From the Mail Box
Every month we receive numerous emails, letters, and calls concerning the previous month’s Bible Trumpet. Last month we created a “From the Mailbox” section in the Trumpet to print many of these communiqués. Some of the letters we’ve received over the last several years were extremely hot, and even controversial. I plan to include a few of these past letters, as space allows, in this section. So that you can understand the context the letter was written in, I will also list the article or the edition of the Trumpet that the letter is referencing. For the last several years we have been posting the Trumpet on the internet each month. You can access these at www.BaptistBibleTrumpet.com. We do encourage our readers to write in. Please understand anonymous mail will not be read. If you don’t have the guts to sign it we don’t have the time to waste reading it.
For years Faith Baptist Church and the Baptist Bible Trumpet have been supporters of the Roloff Homes and Bro. Lester Roloff. Bro. Roloff spoke here on numerous occasions and his articles have been printed in the Trumpet down through the years. I personally have preached at the People’s Baptist Church and in the Roloff Homes and consider Bro. Roloff to be one of my heroes. That being said, I received a letter last week from a Mr. Martin Thomas, a trustee of the People’s Baptist Church in Corpus Christi Texas. The letter detailed the current situation in the church now that longtime pastor and dear man of God, Wiley Cameron has retired and moved to Georgia. The letter, in great detail, enumerated an ongoing battle in the ministry. Many of these concerns were local church matters that need to be handled by the local church and need no interference from the outside. One of the concerns though needs to be public. About two years ago I was told that all of Brother Lester Roloff’s "Family Altar Broadcasts" as well as all his writings were owned by someone other than the Roloff Homes or People’s Baptist Church. I then was told that not a dime of any offering solicited on the "Family Altar Broadcast" or any monies from any of the books written by Lester Roloff went to help the Roloff Homes in any way. I found this to be very objectionable, primarily because I’ve never heard a single Roloff Broadcast where an offering was not solicited to help the Roloff ministries.
Brother Roloff’s broadcasts are heard on scores and scores of radio stations all over America. Where I live, Brother Roloff can be heard daily on at least three area stations. Upon further investigation, I found that right after Bro. Roloff’s death, the Roloff Enterprises (a corporate entity run by businessmen) removed all the Roloff tapes from the properties of the Roloff Homes and People’s Baptist Church to their offices. My first question was where does this money go if it’s not supporting the Roloff Homes? Unbelievably I found that some went to support a home in Mississippi while none was sent to the homes that Brother Roloff started and ran for so many years.
Mr. Martin Thomas wrote because, now that pastor Wiley Cameron is retired, the Enterprise Group through some unscrupulous practices are trying to root their way back into the ministry. He suggested that people need to be asking why and why now? His letter encouraged men like myself to ask questions and demand answers. People who buy tapes from the Family Altar Broadcast should know that they are supporting something that does not support the Roloff Homes or the church that Brother Roloff pastored.
One man in NC was given this information a while back. He called the number given at the end of the Family Altar Broadcast and asked if this was true. They didn’t deny it. He then asked to receive his offerings back. He said he sent those offerings under false pretense. His offerings were returned. If you support the Roloff Homes or the Family Altar Broadcast you should know that they are not part of the same ministry. Personally, I think this is a mess. I wonder what ol’ Brother Roloff would do if he were here today and knew some businessmen had control of all of his Radio Ministry and that none of it supported the homes that were so dear to his heart.
Dear Steven, just a note to say a big thank you for your strong stand in the Bible Trumpet. Amen! I look forward to receiving it each month. May our dear Lord smile on your ministry. Bob Kelley, Pastor, Grace Baptist Church, Columbia, SC.