For all of you
disappointed that the world did not end on the Mayan cue, there will be plenty
of opportunities ahead. Convicted pedophile Warren Jeffs started the ball
dropping by predicting an apocalypse on New Year's Day. Oh, well.
Wrong again. There will be
others. Apocalypses are an integral part
of Christianity, and another failed prediction isn’t going to change that.
The idea was born when
Jesus died. According to Jewish belief,
the anointed king – “messiah” in Greek -- was supposed to bring about a Jewish
theocracy. Jesus didn’t; therefore, to most Jews, he
couldn’t be the messiah.
On the other hand, a few
of his followers weren’t willing to concede the obvious. They decided that Jesus would have to come
back to complete his heavenly-mandated assignment. Therefore, he didn’t die. Of course, when he returned, it wouldn’t be a
simple event. Oh, no. The whole world would be destroyed in an epic
battle with evil. No matter that the
idea came from the Zoroastrians whose faith is based on an ongoing struggle
between good and evil.
The end result has been
an unceasing effort to pinpoint the exact moment Jesus will return, killing all
nonbelievers and raising the faithful to heavenly glory.
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| St. Augustine |
St. Paul was sure it
would happen so soon that some people then living in his day – 40 to 60 C.E. –
would witness the astonishing event. He
grew less positive as time passed. Some
350 years later, St. Augustine spent part of his time trying to dampen
expectations of an immediate cataclysm.
His efforts, while
laudable, had little effect. If
anything, the last 75 years have seen a sharp rise in predictions of a Jesus’
immediate return.
Some, like the Mayan
calendar hoax and the year 2000, caused more of a stir. All of them, however, drew supporters doomed
to disappointment.
In 1954, Chicago
housewife Dorothy Martin said that aliens contacted her to warn of impending
massive earthquakes that would destroy North America. She naturally attracted followers who would
be carried to safety before the big date in August. When nothing happened, Martin left, only to
return and start another cult. The
second one is still around.
 |
| Whisenant |
In 1988, retired NASA
engineer Edgar Whisenant produced a book titled Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988. Some 4.5 million copies were
sold. His evidence was seemingly
perfect: he relied on the biblical account.
September 1988 was the month. No
doubt about it. No matter that lots of
other people have used the same source to come up with totally different months
and years. September that year came and
went with no apocalypse.
Following the
time-honored pattern, Whisenant decided he had used the wrong calendar. He was a year off. However, the world didn’t end in September in
1989 either. “I guess God doesn’t do
things the way man thinks,” he said.
The next year, Elizabeth
Clare Prophet, who formed her own religion, said aliens warned her of an
impending nuclear attack. About 2,000
people joined her at a Montana campground in 1990, waiting for the aliens to
whisk them to safety. After the assigned
day came and went, some people left, but not everyone. Some are still there, prepared, waiting.
They should check out
the Rapture Index, which was created in the 1980s by Todd Strandberg, an
evangelical Christian. He identified 45
different elements that would cause the end of the world, when true Christians
are carried to heaven (the rapture), while everyone else suffers.
Strandberg started the
index after “I just began to realize that the events outlined in the Bible
were going to someday take precedence over every other occurrence in our
lives.”
 |
| Van Rumpay |
Points are assigned to
such categories as False Christs, Satanism, Inflation, Liberalism and
Volcanoes. The highest total is 225: the
higher the number, the closer to the rapture.
A year ago, the number was 184, the highest ever recorded. It may go up.
Strandberg claims the 2009 election of a president of the European Union
presages an antichrist. Actually, there
is no one president, just leaders of various aspects of the EU. The closest may be Herman Van Rompuy, a
Belgian politician who is president of the EU Council and was elected in 2009.
On a more scientific
basis, in 1947, scientists with the University of Chicago created a clock to
measure when they thought the world would be destroyed in a nuclear
holocaust. Admittedly, no Jesus is
involved, but the apocalyptic element is the same. The original idea has been updated to include
climate change and other similar elements.
 |
| Doomsday Clock |
Today, the Doomsday Clock shows 6
minutes to midnight. Unlike the Mayan
calendar, however, scientists aren’t dumb enough to pick a date when the
seconds finally run down.
And there will be an
end. Everything must end. Except for absurd predictions, of course.
That leaves plenty of
opportunities for people with less common sense than chipmunks to huddle in
stocked bomb shelters awaiting an apocalypse and emerging with their frightened
imaginations unaffected by reality.
Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history. He also speaks at various
religious organizations throughout Florida.
You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net. He is the author of the famed Unauthorized
Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel
Writers Get Their Information; Noel:
The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative
Religion. His books are available on Amazon.com,
Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.
He can also be followed on Twitter.
You
can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1
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