Mainstream evangelicals are wrong about predictions of the Rapture
Harold Camping
It was called to my attention just the other day that the date of May 21, 2011 was circulating around the Internet as being the day of the second coming of Christ, i.e. “the Rapture” of the elect as Jesus talked about in the New Testament Book of St. Matthew, chapter 24. Today I learned the prediction was made by American Christian radio host and president of Family Radio, Harold Camping. Some may be surprised to find that I only knew about this prediction very recently. I’ve been insulated from lots of false teachings in the religious world having lived in Japan more than half of my life with very limited contact with American Christianity.
People like Mr. Camping have been deceived by the un-biblical teaching of “Pre-tribulation Rapture”. They believe that Christ will return in secret, to call His followers up to Heaven. What makes me especially upset about this false doctrine is that because of it, non-believers and atheists are now again mocking Christians, God and the Bible. For the record, the Bible doesn’t teach a secret coming nor a secret rapture of the elect.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.
Mainstream evangelicals in America and most of the English speaking world follow the eschatology of Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, author of the Scofield Reference Bible, a man who abandoned his wife and children and refused to support them. Scofield’s erroneous interpretations have influenced most of the mainstream evangelicals in the English speaking world. Only people who truly read and study their Bibles know the truth. Christians who believe a pre-tribulation secret rapture have not a single verse of Holy Scripture to stand on. The honest ones can only say, “I believe in pre-tribulation rapture because my preacher told me so.”