{"id":1288,"date":"2002-02-01T11:37:04","date_gmt":"2002-02-01T16:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1288"},"modified":"2002-02-01T11:37:04","modified_gmt":"2002-02-01T16:37:04","slug":"save_your_soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/02\/01\/save_your_soul.html","title":{"rendered":"Save your soul! Skip church!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, pastors of congregations affected by his call are anything but amused. Especially since it’s having an impact.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Meantime, the radio network’s web page, Camping notes:<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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 <\/i>say, that, wouldn’t they.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fourth-estate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7259,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/04\/13\/more_anglican_c.html","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":0},"title":"More Anglican Communion brinksmanship","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Apr-05 3:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While the Anglican Communion has been rent with divisions over issues of human sexuality, and the actions of the Episcopal Church and the Church of Canada on that subject, one...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41352,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/03\/06\/christian-pastors-being-arrested-by-the-police-for-their-faith.html","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":1},"title":"Christian pastors being arrested by the police for their faith!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 6-Mar-14 3:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Except that it's all a fake. For a video. To be thrown out on the Internet without any sort of note that it was staged, as a means of demonstrating what the police arresting pastors would look like. Which the local sheriff's office oddly went along with, and is now\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15231,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/17\/the-other-episcopalian-shoe-drops.html","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":2},"title":"The other Episcopalian shoe drops","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 17-Jul-09 4:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If you think the Episcopal Church General Convention opening the door to ordaining more gay bishops*\u00a0was going to cause a furor in some conservative Anglican quarters, get a\u00a0load of this: Today (Wednesday) the House of Bishops passed C056 by a vote of 104 to 30. Here is what that resolution\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/episcshield.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12365,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/05\/19\/ecumenism.html","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":3},"title":"Ecumenism","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 19-May-08 10:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"So when ever I talk about the Episcopal Church, it seems like I'm dwelling on the divisions within it from controversies over gays and women and whatever. And that raises...","rel":"","context":"In "Episcopal Church"","block_context":{"text":"Episcopal Church","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion\/religion-episcopal-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11085,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/13\/no_matter_how_conservativ.html","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":4},"title":"No matter how conservative you are …","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Apr-07 2:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"... you can always find someone further out on the fringe. \u00a0Word from Colorado Springs, not a town known for its wild leaps of liberal licentiousness, of some soon-to-arrive visitors:...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7356,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/03\/23\/break_out_the_w.html","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":5},"title":"Break out the white smoke!","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Mar-05 1:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In February 2004, I accepted the request to be the Vestry representative on our search committee for a new rector, after the departure of our previous one. 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