Just in case we're left behind...

Well tomorrow is the big day.

I was listening to a "Camping-ite" today on a national radio program. At the end of the interview I noticed that my face hurt from being in a constant cringe for almost 45 minutes. The man was a deeply sincere fellow and quite articulate. Unfortunately he has given himself to a system of biblical interpretation which has a little too much in common with pagan numerology. He would balk at this description of course. But Camping and his followers have devised a method of interpreting the Bible which is exotic to say the least. Among their beliefs is that all churches are under the dominion of Satan, and that since May 21, 1988.

This poor man on the radio claimed that there is not one scintilla of doubt that May 21st will be the day that Jesus raptures His church. Camping and his followers also specify that it will occur at 6:00 pm (measuring from the International Date Line - and, no, I'm not kidding!). He said that through television and the internet we will be able to view graves being emptied in Australia and on through Africa, Asia, and Europe as 6:00 approaches Eastern Standard Time.

All of this, the man said, is "guaranteed" by the Bible. He continued to speak of the "hundreds of Bible verses" which make Christ's return on May 21st undeniable. The only way to deny it, he reasoned, was to say that the Bible is wrong. This, of course, is very dangerous. The Camping-ites give this date the same certainty as the deity and resurrection of Jesus. So, if Jesus does not return tomorrow the only option is that the Bible is nothing but a fable for what it promises is false.

So, what if it doesn't happen? What if Jesus does not rapture his church tomorrow? The Camping-ites refuse to answer the question because, they say, it is an impossibility. "How am I supposed to respond to an impossibility?" So it will be interesting to see how they respond at 12:01 am on May 22. Hopefully they will repent. But barring repentance, then they ought to be consistent and reject the Bible and the Christian faith for erring so egregiously.

Now, I could write something about some of the dangers inherent in dispensationalism. Perhaps another time...

Check out this helpful post by Al Mohler.

More Foolishness from Harold Camping

Harold Camping would be easy to ignore. In fact it would be a virtue to ignore him. The problem is that Camping heads Family Radio which is broadcast around the world. The hyper-dispensationalism of Camping and others has been causing division and confusion in the church for years.

Camping has been hard at work calculating the day of the Lord's return. The following, from an article in SF Gate, is a lesson in wildly irresponsible and incompetent biblical exegesis.

By Camping's understanding, the Bible was dictated by God and every word and number carries a spiritual significance. He noticed that particular numbers appeared in the Bible at the same time particular themes are discussed.

The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days – the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

"Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved.

"I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.

If you have ever met any of Camping's followers then you probably already know that they seem to be impervious to facts (Just a few months back a pamphlet from Family Radio was left on my windshield). They also don't seem to mind the fact that Camping has made previous predictions about the the second coming of Christ. Among Camping's exotic teachings is that "the church age" is over and it is a sin for Christians to remain in churches. Rather, he says, they should be at home listening to Family Radio.

We are the seed of Abraham

Having been so strongly influenced by premellinial dispensationalism most evangelicals have little knowlege of or appreciation for God's radically new administration of the new covenant. Prominent preachers like John Hagee have gone so far as to say that Jesus is not Israel's Messiah. Indeed, some of the contemporary manifestations of dispensationalism promote the idea that there are two ways to salvation, one for Gentiles and another for Jews. This of course is a tragic misreading of the biblical text.

The church of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of all that was foreshadowed in ethnic Israel. The New Testament makes plain that "not all Israel is Israel." The seed of Abraham is made up of all those who come to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. National Israel was the Old Covenant type of Spiritual Israel now fulfilled in the church. Some of my heroes hold another view. But I respectfully disagree. I believe the best way to understand the biblical witness is that there is no longer a separation between the church and "Israel." When we speak of "God's people" we are not speaking of any nation. We are speaking of those whom God has saved out of every nation, tribe, language, and people. Bruce Waltke writes:

"Today, the seed of the woman and the heirs of Abraham's covenants are mostly Gentiles, who originally inhabited Anatolia, Greece, and Rome (Rom. 16:20). Using's Paul's metaphor of Romans 11:16-24, the natural branches (i.e., ethnic Israel) of the olive tree (the historical covenant community) have been mostly broken off, while the wild shoot (i.e., Gentiles) has been grafted in to be nourished by the sap of the tree (i.e., God's spiritual life that flows from a covenantal relationship with him; Gal. 3:26-29; Eph. 2:11-22; 1 Peter 2:9-10). Delitzsch says, 'We are all Japhethites dwelling in the tents of Shem.'

"Apart from the preservation of an elect remnant within ethnic Israel, these ethnic divisions no longer exist in God's administration. Today his church includes the Ethiopian eunuch (Ham), Peter and Saul (Shem), and Cornelius (Japheth). God is no respector of a person's ethnic origin but only of his or her spiritual condition. In God's household, none is unclean (Acts 10), and in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, for all are Abraham's seed (Galatians 3:26-29)."

From Genesis - A Commentary by Bruce Waltke (p. 153).

Has the Church Replaced Israel?

Does the Church Replace Israel?

by Dr. Arturo Azurdia III

"And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this: 'I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan." (Revelation 2:8)

... Poverty as a consequence of slander and accusations .... The source of their persecution: the Romans. Fomenting the Roman persecution was the inciting accusations of ethnic Israelites about whom Jesus here says are not worthy of that ancient and honorable name. "I know the slander [blasphemy] by those who say they are Jews and are not." My friends that is a profoundly important statement. When we watch the flow of redemptive history, the storyline of the Bible unfold and we move from the epic of promise into the epic of fulfillment, God's people are no longer defined genealogically, they are defined Christologically ... Christocentrically. You say "what do you mean?" True Jews are those who follow Jesus as their Messiah. They are characterized by a birth not of the flesh, but of the Spirit. They are marked out by a circumcision not of the flesh but of the heart. So who then are these people? These people who claim to be Jews by virtue of their bloodline, but according to Jesus himself, they are not. Jesus defines them for us: "They are a synagogue of Satan." It is like what Jesus says to the unbelieving Pharisees in John chapter 8, who claimed the paternity of Abraham. He says: "You are of your father the devil." You see beloved, this is why we need to think clearly at this point. This is what is so utterly wrong today when people refer to the Judeo-Christian God. [They say] "Christians and Jews really in the end worship the same God." NO! ...To reject Jesus Christ is to reject the full and final revelation of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The truth is there is no such thing as an orthodox Jew, beloved, unless he is a Christian because if the Jews really believed in the Old Testament they would believe in Jesus Christ. If a person does not believe in Jesus Christ then, according to John chapter 5, then he does not believe in Moses either. "Moses spoke of me," Jesus said. And so Paul says in Romans chapter 2 "A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly nor is circumcision merely outward and physical", no "a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly and circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Spirit not the written code."
Now friends, people often ask me, "Do you believe that the church replaces Israel. The answer is "no of course not!!!" The church does not replace Israel. The fact is, Jewish people who reject Jesus Christ are apostate from Israel. Following Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of true Judaism. Everything in the Old Testament pointed to Him. Israel and the church, then, are not in radical discontinuity, rather, the later is the consummated expression of the former. Beloved, a failure to appreciate that has profoundly determined strange things in our [own] country. By virtue of the influence of American evangelicalism we say silly things like "Always side with Israel, no matter what Israel does always side with Israel. God will take care of America if we always side with Israel. They are God's people." [But] Jesus says they are a synagogue of Satan. And is there a reason then why American evangelicals are notoriously ineffective in their evangelism of Arabs?

[Jesus is] The full, final, ultimate expression of Judaism. You are Abraham's seed. C'mon ... Tear those pages out of your study Bibles.

Excerpt from Dr. Arturo Azurdia III's 81 part series on the Book of Revelation.

Related Resources:Do Jews Have a Divine Right in the Promised Land? by John Piper