If at first you don't succeed...

In the aftermath of Harold Campings failed prediction about Christ's return, Gene Veith, a confessional Lutheran poked a little fun:

So who is left? We need to hear from you. Are the Lutherans all gone? Where are the Calvinists? Did the Baptists get taken? Are the non-denominational Christians gone, or did they need to belong to a denomination after all?

Does anyone know if Mr. Camping is still here? If so, what is he saying? Just because we might not have noticed large groups of people disappearing doesn’t mean the rapture didn’t happen. Maybe the gate is so narrow that only a handful of true Christians exist. Maybe some homeless people, some New Guinea tribesmen, and some persecuted Christian Arabs–individuals no one would notice–got raptured.

Gene Veith: Blog of Cranach

So, after getting it wrong, Mr. Camping went back to his study and recalibrated.  Now the new date is set for October 2011 - specifically he is predicting that the world will be obliterated on October 21st.

Through chatting with a friend over what he acknowledged was a very difficult weekend, it dawned on him that instead of the biblical Rapture in which the faithful would be swept up to the heavens, May 21 had instead been a "spiritual" Judgment Day, which places the entire world under Christ's judgment, he said.

The globe will be completely destroyed in five months, he said, when the apocalypse comes. But because God's judgment and salvation were completed on Saturday, there's no point in continuing to warn people about it, so his network will now just play Christian music and programs until the final end on Oct. 21.

"We've always said May 21 was the day, but we didn't understand altogether the spiritual meaning," he said. "The fact is there is only one kind of people who will ascend into heaven ... if God has saved them they're going to be caught up."
Camping's New Prediction.
I wonder what he will say when October 22, 2011 rolls around? 

Dispensationalism - A Reformed Evaluation

A few days ago I came across this essay by Dr. Ligon Duncan on Dispensational Theology.  I'm posting as a bookend to my previous post and what makes historic reformed theology different from the garden variety evangelicalism.

A Brief Background to Dispensationalism


The dispensational system of theology, if we are honest, is actually a Nineteenth Century phenomenon. Now I don’t want to get into an argument about these things. I know many good dispensationalists like to trace elements of dispensational teaching and belief way back into the history of the church. But as a historical theologian, and that is what I am by profession, I can pretty confidentially tell you that the system of dispensational theology is a Nineteenth Century phenomenon in the history of the church. It is particularly associated with John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren movement in Britain in the Nineteenth Century, and in America, with the name C.I. Scoffield, Cyrus Ingersoll Scoffield.

The dispensational movement created its own seminary in Dallas. And has for many years had control of a very theological journal, called, Bibliotheca Sacra, that has been sort of the official journal for dispensationalism. And many of you are aware of Dallas Seminary and of Bib Sac and of folks in the Bible Church movement, who would be very much indebted to the dispensationalist tradition.

Dispensationalism is not necessary committed in and of itself, for or against Calvinism and Arminianism. Earlier this century, for instance, you would have found many people who would have identified themselves as Calvinists and dispensationalists. And you would have found some who would have held basically to an Arminian theological framework been dispensationalist. On my best information, Dallas today would officially have sort of an ambiguous approach towards Calvinism. In other words, there wouldn’t be an out and out denial of Calvinism. Yet in fact, I am told that there is still a great deal of fear and discomfort with Calvinism at Dallas Theological Seminary. There are reasons for that which I won’t go into right now. They will become clear later on.

Read the rest here: Ligon Duncan on Dispensational Theology