A 2017 item came up in my online feed yesterday morning, and because I initially failed to notice the date I chased it up because I have an abiding interest in the stupid stuff the religious say. It was conspiracy theorist David Meade, who suggested that Nibiru (aka Planet X) will crash into Earth and this will be heralded by a ‘sign’ on September 23rd, 2017, six years ago last week. The Christianity Today news site opined that Meade’s ‘story was “Making Christians look silly”. They added: “The Bible is clear in Matthew 24:36 that Jesus is going to return as he promised, but no one except God the Father knows when; therefore, trying to use our finite, earthly means to speculate is, quite frankly, a waste of time”. It seems that Meade has some significant assistance in making Christians “look silly”1.
Some time ago, I wrote an article about the numerous second comings and raptures that didn’t happen. Christians have been predicting these for millennia and, given that I am writing this, none have eventuated2.
There are still a few assorted Christians who believe the rapture is imminent, as they have done for thousands of years. While many of them have learned that predicting a date is ‘silly’, many of them seem to assert that it will be sooner than their readers think. As religious nutter Sheila Alewine says: “Will we ever know for sure when the Rapture will take place? Well, yes! When it happens!”3 However, one of Alewine’s correspondents could not control themselves and stated, in upper case (I have brought it back to sentence case): “I firmly believe that the rapture will come in 2023, because this is the last year before the tribulation period of 7 years begins. A bible teacher told me that Isreal [sic] was was [sic] a nation 1n [sic] 1949, ( not 1948), as I and almost everyone believes. So from 1949 + 80 years, the last year of this rapture generation, according to the bible is 2029. Subject [sic] 7 years, that takes us to 2023, our present year, so the rapture must come this year guaranteed!!!!!!!!!! Am I right true prophets of god?”3
Where this person’s bible teacher obtained the 1949 date for the creation of the state of Israel is unclear, given that David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the state of Israel on May 14th, 19484. However, the armistices with various participants in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war was not signed until February to July 19495. The Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, first met in 1949 after the first election which was held in January 1949. Prior to that, the nation was governed by a provisional government which was formed when the state of Israel was proclaimed6.
While Alewine’s correspondent did not give a date, unmangling the arithmetic (2029-7 = 2022) indicates, using this numerological drivel, that the rapture should have happened in 2022. Whoops! Looking silly again. If the real date of the proclamation of Israel is included in the calculations, then the date of the rapture should have happened in 2021.
Some Christians are now starting to twig that setting dates can be dangerous, mostly to the credibility of their religion, so they are starting to disparage fruitcakes such as Harold Camping7, who set date after date only for his followers to be disappointed time and again2.
Currently, most of the debate about the rapture is between Christians who state that it will be pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation or post-tribulation. The great tribulation is a long or short time of great hardship before the second coming of Jesus and the end of the world8.
The rapture, constantly harped on by so many evangelical churches has led to what is termed ‘rapture anxiety’, where people, constantly being told that it is imminent spend their lives panic-stricken lest they sin just before it all kicks off. Rapture anxiety is recognised by some mental health professionals as a type of trauma. The CEO of the Global Center for Religious Research has said: “It’s a chronic problem … This is a new area of study, but in general, our research has revealed that religious trauma leads to an increase of anxiety, depression, paranoia and even some OCD-like behaviours” and sufferers believe they need to say a prayer of salvation many times or need to confess their sins often. Some suffer anxiety because they believe that their pets or their relatives will be left behind9, when they are sucked up into the clouds.
The stuff that some people believe is astonishing. You’d expect that because so many predictions of the date of the rapture have come and gone without Christians being launched into the clouds, they all would have twigged it is all bovine ordure. Some clearly have, but some seem so attached to the concept and its timing that they seem incapable of seeing sense, and some are being driven to depression and anxiety because of it.
Sources
- https://abc7.com/rapture-apocalypse-david-meade-planet-x/2428453/
- https://blotreport.com/2019/07/22/the-numerous-second-comings/
- https://sheilaalewine.com/2023/03/29/when-will-the-rapture-occur/
- https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Israel
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_government_of_Israel
- https://www.biola.edu/blogs/biola-magazine/2012/what-is-the-rapture-and-when-will-it-happen
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Tribulation
- https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/27/us/rapture-anxiety-evangelical-exvangelical-christianity-cec/index.html
Wow…I’ve never been called a religious nutter. That’s a first! I had to look up the definition. “Nutter” is British slang for a “foolish or eccentric person.” Like any label, it’s only accurate in the eyes of the user because they disagree with whatever the “nutter” says. 🙂 1 Corinthians 1:18 reminds me, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God,” so I guess it’s perfectly correct for you to call me a nutter. Honestly, I’m not offended at all, but I don’t like the word “religious.” My faith in Jesus is not religion. It’s a life surrendered in gratitude for the salvation I received because He paid the price of my sin and reconciled me back to His Father. Yes, I believe the Bible is true. Yes, I believe we were created by God for a relationship with Him, and that the original act of disobedience by Adam and Eve has broken that relationship. Yes, I believe we have inherent sin, but are all guilty of sin by our own actions. Jesus came to restore us back. My sincere prayer is that God opens your eyes to your sin, and that you know how very much God loves you and what He did for you. Thanks for reposting my blog; I appreciate the shout-out!
Sheila,
Religious nutters are those who believe that they should inflict their peculiar brand of religion on others. What I find funny is that people like you believe that your god is the only ‘true’ god and that all the others are made up. Another thing I find funny is that people tend to adopt the religion of their parents, and that religion is in part geographically determined. In addition, there is so much about the rapture that is hilarious, as I found here: https://blotreport.com/2019/07/22/the-numerous-second-comings/
Nothing to do with “rapture” or ” end of time” but I wonder what Jesus would make of modern “Christians” in general. With some exceptions he’d probably be appalled, but not surprised I think. The hypocrisy, the greed, the lack of common human empathy, the preying on the vulnerable, the strident righteousness are de rigeur for christians and proselytisers OF A CERTAIN ILK, especially in the good ol USA. We have our own home grown Christo-hypocrites as readers of Blot well know. The last “government” was a perfect example of the hypocrisy and fundamental dishonesty of these “loan sharks, merchants and wolves in sheep’s clothing”. We are all hypocrites but there’s something particularly nasty and egregious about religious hypocrites.
Bible bashers love to cherry pick the Bible – as indeed they must – since it is littered with what are clearly anti-christian and anti-human “divinations” underpinned by strident ignorance, arrogance (we know better), and punitive patriarchy.
In my misspent youth I dated a girl who a self described “young christian”. Her relationship with “the church” (which church, hun?) was inversely proportional to how her life was going at any time. As a result I hung out with her churchy friends on a regular basis. I remember the afternoon I was told about this rapture thing – they had just discovered it.
First question: so there a 111,000 (I forget the exact number) of seats in heaven and only the most virtuous will get into the first showing and everyone else having to wait for the matenee. There are a billion people who qualify (our pre-Google estimate), so you need to be in the top 0.01% to get magicked up. Do you really think any of you are getting a geurnsey?
My girlfriend certainly wasn’t – she was a dirty little tart.
Do you really think God goes in for competitive piety? Kinda goes against everything yo’ man Jesus said, no?
If I was really malicious, I would ask how they know it hasn’t already happened…
Fun times.
Laurie, Jon,
Christians dumped all that Jesus stuff decades ago. As the actor Rainn Wilson said: “The metamorphosis of Jesus Christ from a humble servant of the abject poor to a symbol that stands for gun rights, prosperity theology, anti-science, limited government (that neglects the destitute) and fierce nationalism is truly the strangest transformation in human history.” I think what kicked this transformation off, is the decline in religion all around the world. The religious can see their power and influence evaporating fairly quickly and if observing humans over the decades has taught me anything it is this: people will not willingly give up power; it has to be taken from them. That is what the religious are fighting against. And that is why they have thrown their lot in with fascists like Trump and DeSantis. That is why these scabrous bastards have pandered to the religious by stacking the supreme court and banned books that the religious do not like. The whole movement is christofascism.
The transformation of Jesus from Neil the hippy to Conan the Barbarian started with missionaries to the German and Scandinavian tribes in the 3rd century AD ’cause turn the other cheek didn’t go down well with those guys. By the first crusade it was a fixture. The US’ pilgrims were a doomsday cult – the went to America, not because they were persecuted (they weren’t) but to escape the corruption of a world they were convinced would end within the generation. They’d have got along fine with the Taliban if they knocked off the end-of-the-world stuff.
That is the tradition that American style evangelical protestantism comes from.
Laurie,
I don’t know if it is true, but I read some years ago that the ‘Pilgrims’ went to the Americas not to escape persecution (as you say; they weren’t persecuted), but to get away from the incipient religious freedom ethos that was spreading in Europe at the time. They wanted to be able to persecute those not of their religion. I must find out if it was so.
Well all I can say to Sheila is that if God loves us, and in particular loves all creatures great and small, then he has a fucking perverse and sickening way of showing it. Why anyone would want to worship such a being, even if it did exist, is inexplicable.
Mark,
These days, their perception of their god is that he only loves them and hates the same people they hate.