(World Net Daily)The executive director of a ministry that works with the persecuted church in the northern reaches of Vietnam says he's outraged that a "prophecy" by an American preacher apparently cost the lives of many tribal Hmong people who believed it.
The prediction by Harold Camping, 89, of Oakland, Calif.-based Family Radio, was that Jesus Christ would return to Earth to "rapture" his followers to heaven on May 21. Camping said mankind had run out of time, and the Creator of the universe would arrive on that Saturday.
The horrific aftermath of the unfulfilled prophecy was reported by James Jacob Prasch, a key leader of Moriel Ministries, which emphasizes the "last days apostasy" discussed in the Bible and ministers to persecuted church members.
The organization describes itself as a "teaching ministry to believers" that brings awareness of issues such as the "social gospel" and ecumenical efforts that "masquerade" as Christianity.
Prasch routinely travels and meets with members of the Christian body worldwide. A recent trip took him to Vietnam, where a large number of the Hmong tribal peoples of the nation's Central Highlands are Christian.
They are referred to in the West as Montagnards.
They had heard of Camping's prophecy and not having sophisticated methods for evaluating its validity, took it literally, he explained.
The result, for many, was death, Prasch reported in an email to supporters:
After listening to a translation of Camping's prediction 7,000 of these people (known in the West as Montagnards) gathered on a mountain praising God their suffering at the hands of the communist regime was about to end because Jesus was returning that day in May to establish a new kingdom,.
The police and military police slaughtered many of them at gunpoint – beheading two pastors. Others were arrested. I am told by Hmong pastors that so many were shot dead that they were buried in mass graves bulldozed over in an episode that I read about in Britain but did not understand the magnitude of until I got here.
Prasch reported that he spoke to a secret meeting of Hmong pastors to explain to them "false prophets and false teachers."
"Due to a combination of poverty, ignorance and persecution these poor Christians don't understand much so they believed Camping's shortwave broadcast which is how most get their teaching," he said.
Now "their families don't know if their missing loved ones are among the many shot dead, among those arrested and imprisoned, or among those from the 7,000 hiding in the jungle," he said.
"These people already suffering for their faith in Jesus had it bad enough. They are not like the undiscerning whackos in the West who should have known Camping was a crackpot and a proven false prophet and false teacher," Prasch reported. "This is a persecuted church who just had no means to know any different. This is why … I warn so much about false teachers and false prophets."
He continued, "Of course we can blame Satan and the communists but their blood is on the hands of Harold Camping and his Family Radio. Women without husbands, children without parents, husbands without wives."
A WND request of Family Radio for comment did not generate a response.
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