My Challenge to Harold Camping

Dear Harold Camping,

I have been following your public exploits concerning the Rapture/Judgment Day, God's plans for humankind, etc., and I have to color myself intrigued. You sounded so sure that there would be a global cataclysm (earthquakes, you said) on May 21; you said: "There is no way that this is not happening." But I can think of a few billion people who would disagree with you today.

Of course, one might say that it is easy to mock someone in hindsight, although you did have an explanation for why your prophesy didn't come true (here's a link so you don't forget). Instead of a physical cataclysm, the human race was subject to a spiritual judgment; even though nobody felt anything, everyone was judged so that the "true believers," as you call them, could be rooted out from the rest of humanity. The problem, though, is that your explanation sounds a lot like justification, or rather, that you've simply created a convenient "retcon" for what actually happened. That said, I'm going to challenge you, specifically to prove your certainty.

I am not a wealthy man. At any given time in my life, I have never had more than $10,000 to my name. Currently, I work a part-time job because there is no full-time work I can do to provide for my wife and son. However, I hear that your radio station has been quite profitable for you; numbers range in the tens of millions of dollars, with some sources saying over one hundred million. It is said that you receive millions of dollars in donations. And I imagine that, as long as it is in the interest of spreading God's word, you would have no problem making a donation. So here is my proposal; I want you to write me a check for $100,000. That's one hundred thousand United States dollars. I specifically want you to post-date that check October 22, 2011. I plan on using the money to create a series of lectures about what Jesus would think of present day society, based on my own rigorous study of the Christian Bible. (It stands to reason that if the world is not destroyed on October 21, that May's "spiritual judgment" also did not happen, and that the task of spreading God's word should continue.) You, of all people, should be able to appreciate a self-taught biblical scholar wanting to expose as many people as possible to God's word.

If you are even half as certain about your new prediction as you were about the last, then surely you would have no problem parting with what amounts to one tenth of one percent of your total net worth. And you wouldn't even be parting with it in reality, because I would not be able to cash the check until after the destruction of the Earth, and we both know how difficult it would be to find a bank on that day.

If, by some twist of fate, there does not happen to be an apocalyptic destruction of the planet, then you'll only have lost a fraction of a fraction of your estate, but the upside to that is that you can be certain that you have aided another person in his quest to bring the word of God to the public. (Plus, I imagine that you could write the money off as a donation and deduct it from your taxes.) My lecture series will undoubtedly help open the eyes of a great deal of people, and bring Jesus into more lives than it would if I was only using my own paltry resources.

As soon as you decide to meet my challenge, contact me so that we can properly arrange for this exchange to take place. You live in California, but I live in Ohio, so some sort of travel plans will have to be made (I assume that you would have no problem funding two-way travel for me or yourself; it would certainly cost less than $100,000 for you to do so). Ideally, the exchange should be done in person so that you can be certain that it is me. I would hate for you to give your hard-earned money to a fraud.

Should you decide not to accept my challenge, then I promise you that I will do everything in my power to dissuade people from believing in everything you've ever said. Once I have a signed check for $100,000 from you in my hands, I will thereafter herald you as a true man of God.

And rest assured, Mr. Camping, that I am not "putting God to the test." I am putting you to the test.

G.L. Gillen