The Blessing of Finding Faithful Friends
Before discussing this, I would like to say how thankful I am to the Lord for bringing into my life so many likeminded believers over the last few months. I’ve been impressed with the steadfastness of many people that have continued to trust and wait upon the Lord. It has also been very wonderful to see so many get involved with sharing information from the Bible (concerning Purim) once again with the world.
The information that we’ve seen in the book of Esther pointed to Purim (which just passed) as the return of Christ and the final end of all things. These things were not drawn out of a hat or forced in any way. The information we learned about Purim is similar to the information we learned concerning May 21, in that things locked in nicely and were derived directly from the Bible. I do not for a second think that God’s people followed this information for any reason except they saw it in the Bible. And yet, it has now become clear that we had some wrong conclusions in the study of the book of Esther.
One Obvious Advantage in Regards to “the setting of a date”
One advantage we have found when studying the Bible and seeing how conclusions focus in on a particular date, is that many of the results of our study can be viewed correctly, or incorrectly, as the date comes and goes. In other words, if our study indicated that Christ would come on Adar 15, the last day of the feast of Purim, and Christ did not come on that day, we can know that we had that incorrect. We were wrong about that particular date being the end of the world. The advantage is that our doctrine can be verified if it is correct or not. In this case it was not correct. On the other hand, this type of verification cannot be done with just about every other doctrine of the Bible. Why not? Well, we have one group of people that say the Bible teaches free will in reference to salvation; and then we have others that say, “no, God saves through predestination.” Of course the Bible, we know supports predestination (we know this through the internal means of comparing Scriptures). The other group holds a false teaching in this area. But there is no verifiable (external) proof that shows this while we are in this world. That is, it never becomes evident to all the world that the free will gospel is proven wrong and the gospel of election is proven right. This is why people continually hold onto free will and many other incorrect teachings, no matter how far out there ideas might be, because there is no danger while living in this world that there errors will be made manifest to all.
Let’s use another example: there are numerous eschatology’s (doctrine of end times) taught by seminaries and the churches. Each eschatological doctrine conflicts with the rest. Therefore it is obvious that these doctrines of the end times that many people hold to as truth have errors built into them. There can’t be more than one truth. But, the Premillenialist, and the Postmillenialist, and the Amillenialist (to name three) comfortably hold onto their end time theories as truth, even though they know that others disagree with them and think they are false. However, this does not trouble them too much as long as a certain number of people support them and think they are true. Churches have maintained their eschatological positions for centuries. Yet, these teachings face no ultimate danger of being exposed as error because it would take Christ’s actual coming to demonstrate to all exactly which one of these theories was closest to truth. This is not the case with the setting of a date. The setting of a date is quite risky because it means that the information which has been presented will be proven correct or incorrect as the date is reached.
We have studied the Bible and the passing of this date has shown us we were off in some areas. There are things that we have not understood correctly. This is the advantage we now have, which ultimately, should be a help in our ongoing study of the Bible.
A Cause for Thankfulness
Although the child of God longs to leave this sin cursed body, and the sin cursed earth, in order to be with the Lord; yet, we still have much cause to thank the Lord for allowing time to continue on earth. We can be thankful for our children’s sakes, and for our family members (as well as friends and neighbors) that God did not take them by bringing about the final destruction of this world. We love our families and the thought that they have been spared from death can only be a cause of joy and gratitude to the Lord.
Also, I would like to suggest, since we will be here for a while longer on this earth, that we continue to serve God in our families as much as possible.
The Difficulty
The problem we face is that we have followed the Bible’s guidelines as closely as possible in attempting to come to truth (with the May 21 proclamation and now Purim). We have compared Scripture with Scripture and tried to make sure all conclusions were in harmony with the entire Bible. Yet, we have made errors (such as no rapture or literal earthquake occurring on May 21, and no end of the world on October 21, or now during the feast of Purim). If, these dates were the result of having a dream, or some sort of methodology other than the Bible, we could pinpoint the problem and realize we must stick to the Bible only. Or, if we could point at something in particular as the cause of our errors we could correct them in order to arrive at the perfect conclusion. But, the difficulty for God’s people has been, as we have checked, and re-checked the biblical calendar of history, and many other things learned from the Bible, we cannot find the cause of the problem. And since we cannot find the cause of the problem in our methodology, we have not been able to correct the problem to avoid incorrect conclusions. Again, one benefit we have is that we know we have some incorrect conclusions: this is a mercy of God in that we do not have to continue maintaining a teaching that can never be ultimately verified.
Personal Difficulty as a Teacher of the Bible
Teaching truth is of supreme importance. Long ago, Family Radio and the teaching of Mr. Camping stood out to me because I could hear the sound of truth. I did not hear this distinct sound of truth anywhere else the way I heard it when I listened to Mr. Camping on Family Radio. Also, the way the truth was proclaimed was also very different than how teachings were proclaimed in just about every other ministry. The truth of the Bible was proclaimed with authority (years later I learned this is one of the characteristics of Christ, He spoke with authority the Bible says, unlike the teachings of the Pharisees). When listening to Mr. Camping, there was no doubt that a woman was not to teach men, and those that divorced were never to remarry; no doubt that elders should be married men with children (not single without children); no doubt that God did all the work in salvation; no doubt about many, many teachings of the Bible. I also received these things in the same manner as they were taught (that is, I knew without doubt this was so, and that was so, concerning various doctrines of the Bible). This clarity, in such a confused mass of religious teachings everywhere else, caused Family Radio to shine in a glorious way as a light in much darkness.
The same methodology which allowed Mr. Camping to develop such clear teachings of many biblical subjects was also applied to the end times teachings of the Bible. Soon, a crystal clear outline of end times events developed. Each step could be checked as to how it was arrived at, and for faithfulness to the Scriptures themselves. Eventually, a great deal of information was gathered together and zeroed in on the date of May 21, 2011 as Judgment Day!
As I review (and have reviewed) all the Bible’s information, concerning May 21, and now Purim. I see things that were wrong (again, no literal earthquake, no physical five months of torment on earth, no end of the world in October, and no end of the world and rapture of God’s people during the feast of Purim); but my problem is that I do not see why they were wrong. Based on the Bible’s evidence I do not see why the world did not end. Therefore I do not know where to make correction.
Years ago I have felt extremely sorrowful over the many false teachings of the churches. We first began as a ministry with the desire of being as faithful as possible to what the Bible says. I have never wanted to teach anything contrary to the Bible. There is enough error out there to last us all many lifetimes. EBible Fellowship existed to teach truth. And yet, without knowing how or where to make correction regarding a doctrine that impacts so much of the Bible itself I do not think it is possible to continue teaching at this time.
May the Lord’s Perfect Will be Done
Although we do not understand certain things, we do know that our presence here on the earth is not out of the will of God. It is most definitely the Lord’s will that the world continues on at this time. It is also most definitely the Lord’s will that His people remain in this world at this time. We may have many questions as to why these things are so, but the fact is they are so. May each one of us pray for wisdom concerning what the Lord would have us to do to continue to serve Him each day we our here. May we also accept His will wholeheartedly, thankfully, knowing that His will is always better and wiser, and more perfect than ours.
Chris McCann