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Prior to May 21, 2011, Harold Camping, day after day on his radio program said there was no doubt the rapture was going to take place. He was not just sure, but very sure that May 21st would be the rapture day. Week after week he told his audience that no one could get saved after that day because salvation would be over. Then he prophesied that God would send judgments on the earth for the next five months and God would destroy the earth and all unbelievers would cease to exist on October 21, 2011. According to Camping, there is no hell nor is there a Lake of Fire.
Camping used his power as the "supreme ruler" at Family Radio to spend millions of dollars on billboard campaigns in the U.S. and overseas, warning that the end of the world was coming. Since the Board of Directors at Family Radio consisted of Camping, his daughter Susan Espinoza and a "Yes" man working for Family Radio, Camping had free reign to deplete the cash reserves in order to tell the world that the end was here.
Camping also duped thousands of Family Radio listeners to quit their jobs, sell their homes and use the money to travel in caravans across the U.S. with big signs emblazoned on the sides of the trailers and motor homes that May 21st was rapture day. I have tried in vain to contact Craig Hulsebos, the pitchman who is in charge of asking for money. I was told by his secretary prior to May 21st that he could not speak to me since he was walking a fine line, meaning he could not come forth and tell the radio listeners that he did not believe in Camping's prophesies. Craig Hulsebos and his crew kept asking for money to keep Family Radio going and told people to mail in their donations all the way up to May 21st. What hypocrisy! Camping and his cronies were telling people that there will be no Family Radio after May 21st and yet Craig Hulsebos and his cronies were also telling people to send in their donations. The staff kept preparing programming which was to be aired after May 21st because they did not believe Camping's prophesies. Whether Camping knew about this or not is impossible for anyone outside Family Radio to know.
Three months before this non-event, even the children's' program on Saturday morning was revamped and child actors were talking to an adult man, who told them that they would be raptured on May 21st. Thus Camping is also responsible for traumatizing the children listening to Family Radio.
MAY 21st – A BIG NON-EVENT
The big day came and there was no rapture of the Christians. Harold Camping was silent for two days and Craig Hulsebos churned out the regular programming. Then Camping spoke on his Open Forum program and told the listeners that he had been baffled at first, but then he understood that Jesus had come secretly and decided not to remove the Christians from the earth, and would wait until October 21, 2011 to do so. He emphasized that no person could be saved; all they could do was to wait for the final destruction of the earth. Camping declared without hesitation that the church age had been over for many years and no human being could be saved from their sins now.
Camping also said that he would not talk too much about the future and that Family Radio would play beautiful music until the end. He also said that the end would come very quietly, when all Christians would be taken from the earth and the unsaved would just go to sleep and cease to exist. Since people could not be saved anymore, there was no need to witness; all we could do was just sit around and listen to beautiful Christian music. Meanwhile, Craig Hulsebos and his cronies kept asking for money every day to "keep Family Radio going."
Camping held a press conference at Family Radio headquarters in Oakland on May 23rd. "I thank God for the media," he said when asked about all the attention he has gotten. Camping says he is happy that the media has spread his message. After being asked if he would apologize for being wrong about May 21st, Camping said, "If people want me to apologize, I will apologize...I did not have all that worked out as accurately as I should have. That doesn't bother me at all." Camping reiterated that Judgment Day came – just quietly.
Another reporter, not satisfied, asked Camping if he would apologize for being wrong. "I have never said I'm infallible, God is never wrong. There isn't any student of the Bible who can't say 'You know, I have made a mistake'" said Camping as he referred to the signs he has given, such as gay pride, that we are on the threshold of judgment and a fantastic increase in wickedness.
On June 9, 2011, Camping suffered a stroke and was taken to the hospital. This effectively put an end to his days as a radio speaker. For the next ten days or so Family Radio had re-runs of his Open Forum programs recorded after May 21st, and when they had run out of these programs, Hulsebos and his cronies retired Open Forum and replaced it with other programs.
About two months after his stroke, Camping had somewhat recovered and was back in his home where a five minute recording was made in which he thanked the listeners for praying for his recovery but still maintained that October 21st was the last day of the earth.
Since Camping's daughter and their "Yes" man still ran the Board of Directors, Tom Evans of Family Radio, who stood with Camping all the way to the bitter end, prepared a 45 minute Bible study purporting the rapture would take place on October 21st and that this would be the last day of the earth.
As late as October 20th, Evans stated that he had been constantly visiting Camping in his home and proceeded to tell the radio listeners what to expect on October 21st. According to an interview with Charisma, on October 16, 2011, Tom Evans made the following statements which he had gotten from Camping: "He is convinced that the end will come very quietly, and he believes that the end will come like a whisper, and that the unsaved of the world will fall asleep and never awaken, there won't be any suffering or torture. There won't be any cataclysmic earthquakes or stars falling to the earth. Rather the end will come without any warning and very quietly."
OCTOBER 21st – ANOTHER NON-EVENT
Listening to Family Radio on October 19-20th, I noticed that Craig Hulsebos and his cronies kept on asking for money. If the world was coming to an end on October 21st, why did they need more money? Worse yet, why did Hulsebos ask people to send it via the mail? The only conclusion is that Hulsebos and company did not believe Camping's predictions. They knew money was needed desperately since Camping had depleted all the cash reserves. Furthermore, the staff had again prepared programming to be run over the weekend after October 21st.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but we at Family Radio have been directed to not talk to the media or the press," Camping's daughter Susan Espinoza told the Associated Press on October 21st. It is obvious that Craig Hulsebos and his cronies are in a spin-control mode as thousands of Family Radio listeners have stopped their financial support and Hulsebos knows that the ship is sinking fast.
On October 28th, seven days after the non-event, a recording from Harold Camping was run several times during that day in which he rambled that God is sovereign and cannot be told to do what men want. He could not come up with any explanation to the fact that the earth was not destroyed on October 21st; instead, he talked about how little he knew and that he was banking on God's mercy and that God had not abandoned him or Family Radio. Then he apologized for telling people they could not be saved after May 21st and that he should never have said that.
Then he continued rambling about how God is merciful and that man can never figure out what God is doing. Sadly, he did not ask for forgiveness for writing four books which predicted the end of the church age, his failed prophecies of the 1990's, setting the rapture to take place on May 21st and the end of the world on October 21, 2011.
Harold Camping will go down in history as a man that lied to millions of people and convinced them to quit their jobs, sell their homes and take all their savings and spend it on a campaign in 2010 and 2011 that tried to convince the world the Jesus was coming back on May 21st. He is a stiff necked man who repeatedly refused to repent and ask for forgiveness when he had the opportunity. He will also go down in history as the man that destroyed Family Radio. What Satan could not do, he was able to do through Harold Camping. He will also be remembered as the man that removed large portions of the Bible and said that these passages are untrue allegories. Camping removed hell and the Lake of Fire and told the unbelievers they had nothing to worry about; they could just go to sleep and cease to exist.
According to Brandon Tauszik, a documentarian close to Camping, he is no longer able to lead Family Radio and his wife has confirmed that the 90-year-old radio evangelist has retired. Camping reportedly admitted in a private interview that he no longer believed that anybody could know the time of the Rapture or the end of the world, in stark contrast to his previous staunch position on the subject.[1]
CAMPING'S RAMBLING
Here is a transcript of Camping's rambling on October 28, 2011. There is no repentance; just more spin for which he is famous as he used Family Radio to spread his lies around the world:
"We're living in a day when one problem follows another. And when it comes to trying to recognize the truth of prophecy, we're finding that it is very very difficult.
Why didn't Christ return on Oct. 21? It seems embarrassing for Family Radio. But God was in charge of everything. We came to that conclusion after quite careful study of the Bible. He allowed everything to happen the way it did without correction. He could have stopped everything if He had wanted to.
I am very encouraged by letters that I have received and [I am] receiving at this time concerning this matter. Amongst other things I have been checking my notes more carefully than ever. And I do find that there is other language in the Bible that we still have to look at very carefully and will impinge upon this question very definitely. And we should be very patient about this matter. At least in a minimal way we are learning to walk more and more humble before God.
We're ready to cry out and weep before God: 'Oh Lord, you have the truth, we don't have it. You have the truth.' And this is another place where we have to cry out for... There's one thing that we must remember — God is in charge of this whole business, and we are not. What God wants to tell us is His business. When He wants to tell us is His business. In the meanwhile, God is allowing us to continue to cry to Him for mercy — oh my, how we need His mercy — and continue to wait on Him. God has not left us. God is still God. But we have to be very careful that we don't dictate to God what He should do.
In our search in the Bible, we must continue to look to the Bible, look to the Bible. Because there is where truth comes from. And God in His own timetable and in His own purposes will reveal truth to us when it's His time to do it. In any case, we do not have to have a feeling of calamity or a feeling that God has abandoned us. We are simply learning. And sometimes it's painful to learn. We are learning how God brings His messages to mankind, and my my, we have claimed to be a child of God, and therefore as we search the Bible, we're bound to feel the darts of the Lord. Sometimes He gives us the truth and sometimes He gives us something that causes us to wait further upon Him.
Whatever we do, we must not feel for a moment that we have been abandoned by God — that He is no longer helping us or interested in us. Oh my, what an encouragement it is to go to the Lord again and again — 'Oh Lord, I don't know anything. You teach me.' And that's the attitude that has to be a part of each one of us. And God will not abandon us, He will provide, but we have to be just very careful that we don't dictate to him when that has to happen.
Incidentally, I have been told that I said back in May that people who did not believe that May 21 should not be the rapture date, probably had not been saved. I should not have said that, and I apologize for that. One thing we know for certain, is that God is merciful, merciful beyond anything that we would ever expect. And so, we can pray constantly, and should be praying constantly: 'Oh Lord, we look to Thee for Thine mercy, and we're so thankful that we know that Thou art so merciful.'
How wonderful to know that God is still on the throne, that He is King of kings and Lord of lords and that He hears every one of our prayers. And let's not hesitate, let's be, if anything, let's pray more than ever for God's mercy, and keep praying and God will provide. But God is in charge, and we must always keep that in mind."
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
In order for Family Radio to survive and rebuild itself, the following actions need to take place:
1. A public statement from Family Radio that Harold Camping is no longer part of the radio stations.
2. A signed statement on the website of Family Radio, where the new Board of Directors asks the public to forgive Family Radio for propagating the false teaching of Harold Camping.
3. Refuting all writings and statements by Harold Camping as false and contrary to the Bible.
4. Destroy the recordings of Harold Camping and all others that promoted his false teaching.
5. Bring in some living pastors to speak on Family Radio; this excludes Camping apologists such as Tom Evans and John Gomez. As of October 29, 2011, all pastors speaking and teaching on Family Radio have been dead for many years.
NEWS UPDATE NOVEMBER 8, 2011
After the Tuesday morning show on Family Radio, the announcer told the listeners that the founder and CEO of Family Radio had a special message for the listeners. During the next five minutes, Harold Camping spoke that his prediction of the rapture on May 21st and the final day of the earth on October 21st had not taken place. Despite his careful studies of the Bible, Camping said that he had missed something and needed to go back and restudy the Bible more carefully. But instead of asking people to forgive him for all the chaos he had caused and the financial ruin of thousands of families, he stated that even if he had been wrong, the world had heard the warning that there is a judgment coming from God and that Family Radio would continue to talk about this in the future.
Camping indicated that he was not stepping down from Family Radio nor was he going to stop from teaching from the Bible. It is obvious that the man has a reprobate mind and cannot understand that he is a false prophet that has removed large portions of the Bible by telling people they are merely symbolic.
Camping still refuses to change his false teaching that there is no hell, eternal punishment and Lake of Fire. He also says that unbelievers will cease to exist when they die and there is no judgment for them. He is adamant that no one can truly know if they are saved and that your salvation will be determined at the moment of death. He also maintains that the church age is over and that people should leave the churches and listen to Family Radio.
It is ironic that Craig Hulsebos privately tells people of his disdain for Camping's errors since he publicly has to support him as the supreme leader of Family Radio. Camping is not able to do a lot of work physically now and meets daily with Matt Tudor, who vehemently disdains Camping's views and tells it to people when he is asked, but Tudor nevertheless carries out the orders he is given on a daily basis as to how Family Radio is to be run.
The five minute rambling statement by Harold Camping was run throughout the day and night at different spots on November 8th and 9th in order to make sure the listeners heard the latest news from Camping. This recording is like a torpedo sinking the ship of Family Radio; it is the worst possible spin Camping has ever done to justify his failed predictions but since he has a total control over the Board of Directors, these two men and the other staff continue to do his bidding while they secretly detest the man that is ruining Family Radio. Since the staff is not willing to unseat Camping, there are only two events that can remove Harold Camping from Family Radio:
1. God will finish his judgment on Camping and remove him from the earth.
2. People listening to Family Radio will stop sending in money, forcing the staff to either shut down the radio network or remove Camping.
I listen to Family Radio because I like their music but I refuse to send them any money until Harold is gone. If you are not a Camping devotee, keep on listening to Family Radio and its wonderful music, but stop sending them money.
[1] ChristianPost.com
From the Desk of John S. Torell
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