Harold Camping

It grieves me that people like Harold Camping are able to dupe so many people and thus bring discredit on a serious part of Christian theology. From my perspective as a Bible teacher, the worst part is not that kooks like him exist, but rather that so many otherwise normal Christians would fall for his deception.

I see this as a failure of the church. So many churches today have become politically correct entertainment centers instead of fulfilling their commission to "make disciples". How many churches in America today spend any time, money, or space to educate teens and adults in fundamental Christian doctrine? Very few. We're too busy trying to attract unbelievers (who don't belong in church to begin with!) so that the church can evangelize people whom the congregation should be evangelizing already.

So many pastors today spend their time delivering "sermons" instead of teaching Bible doctrine. A good church instead focuses on teaching believers the basics of Christian theology: soteriology, christology, and eschatology among others. The failure to train believers in eschatology is what leads to this Camping nonsense.

And the result? Unbelievers mock Christianity, mock Christ, and mock the Bible. The sad truth for them is that the world truly is moving toward its end. The rapture will indeed happen--not on Harold Camping's time table, but on God's secret timing. In the mean time, the gospel still must go out to our fallen world: Salvation and a right relationship with God comes through faith in Jesus Christ, who died the substitutionary death in our place.