insists that he still had it right, but that God had not been very forthcoming with sharing His judgment plans.
The Family Radio document claims that, to get the world's attention, "God withheld from the true believers the way in which two phrases were to be understood. Had He not done so, the world would never have been shaken in fear as it was."
The two phrases Family Radio refers to are "the completion of God's salvation program" and "God's final judgment."
Speaking rather unclearly for God, Family Radio explains that the completion of "God's salvation plan" is concentrated in the word "rapture" and that the phrase "God's final judgment" is concentrated in the word "earthquake."
Without explaining its hermeneutics or offering an examination of the original Greek usage of the words "rapture" and "earthquake," something Bible teachers might do, Family Radio insists that all one needs is a "critical" understanding of "rapture" and "earthquake" to understand why Camping's doom and gloom May 21 predictions were dead wrong.
In providing that "critical" understanding, Family Radio explains that "earthquake" can also mean "people," so people, instead of the earth, were shaken on May 21. As for "rapture," God is no longer in the business of saving people, Family Radio states simply.
The unsaved were not plunged into hell and believers raptured on May 21 because Camping and Family Radio did not understand what God was doing. Now that they do, unbelievers will enter into eternal punishment and believers into eternal bliss on Oct. 21 – because God has finally opened up the Scripture a little more for Camping.
On May 21, "each and every true believer had become eternally safe with God in Heaven" and "no one who had not become saved by that date can ever become saved."
Instead of a "horrible destruction" of the unsaved, as previously explained, unrepentant sinners can now expect to go "quietly" into eternal damnation, according to a September audio message from Camping.
Camping has revealed that he now believes "that all of our unsaved loved ones will not receive special vengeance of God at all. ... We must believe that probably there will be no pain suffered by anyone because of their rebellion against God."
The 90-year-old California broadcaster added that he found it comforting that the unsaved will "quietly die."
If Camping and Family Radio and their supporters hand not "warned" the world of God's impending doom, more people would not have been saved by May 21.
Those who came to belief in Jesus Christ after May 21, however, are out of God's good graces, according to Camping. The period of salvation is over, so any new believers with genuine faith in Jesus Christ are essentially damned, based on Family Radio's explanation.
While it purports that "only God knows who His elect are that He saved prior to May 21, Family Radio insists that "anyone can continue to beseech God for mercy because salvation and the election program are entirely in God’s hands."
Family Radio closes its explanation of Camping's failed May 21 prediction by noting, "You, too, without your knowledge may have become saved before that date."
