Family Radio is the network of Alameda, CA "prophet" Harold Camping's message. You know, the one that said the rapture would be May 21, 2011.
No, you did not miss it. Just like his 1994 prediction, it did not come true.
To be fair, his book was entitled 1994?, and he ackowledged he was not 100 percent sure of that date. May 21, 2011 was his backup date.
A true prophet would not need a backup date. A true prophet would not deliver a message in conflict with scripture that tells us we cannot know the date or time.
The arrogance of someone who thinks scriptures saying no man can know when Judgment Day is upon us does not apply to him may be enough to tell beforehand someone is wrong. After nothing happens, it is obvious.
Of course, the Father of Lies wants his message spread, and will do anything to take anyone else into Hell with him. Had Camping merely acknowledged he was not absolutely certain of the backup date, or even that he was wrong, there would be no appreciable harm to the cause. But he had to say that a "silent judgment" came without a rapture, and that his end date of October 21, 2011 still held true.
God told us how to recognize false prophets in II John 7-11: Do not accept them, do not take them into your house, do not even wish them blessing or you will be a partaker of their evil.
There are bad apples in every religion. While we hear that 90 percent of Muslims do not agree with radical jihadist clerics, 90 percent of the message we hear is from them. While 90 percent of Christians do not believe God wants Fred Phelps to protest Steve Jobs memorial in the Bay Area just because he wanted gay employees to have the same benefits as their heterosexual colleagues, but you do not hear from us as much as Westboro Baptist Church.
Well, you should. It is time we drown out those who deliver messages of hate, intolerance, or non-redemption. According to a Christian Post article Tuesday, October 18, 2011, Family Radio has done that again, this time saying that God stopped saving people in May.
Okay, so all those people answering altar calls in my church and millions of others around the world are not being saved. This is a message of hopelessness that comes out of a human need to save face, not a godly desire to expand the Kingdom. It has already claimed lives and now threatens to discourage potential souls from accepting the Good News.
God is big enough to survive these false prophets. But we as Christians are responsible for being ambassadors of God and making sure these messages are drowned out as background noise to the real message.
Every preacher and teacher and Christian with an audience needs to denounce these falsehoods. One organization challenged Family Radio: abibleanswer.org offered to buy the network for $1 million upfront but not take over until October 22. Had they truly felt assured of their own message, they would have taken the money to further it knowing there would ne no one to broadcast to once they lost it.
Too few people have denounced them as resources of the enemy. We should be outraged at any wolf-in-sheep's-clothing misrepresenting our Lord.
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