Harold Camping predicted that the Rapture will occur, with certainty, on May 21, 2011.  Well, it’s May 22, 2011, and we’re all still here.  Why?  Because Mr. Camping ignored Scripture to get where he did.

Chief among texts ignored by Mr. Camping was Matthew 24:36-44:

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.  For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.  But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

In other words, we simply don’t know when the Judgment is coming.  But, we can be assured in the words of Jesus that he will return.  Therefore, we should stay vigilant and live as though it could happen at any time.

But this gets better and better.  Mr. Camping arrived at the date using numerology, which  means he ignored the texts condemning sorcery, and Deuteronomy 4:19:

And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them, things that the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

Since Mr. Camping has ignored or rationalized so many Scriptures, then one more shouldn’t be a problem for him.  This next one is a doozy.  He now has to explain to us why, in light of Deuteronomy 18:20-22, that anyone should remain his follower:

“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, orwho speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.” And if you say in your heart, “How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?”— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

Camping predicted the date of the Rapture, said it was a certainty, and it didn’t come to pass.  Therefore, he has met the biblical definition of a false prophet, and we need not pay him any mind.  Why should anyone continue listening to him?  I await his reply.