Actually, even if it is still Friday (or early on Saturday), you can still know that Camping is wrong. He has suggested that the Bible is perfectly clear in its teaching that May 21 is the big day. Any time someone says something is perfectly clear, even though they are the only person who has noticed it over the last 2000 years, that ought to give us some pause. More importantly though, Jesus seems to speak pretty clearly to the issue in Mark 13:32 where he says, "But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." After his resurrection, Jesus has still not changed his tune. In Acts 1:7 we read, "He said to them, 'It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.'"
All that being said, I do feel we have something to learn from Mr. Camping. Just as the word of God is perfectly clear that not a single person knows the day or hour it will occur, it is also perfectly clear that we need to constantly be prepared, because Jesus will indeed return to judge the living and the dead. We read in 1 Thessalonians 4:16, "For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God;" and in Daniel 7:13-14, "...behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
There has been much fun made of Mr. Camping, by Christians and non-Christians alike. He has earned the derision which has come his way. But as we make jokes about his foolishness, let us not lose sight of the seriousness that underlies the whole issue. After all, Harold Camping is right to expect the return of Christ. Just not this Saturday.
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