The last few days have been filled with some very entertaining Rapture-inspired tweets, posts, events (like the post-Rapture looting party on Facebook), which can be summarized as a widespread cynicism and disbelief that Christ will reappear at some point today to bring the righteous home, prior to unleashing hell on earth.
In the meantime, believers are preparing themselves to be taken, including making arrangements for their pets, who, as soulless animals (their belief, not mine) will of course be left behind.
It just occurred to me to worry about believers who are disappointed today. History has shown what fanatics are capable of, in terms of self-harm, and we’ve been down the Rapture road before (and I’m not the only one thinking ‘what happens after it doesn’t happen, either).
Let’s assume that nothing happens today. What goes through the mind of a true believer? Does someone that devoted to such a preposterous idea just say “oh well, never mind. Guess I’d better mow the lawn after all.”? Somehow I doubt it. What worries me are not the weirdos who tell themselves that Camping got the math wrong, but those who believe that the Rapture happened and they just weren’t worthy. Let’s face it, on any random Saturday, natural disasters occur and a number of people die, and it’s not entirely unlikely that the octogenarian Camping himself will indeed go to his reward today, at least euphemistically, if not literally. So it follows that tomorrow morning, some people will wake up still firmly on earth, look around them and see what they believe are signs that the angels have been and gone, and decide that they are in for a few months of hell on earth before being consigned to the real thing.
What if these people take it upon themselves to put themselves, their loved ones, or even their neighbours out of their soon-to-be misery?
If anyone whips up a batch of KoolAid for the family, euthanizes their pets, or takes a rifle up to the clock tower in the town square, Camping will have a lot to answer for.
I’m not too worried. When other millenarian sects have had their apocalyptic predictions go bad, little or nothing happens. In fact, the Jehovah’s Witnesses grew out of failed millenarian predictions, as well as Seventh-Day Adventists. So I don’t predict suicide or mayhem- just a few more people giving out tracts in the metro.
I think Camping already has a lot to answer for. His followers sold all that they had, did I don’t know what with whatever money they had, and all he can say is, “Oops! Sorry; I miscalculated!”
Most of us who believe Christ really will return, one day, also know that He, Himself, said that no one but the Father knows the day or the hour; not even the Son. Meanwhile, I have a purpose to fulfill and a mission to carry out. My job is to be busy doing that, and not to try to outsmart even Him by claiming to know the day and the hour.
False teachers will be held accountable, and Camping clearly is one of those. I’m usually a bit more careful with such accusations, but this wasn’t an isolated incident in his history, and he doesn’t learn.
What a neat article. I had no iknling.
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