Harold Camping, Arrogance, and The End of The World

Submitted by micah on Wed, 05/25/2011 - 15:22
Judgment Day came and went, and all I got was this stupid tshirt

When Harold Camping's May 21st rapture failed to materialize, I imagined he'd be devastated. I thought he'd fall into a deep depression, probably disappear from public life, and (I was afraid) might possibly commit suicide. I pictured him crying out to God, with a gut-wrenching "Why?!!!"

I guessed that his faith in God and the bible would remain, but that he'd be unable to bring himself to preach publicly. I thought he was like billions of other people with a faith in God, just with an additional layer of quirky beliefs.

After all, I can imagine myself following a trail of weird ideas until I ended up somewhere similar. I know if those weird ideas came up against cold, hard reality, that I'd fall back onto my original beliefs, shedding the weirdness painfully, but honestly.

I thought Harold Camping's core faith was in God. But I was wrong. His faith is in himself.

When he came out yesterday, telling people to trust him on his new prediction, he demonstrated that even if he was able to almost admit his mistake, he was unable to accept a position of uncertainty. He could have gone on as a preacher with a much humbler approach to his own ideas - he could have said that there are some things that God only knows - but instead he took another confident position, insisting that this time, he is sure.

It's only in our eyes that he's lost any credibility. To himself, he's still as right as ever, still just as uniquely able to deliver to us the secrets that God keeps for himself.

I don't say this because I want to come down hard on Harold Camping. I say it because that kind of self-absorption scares me. It scares me because I know that I have the same potential inside myself; may in fact be practicing it right now.

Harold Camping says that judgment day came spiritually on May 21st. I kind of think he's right. Reality passed judgement on his brutal, dangerous self-confidence. Reality showed us just how ugly such self-confidence is. And I feel the sting of that judgment.

Comments

Mark (not verified)

Wed, 05/25/2011 - 18:22

Yeah, in the end most of my criticism is nearly autobiographical. The danger is to think we are some kind of "phenomenon." This kind of "self-righteousness"--sectarian or secular--is so love-killing.

I'm all for a new earth; Lord help me, if I expect it on my terms.

Best,
M

Jennifer (not verified)

Thu, 05/26/2011 - 14:05

Micah, thank you for sharing a way to look at this with humility, rather than judgment; to recognize the other in oneself . This is the way to avoid the true disasters happening within ourselves every day, every time we use a circumstance to separate ourselves from one another.

Andrew (not verified)

Fri, 05/27/2011 - 12:19

I am going to make a blunt statement.
Camping has declared himself greater than Our Lord by claiming a specific day in which the rapture should happen.
He claims to be a believer, but I ask, has this man read the Words of Our Lord, and if so, why has he only chosen to read and interpret what he pleases.

Folks, plain and simple. This man is a con artist. He wanted to get money for him self, and I am sure if he was not the one holding the money he made, someone else could prove just how much he embezzled.
Be not decieved people.
This man is just another man using the temple of God to make money.
And as it happened in the bible, when Jesus over turned the money changers tables, so it happened to him.
No one will believe him now, and anyone who actually reads the bible didn't believe him in the first place.

Chapter and verse?
Matthew 24:36.

In context, this is so clear its clearer than air.

Come on people, think for yourselves. Do not follow men blindly into religion. Search for the truth and you will find it.