Editor, Times-Union: A few years ago, I wrote about a “network” of Christian radios stations which were part of a company known as “Family Radio.”
There were several radio stations across the country which were part of this “network,” one of which was located in the area of Camden, N.J./Philadelphia, Pa.
However, earlier this year of 2012, the founder of the Family Radio ministry began preaching some nonsense that Jesus Christ himself warned against – that is the idea that any man knew the exact date and hour of the return of Jesus Christ.
Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio, began to preach that “he knew” the date of Christ’s return and set that date as May 20, 2012.
Well that date came and went. Camping then set another date, but his arrogance in doing so cost him dearly. Family Radio Network lost some stations including WKDN FM 106.9 in the Camden/Philadelphia area, which now has new call-letters and is a rock music station.
Camping was even using scripture passages earlier this year on the Family Radio website to “justify” his claims about the date of Christ returning, despite the Word of God stating that “no man knows” when Jesus will return, when Jesus himself doesn’t know the exact time.
Camping set one date, then when that did nothing, he set a second date. I used a friend’s computer to check out the website of Camping’s ministry around the time the first date passed – it was down.
Some time afterward, I checked it out a second time, only to find that Camping had literally swallowed his pride (after several months of arrogant pastoring) and wrote a statement of apology to the people who used to listen to various stations he oversaw.
Family Radio was a “listener supported” ministry, which soon saw its supporters drop off, and the income dry up.
There were several ministries which broadcast over Camping's stations, but lost the broad range of access to listeners of their gospel messages, all due to the foolishness of one man who thought he knew what God meant more than what God says.
One of my family members mentioned an individual whose broadcast over a station in Indiana “claims” to be one of the “3 witnesses” mentioned in the book of the Revelation (the last book in the Holy Bible).
This is where people need to pray, ask God for wisdom, and test any such claims by whatever person says he or she is “from God.”
You can do this by studying the Word of God, and by what any person “claims to know” about preachers or prophets, something the Holy Bible also warns people about in these “end times.”
