Here is a great article detailing what went on in the minds of Harold Camping's followers when the end times did not happen according to Camping's predictions. The ironic thing about this article is that Bob Thiel posted excerpts on his blog about this. Thiel obviously does not have the brains to see that this article is talking about himself and how he defends the false prophecies of Rod Meredith and Herbert Armstrong. Hundreds and hundreds of false prophecies, predictions, and baseless speculations have been uttered over the years by these men and yet there are lemmings that refuse to look at all the errors and defend these men as "men of God."
Ron Weinland's cult will be the next to experience this. Then it will be Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, David Hulme, and myriad of others who open their mouths and make statements that never come to pass.
A Year After the Non-Apocalypse: Where Are They Now? A reporter tracks down the remnants of Harold Camping’s apocalyptic movement and finds out you don’t have to be crazy to believe something nuts.
“God’s Not Going to Let Us Down”
Some believers stayed up all night. They watched TV or sat in front of their computers, hitting refresh on their browsers, confident that reports of a massive earthquake originating near New Zealand would soon appear. Other believers went to sleep, assuming that they would awaken in the presence of the almighty.
When the sun rose on May 21, they were taken aback. Maybe it would happen at noon. When noon passed, they settled on 6 p.m. When that came and went, some thought it might happen at midnight. Or perhaps it wouldn’t happen until May 21 was over everywhere on the planet. “It will still be May 21st in American Samoa (last time zone before the International Date Line),” someone posted on Latter Rain, an online forum for believers.
By Sunday morning, new theories were floated. “It was God’s plan to warn people. It was His purpose to hide the true meaning behind May 21. It’s about us suffering what He went through,” a believer commented. One hypothesis had it that three days would elapse before the actual rapture, just like the three days between Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Someone else wondered if it might be seven days considering that seven is a holy number, or forty, the same amount of time Noah was forced to sail around with a boatload of animals.
When those deadlines passed, another narrative took shape. What happened was a test. God knew that believers would be mocked when He failed to return on the assigned date. Would believers hold firm or would they allow the jeers of the world to weaken their resolve? The Lord was separating the wheat from the chaff, they liked to say, paraphrasing Matthew 3:12. It helped that Camping, before he vanished from the airwaves, had seemed to endorse this view.
When a prophecy fails, it’s crucial that a group’s leaders provide an alternate explanation of what happened, or what didn’t happen, according to Lorne Dawson, a professor of sociology at the University of Waterloo, who has studied apocalyptic sects. “The followers of the group are so heavily invested that they have tremendous incentive to accept these rationalizations,” he said. But the revised story needs to be issued rapidly—wait too long and your followers will fall away.
8 comments:
In other words, you have to be quick witted enough to make up plausible lies on the spot before everyone does the reasonable thing and leaves.
Onward to the trial, conviction and sentencing.
The same was true with Herbert W. Armstrong's "1975 in Prophecy" with the January, 1972 prelude Great Tribulation date.
Excerpted below is from my unpublished WCG essay (which I really need to find a venue to publish):
When the end of the second 19 year time cycle came to pass and the German attack on America didn’t happen as prophesied, what was Armstrong’s prophetic explanation of January, 1972? Armstrong provides the answer in his January 31, 1972 co-worker letter. Instead of German bombs dropping on America – instead of death, carnage, destruction, mayhem, the fall of America, and the beginning of the great tribulation – Armstrong explains the real prophetic significance of January, 1972 was advertising in Readers Digest!
What? Advertising in Reader’s Digest? A rather anti-climatic event after years of
teaching a violent 1972 end time great tribulation message! Was this some kind of joke?
End of Excerpt
Richard
Isn't the Reader's Digest bankrupt?
Just what one would expect for anyone involved with Herbert Armstrong.
Yes, Richard, it was a joke. The joke was on us.
I have been viewing this blog off and on for awhile and recently started contributing personal comments, but my interest was due to the apparent damage that some believe they have suffered due to what is defined as “Armstrongism”. I do not know how long the people commenting here were associated with “Armstrongism”, but my tenure with “Armstrongism” was probably a lot longer than most.
I can honestly say that while it may have been in spite of “Armstrongism”; being actively involve in the organization was a rewarding experience and I doubt that my life could have been any better had I chosen a different route. I do not think that I am so unique that other people would not be able to make the same statement. I will not say that people did not have negative experiences because I know they did. I appreciated the fellowship and friendliness that was a part of every congregation we were a part of and even to this day there is empathy for those who have been adversely affected by “Armstrongism”.
Now having said that I will also say that I understand and recognize why there are many comments that imply that a person must be insane to have been mixed up with such a group. I am beginning to think that Ambassador College may have been the real source of the problem and those who attended Ambassador College were subjected to training program that would make military training look like kindergarten.
I also recognize that the organization did attract a number of unbalance people. I have met a couple of angels in underwear (unaware), one person who was convinced he was jesus Christ returned, I had of one the two witnesses (a person I knew) call me to feel me out to see if I would be the second one. When he said I would see him on TV before long, I ask him what he would do if it didn’t happen. He declared adamantly that it would. I will mention he dead now. I could write a book about these isolated incidents, but that isn’t the point of this comment.
I believe that it is often over looked that prophecy has always been an interest especially those in religion. Herbert Armstrong and company were a product of their time in history. I never put much stock in the efforts to set a date and got to the point that I would guarantee that it wouldn’t happen on the selected date. I often wondered why someone would want to be Elijah. I find that Elijah winds up in a cave trembling in fear and claiming he was the only prophet still living.
Another point in that particular passage is the God declares He had seven thousand people who had not bowed their knee to Baal. In my mind there were people who were minding their own business still dedicated to the God of Israel while Elijah who was totally oblivious of them was doing the work he claimed God had given him to do. Even Elijah felt he would be better off dead,
Oh well! To each his own! I prefer to be one of those seven thousand who maintained their relationship with God, but kept their head down and their name tag covered up.
Albert B.
Sorry Albert. A man is known by the company he keeps.
Painful Truth Said:
“Sorry Albert, A man is known by the company he keeps”
I suppose you would claim Jesus was a publican, sinner and sex deviate because he spent time in fellowship with them.
Frankly I can communicate and fellowship with all types of people without becoming likes them or even agreeing with their life style and behavior.
I do not support any of the idiotic garbage that is floating around, but I do respect a person’s right to be an idiot if he so chooses.
I have been disappointed that those in leadership positions fail to recognize the damage they do, but I am also disappointed in those who think their form of critical condemnation will solve all the problems. I quite often have pointed out that a quick fix solution with make a bad situation worst.
I left the WCG to help those who had been cut adrift and for 6 years I ministered to those who were disconnected from everything (this was at my own expense) but I ceased this ministry after many had died and others had stabilized or found a different connection.
Today I spend most of my time maintaining a positive relationship with the families who are related to us in some way. Most have never been involved with WCG except our personal family who are no longer associated with any of the groups. Most of us are followers of the Christian faith.
I mention these things not as a rebuke, but to show that our association with Armstrongism was not an incurable disease that destroys your life. A person can learn valuable lessons that can make them a better human being and sometimes serve as an example of how to develop better human relationships. I will admit that I strongly believe that we should focus on developing the type of relationships that encourage people to work at producing a harmonious unity rather than the on going battle for supremacy of determining who is the greatest (or more righteous).
Albert B.
The Worldwide Church of God was the best thing to happen to so many, many people!
Even to the many, many people who died, because of their (or their caregivers') association with it.
It's truly inspiring to hear of someone who has gotten the True Truthiest of Truths out of it, and who can see that those who didn't "GET IT" were wrong or less than him in their faith.
Sincerely,
Albert's Dead Child
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