Whether they would like to admit it or not, Seventh Day Adventists have a few things in common with false prophet Harold Camping. Mr. Camping is infamous for his recent false prophecy that the rapture and the judgment of God would occur on May 21st, 2011. His predictions were based on his own convoluted mathematical computations of prophetic dates and numbers found in the Bible. Mr. Camping deceived many people into believing his wild speculations, and I am genuinely sorry for those people. Many of them sold their homes, left their families,sold their possessions and took to the road spreading Camping's message. They should have known better. Camping has been making wild-eyed predictions since the 1980's, and falsely predicted the end of the world in 1994. It has been well said that time is the enemy of false prophets.
When his 6:00 p.m. May 21st, 2011 prediction failed, Camping went into damage control mode and did what other date setters have been forced to do: claim that the event was spiritual or heavenly and that the real date is in the future. In Camping's case, according to this Fox News report May 21st was a spiritual judgment day in which "God's judgment and salvation were completed," and the actual end will come five months from now on October 21st, 2011.
There is the striking similarity to the Seventh Day Adventist cult. The Adventists began with the convoluted mathematical computations of prophetic dates and numbers of a Baptist preacher by the name of William Miller. His followers, like many of Camping's sold their possessions and waited anxiously for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
"Adventism originated with the disappointed Second Coming movement of the 1800’s. William Miller, a Baptist layman, concluded in 1818 that Christ would return to earth in 1843. When that was proven wrong, he changed the date to October 22, 1844. This belief was based largely on an interpretation of Daniel chapters nine and twelve using the erroneous day/year equation (one prophetic day equals one historical year). Tens of thousands followed Miller’s conclusions, and many
diverse, unscriptural adventist (advent refers to Christ’s coming) groups sprang up within this excited religious atmosphere.
Until the end of 1844, Miller held resolutely to his conviction that Christ would return to “cleanse the sanctuary,” which he interpreted to mean the earth. After
the set dates passed, Miller wisely left off with date setting, admitted his mistake, and no longer participated in the adventist movement. He did not become a Seventh-day Adventist. From the shambles of the confused and unscriptural date-setting movement, there emerged various groups with various doctrinal peculiarities. Some of these groups were gradually formed into Seventh-day Adventism." (Way of Life Encyclopedia)
Unlike Mr. Camping, William Miller gave up prophetic speculation with his spectacular failure. Unfortunately Satan was able to use Miller's speculations and the un-biblical visions of false prophetess Ellen Harmon (who later married James White) to deceive multitudes of people since 1844.
In the visions of Ellen G. White, the 1844 date was a spiritual judgment in which Christ entered into the heavenly holy of holies to begin investigating the records of human works in order to figure out who is to be saved. The Adventists teach this false doctrine of "Investigative Judgment" to this day.
Beware of date-setters, and beware of those who claim to have extra-biblical visions and prophetic "knowledge!"
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matthew 24:36
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