Crosby Prediction

I predict that Harold Camping, the elderly radio talk show host now predicting Judgment Day on May 21, 2011, and the end of the world October 21, 2011, will adjust his predictions to future dates after doing further calculations on May 22, 2011.

I believe my prediction will most certainly take place because “no one knows the day or the hour,” according to Jesus (see Matthew 24:36). Since Camping is working from the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 and the account of Noah’s great flood, I assume he can and will come up with calculations to support new dates for the world’s demise.

William Miller, a sometimes Baptist preacher, predicted the end of the world no later than March 21, 1844. He adjusted his prediction after the fateful day passed without incident, lighting on numerous dates in 1844.

Edgar C. Whisenant predicted that the Rapture of the church would occur September 13, 1988. As an American pastor, I received his free booklet, “88 Reasons,” which I keep as a more recent example of misguided apocalyptic fervor. Whisenant was insightful enough to realize that his date had passed without incident, so he then predicted September 15, 1988; then October 3, 1988; and then again selected a day in 1989, 1990, 1991, etc. By then no one was listening.

Camping is not insightful enough to realize that 1988 passed without apocalyptic incident. He is declaring that the church of Jesus Christ was abandoned by her Lord and conquered by Satan on May 21, 1988. His own nondenominational, un-churched and unaffiliated status protected him from this frightful prospect.

This is Camping’s second go-around for predicting the end of the world. His book “1994?” postulated the end of days in 1994 with a tad more humility. He thought at that time he could be wrong, but all uncertainty has passed now.

I first encountered Camping’s date on a huge downtown billboard in Accra, Ghana. Seminary students here in New Orleans are discussing the prediction, and various Christian ministries have gotten on board with Camping just as Trinity Broadcasting Company partnered with Whisenant in 1988.

Expectation of the return of Jesus Christ and the end of the age is an essential part of orthodox Christian theology. It should keep Christians future-oriented and eager to see God’s unfolding plan. It gives hope beyond human strength and wisdom. And it provides confines for human history that exalt the role of God in the world and set all human effort in the context of God’s sovereign rule.

Setting dates for the end of the world is a truly bad idea. While it reminds us that Christ could come any day, it also discredits our message of the Lord’s return and disappoints countless saints who assume the prediction to be true. I have personally witnessed the flagging enthusiasm for the gospel among those who thought they knew when the end would come and were disappointed.

The prophet profits from the prediction in countless ways including fame and fortune. The average Christian who is caught up in the zeal of the Lord’s return leaves the whole ordeal with a bad taste in his mouth.

Judgment Day is coming because justice is an eternal quality of our eternal God. May 21, 2011, is a great day to be expectant of the Lord’s return and continuing your faithful routines. If Christ’s return should catch you in the classroom instead of on the mountain, he will be finding you faithful.