The Consequences of Camping

by Bruce Mills

Harold Camping demonstrated without any doubt (in case anyone still happens to think he might have some validity) that he is a false prophet.  Deuteronomy 18:22 is very clear about how to detect a false prophet.  It says, “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.”  There is no doubt that Camping claimed to speak for the Lord, predicted the rapture (which didn’t happen as he predicted), and thus, no one should pay any attention to him.  His brazen claim to predict the date of the rapture is also in direct conflict with Jesus’ statement regarding the apocalypse in Matthew 24:36 where He said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”  If even Jesus in His incarnation didn’t know the timing of the Lord’s return, why would Harold Camping think he was capable of determining the day and time of that event?

And now that he has been proven wrong, he has done exactly as I expected—he has come up with another bizarre explanation that May 21st was an “invisible judgment day” and that the physical judgment day for the world will be October 21st. The question is, what will he say if judgment day does not occur on October 21st as he has predicted? Let me predict now that if such is the case, he will once again come up with some cockeyed explanation and a new date for the Lord’s return.  And I will also predict that there will still be a few idiots out there who will believe him.

But I think the issue that bothers me the most about this whole disheartening incident is the unabated ridicule that has been directed toward anyone who believes that Christ will one day return physically and rapture His church, followed by a period of tribulation of a like which the world has never seen.  Camping’s fraudulent date-setting has opened the gates for talk-show hosts, news anchors, journalists, and even our next door neighbors to heap scorn and disdain on anyone who would proclaim the truth of Scripture regarding Christ’s return. As I listened to a radio talk show host scoffing and trash-talking anyone who would believe Camping, he sounded exactly like those who the apostle Peter described in 2 Peter 3:3-4 where he said, “Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.’”  Had Camping taught the truth of the Scriptures rather than violating Scripture by engaging in setting dates, the scoffers would still be there, but not the extreme intensity that we now see.

The only positive thing which Camping’s actions have accomplished is that his true colors have now been revealed to a much greater percentage of true Christians. I cannot count how many times through the years I have been approached by believers with questions about Camping’s teaching, and I had to explain to them why he is a false teacher. They often replied, “But he sounds so convincing.” Many of those people left, saying they appreciated my explanation, but I could tell they had doubts about what I told them and were still wondering if there was a possibility that Camping was a legitimate Bible teacher.  But now Camping himself has removed any doubts in the minds of most Christians about who and what he is. Now if we can just get back to watching for our Lord’s imminent return as we should—by simply believing and proclaiming, “Perhaps today!”

The Shack: A House Built on the Sand

by Bruce Mills

A friend recently sent me an email asking me if I was familiar with William Paul Young’s book, The Shack. I was familiar only to the degree that I had heard one of the DJ’s on our local contemporary Christian music radio station talking about it in glowing terms. When I heard that, I immediately became suspicious because this is the same person who has promoted other books which were superficially Christian, in that they only talk about faith and God in vague generalities rather than with theological precision. The same individual has also promoted books by "Emergent Church" authors, so when I heard the promotion for The Shack, warning bells went off in my mind. But I didn’t take time to familiarize myself with the book.

Anyway, when my friend asked me about it, I began to learn what I could about the book. I found out that the author never originally intended to publish this book. It was written as a story for his children as a way of explaining certain theological issues to them. After finishing the manuscript, he bound it and gave it to his children as a Christmas gift. He later showed a copy of the manuscript to a former pastor who had started a small publishing company. The company published the book and initially, it was promoted only by word-of-mouth. It has gone through multiple printings and, to date, it has sold over a million copies.

Obviously when a book which promotes itself as an explanation of the heart and nature of God sells that many copies, Christians ought to know enough about it to make a decision about whether or not to take the time to read it. So I went to a couple of websites written by men whose theological perspectives are sharp and trustworthy to see what they had to say about the book.

Apparently, the primary focus of the book is on the most difficult of all theological dilemmas: the goodness of God and its relationship to the problem of evil. Where is God in the midst of pain and suffering? How can a good God allow evil to exist? How can He allow mankind to suffer the effects of horrible crimes and dreadful calamities? Why doesn’t He do something to stop it? Why does God seem so unconcerned about suffering and injustice?

These issues are discussed in the context of a story regarding a man whose daughter was kidnapped and murdered years before. He spends the subsequent years in great sorrow until God invites him to meet with Him in the shack where it is believed that his daughter was murdered by a serial pedophile. After spending two days with God in the shack, he emerges as a changed man who has learned about the power of forgiveness.

However, in reading the various reviews by men of such theological fortitude as Dr. Glenn Kreider, professor of theological studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, and the world’s most famous Christian blogger, Tim Challies, it didn’t take long to realize that The Shack isn’t worth reading because, as Al Mohler has stated, “this book includes undiluted heresy.” The problems are that it promotes heretical views of the Trinity, the humanity and deity of Christ, God’s punishment of sin, and the exclusivity of salvation through faith in Christ alone.

As the protagonist of the story, Mackenzie Philips, meets with God in the shack, each of the members of the Trinity appears to him as separate, distinct individuals. God the Father appears in two forms; primarily, that of a large, matronly African-American woman, but also as a pony-tailed, grey-haired man. Jesus appears as a Jewish man, while the Holy Spirit is an Asian woman. Philips also meets Sophia who is a female personification of God’s wisdom. It is in this faulty presentation of the Trinity, as well as the conversations between Philips and the members of this strange Godhead, that the false theology which permeates this story comes through.

Young claims that the story which is told in The Shack is fictional, but he also claims that the conversations with God which take place in this book are all real and represent actual conversations he had with God, friends, and family members over a period of several years. In other words, he is claiming to have received “special revelation” from God other than that found in the Bible, which is God’s completed revelation to man. And much of the theology found in the book contradicts that found in God’s Word, revealing Young’s low view of the authority and inerrancy of Scripture.

So, with all these problems, I have no desire to waste my time reading The Shack, nor will I recommend it to anyone. As Chuck Colson has stated: "stay out of The Shack." But if you want more information about this book, I recommend you download and read Tim Challie's extensive review of The Shack, or listen online to Dr. Al Mohler's review.

Purveyors of a False Gospel

By Bruce Mills

A good friend and brother in Christ sent me a link to a video with John Piper speaking on his feelings about the prosperity gospel. It is quite strong and forceful. You can view it here. It takes less than three minutes. Watch it and then come back and read the rest of this article.

As I watched it, I was thinking about how the American church is so caught up in the glorification and accumulation of wealth and the opulent trappings of our culture that we have forgotten that Jesus said that no one can serve God and wealth (Matt. 6:24). So instead of condemning materialism as sin, the false teachers of the prosperity gospel glorify it and build an entire theological system around it.

It is time for those within the evangelical church who hold to the true gospel to stand up and condemn this heresy just as Piper has done in this video. So often we are unwilling to speak out against those who teach this garbage when friends or family members speak affirmingly of them. But we must be willing to stand for the truth, regardless of what others may say. Because when we allow this heresy to go unchallenged, all we are doing is allowing those men and women to continue to put more and more people on the broad road to destruction, when our call is to lead them to the narrow path to righteousness.

So who are some of the false teachers who are promoting this heresy? They include T. D. Jakes, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Paul and Jan Crouch, Joyce Meyer, Randy and Paula White, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, and others. These are the names who, today, are most often associated with the prosperity gospel or, as it is otherwise known, the “health and wealth” gospel. They are teaching a false gospel which panders to the unregenerate heart’s love for that which benefits itself. They do not preach a gospel which proclaims the utter depravity of man who is dead in his sin, hopelessly on his way to hell because his sin has offended a holy, righteous God, and that he needs a Savior, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. You will not hear them mention the need for people to repent of their sin and turn in faith to Christ for forgiveness of that sin, trusting Him and Him alone for salvation, and you most certainly will not hear them say that following Christ may cost you everything you hold dear, including your family, your possessions, your job, even your life.

Instead, they proclaim a false gospel in which there’s really no need for Christ as our mediator, since God isn’t really all that holy and we aren’t so morally perverse as to require the death of God’s Son in our place. God is our buddy who just wants us to be happy, and the way to be happy is to cash in on God’s blessings of health and wealth by recognizing your own potential and living in accordance with it.

Dr. Michael Horton, Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary, explains that the gospel being proclaimed by these people reflects the broader assumption among evangelicals that individuals are saved by making a decision to have a personal relationship with God. He comments that in this approach to salvation…

If one’s greatest problem is loneliness, the good news is that Jesus is a reliable friend. If the big problem is anxiety, Jesus will calm us down. Jesus is the glue that holds our marriages and families together, gives us purpose for us to strive toward, wisdom for daily life. And there are half-truths in all of these pleas, but they never really bring hearers face to face with their real problem: that they stand naked and ashamed before a holy God and can only be acceptably clothed in his presence by being clothed, head to toe, in Christ’s righteousness.

This gospel of “submission,” “commitment,” “decision,” and “having a personal relationship with God” fails to realize, first of all, that everyone has a personal relationship with God already: either as a condemned criminal standing before a righteous judge or as a justified co-heir with Christ and adopted child of the Father. “How can I be right with God?” is no longer a question when my happiness rather than God’s holiness is the main issue.[1]

The issue, then, is that these prosperity gospel teachers, as well as most other evangelicals, have the gospel message wrong. We need to get back to a gospel message which confronts people with their sin and the serious result of its offending God’s holiness, and then explains how Christ took the place of sinners and offers eternal life through His substitutionary atonement.

Sadly, when you go into every “Christian” bookstore in most cities, you will find the shelves stocked with the books of the prosperity gospel teachers, thus providing affirmation that they are “accepted” as “Christian” leaders and authorities. I am convinced that one reason they are so popular is that American Christianity is so weak. People call themselves Christians and attend churches where the service focuses on the music and emotional worship, yet the inspired Word of God is never opened and taught in an in-depth, verse-by-verse manner so that those who are there are instructed in what God has actually said. I love good Christian music. I even like Christian music with a good beat and tempo. But the teaching of the Word is to be the priority of our worship—not the music. Only when we get back to emphasizing the teaching of the Word will evangelical Christians learn that the trash being passed out by these false charlatans is worthless for their spiritual growth.

[1] Horton, Michael S. “Joel Osteen and the Glory Story.” http://www.wscal.edu/.