The Worst Thing Imaginable!

May 21, 2011 "Judgment Day"??? 

All day I've been thinking a lot about the emotions of and various scenarios of what life is like today for the followers of doomsday prophet Harold Camping. I felt I needed to encourage those who read my updates to pray and stay focused. I felt this urgent enough that I have foregone sending this to my trusted editor for correction of my wayward punctuation so I hope that you'll accept what I've said here clunkers and all. 

Some of Camping's faithful may be in blissful repose dreaming of the Rapture of the Church, which he, the president of "Family Radio," has declared will positively take place tomorrow night at 6pm.

Some could possibly be trying to contact anyone and everyone who've been important in their lives to say one last "goodbye."  

Regardless of moral conclusions, a few may be eating, drinking, and making merry, living it up, throwing caution to the wind, charging up credit cards and breaking free of all restraints, believing they are leaving the planet this weekend without a care as to what they leave behind, in particular the credit card bills. 

A smattering of Camping's followers may right now be witnessing non-stop to the lost, even though Camping has previously declared that no one can now be saved. (Try and find that idea described anywhere in the Church Age in the Bible???) Camping's mixed message on this emanates from his book, 1994?, in which Camping wrote, "When September 6, 1994, arrives, no one else can become saved. The end has come." (1994?, page 533)   

I believe that the majority of Camping's followers may be experiencing a false euphoria but many more may likely be in a daze of fear and terror, though most would probably not admit it openly. Many truly believe he is right and that the end is not near, but actually, here. 

Many, if not all of Camping's faithful aren't sleeping and God only knows how many days that's been the case. Put yourself in their position for a moment, at least humanly speaking. Imagine you have bought the farm, drunk the kool-aid and are 100% convinced that Camping is correct. Would you be acting normal today? Would you be sleeping at night? Wouldn't you have marked a calendar set to end at tomorrow's date since the moment Camping's demonic deception had overtaken you? Just the fact that his following is getting little if any real sleep is a prescription for the disaster. Sleep deprevation does nasty things to one's sense of reality and usually leaves a person believing false ideas concerning hope, peace and the future. I am praying against it on behalf of those who are about to experience a very spiritually devastating event. We know that some folks never recover emotionally after placing thgeir trust in doomsday prophets. Short of a miracle from God, once May 21 comes and goes without the Rapture many will never again trust a pastor, a church, or for that matter, anyone who claims to be a Christian. That is of course counting on the idea that the lack of Rapture doesn't drive people either to the brink of insanity or worse to end their lives. Dramatic you say? Hardly, considering the history of those who've been caught in doomsday cultism in the past. The more I have thought about it, the more I am convinced that this is exactly what is brewing for many of his followers after the Rapture doesn't occur on Saturday night. As I wrote in my update earlier this week,at very least by May 22 Camping's followers will lose all credibility with family, friends and co-workers, etc.

The point here is that as bad as it is to have the world sneer at orthodox teaching on bible prophecy and end-time events, many in the Church will discount even correct teaching on this topic all the more so as not to hint any association to Camping or his followers.

What is transpiring this weekend can only serve to hurt the cause of prophetic teaching but as troublesome as that may be, we need to focus on the devastated lives left in Camping's wake. This is surely a time to ask God to intervene in the affairs of folks whom we do not know to save them both emotionally, spiritually, and yes, physically.