Judgment on the Churches?

Although I departed completely out of the churches around the same time Harold Camping brought his 'end of the church age' teaching, I never believed his notion that judgment had come upon the churches. After I left the churches, I found out that I also had to depart out of Family Radio's ministry and we all know that Family Radio is not a church, according to their own definition of a church. Believers (all believers) always flee to the mountains for refuge because we know that God's judgment is upon the whole world.

A big shift in Camping's Judgment on the Churches doctrine comes from one of Camping's followers from whom he is now distancing himself. Gunther Von Harringa is one of the self-appointed Bible teachers who learned everything there is to know about date setting from Harold Camping. Alongside Chris McCann, Von Harringa picked up the Timeline Harold Camping dropped when he was silenced by a stroke shortly after his May 21st, 2011 prediction failed.

A big part of the Camping "end time" message has been God's judgment coming on the churches, beginning on May 21st, 1988. At the stroke of 12:00 a.m. on that date, God allegedly commanded all believers to depart out of the churches so that His fury could be focused on those physical gatherings. All denominations were suddenly the sole target of God's righteous anger, while the Camping followers skipped merrily into the sunset with their Family Radio "Does God Love You?" tracts to save the world. They departed out six full years after the church age allegedly ended, but Mr. C. graciously forgave everyone's tardiness because God tarried in revealing this revelation to him.

Now there is a big change from one of the new and improved date setting teachers, Gunther Von Harringa. From Latter Rain message #53488:

VON HARRINGA:  "We should have learned a great deal from our expereince with judgment falling on the church. Only, there was an error in the way that we framed the statement "judgment on the church." For, in fact, judgment fell on the believers who were in the church, as well as on the non-believers there. That is, all were in the fire. Only, if we are a precious metal, we were not burned. God says,

"Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revelaed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is" (1 Corinthians 3:12-13).

It is not just that the non-believers were being judged during the church exodus, but that the believers were being tried. The test was whether those who professed to be believers would stay in the church or whether they would faithfully leave. So likewise, now that judgment has fallen on the world, not only are the non-elect judged, but the elect are being tried. The test now is whether we will contiue to faithfully watch and pray or whether we will return to the place from which we came."

Gunther now believes that, although the believers were caught up in the judgment that came upon the churches, they were not judged. They were merely tried or tested by ccommand to depart. Of course, the teaching goes on to declare that those who departed out passed that test. Those who obeyed Harold's command to depart were not burned by the fire. Gunther writes: "So likewise, now that judgment has fallen on the world, not only are the non-elect judged, but the elect are being tried."

According to Gunther, the continuing test for the already purified departed out believers today is a desire to know the date of Christ's return. In his LR message, he sets the stage for a new date after the Purim date in March fails.

VON HARRINGA:  "While Purim does appear to be the end of this second phase of judgment, it may be that there is one final phase."

They always need a following to click the "Donate" button and aks questions at their Q&A sessions, so there always needs to be a new date prediction out there, or a study in progress to determine what the next date prediction will be.

Gunther believes that judgment came on the churches in 1988 and, although the believers got caught up in it, they escaped God's fury because they obediently departed out according to Harold Campng's timetable. Gunther cited 1st Corinthians 3:12-13, and in verse 13, we see that "the day" shall declare each man's work. That day is judgment day. Judgment day is a day the date setters don't like, but believers are still going through the fire, although in the end we will be safe "as if" rescued from the fire. On judgment day.

13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

The "day" in verse 13 was not May 22nd, 1988. Unbeknownst to Von Harringa and his date setting denomination, believers are still very much in the midst of the Red Sea, the wilderness, the lion's den, the night, and the fire being purified for "the day". The test is not whether we departed out of the churches or whether we can patiently wait for a new date for the end of the world to be announced. The real test, or at least one of them, is to recognize grievous wolves in sheep's clothing who would try to deceive us into believing that we are already saved and that date predicting is the way, the truth and the life. For those folks, only numbers add up, rather warnings like "no man knoweth" or the saved believer's humple plea for mercy: "Return, O LORD, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake" (Ps. 6:4).

The "We are the Champions!" battle cry is still heard in the land, wherever people gather together in church denominations a/k/a "fellowships". They believe they were never judged, only tried when they had to depart out of the churches. Their works have been deemed "pure" by their date setting teachers, so they think they are golden.