For those of you that are not familiar with Family Radio, Harold Camping is the founder and President of the organization. He is the same person that predicted the return of Christ in May 2011 and the end of the world in October 2011. As we knew then and has been proven since then, he was wrong.
I opened and read the letter which basically says, we (meaning Family Radio) was wrong. You can read the letter online here. In the letter they admitted they were wrong and sinning with their actions. To me the point of the letter was "Yeah, we messed up, but look at all the attention the Gospel got, so send us some money."
I was simply going to pitch the letter, but then I saw there was a postage paid return envelope. So I figured I would write my own letter to Harold Camping and the Family Radio staff. Here is what I wrote to them:
March 27, 2012
Dear Mr. Camping and the Staff at Family Radio:
I received your letter the mail last week and I want to take this opportunity to tell you my story and involvement with Family Radio.
I don’t remember how I came across the radio station out of Johnstown, PA, but I did. I started listening to the good old Gospel Hymns. Then on my way to work I would catch the “Walk with the King” broadcast, with Dr. Robert A. Cook. I really enjoyed listening to his stories and explanations of the Gospel. I have even read a few of his books.
From there, I started to listen to other programs, but then I noticed some started to disappear for some reason, like the teaching of Dr. Laterbach (not sure of the spelling). Then I started to listen to Harold Camping’s Open Forum. I was amazed at how well he knew his Bible, or so I thought.
In fact, I even enrolled in the Family Radio School of the Bible and completed about 10 courses. As I progressed in my course work though, I found that the instructors were not grading me on what I knew or what I thought about topics. They simply wanted me to spit out and regurgitate the information that they presented.
Finally, I got frustrated and gave up the course work and school because I wasn’t really learning anything and I didn’t agree with all of the material. At the same time I continued to listen to the Open Forum and found that often times Harold Camping would rudely interrupt the callers and even cut them off.
I felt that was not Christ-like and found that Harold Camping was really letting his ego get to him. I finally quit listening to him when he started spouting the nonsense about how he knew the exact time of Christ’s return. I have not listened to Family Radio since then.
I was glad in your letter that you called this error what it is, sin. However, I don’t believe that everyone at Family Radio blindly followed Harold Camping’s sinful error.
The only way to restore the public trust of Family Radio is to remove Harold Camping from the Presidency and Family Radio in a teaching capacity. He teaches his listeners and followers not what the bible says, but what he THINKS the bible says. This has been proven several times over the years.
I hope you will consider what I have wrote here today to help further your mission to “proclaim the TRUE Gospel to all nations around the world and ACCURATLY teach the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
God’s best to you,
Wesley J. Matthews
