Musings on the "End of Days"
Maybe it's all coincidence, but all these birds falling from the sky and dead fish washing ashore make for some interesting speculation of the apocalyptic kind. It could be the prelude of the now famous Maya prophecy of world-wide disaster in 2012. Or, as the evangelicals have been fond of saying for close to 2,000 years: "The end is at hand." If you add the earthquakes, floods and tornadoes in the past few days, you could make a pretty good case that the Earth seems to be taking its revenge on man for his stupidity in dealing with the planet, or God is just fed up with the human race and the whole thing is unraveling fast. Maybe there's more truth to the Bible than meets the unbeliever's eye.
In any case, let me go to the fridge to get a cold one, in case it's my last one.
In any case, let me go to the fridge to get a cold one, in case it's my last one.
In the United States and Puerto Rico, many Christians seem to strongly believe that we will soon see the Apocalyptic “end of days.” One wonders if they are aware that many extinct generations of Christian preachers have articulated and renewed for the last two thousand years the warning that Jesus’ “Second Coming” is imminent. Scholars agree that the first Christians expected Jesus to return in their lifetimes. The Gospels and other books of the so-called New Testament clearly contain that promise.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Christian Gospels, Jesus promised his disciples that their generation will see his return. All sorts of remarkable theological hairsplitting have tried to explain away that unfulfilled pledge. The problem is that in Matthew 16, the same is articulated in unambiguous terms: “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you. There are some standing here, which shall not taste death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”
As to the Christian end-times theology, the late American skeptic Martin Gardner (1914-2010) wrote: “For the past two thousand years individuals and sects have been setting dates for the Second Coming. When the Lord fails to show, there is often no recognition of total failure. Instead, errors are found in the calculations and new dates set.” British novelist Ian McEwan has also noted this phenomenon, and provides a plausible psychological explanation for what he calls “the adaptability and resilience” of end-time thought:
“For centuries now, [end-time theology] has regarded the end as ‘soon’ –if not next week, then within a year or two. The end has not come, and yet no one is discomfited for long. New prophets, and soon, a new generation, set about the calculations, and always manage to find the end looming within their own lifetime. The million sellers like Hal Lindsey predicted the end of the world all through the seventies, eighties, and nineties –and today, business has never been better. There is a hunger for this news, and perhaps we glimpse here something in our own nature, something of our deeply held notions of time, and our own insignificance against the intimidating vastness of eternity, or the age of the universe –on the human scale there is little difference. We have need of a plot, a narrative to shore up our irrelevance in the flow of things.”
Indeed, the U.S. has produced more than its share of apocalyptic doomsayers, including the Millerites of the 1840’s. William Miller, a farmer, relied on the Book of Daniel to make a series of intricate calculations that yielded October 22, 1843 as the anticipated day of the Lord, the definitive coming of the Judge of all human souls. After another nocturnal vigil and no Christ on sight, they came up with October 22, 1844. After the Lord failed to show up, the distressed believers called the whole episode “the Great Dissappointment.” Centuries before the Millerites, Medieval Europe saw its share of this kind of pious, so-called Millenarian movements.
End-times American preacher Harold Camping, now 89, is a former civil engineer who predicted that the coming of Christ would take place on September 6, 1994. After nothing happened, Camping stated that he had made a “mathematical error” and allegedly spent many additional years “studying” and “running new calculations” to come up with the “correct” date, which now is May 21, 2011. His company, known as “Family Radio,” reportedly owns 55 radio stations in the United States alone, and his apocalyptic message reaches every continent. Camping recently laughed at the competing prophecy that the end will occur in 2012, stating that such date has “no one stitch of biblical authority” and calling it “a fairy tale.”
Roberto:
ReplyDeleteAs usual, you provide a scholarly context to my facetiousness...
Stamping Out Harold Camping
ReplyDeleteIs Second Coming date-setter Harold Camping worthy of death? He already has a zero batting average after his September 1994 prediction fizzle and, according to the Bible, is a false prophet.
Nevertheless that California shaman, who should be ashamed, claims he's found out that Christ's return will be on May 21, 2011 even though Matt. 24:36 says that no one knows the "day" or "hour" of it!
A Google article ("Obama Fulfilling the Bible") points out that "Deut. 18:20-22 in the Old Testament requires the death penalty for false prophets."
The same article reveals that "Christians are commanded to ask God to send severe judgment on persons who commit and support the worst forms of evil (see I Cor. 5 and note 'taken away')."
Theologically radioactive Harold Camping and his ga-ga groupies (with their billboards featuring "May 21, 2011") should worry about being "stamped out" if many persons decide to follow the I Cor. 5 command.
The above article concludes: "False prophets in the OT were stoned to death. Today they are just stoned!"