According to Premillenialist and radio personality Harold Camping, the rapture was supposed to take place on May 21st, and the final judgment will occur on October 21st of this same year.
Read the following from the first page of the “We Can Know” website:
“This web site serves as an introduction and portal to four faithful ministries which are teaching that WE CAN KNOW from the Bible alone that the date of the rapture of believers will take place on May 21, 2011 and that God will destroy this world on October 21, 2011.”
Also
“Learn about the Biblical Timeline of History, the correct method of Bible interpretation, the End of the Church Age and God’s command to believers that they must depart out of the churches. Study the proofs that God has so graciously given in His Word showing us that these dates are 100% accurate and beyond dispute.”
We have studied our Bible, and are not surprised to be alive and here on May 22nd. The reason we are not surprised is that the Bible does not teach the doctrine of the rapture, and the Bible does not contain a timeline indicating that “we can know” the time our Lord will return in judgment upon the earth.
So, what do we know? We know that Harold Camping is a false prophet. He has, by offering this false prediction, showed himself worthy of condemnation. Note the following from Deuteronomy 18:22, “when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”
We know that the doctrine of the rapture is a figment of the premillenialist’s imagination. The text used to propagate the doctrine does not teach it, (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). It is true that the unrighteous dead are not mentioned in this text as being resurrected at the Lord’s coming. This is not because only the righteous will be taken at that time, but because the Thessalonian’s question to the great apostle concerned only the righteous dead. “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. Fir if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14). On another occasion, our Lord spoke in more general terms, “…the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:29-30). When Jesus comes to earth again, the physical universe will be destroyed on that day (2 Peter 3:10).
We know that no man knows the day when Jesus will come to earth. “For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2). Rather than seek to predict a specific day or hour, the apostle Paul said we should “watch and be sober” (5:6).
Jesus is coming. But the date setters (who have been around since the first century) don’t know when. Rather than sitting around, seeking to predict that day, let’s do as Peter exhorted, “Therefore beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14).
