Christ was supposed to come yesterday—but he didn’t.
Or at least, he was supposed to come according to eBible Fellowship in Philadelphia. Their prediction was itself based on the predictions of Harold Camping, who 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. When Christ didn’t appear, Camping revised the date to the following October. And then gave up.
But eBible Fellowship pastor Chris McCann didn’t. On the basis that the May 2011 date only started a period of judgment, which would end after 1600 days—that is, on 7th October 2015—McCann announced that, “There’s a strong likelihood that this [Christ returning on 7th October] will happen, but … there’s an unlikely possibility that it will not” (note wriggle room in second half of sentence).
Now we know—the unlikely possibility has come to pass.
It is, of course, easy to mock – and many will. Harold Camping was wrong—the man who’d so confidently predicted when God would come to earth, himself left earth to meet God in 2013. Chris McCann was wrong, too. 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.
The day of Christ’s return is a certainty, but its date is a mystery.
But here are three things to say in defence of Harold Camping and Chris McCann, and perhaps three things we can learn from them:
1. They put their money and their mouths where their doctrine was. Camping spent his own money, as well as his followers’, warning people that Jesus was returning on May 21. McCann and church mounted a huge media and advertising campaign. They were prepared to take risks and make sacrifices to communicate what they sincerely believed. They were wrong; but perhaps their 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). Chris McCann lived ready. Do we?
2. Camping was willing to own up to his mistakes. It remains to be seen how McCann reacts to the world not ending. But 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 prophecy. 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 and Chris McCann’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, and Chris McCann is prepared, to be scoffed at. Are we?
Harold Camping was prepared, and Chris McCann is prepared, to be scoffed at. Are we?
I don’t know what God’s verdict on Harold Camping and Chris McCann will be—I don’t know them, so I don’t know whether Camping was, and McCann is, trusting in Jesus for their salvation. If they were and are, then they are brothers, and precious in God’s sight—after all, we’re not saved by doctrine, but by faith in Christ. And either way, the Lord who did not return yesterday has promised: “Yes, I am coming soon” (Revelation 22 v 20). “Soon” could be today. Let’s live like it.
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A version of this article was originally published in December 2013 on the occasion of Harold Camping's death.
Carl is Publisher and Co-CEO at The Good Book Company and is a member of Life Church Hackbridge in south London. He is the bestselling author of The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross and God's Big Promises Bible Storybook, and also serves as Series Editor of the God's Word For You series. Before joining TGBC, he worked as a journalist and then as a teacher, and pastored a congregation in Hull. Carl is married to Lizzie, and they have two children. He studied history at Oxford University.
