To the surprise of very little people here in Seattle, the rapture didn’t occur. But maybe that’s because we’re all just godless atheists. Certainly there are people who think so.
At the same time Seattle is one of the few places where a poster like this could go unmolested at a street fair:
But although the poster may be from a slightly biased source it brings up an excellent point, this is not the first time an apocalypse has been in the forecast only for the next day to dawn as usual. Nor has this been the first time a religious leader has had to backpedal wildly after their prediction went awry (in case you are wondering, the new apocalypse is scheduled for October).
No. Rather it has happened many many many times before. Have you heard about the Great Disappointment of 1844? Or Edward Cayce’s repeated pole shift prophecies? And let’s not forget the standard round number panics, like the ones around 1000 AD where Christians worked to convert others by force disinterred Charlemagne on Pentecost so he could go fight the Antichrist.
Why all this emphasis on the apocalypse? Why are people so excited about the end of the world? Isn’t it a bad thing?
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| See, this looks like a bad thing to me. |
There’s a line from Ghostbusters that comes to mind here Egon is pauses, glances nervously around and then says, “and he wasn’t alone, he had close to a thousand followers when he died. They conducted rituals up on the roof. Bizarre rituals, intended to bring about the *end of the world*.
Notice the emphasis on IMDB? Egon’s all creeped out and worried because the end of the world is a bad thing. This the type of thing that supervillians in movies try to accomplish!
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| What I think of when someone tells me they’re hopeful for the end of the world |
Well, apparently there’s a couple of really good scholars out there who had the same question I had, because there is all sorts of research on this topic. One of the best ones that I came across actually an article by Gary North over at LewRockwell.com and introduced me to all sorts of religious terms I wasn’t aware of, namely eschatology, dispensationalists, and premillennialism- all of which relate to those who believe that the rapture is on its way any day now.
And looking into the culture of people who are ready for the imminent rapture/end of the world is much more interesting than I could have guessed. I assumed before that the reason that everyone thought the end of the world was going to happen in their lifetimes is because, subconsciously, we all want to be special. If we have to deal with the end of the world well then, our generation is pretty dang special, right?
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| Like this, but the big bunny is history. |
But it seems like it’s more than that. As North mentions:
“The Rapture-based escape from history is now universally believed by fundamentalists to be imminent. Generations of fundamentalists have believed that they will escape bodily death. They will be transported into the sky, like Elijah, though without benefit of chariots.
“But when? That has been the great question. The answer: “Soon.” But why soon? Why not a millennium from now? The psychological answer: Because men do not live that long in this millennium. The main selling point for fundamentalism’s Bible prophecies is to get insight into what is coming soon. In this case, the issue of mortality is central. As the slogan says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” The doctrine of the imminent Rapture allows Christians to believe seriously that they can go to heaven without dying. Millions of Americans believe this today.”
Of course, in the defense of the dispensationalists, it’s not hard to look at the world and wish that it all that pain and suffering could suddenly disappear. That there wouldn’t have to be anybody else who would have to deal with the evils of the world. To this mindset, wouldn’t it be great if everyone could get to heaven right now?
But the problem is that most people who believe in the rapture also believe that only certain people get to experience it. That means that everyone else, millions upon millions of other people on this planet, get their lives cut short in the massive pain and misery that accompanies the end of the world.
Which leads us back to this:
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| Even the cow doesn’t look so hot. |
And being the Catholic that I am and thus not eligible for the get-out-of-apocalypse-free card, is it wrong of me to be glad that this didn’t happen?