The recent fiasco in which Harold Camping failed again to realize his foolish, biblically-distorted views, is an excellent example of what James wrote:

“My brothers, not many of you should become teachers, because you know that we teachers will receive stricter judgment” (Jas. 3:1).

Evidently, he didn’t take this verse seriously. Camping is the great allegorizer of our time. The Reformation threw off this type of exegesis—something that had prevailed in sermons for 1000 years. Calvin, for instance, said that this false way of interpreting Scripture turned it into a “wax nose” that can be twisted and molded as you please. And that’s what happened.

The problem is that like so many others who can’t, Camping took to teaching others when he failed to understand the Bible himself. Paul warned such people:

“Certain persons, by taking poor aim, have. . .  turned aside to empty discussion, wanting to be teachers of the law, but not understanding either the words that they speak or those things that they insist upon with such assurance.”

Are you desirous of teaching?  You’d better know what you are doing if you pursue that course. Peter warned,

“Some things [in Paul’s writings] are hard to understand . . . which untaught and unstable persons twist.” (2 Peter3:16).

These warnings are explicit—even allegorizers can’t misinterpret them!