Amazing Facts President and Nationally Recognized Prophecy Speaker Challenges Harold Camping's May 21st Judgment Day
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SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 16, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Family Radio speaker Harold Camping has boldly predicted that the world will end on Saturday, May 21, 2011, at precisely 6:00pm. Promoting it nationally through his extensive radio network, as well as on billboards and websites such as http://www.wecanknow.com, Camping's assertive claims have created a media frenzy around this predicted terrifying Armageddon event that will soon end the world as we know it.
But is Camping's prediction true? And worse, is it dangerous? Those are the questions posed by international speaker Doug Batchelor, a pastor and the president of Amazing Facts, a Christian ministry known globally for its comprehensive Bible prophecy presentations.
In fact, Pastor Batchelor has directly challenged Camping, offering him $100,000 to hand over the deed and rights to the Family Radio network following the May 21 deadline. He explains, "The Bible clearly teaches in Matthew 24:36 that 'No man knows the day and hour' of Jesus' return. Christ also warned that in the last days, there would be many false teachers. It is worth asking then, does Camping's prediction match what the Bible really tells us about Christ's return? I don't believe it does. But if Camping is right, he deserves the money to spread the message; if he's wrong, he should not own a radio network." Batchelor also warns, "Reckless predictions of the second coming of Christ create an artificial excitement among believers followed by a corresponding depression. In addition, it hardens skeptics in their unbelief and provides new fodder for cynics to mock the Christian faith." Across the country, hundreds of Family Radio listeners are quitting their jobs and selling their possessions.
Pastor Batchelor hopes to set the record straight and save millions of believers the devastation, harm, and the embarrassment that will come to them having put their faith in the wild opinions of men and potentially losing everything they have. He says, "Based on Bible prophecy, we'll all still be here May 22. So what can we do to save those caught up in this deception?" Amazing Facts is a Christian media ministry sharing the Bible through radio and television on more than 650 stations around the world. It also operates AFTV, a 24/7-satellite network (http://www.amazingfacts.tv). Each year, more than 300,000 people contact Amazing Facts to receive information about Bible prophecy and other topics. Its many websites also receive more than 4.9 million hits per year.
Pastor Batchelor has frequently taught on the book of Revelation on the Discovery Channel and appeared with Tim LaHaye in the National Geographic documentary The Riddle of Revelation. He is also the author of numerous articles and books on prophecy and hosts the weekly radio program Bible Answers Live.
For more information or to schedule an interview with Pastor Batchelor, contact:Sam GodfreySgodfrey(at)amazingfacts(dot)orgP.O. Box 1058Roseville, CA 95678916-434-3880 SOURCE Amazing Facts www.prnewswire.com Copyright (C) 2011 PR Newswire. All rights reserved -0- KEYWORD: California INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RAD
9 comments:
It would be one thing if Doug Batchelor and Shawn Boonstra and Cliff Goldstein and Jan Paulsen and Ted Wilson had RENOUNCED the false prophecy of the Millerites before throwing stones at this guy. But, goodness gracious... please read the scanned Millerite newspaper clippings on the right hand side of our blog.
If these Adventists leaders had said, "Please don't follow our mistake! You may end up with a Joshua Himes creating a new unbiblical doctrine to distract from and cover up your prophetical buffoonery--like the Investigative Judgement."
However, they are attempting to remove the speck in another's eyes without taking the log.... well, you know the rest....
All I can say is a great big surprised "Wow" at the SDA hypocrisy in this one. But I love you guys! We are all in our own way hypocrites!
He's probably facing foreclosure on some of his properties and needs a quick boost in income.
He can always repent later, when his bills are caught up and he still has his microphone.
William Miller learned that failed prophecies don't always hurt in the long run, do they?
Michael
TTDOCF
@ Theresa,
I don’t know why you left the church, perhaps I’ll find out. :)
Millerites were not 7th Day Adventists, moreover, William Miller did exactly as directed by God. This mis-applied prophecy was ordained by God to prepare consecrated Christians to begin the true remnant church; and additionally, many thousands were led to Christ by Miller’s preaching and will be in the kingdom.
Rev 10:9 And I went to the angel, and said to him, Give me the little book. And he said to me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make your belly bitter, but it shall be in your mouth sweet as honey.
Rev 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
The little book is of course the book of Daniel. When Miller was preaching the return of Christ in 1844 it was “sweet as honey” and when he did not come then, it was “bitter to the belly.”
This was a prophetic event ordained by God.
“I have seen that the 1843 chart was directed by the hand of the Lord, and that it should not be altered; that the figures were as He wanted them; that His hand was over and hid a mistake in some of the figures, so that none could see it, until His hand was removed. [THIS APPLIES TO THE CHART USED DURING THE 1843 MOVEMENT, AND HAS SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE CALCULATION OF THE PROPHETIC PERIODS AS IT APPEARED ON THAT CHART.
THE NEXT SENTENCE EXPLAINS THAT THERE WAS AN INACCURACY WHICH IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD WAS SUFFERED TO EXIST. BUT THIS DOES NOT PRECLUDE THE PUBLICATION OF A CHART SUBSEQUENTLY WHICH WOULD CORRECT THE MISTAKE, AFTER THE 1843 MOVEMENT WAS PAST, AND THE CALCULATION AS THEN MADE HAD SERVED ITS PURPOSE.] {EW 74.1}
Theresa, hopefully you still believe that Ellen White was a true prophet?
“Thousands were led to embrace the truth preached by William Miller, and servants of God were raised up in the spirit and power of Elijah to proclaim the message. Like John, the forerunner of Jesus, those who preached this solemn message felt compelled to lay the ax at the root of the tree, and call upon men to bring forth fruits meet for repentance.
Their testimony was calculated to arouse and powerfully affect the churches and manifest their real character. And as the solemn warning to flee from the wrath to come was sounded, many who were united with the churches received the healing message; they saw their backslidings, and with bitter tears of repentance and deep agony of soul, humbled themselves before God. And as the Spirit of God rested upon them, they helped to sound the cry, "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come." {EW 233.1}
There is no SDA hypocrisy. I do not believe for one second that any born-again Adventist with the indwelling Holy Spirit could ever renounce the true church and cast discredit upon the Investigative Judgment, and whatever else can be attributed to unbelief.
To do this Teresa, you must have also rejected Ellen White, the Sabbath, and what else? Is the SDA church Babylon too?
You are making a huge mistake here by attacking the work of God, and I really hope you will submit humbly to God and be led into His truth.
God Bless!
Steve
Steve, I see you are deep within the SDA church as once I was. To engage in a discussion with you would be fruitless because you do not accept the Bible in the same way that most Christians do. You see scripture through the eyes of Ellen White. You will base your arguments upon her way of reading scripture and believe you are seeing it in its original meaning.
When you can accept an authority outside of Ellen White, if you could accept an authority such as the early church fathers, or even accepted traditions of Christians instead of the SDA traditions--IF you would only read history OUTSIDE of the history your church teaches you, then we might have a foundation of understanding we could build upon. But more than likely you won't.
You will accept the historical lies that Constantine changed the Sabbath to Sunday.
You will accept the lie that Christ left the right hand of the Father and went into the holy of holies on October 22, 1844.
You will accept the distortions of the Millerite movement and the early church history just as Adventists tell you.
Satan has thoroughly deceived you my friend. I know how hard that is to hear for I had to go through the agony of learning I had been wrong, that my faith had been based upon lies also.
Adventism has some truth, and I have high hopes that one day it will join the rest of Christianity, that they will let go of their dangerous doctrines of the sole remnanthood, the investigative judgement and the Sabbath as an end-time test and unify with the full body of Christ.
My heart goes out to you with the greatest compassion. May God open your eyes and may He have mercy upon all our souls.
Teresa
Dear Teresa,
I agree discussion would be fruitless because you are the one deceived it is not me.
My truth and beliefs are based upon the Bible and the Bible alone just like Ellen White's were. The IJ is very Biblical and it is not an EGW doctrine; there is no such thing.
I hope and pray that you come to your senses before your probation is over or the Sunday law arises in America in which you may accept the mark; or it may to serve to show you that we are correct upon that doctrine and all others.
God Bless!
Steve
@ Teresa,
Just one more thought please. I see three elements that we basically need to understand God's truth.
1. He Himself has promised to teach us; " I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go: I will guide you with My eye" (Psa 32:8).
If we humbly come to Him keeping any preconceived ideas out of the way, and trust Him only; as a child; then we shall know the truth making us free in Christ, and free from destroying error.
2. We must be born again (John 3) and be converted people--not having the forms of godliness and denying the power. This means full confession and repentance of all sin--including the sins of unbelief. Then we have the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide us to all truth.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Act 2:38 Then Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Rom 10:9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.
3.Nowhere does the Bible say that a mere acknowledgment of Jesus and His merits has saving efficacy for anyone. We must have faith and works--our works done in faith verifies that we are in fact Christs’.
Moreover, God plainly tells us that if we continually reject the light of Bible truth then we have a huge dilemma;
2Th 2:10 And with all delusion of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The Bible and the Bible alone contains the power of the living God!
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
My first allegiance is to God and His Word. I am a 7th Day Adventist because this church stands squarely upon that Word and has the qualifying distinction of the Spirit of Prophecy;
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
God's remnant today has the testimony of Jesus Christ which is;
Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said to me, See you do it not: I am your fellow servant, and of your brothers that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
I and the Adventist Church believe that this gift is manifested in Ellen G. White. Why would I want to leave the church knowing all this? It may well end up as eternal death to the soul for those who leave and attack the SDA church. Not because I need my name on the church rolls to be saved--but because of the underlying, elements that speaks to unbelief and subsequent deception of those who leave.
Lets us remain true to God's Word and its requirements that we may;
"Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city" (Rev 22:14).
Good Post Steve,
It always amazes me when mockers can never come up with better or more accurate interpretations of the 2300 days in Daniel. Complete silence!
Any fool can criticize, and most do!
Arik,
Steve's basis for understanding scripture is so widely divergent than mine, that it seems a waste of time to discuss it. There must be something in common--an authority, a source, a worldview, something that you both acknowledge in order to begin a discussion.
I believe that the Apocalyptic literature in the Bible was for the people of their time. God, of course, can have dual fulfillments (as Christ said in Matthew about the abomination of desolation), but in general I believe the Apocalypse of John was fulfilled in the first generation of Christianity and Daniel was predicting the Messiah--The signs are allegorical, not literal. This seems clear when I read it.
While it is interesting to formulate theories about a dual prophecy for the last days, they don't hold much of an appeal in my thinking.... (the whole Camping debacle...)
So the conversation about Daniel's 2300 prophecy who be much like:
Me: "fulfilled in Christ. Done. Finished."
SDA: But what about the Last Days? Jesus coming?
Me: "Fulfilled in Christ.... Done... "
SDA: But what about the Last Days? Jesus coming?
Me: "Fulfilled in Christ."
Oh the conversation would actually be a lot longer with proof-texts etc. But at the bottom that is all it would be about... Either it was fulfilled in Christ or it points to a different time. Neither is provable, both are based upon interpretations... So why go through that when you know the end of the story....?
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