Family Radio - Teachings and Beliefs

Teachings and Beliefs

Central to Family Radio's and Camping's teaching is the belief that the Bible is the Word of God and completely true. However, he emphasizes, this does not mean that each sentence in the Bible is to be understood only literally. Rather, the meaning of individual Biblical passages needs to be interpreted in the light of two factors. The first is the context of the Bible as a whole. The second is its spiritual meaning: in Camping's words, "the Bible is an earthly story with a Heavenly meaning." In Camping's latest publication, "We are Almost There!", he stated that certain Biblical passages pointed unquestionably to May 21, 2011 as the date of "Rapture", and pointed to October 21, 2011 as the end of the world. This event did not occur on 21 May or 21 October. No acknowledgement of false teaching has yet been offered concerning the 21 October event. The organization's website became inaccessible early that day, and wasn't reachable until the early morning of May 22.

As a result of spending millions of dollars to promote his "end of the world" theory, many people sold everything they owned and donated it to Family Radio, sometimes even hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of the documented attempted suicides is of a woman who even went so far as to slit her children's throats before she tried to kill herself, in order to "save them from having to live through the tribulation". All three survived.

The California Atty. General's office has been asked by the Freedom from Religion Foundation to investigate Camping and Family Stations, Inc. for "Fraud and Deceit".

Since leaving the Reformed Church in 1988, Camping has taught doctrines that largely conflict with doctrines of the Reformed Church and traditional Christian teaching. The principles of Biblical hermeneutics upon which Camping frames his present teachings are:

1. The Bible alone is the Word of God.
2. Every Biblical passage must be interpreted in the light of the Bible as a whole.
3. The Bible normally conveys multiple levels of meaning or significance.
4. Numerology cannot be applied to numbers in the Bible when following the Biblical rules—some individuals have attempted to apply the concept to Camping's research.
5. That salvation is unmerited and cannot be achieved by good works, prayer, belief or acceptance. It is a pure act of God's grace and that those to be saved were chosen "before the foundation of the world". He has added conditions to salvation and teaching relative free will of humanity. However, he has admitted that some, though very few, could be saved, while still in the worldly churches, just as there would be those saved inside the nation of Israel, and that leaving the churches is something a believer should do, just as a believer should not lie or cheat. He also gives credit to God for what has been called "common grace", where the unsaved, the yet to be saved and the saved are blessed to do good works, but this is not considered the gift of salvation itself.

Examples of how Camping's teachings depart from mainstream doctrines are:

• Departing from doctrines stating no one can know the time of Christ's second coming, he teaches that the exact times of the Rapture and the End of the World are to be revealed sometime towards the end of time: (Daniel 12:9-13) prophecy.

• Camping teaches that the "Church age" is over, that Satan now rules in all churches, and that no person remaining in a church at the time of the Rapture can be saved. He attempts to distinguish his ministry from a "church", saying that Family Radio does not have a "membership" or hold "authority".

• Camping now teaches that "hell" is synonymous with "death" and the "grave", and that there is no everlasting torment. This view of Sheol is shared by Jehovah's Witnesses.

• Camping now teaches that The Cross was just a demonstration of what had already happened before the foundation of the world.

• Camping taught that the world would end in September 1994; March 1995; May 21, 2011; and again on October 21, 2011 using the following numerological reasoning:

1. According to Camping, the number five equals "atonement", the number ten equals "completeness", and the number seventeen equals "heaven".
2. Christ is said to have hung on the cross on April 1, 33 AD. The time between April 1, 33 AD and April 1, 2011 is 1,978 years.
3. If 1,978 is multiplied by 365.2422 days (the number of days in a solar year, not to be confused with the lunar year), the result is 722,449. (This, however, is a rounded number; taken precisely, the figure is 722,449.0716)
4. The time between April 1 and May 21 is 51 days.
5. 51 added to 722,449 is 722,500.
6. (5 x 10 x 17)2 or (atonement x completeness x heaven)2 also equals 722,500.