A Prophet You Can Trust

By the early 2000s, Harold Camping’s Christian radio network blanketed the United States, his nightly “Open Forum” question-and- answer program a staple for many listeners.

But Camping, a civil engineer by training who’d owned and sold a construction business in Oakland, California, started to dwell on one theme: Having done the calculations, he was convinced— there was no room for doubt—that Jesus would return on May 21, 2011, to “rapture” the church. When that didn’t happen, he reset the date for five months later.

If you’re reading this on Earth, you can figure out what happened: The second “prophecy” also failed. Some of Camping’s followers, who’d sold their homes and businesses to finance a final witness before the world ended, were disillusioned. His radio network collapsed, and Camping died in 2013, a footnote in Christian history.

Jesus, as a prophet raised up by God, is, of course, far different from the false, date-setting prophets of human history. After Jesus fed the five thousand and the disciples gathered twelve baskets of leftovers, “those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, ‘This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world’ ” (John 6:14).

Many of Jesus’ prophecies about the future have been fulfilled—as in the case of the destruction of Jerusalem. Some of them have yet to be fulfilled, such as the final destruction of the wicked. He gave His followers “the testimony of Jesus,” which “is the spirit of prophecy,” as we read in Revelation 19:10.

There have been—and sadly there still are—people who claim the prophetic mantle but whose predictions fail, sometimes spectacularly. However, that’s not the case with Jesus. He is a prophet you can trust, and He is a prophet who loves you and wants to save you.

Apply It:

Study Jesus’ prophecies—especially the “Olivet Discourse” found in Matthew 24—to gain an insight into what our future holds.

Dig Deeper:

Matthew 24:1–51; Matthew 22:36–40; Luke 13:33

Key Bible Texts

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. (Deuteronomy 18:18 KJV)