Written from the royal "we" perspective, it never once speaks in terms of putting the blame squarely on Harold Camping's shoulders, leader and "Chief Prophet" of Family Radio, as I believe it should. (So much for leaders that take responsibility personally for their decisions.) Nowhere will you find the word "I" in this letter, no "Mea Culpa"s here, just "We-a Culpas" as the sheepish board at Family Radio once again follows along with whatever it is Camping is doing.
The question still lingers for me-- Where were the individual board members when Camping was in the midst of his prognosticating? Did any of them have the clarity of discernment or the moral fortitude to differ with him then? To resign in protest? How about right after the date? Not one of them was ashamed of their participation or felt personally any weight of guilt? But almost a year later we are expected to believe that now everyone on Family Radio's board is finally repentant and contrite for their corporate sin of date setting? (Or was it simply a majority vote?) Now they've all held hands and sung Kumbaya together as they came to mutual and simultaneous knowledge of their sinfulness and are all repenting together-- I'm sorry if I just don't buy it at first blush. The bigger question though, if this repentance is genuine, is-- How will they make this repentance sure? (e.g. making one's calling and election sure) You see, Family Radio, repentance when genuine requires more than a letter. It requires that you make restitution (at least one-fold, arguably 2 to 4 fold) whenever possible to those you have harmed by your sin. So how do you plan to restore those you led astray? To those who sold all and gave it directly to your ministry or to efforts like billboards to spread your sinful message? It was sinful--right? That's what you've said. So don't you bear responsibility for the effects of your misguided and sinful false prediction(s)? You certainly do. As for me, until such time as I see verified evidence of your work at restitution, I will not accept this letter as confirming a genuine biblical repentance on the part of Family Radio et al, and certainly not of Harold Camping specifically.
You see we all know, wink-wink, who really runs Family Radio, and that is Mr. Camping and for all practical purposes--Mr. Camping alone. Oh, yes, there's you the Board but have you ever done anything but rubber-stamp that which Mr. Camping proposes? So then, repentance must come from Mr. Camping, and it must include restitution to those who were misled and gave significant sums of money to support Family Radio in recent years. How can we begin to speak of the few unfortunate deaths that resulted from your sinful predictions?
I'll ask for forgiveness in advance if I am being too harsh but given the scope and severity of the sin of Harold Camping and his complicit Board of Directors who enabled and executed his plan in lock-step, I cannot accept this letter as adequate to acquit FR of all its requirements for genuine biblical repentance. I need to see restitution going on and new steps toward accountability with the larger orthodox Christian world.
The following is that letter from the Family Radio website reproduced in its entirety:
"God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." Romans 3:4
Dear Family Radio Family,
In this time of confusion and turmoil, God’s Word remains the only truth in which we can trust. God has shown us again the truth that He alone is true. In Romans 3:4 God declares: "Let God be true but every man a liar." Events within the last year have proven that no man can be fully trusted. Even the most sincere and zealous of us can be mistaken.
The May 21 campaign was an astounding event if you think about its impact upon this world. There is no question that millions, if not billions of people heard for the first time the Bible’s warning that Jesus Christ will return. Huge portions of this world that had never read or seen a Bible heard the message the Christ Jesus is coming to rapture His people and destroy this natural world.
Yes, we humbly acknowledge we were wrong about the timing; yet though we were wrong God is still using the May 21 warning in a very mighty way. In the months following May 21 the Bible has, in some ways, come out from under the shadows and is now being discussed by all kinds of people who never before paid any attention to the Bible. We learn about this, for example, by the recent National Geographic articles concerning the King James Bible and the Apostles. Reading about and even discussing about the Bible can never be a bad thing, even if the Bible’s authenticity is questioned or ridiculed. The world’s attention has been called to the Bible.
We must also openly acknowledge that we have no new evidence pointing to another date for the end of the world. Though many dates are circulating, Family Radio has no interest in even considering another date. God has humbled us through the events of May 21, to continue to even more fervently search the Scriptures (the Bible), not to find dates, but to be more faithful in our understanding.
We have learned the very painful lesson that all of creation is in God’s hands and He will end time in His time, not ours! We humbly recognize that God may not tell His people the date when Christ will return, any more than He tells anyone the date they will die physically.
We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ’s return. In fact for a time Family Radio fell into that kind of thinking. But we now realize that those people who were calling our attention to the Bible’s statement that "of that day and hour knoweth no man" (Matthew 24:36 & Mark 13:32), were right in their understanding of those verses and Family Radio was wrong. Whether God will ever give us any indication of the date of His return is hidden in God’s divine plan.
We were even so bold as to insist that the Bible guaranteed that Christ would return on May 21 and that the true believers would be raptured. Yet this incorrect and sinful statement allowed God to get the attention of a great many people who otherwise would not have paid attention. Even as God used sinful Balaam to accomplish His purposes, so He used our sin to accomplish His purpose of making the whole world acquainted with the Bible. However, even so, that does not excuse us. We tremble before God as we humbly ask Him for forgiveness for making that sinful statement. We are so thankful that God is so loving that He will forgive even this sin.
So we must be satisfied to humbly wait upon God, and trust He will guide His people to safety. At Family Radio, we continue to look to God for guidance. If it is His good pleasure for us to continue on with our original mission, the proclamation of the Gospel, God’s Word, then we must continue to look to Him.
We consider you to be a real part of this ministry and the tremendous opportunities which God, by His unfathomable mercy and grace, continues to give to us. And, your steadfast involvement and support is so appreciated! May God bless you, Harold Camping and the staff of Family Radio.
(end of FR letter)
It is a sad day to see how far Family Radio has fallen. This is especially painful for those of us who became acquainted with Family Radio before the beginning of the date setting in the late eighties-early nineties. Many of us remain who were truly blessed by God as He was pleased to use FR before this turn for the worse of the last twenty some-odd years. Anyone remember Omar Andeel? How about when Dr. Gabriel Otero still ran the FR School of the Bible? Those were the good-ole days of Family Radio.
May God be pleased to grant true repentance and that those at FR return to what the Bible truly has to say to mankind.
-Michael Rotolo
