Members of the Reformed church — which includes about two million Americans in the Dutch Reformed and certain Baptist and Presbyterian congregations — are being advised to stop going to church.
The advice itself is coming from a church elder, Harold Camping, leader of the Family Radio Network in Oakland, Calf. His position: the End Times are near (Camping already once predicted the end of the world in 1994), Satan is spreading false doctrines around increasingly apostate churches, and Good Christians will only be spiritually served by sitting at home on Sundays … and listening to his radio show.
Needless to say, pastors of congregations affected by his call are anything but amused. Especially since it’s having an impact.
Mr. Rastetter [deacon at the Faith Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Akron, Ohio] notes that he met with 100 or so pastors two weekends ago on Long Island and asked them how many of their churches had lost members because of Mr. Camping’s crusade. “Each one raised his hand,” he says. “Some signaled they had lost a handful of members. Some signaled a couple of handfuls. Many of these churches only have 50 or so members, so when 10 people leave, that’s a major decline. And it’s getting worse.” Two churches, he added, have completely disintegrated, including Mr. Camping’s Alameda, Calif., congregation.
Meantime, the radio network’s web page, Camping notes:
“On the one hand we see churches everywhere becoming more and more apostate,” he explains in a long posting. “Yet on the other hand we see a ministry like Family Radio becoming more and more useful to the Lord in sending the true Gospel into the world.” Indeed, Mr. Camping seems to see an overarching design at work. “God, about 200 years ago, anticipating the present situation, began to make some drastic changes in the world. After almost 1,300 years of history, mankind has discovered, and begun to use, radio waves and all other electronics. . . . It is obvious that God prevented these discoveries from happening until it was God’s good pleasure to make them available to accomplish His purposes.”
His critics charge that Camping is trying to found a cult. But, of course, as false prophets and pawns of Satan and apostasy in these End Times, they would say, that, wouldn’t they.
Hey, if he’s successful in his campaign, would the DoJ be forced to break up the church into little bits for monopolistic practices? If all the brick and mortar churches fold, Reformists wouldn’t have a choice to find the church that best suits their needs. Yadda yadda yadda.
(Yay, the Mountain Timers woke up. Stuff to read!)
H. Camping’s finally gone bonkers. Not comfortable with his position as false-prophet (he predicted the end of the world in 1994), he is now telling Christians to leave their churches. I think its time that everyone who’s listened to Family Radio in the past write in and complain about it.
Family Radio used to broadcast M.L. Jones and J.M. Boice but now it’s all Harold, all the time. (Well, honestly they still have some music now and then, and a program on home-schooling…)
Ungh… there but for the grace of God…
H. Camping’s finally gone bonkers. Not comfortable with his position as false-prophet (he predicted the end of the world in 1994), he is now telling Christians to leave their churches. I think its time that everyone who’s listened to Family Radio in the past write in and complain about it.
Family Radio used to broadcast M.L. Jones and J.M. Boice but now it’s all Harold, all the time. (Well, honestly they still have some music now and then, and a program on home-schooling…)
Ungh… there but for the grace of God…
See … this is why I keep the “most recent comments” thing on the main page — so I (and others) can easily see when comments get made on months-old posts.
Thanks, M.