The man who said Jesus was coming in May 2011: Three things we might learn from him

The man who predicted the date that God was coming to earth has left earth to meet with God. Harold Camping, who died last Sunday, hit the headlines back in 2011 for confidently predicting – and spending millions of dollars advertising – the return of the Lord Jesus on 21st May 2011. One ad read: “Judgment Day: May 21 2011. The Bible Guarantees It. Cry mightily unto God.” When Christ didn’t appear, he revised the date to the following October. And then gave up.

It is, of course, easy to mock – and many did. Harold Camping was wrong. Jesus himself said: “No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24 v 36). The day of Christ’s return is a certainty, but its date is a mystery.

But, in the week of his death, here are three things to say in defence of Harold Camping, and perhaps three things we can learn from him:

1. He put his money and his mouth where his doctrine was. Camping spent his own money, as well as his followers’, warning people that Jesus was returning on May 21. He was prepared to take risks and make sacrifices to communicate what he sincerely believed. He was wrong; but perhaps his commitment stands as a challenge to those of us who know that Jesus is returning, who know it could be today, or tomorrow, and yet live as though it won’t happen, and speak as though no one else needs to know it’ll happen. Jesus warned: “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come … you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him” (Matthew 24 v 42, 44). Harold Camping lived ready. Do we?

2. He was willing to own up to his mistakes. In March 2012, Camping wrote: We realise that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ’s return. We humbly acknowledge we were wrong about the timing”. He gave up public prophesy. Granted, this is qualified repentance—he seems to be leaving open the possibility that it is possible to know the date, but that it doesn’t seem possible for him to work it out. But in a world where sorry is the hardest word to say, and where our hearts grab on to excuses and denials when we fail to live by God’s word, Harold Camping accepted he’d got it wrong, and accepted his own shortcomings, and changed accordingly. Do we?

3. To those around us, the Bible’s claims are no less weird than Harold Camping’s. If you’re a Christian, you believe that there will be a day when Jesus returns to this earth in power and glory, surrounded by angels, to judge the living and the dead from his throne, and recreate the world perfectly, for his people to live in eternally. Let’s be clear—that sounds weird to anyone who isn’t a Christian. If you don’t believe in the resurrection, why would you believe in the return? There’s no evidence it’s coming other than the wars and famines that Mark mentions in chapter 13 as birth-pains - things that everyone now sees as normal. There's no sign it’s drawing closer (just as Jesus predicted—Matthew 24 v 37-39). It’s not the date that non-Christians find utterly bizarre, it’s the event. Peter warned that, when it comes to the idea of Christ returning, “scoffers will come” (2 Peter 3 v 3). Harold Camping was prepared to be scoffed at. Are we?

I don’t know what God’s verdict on Harold Camping was—I didn’t know him, so I don’t know whether he was trusting in Jesus for his salvation. If he was, he’s a brother and he’s in glory now—after all, we’re not saved by doctrine, but by faith in Christ. And either way, the God he met last Sunday is the God who has promised: “Yes, I am coming soon” (Revelation 22 v 20). “Soon” could be today. Let’s live like it.