Camping with Rapture Loons in 2011
By Don Koenig
The Prophetic Years 
Harold Camping owns a large Christian radio network called “Family Stations, Inc.” (Family Radio). It has more than 150 outlets in the United States and it is broadcast worldwide via shortwave, it has a network of AM and FM radio stations, a cable television station, and the Internet. His organization also utilizes numerous low-power television signals. All that gives him a very large platform for his heretical teachings to reach the simple and the gullible. Believe it or not many thousands of people around the world are actually believing his heretical nonsense. Here is some information on the teachings of Harold Camping.Camping claims he has scrutinized the Bible for almost 70 years and says he has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Good Book. One night a few years ago, Camping, a civil engineer by trade, crunched the numbers and was stunned at what he’d found: The world will end May 21, 2011.Here is how Harold Camping figured out the date of the Rapture: The number 5, Camping concluded, equals “atonement.” Ten is “completeness.” Seventeen means “heaven.” Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.“Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.,” he began. “Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that’s 1,978 years.”Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days – the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.”
All this can be found in this article. Unfortunately the person that wrote that article actually called Harold Camping a Bible scholar which gives true Bible scholars a bad name. I would hardly think that someone that thinks that the whole Old Testament is a parable is a scholar. A flake is a title much more suiting for Harold Camping.Camping’s teachings are unique and believable to the simple because like you see above they really are very detailed fabrications. It should be obvious that Harold Camping’s 5 x 10 x 17 formula is just something that works for him because it fits a date in the future. If it did not fit he would not have used it, or he would have just come up with other names and numbers. All that look for hidden codes in the Bible do similar manipulation. The computer now makes endless combinations possible so it becomes inevitable that some combination will fulfill something similar to what you are looking for.Why did Camping look for the words “atonement, completeness, and Heaven that he say means 5, 10 and 17? Only because using those words and numbers comes up with a date in the future that he wanted to see. There are many other words that also could have added up to a date in the future using his scheme.All claiming hidden messages in the Bible do pretty much the same thing. What they find is so manipulated to fit what they are looking for that any seeming fit becomes statistically meaningless. It is little more than chance and if better than chance, so what? Some things always have to be better than chance. Some people win a lottery and chance says they won’t. Some people get killed by lightening and chance says they won’t. I have had people email me other dates that they came up with through similar “word” “number” schemes. They are meaningless to anyone trained in the science of statistics.We also have to disregard the more simple formulas where teachers just read into what scripture actually says to set a date for the Rapture. Some of these just add 70 years to 1948 and they also come up with 2011. They are just as wrong as Camping but for other reasons and those following their conjecture are also likely to disappointed.
Related Links
Why Date-Setting the Rapture is Wrong - Pre-Trib Research Center (Thomas Ice) Will May 21, 2011 Be the End of the World - Daily Christian News Is Harold Camping and Family Radio a cult? - GotQuestions.org Harold Camping, Christian radio host, sets May 21, 2011, as Judgment Day - Slate Magazine 
Dangerous Airwaves: Harold Camping Refuted and Christ's Church Defended - James R. White (Book)
BibleProphecyBlog: Rapture 2011?
