Dear Mr. Camping,
I wrote to you in early January of this year challenging you to re-examine your ministry to see if it conformed to the Word of God. I asked for a response, but you did not see fit to acknowledge my letter, nor did you respond to the nine questions that I asked you. Now I am writing again as I continue to hear a false message on Family Radio, especially on the Open Forum program and other Bible teaching broadcasts that you host.

In my first letter, I tried to show that your basic interpretative methodology was faulty and did not honor the "imminency" verses in the New Testament, consequently resulting in a distorted message for today. In this, my second letter, I shall try to be more direct. I will show numerous instances where your interpretations actually contradict the words of our Lord Jesus and His inspired Apostles.

FIRST, you have stated many times that we are TODAY in the great tribulation described in Matt. 24 and elsewhere. Yet Jesus, referring to the events mentioned in this chapter, tells His listeners that "This generation shall not pass, till all those things be fulfilled" (vs. 34). The term "this generation" refers to the people living at the same time as Jesus, namely, His contemporaries. A study of nearly 30 instances where the Greek word "genea" is used in the Gospels establishes this definition. Luke also answers this question in 21:22, "For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled." This is in the context of Jerusalem being surrounded by armies. History tells us that the Roman armies under Titus laid siege to Jerusalem and its Temple at the end of Jesus' generation, from AD 66-70. This time in Jewish history marked the end of the Old Covenant age and the ushering in of the New Covenant age.

Since you are teaching that Matt. 24 is being at least partially fulfilled in the year 2002, compared to Jesus saying it would all be fulfilled in the first century, we obviously have a contradiction here! I choose to believe the words of Jesus Christ and reject the false teaching of Harold Camping.

SECOND, you are teaching that Matt. 24:2, speaking of "there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down," refers to the "stones of the Temple (the church)." You further state that "This means that God is declaring that it is His intention that there is not to be any churches left to represent God's kingdom."

By no means is this what the Bible teaches, Mr. Camping. Matt. 24 is referring to the STONES OF THE TEMPLE. The parallel passage in Mark 13:1-2 says, "And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of STONES and what BUILDINGS ARE HERE! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." It is sufficiently clear that Jesus is talking about the literal stones of the literal Temple in Jerusalem in the first century, not about individual churches that make up the body of believers in the 21st century.

Therefore, Mr. Camping, you have no biblical authority to spiritualize this clearly historical situation and then apply it to the church today. The entire passage is not talking about the church in the 21st century. Again, I prefer to believe what Jesus clearly taught His disciples, namely, that the Jewish Temple would be leveled to the ground within the lifetime of those people He was speaking to. And of course, we know from historical records that the Temple was burned and destroyed in AD 70. Jesus' prediction was fulfilled in the first century. The Old Covenant ended and the New Covenant was fully ushered in.

THIRD, in 2 Thess. 2 you teach that "the man of sin will take his seat in the temple of God and will be worshiped as God. The man of sin can only be Satan." This is a highly questionable interpretation, but even worse than that, you are taking this event out of its first century context. The temple of God in the first century was the Temple in Jerusalem, not the churches existing in the world today.

You then speak of the "restrainer" in 2 Thess. 2:7 as the Holy Spirit who will be "taken out of the way." You teach that this means that "obviously, the only possibility is that the Holy Spirit would be taken from the midst of the churches and congregations." You then conclude that "He will remove Himself from the congregations and denominations that had become a part of the temple of God" as referring to the Holy Spirit abandoning the institutional church today.

This is a real stretch here! As a result, you say that Satan rules in the churches and congregations. You have even gone so far as to say that Satan has been granted his wish, referencing Isa. 14, as he sits in the temple as described in 2 Thess. 2:4, which you interpret to be the church today. Nonsense! The 2 Thess. 2 fulfillment took place in the first century in the earthly Temple that stood in Jerusalem, not in the 21st century church. You are taking this passage completely out of context. Never forget the words of Jesus where He told Peter that "I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Do these words of Jesus allow for the Holy Spirit's departure and Satan's take-over of the church today? Certainly not! Once again, I prefer to believe Jesus rather than Harold Camping. I can only pray that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of more and more of His people to see the error of this teaching.

FOURTH, the church offices of elder and deacon were established in the Book of Acts in order to share the workload with the Apostles. Acts 15 and 1 Cor. 5 clearly establish the need for the elders to exercise church discipline over offending Christians who were in the local churches. Yet you would have us believe that the day has come where "pastors are no longer pastors, elders are no longer elders, deacons are no longer deacons." You are calling upon ordained church officers to step down from their positions and thus destroy the structure of the organized church. This is causing a heartbreaking situation! Only chaos will result!

Mr. Camping, you have no scriptural authority for teaching this! It is an offense against every true Christian today. It is especially an offense against those chosen servants of Christ who are laboring faithfully and true to the Gospel message. Nowhere in the New Testament are pastors asked to step down except where the church courts have exercised discipline against unfaithfulness. You are even teaching that faithful pastors should resign and you are doing this under the pretext that this is what the Bible requires. This is false teaching, pure and simple!

FIFTH, you are urging Christian people to leave their churches, EVEN churches that are true to the Scriptures, because, after all, "there is not to be left one stone upon another." WORLD magazine in a recent issue reports that over 100 Reformed churches have lost members due to your teaching and influence.

Jesus Christ today is building His church. Harold Camping is doing his best to destroy Christ's church. This is shameful! I urge you to repent of this sin!

SIXTH, on your Open Forum program you invite people to challenge your views by simply calling in and showing you the applicable Scripture texts. Many people have done exactly this, but you always counter these arguments by stating that your callers have not studied their Bibles carefully enough or that they have adopted some church tradition rather than the Bible alone. You never admit that your bizarre interpretations could be wrong, even when challenged. You alone are always right, using your "mute button" freely to muzzle the callers.

It is a serious matter to pretend that your interpretations are the Bible's teachings in areas of Bible prophecy. Someone has said that by taking the Scripture out of context one can prove just about anything they wish to. How true! The Open Forum is a daily example of muddled and confused teaching that does just that.

SEVENTH, just because you derive your odd interpretations from the Bible does not mean that this is what the Bible actually teaches. Honest principles of interpretation always need to be applied to every text in the Bible. Some of the language is poetic, some historical, some metaphorical, some apocalyptic, and some simply plain propositional statements. You often do not recognize this distinction. Instead, you find it necessary to extract meanings relating to salvation from such texts as the historical accounts of Paul's shipwreck in Acts 27. This often confuses the INTERPRETATION of a passage with the APPLICATION of it to our lives. Sound Bible scholars understand that each passage has only ONE interpretation but MANY applications. Was it not one of the Reformers, perhaps John Owen, who said, "If the Scripture has more than one interpretation, it has no interpretation at all"? Christianity was framed in historical settings and has to be understood as such. Your teaching often borders on the allegorical without Scriptural justification.

EIGHTH, you are teaching that God has removed the Holy Spirit from the churches, even from churches that hold faithfully to the Word of God, and have removed the "high places" from their midst. This implies that God is allowing Satan to rule even in the sound Bible believing churches today, and no one can be saved in these churches today. Only Family Radio and a few other ministries are being used by God today to evangelize the world, according to your teaching.

Mr. Camping, you have no authority to make statements like these! Jesus taught His disciples in Matt. 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Meeting in His Name surely includes honoring His Word, observing the sacraments, and exercising church discipline. Many of these churches are seeking to honor our Sovereign God by applying Scriptural principles to every area of worship and teaching. To suggest that God's Holy Spirit is not working in these churches and that no souls are being saved is rank presumption and most dishonoring to our Lord Jesus Christ. You are seeking to destroy even the good churches, Mr. Camping, but you will not succeed. Instead, these good churches will become stronger as a result of losing members who are "carried about with every wind of doctrine."(Eph. 4:14)

NINTH, you have stated that "the era of the church has come to an end." Therefore, true believers are to leave their churches and form house fellowships, with no pastors, elders or deacons. You are applying Matt. 24:16 from the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus urges His people who are in Judea to "flee into the mountains." You are teaching that Judea refers to the church and that believers in churches today are to abandon their churches and form house fellowships. Taken in context, Jesus was warning the believers in Judea when they "see the abomination of desolation stand ...in the holy place" to flee to the mountainous region of Pella. Historians record that these believers obeyed Jesus and did exactly what He said. This has NOTHING to do with the 21st century church. You are spiritualizing these plain language commands of Jesus, wrenching them out of context, and applying them to the church today. Would anyone listening to Jesus' words at the Mount of Olives ever dream that He was speaking of local churches 2000 years into the future? Of course not! Rather, He was addressing His audience about the imminent judgment that was fast approaching where the city of Jerusalem and its Temple would be burned and destroyed. It was to be the end of the Jewish world of that first century.

It is criminal to teach God's people to leave their churches at a time when, now more than ever, church attendance has dropped off and the moral climate of our nation has become a virtual cesspool. People need to gather regularly for worship in churches where the true Gospel is preached. They need to hear and obey the Gospel from the lips of dedicated, God-honoring preachers, who deliver the soul-saving message that alone is able to save His people from hell for eternity. Mr. Camping, you are deceiving God's sheep with your dangerous teaching. Surely God's Spirit is grieved to witness this barrage of bad news coming from Family Radio day after day!

TENTH, I have not heard anyone accuse you of insincerity or intentionally leading God's people astray. I do not question for a moment that you are sincere and believe that the Bible actually teaches the things you are saying. So allow me to urge you to call upon God to remove the blindness from your eyes so that you can clearly see what the Scriptures are REALLY teaching. Ask Him to grant you His gift of repentance and then seek to undo all the damage you have done to His church.

I have heard you admit several times when challenged by callers on the Open Forum that you may be almost alone in calling for Christians to leave their churches. Yet this does not apparently bother you. Instead you defend this "loner mentality" by asserting that we can not possibly know why God has decided to reveal truth to only a few people, perhaps only one, instead of to the entire church. Of course we know that God is sovereign and can do anything He pleases. But did it ever occur to you that you may be badly DECEIVED and in need of repentance?

If you actually are self-deceived, as many of us believe, and are bearing a false witness to the world of listeners to Family Radio, will not God hold you accountable? Many of God's people are warning you, both through the Open Forum program as they call in, and through other means such as letters and emails. Would you not want to heed these warnings and EXAMINE WHAT YOU ARE TEACHING compared to what the Bible teaches as it is interpreted honestly, in context, and with a humble spirit?

CONCLUSION: Mr. Camping, it is distressing beyond what words can express to have to write this kind of letter to you. But I can't sit idly by, day after day, and hear the beautiful Christian music and helpful programs on Family Radio during most of the day, only to have the prime-time hours devoted to false teaching for up to two hours each evening! I must warn you to re-consider your bizarre interpretative methodology that has caused you to turn against Christ's church. The 1994? fiasco, in connection with the book that you wrote at that time, publicly marked you as an unreliable Bible teacher. This is all the more reason to REPENT before you do any more damage to the church than what you have already done. But God does surely forgive sin when true repentance is manifested. This should be an encouragement to all of us!

Will you grant me the courtesy of at least acknowledging this letter, and hopefully responding to the ten areas of concern that are being addressed? I thank you in advance for carefully studying this letter written by another Christian brother who has a concern for the TRUTH of God's Word and His glory.

In the bonds of Christ's love,

Walt Hibbard