AN OPEN LETTER TO HAROLD CAMPING

Mister Camping:

GREETINGS

Well sir, at least one person has disappeared in the wake of 5/21/2011.

That person, of course, would be YOU.

Not that anyone could blame you. There are some folks who dumped their life savings into buying billboards and advertisements for what turned out to be a FARCE. And I bet there are no records of these monies, because (after all) who'd need records with the world coming to an end?

Now I am not saying you did anything larcenous. But you've gotta admit, this would be the biggest religious scam in history. Just think: Convince a bunch of schnooks to put up dough to the tune of say ten million to put up ads and billboards. Cash, please; because this is an URGENT MATTER; and no reciepts because who's going to need one if you really and truly believe the world is done for? Then get the work done cheap (or free!) by (ideally) some more schnooks who believe your crapola. And again, no reciept asked or given. Pocket the difference and take off for who-knows-where with maybe six or seven million bucks.

I certainly hope you were not pulling some type of religion-based skin game like that. But you MUST be aware that people will be asking questions. And as you are aware, the Bible states that police officers are ministers of God ("he beareth not the sword in vain") and they are not stupid. Right now I can tell you - although I have not talked to a single cop about this - that various State, Federal, and local law-enforcement entities are looking into this to see if there was maybe some jiggery-pokery going on. And your apparent disappearance does nothing to allay these suspicions.

Even I was impressed when I looked at your web site and found some rather compelling arguments. But I also noticed that you have added a whole bunch of gimcrack aluminum-siding conditions to God's simple plan of salvation, and made a two step (1: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is God, and 2: believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved ) process into a freaking labyrinth.

Mr. Camping, if the period from 1988 to now is the "Great Tribulation" then I am black and blue. Satan may have control of some churches, but not all of them by a long shot. And you leave out a whole bunch of stuff: the one-world government of the Antichrist, the "666" business, lots of it. When I saw that, I was prepared to dismiss your prediction as a lot of hooey. But then certain events involving Israel alarmed me sufficiently to post here that at least the date of the Rapture might just be true.

Saturday came and went. The closest I got to a "rapture" was when I was changing a tire. The lug nuts were on so tight I nearly got a rupture from trying to loosen them. Well, I didn't get to Heaven. But then I don't have a hernia, so I'll call it a wash.

You have succeeded spectacularly in one area and one area alone. You have given so much ammunition to those who ridicule the Word of God as a fairy tale that it is likely that not a few people will stop their ears at the mention of the Gospel.

Mr. Camping, you need to come into the public light and account for this travesty. You said that "the Bible guarantee(d)" your prediction. In the light of what has transpired, you have given many people good reason to say that the Bible is a lot of hooey. It is not, and if you believe that, then you need to come forward and explain yourself.

And now I will leave it to the LORD to deal with you. That, after all, is His department. I'm a tad busy running my small office in the Kingdom (and I'm far from perfect, so I;m really busy in

that regard also).

I close with the customary farewell:

Yours in Christ,

F. Allen Norman Jr.