By Dr. Ken Matto

Camping's hermeneutical method shows a blatant yet subtle trickery. Harold Camping has now begun to call the Lord’s Supper a ceremonial law. What is the ceremonial law? First of all, the ceremonial law is found only in the Old Testament and it was the method that God gave Israel to worship Him and offer the various sacrifices and celebrate the different feasts. The ceremonial law contained a number of the sacred objects found in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple. These objects were the Ark of the Covenant, the Laver, the Candlesticks, the Altar of Sacrifice, the Showbread, etc. These were all used in the ceremonial service of the Lord. There were also laws which were for diet such as no pork and there were also laws for separation which could be understood as quarantine laws, especially for lepers, childbirth, etc. There were also laws for circumcision which was the sign of the covenant God made with Abraham and laws for redeeming the firstborn which we find in Exodus 13. There were special offerings for sin, peace, trespass, etc. They celebrated feasts times such as the Feasts of Booths, Feasts of Weeks, Day of Atonement, etc. The ceremonial laws contained an entire set of responsibilities which were required of Israel to partake of. The entire sacrificial system can also be referred to as the ceremonial laws. When the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, this system became invalid because all these sacrifices and feasts were looking forward to the final sacrifice that Christ would make for His Elect. This means that in 33 AD the ceremonial system was now finished and in 70 AD, Christ sent General Titus to destroy Jerusalem because it was the center of ceremonial worship. No longer was God dealing with a single nation but now He was dealing with the entire world.

Now let us get back to the Lord’s Supper. The Lord calls His Last Supper a remembrance, not a ceremony, but Camping places it under the Old Testament Law. This way he can classify it with the other ceremonies under the Old Testament and can claim that it has come to an end. However, if the Lord gives a command to observe the "Remembrance" then to say that it has ended is to say that the Lord Jesus was wrong, and Harold Camping Right. When one looks at the ceremonial law, we see that there were feasts which were set at different times of the year and offerings which were made for sin or peace, et al. The Lord’s Supper was never given as a feast or a sin offering but only a remembrance. This is what sets it vastly apart from and cannot qualify as a ceremonial law. We do not partake of the Lord’s Supper as an offering for sin or a specific timed feast. If you remember in 1 Cor. 11:26, we read, “For as often…” which means no specific time element is involved for partaking. The feasts and offerings, such as the Day of Atonement or Passover were done yearly on specific days as commanded by God. The Lord’s Supper is a command to the believers they are to partake but no specific command is given as to the frequency of observance.

Why would the Lord save us from the curse of the law and then turn around and create another law, which would place us back under the curse of the law? It is circular reasoning to the hilt! Camping’s reasoning lacks any and all biblical credibility. I really feel sorry for those who have followed this teaching and who only look at the Scriptures the way Camping tells them to. This is the only way they can maintain their belief that they have the truth. This is what the Cults do, they pick certain Scriptures and then interpret it for the followers and then they only dwell on those Scriptures.