Christians have predicted the end of the world in two weeks. Will it happen?

[cleanhippie]

For anyone who answers "yes", how far are you willing to go? Will you sign over all of your assets right now to your neighbor effective May 22nd? Why not?

[cliffordu]

1. My divorce should be final.

[cleanhippie]

2. Is that the end of the world or just the beginning?

[cliffordu]

7. It's a new dawn......

:hi:

[cleanhippie]

12. I too, have been "born again."

When that paperwork was stamped and signed by the judge, I was a NEW man!

[JBoy]

3. Damn. Are the Canucks going out in game 5 of the 3rd round?

[formercia]

4. It will be the end of the World

for those who gave away all of their possessions and nothing happens. Their creditors will not be very sympathetic.

[slackmaster]

5. I keep offering to buy those peoples' houses for 10% of market value in cash

But for some reason none of them have taken me up on it.

Imagine the hookers and blow you could get for 10% of what your house is worth!

[regnaD kciN]

6. A handful of Christians have made such a prediction...

...the overwhelming majority of churches and individual believers, whether liberal or conservative, consider the prediction to be a farce -- just like the other several thousand times such a prediction has been made.

Presenting it as what "Christians" say is a little like taking today's announcement from al-Qaeda and titling it "Muslims vow revenge on U.S. for bin Ladin killing." :eyes:

[cleanhippie]

11. Hmm, I see what you are saying. So what Christians SHOULD I be listening to?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. The ones who actually read the Biblical passage in which

Jesus said that not even the angels in heaven know when the world will end.

[dmallind]

24. A common distancing tactic that never works for anyone else somehow.

The people making this claim ARE Christians, so the sentence is 100% accurate. It does not say "all Christians" or even "a huge number of Christians".

Ask yourself if you consistently complain about or "correct" headlines such as these, just from my recent reading:

"US troops were yards from Bin Laden house in 2008" - you'd put a snarky smiley because you thought they meant every member of the US military was next door?

"Engineers target US flood threats" would have you searching for a nasty "analogy" because you didn't think it was true that every single engineer in the world was working on this project?

"Police block Maldives protestors" would cause you to breathlessly rush in to inform the poor confused public that indeed some police are still patrolling our streets and responding to 911 calls after all and not all clustered with every other nation's LEOs on a tiny set of islands?

Grammatically and logically there is zero difference between these very real headlines and the OP's sentence, and yet you rush in to make an obvious "clarification" here; I suspect you'll not be able to show you have done so for any other post, or headline, that uses exactly the same syntax to refer to a subset of any other group, quite correctly I might add.

Christians are making this claim, just like US troops were near the house, and engineers really are working on flooding and police really are blocking protestors in the Maldives. You don't complain about the others, we all understand that they do not mean ALL of these groups, and yet you feel the need to point this out ONLY when Christians are doing something stupid. The only possible reasons for this hypersensitive distancing are a) shame at being included in the same group or b) acknowledgement that the group does so many stupid things that there will be a GENUINE possibility that some people will assume it means ALL Christians, while the thought that the analogs mean ALL troops, engineers or police would never enter anyone's head. Wonder which?

[Rage for Order]

33. Nonsense.

Post a thread in GD that says "Muslims vow revenge for death of OBL", and link to the article where Al Qaeda made the threat. I would venture to say that it wouldn't take more than 3-5 posts (and many more would agree) before someone called you out for claiming that ALL Muslims (or even a significant number of them) were angered by OBL's death.

[dmallind]

37. Nope -wrong again. Tell me the difference in the REAL examples I gave

Not try to make me fake a headline to build a strawman. Why do you not heroically leap in to tell us not ALL engineers are working on flooding? I'll answer for you - because it's fucking obvious and only the most hypersensitive engineer who was ashamed to be one and thought others of his ilk working on flooding made him look bad would even think otherwise for a second. Christians ARE making this claim - take it up with them if you are scared of being tarred with the same brush, not people who report or comment on them for daring to accurately identify them.

Atheists killed millions in Soviet and Cambodian pogroms. Doesn't bother me one bit to say so (while the actions certainly bother me per se) and not for a millisecond would I consider breathlessly squeaking that only a tiny percentage of atheists were involved if anyone said it to me. I don't own or answer for all acts and thoughts of every atheist, or every man, or every dog-owner, or every (insert characteristic I share here), and I'm not so insecure as to think I need to defend or distance myself from their actions just because I share some attribute or opinion with the perpetrators. Why is it so common among believers? Only reason I can come up with is that most beliefs at least imply (most are very explicit though) that the belief makes followers into better people, so that it chips away at that claim when some are shown to be total wastes of skin.

[cleanhippie]

41. Wanna try again?

Paul Crouch, Jr., Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)'s Chief of Staff, says that public interest in end times prophecy is at an all time high, so his station is going to air a weekly end times show. TBN is the world's largest religious broadcaster and boasts millions of viewers across six continents.

http://www.goddiscussion.com/61676/with-interest-in-prophecy-high-tbn-adds-end-times-show-to-its-lineup/

[RKP5637]

8. Yes, all The Stupid will rise into the heavens and leave the rest of us the F alone for eternity!

I will volunteer to keep all of their assets for them for safe keeping in case they return, but they can take all of their asses with them. All assets need to be signed over to me immediately.

[PATRICK]

9. Tracking Xian stocks

or holdings of significant fundie groups. What kind of trading behavior would one expect?

[patricia92243]

10. Some people (NOT me) say that it will be sometime in 2012 - something to do with the Mien (sp)

calendar.

[RKP5637]

14. I've been hearing this crap for over 60 years and nothing even remotely has

ever happened. It's a great attention getter for these people, and they always wiggle out of it at the end, you know, god works in mysterious ways and the rest of the BS they peddle.

And imagine all of the money to be made off of 2012, the books, the seminars, the conferences, the trinkets and whatever else. I once had a friend of a friend that made zillions off of new age spirituality and religion, said it was the best bunch of suckers ever, buy all kinds of crap.

[MineralMan]

13. Ah, so that's why gold went down. I was wondering.

All those rapturees-to-be selling off their holdings for one last spree, I guess. :rofl:

[JohnnyRingo]

15. We've seen the three signs of the appocolypse....

1: The armies of the world are assembled in Mespotamia.
2: A satanic clump of hair is rising in the West to lead Christians to slaughter.
3: Republicans fight desparately to clear a black man of arranging a killing while pinning it on the closest white guy.

What other signs could we need that the end is near?

[MineralMan]

16. Dude! I just checked over at the Rapture Ready

bulletin board. They say this is false prophecy, so I guess it ain't happening. Besides, they have some sort of conference scheduled for July, so there ya go. :rofl:

[cleanhippie]

17. Really? When did thay change their mind?

[MineralMan]

18. Probably when they scheduled their get-together in Branson

in July. I dunno. But, it's coming soon, you know. That's what they're all saying. Soon. It's just that they don't seem to be holding their collective breath about it.

I'm not a regular Rapture Ready reader, though. I just stopped over to see what they were planning before the 21st. Looks like they're planning for July.

[cleanhippie]

25. I guess they need a fundraiser first.

[Pab Sungenis]

19. The guy who started all this crap

owns a network of radio stations across the country, and it's being used to promote those stations. It's a publicity stunt. And unfortunately his broadcasting empire will still be with us on the 25th and for decades to come despite his predictions.

[qb]

20. The world already ended 259 years ago...

according to the latest analysis of the Mayan calendar. Welcome to the afterlife!
http://www.citypages.com/2011-04-06/news/revelation-2012/
:rofl:

[damntexdem]

21. Yes, God says she's really, really pissed at these Christians.

;-)

Well, actually, I voted "no -- wingnuttery."

[elocs]

22. "Christians"? If it were some Democrats would you write "Democrats predict the end of the world"?

I am sure that the overwhelming majority of those who call themselves Christians in no way believe that the world will end in two weeks.

[darkstar3]

23. Sure, they just believe it'll be any blink of an eye from now.

Now really, is that much different from two weeks? Living your life as if the world could very well end long before you grow old and die is pretty much the same whether the deadline is "known" or not.

[elocs]

28. Again, which part of "Christians" are "they"? The small part that believe that,

certainly not even close to being a majority of Christians.

[darkstar3]

29. You're telling me right now that a majority of Christians in America DON'T believe in the rapture?

I'm not buying it.

[elocs]

31. The difference here is that I know what I am talking about through experience

and I can at least provide a link:

"What is the "Rapture" and Why is it so Controversial"

https://www.christianblog.com/blog/blessings2you/what-is-the-rapture-and-why-is-it-so-controversial/

The overwhelming majority of Christians do not believe in the "rapture" even though about 70% of Christians say they believe Jesus is coming back. Only 2 out of 10 Christians believe in a "rapture" type of event sometime before the return. This is understandable since only about 20% of Christians, at the most, are even borderline dispensationalists. The "rapture" is most definitely something for those who are fundamentalist and dispensational in their thinking.

Since the vast majority of Christians believe everything needed to be a good Christian is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; and since the "rapture" is not brought up in those four books of the Bible, they do not believe in it. Since Jesus does speak of "coming back" in the 4 Gospels, that is why such a high percentage of Christians believe in a second coming. But, if pressed as to what this second coming means, very few would have a clue.

The "Rapture" is not a doctrine of the Catholic church or of any of the mainline Protestant churches, but it is wildly popular with Evangelicals and they are not close to being the majority of Christians.

[darkstar3]

35. Where did that data come from?

What were the questions asked in the poll? Was the poll even scientific in nature?

The rapture is indeed not part of the Catholic doctrine, but you don't get to define what is "mainline" Protestant. Majorities do. The largest Protestant denomination by self-identification polling is...


...wait for it...


Baptist!
http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html

And guess who believes in the Rapture?

Interesting note: The fastest growing religion on that chart is Assembly of God. Guess who also believes in the Rapture?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

48. Not all Baptists are fundamentalists

I once taught at a college run by liberal Baptists, and the largest church in town, part of the American Baptist denomination, caused an uproar among the local free-lance fundamentalists when the minister performed a marriage service for two men.

The defining mark of a Baptist is not believing in infant baptism. Other than that, they're all over the map.

[darkstar3]

52. One not need be a fundamentalist to believe in the Rapture. Try again.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

53. You're conflating what some people who have been taken in by

a series of adventure novels written on a seventh-grade reading level (really, have you ever looked at one of those Left Behind books? I've seen Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books that were better written) with the official doctrines of major Christian denominations?

I'm reminded of my grandmother's Old Country proverb: "If you want to beat a dog, you can always find a stick."

You're looking for sticks.

[darkstar3]

54. I think I made my point in #51.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

47. If you include Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and mainline Protestants, yes,

(the majority of the world's Christians, in other words) they do NOT believe in the rapture.

It's a doctrine that the fundies dreamed up in the 19th century.

[darkstar3]

51. Again, you don't get to say what's "mainline Protestant."

Baptists are the biggest Protestant religion in self-identification polls. They believe in the Rapture.

In fact, according to the link I posted above, the denominational breakdown by self-identification shows that:

86.2% of Americans self-identify as Christian.
41.1% of Americans self-identify as one of the denominations that officially (dogmatically or theologically) don't believe in the Rapture. (Catholicism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Episcopalian).
41.1/86.2 = 47.7% of American Christians that "officially" don't believe in the Rapture.

I put that "officially" in quotes specifically because I have met several Methodists and Lutherans who go against the official theological stance of their church and believe specifically in the Rapture AND the Tribulation. Blame the "Left Behind" series if you like, but since the vast majority of Americans are ignorant of where their chosen denomination falls on this issue, they eat it up when they read about it.

So, first we have the fact that American Christians who don't officially believe in the Rapture lack a majority, and then we have the fact that many American Christians go against the official stance of their church and believe in the Rapture anyway. In short, Christians who believe in the Rapture aren't remotely a small subset. Just look at the sales of LeHaye's awful books for verification...

[cleanhippie]

26. But is IS christians,

Nothing will ever change that, no matter how much you wish it would.

[elocs]

27. Be real, it's some Christians, not all and not even a majority. n/t

[struggle4progress]

32. More precisely, it's Harold Camping of "Family Radio" fame, who previously predicted

the world would end 6 September 1994. He has maybe 150 radio stations. I wonder who's paying for all that ...

[cleanhippie]

40. WRONG! More precisely, its TBN getting into the game. So much for THAT theory, huh?

Paul Crouch, Jr., Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)'s Chief of Staff, says that public interest in end times prophecy is at an all time high, so his station is going to air a weekly end times show. TBN is the world's largest religious broadcaster and boasts millions of viewers across six continents.

http://www.goddiscussion.com/61676/with-interest-in-prophecy-high-tbn-adds-end-times-show-to-its-lineup/

[struggle4progress]

42. I'm not sure what you're trying to say. If you're arguing that Camping's Family Radio

isn't the source of the May 21ster stuff, your link doesn't support that: what you've got is TBN announcing they're starting some other endtimes broadcast "every Wednesday"

Just as with Camping, of course, I'd be interested to learn about TBN funding, since in my view such programming serves particular economic interests

[cleanhippie]

43. I'm trying to say that its not just a few fundamentalist christians that believe this.

But you know that.

[cleanhippie]

38. SO how does one tell which christians are spesaking nonsense and which aren't?

[cleanhippie]

39. WRONG!

Paul Crouch, Jr., Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)'s Chief of Staff, says that public interest in end times prophecy is at an all time high, so his station is going to air a weekly end times show. TBN is the world's largest religious broadcaster and boasts millions of viewers across six continents.

http://www.goddiscussion.com/61676/with-interest-in-prophecy-high-tbn-adds-end-times-show-to-its-lineup/

[Lydia Leftcoast]

49. Uh, TBN is Fundamentalist Central

Anyone who isn't a fundamentalist watches it only for laughs.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

50. Yeah, and Lyndon LaRouche claims to be a Democrat, and his followers

run as Democrats.

So does that mean that all Democrats are LaRouche followers?

[LeftishBrit]

30. Just sheer nuttiness

[elocs]

34. A funny rapture story I learned in a previous life as a 20-something Pentecostal.

This was a very strict denomination--no tv, no worldly entertainment, the women all had long hair and only wore dresses--pants were a sin. The doctrine of the Rapture was very popular as well as eschatology as a whole. I studied the Rapture to better understand it, even using the original Greek and Hebrew words so that I could better understand it and defend it. I came out on the opposite side firmly believing that it was a false doctrine from the early 19th century that was completely unknown for most of the history of Christianity, a doctrine that requires various scriptures to be forced and tortured together in other to make the theory.

So the church I attended believed in the Rapture, that Jesus would appear in the sky and take away all of the true believers. Since this was a holiness church their reasoning was that God was always looking for an opportunity to swat you down if you were sinning, like the Rapture happening while you were at a movie or watching tv, both forbidden and sinful activities.

I knew this kid (Matt), the 10 year old brother of a friend who was a true believer in what the church taught except he had this sinful desire to see Star Wars. One Saturday he went to see the movie with some kids from school, but was afraid afterwards that the Rapture would occur and he would be left behind before he could repent. So he was feeling very guilty.

Matt got home and nobody was there. He tried to call others from the church and couldn't get in touch with anyone. Then he began to panic, thinking that the Rapture had really happened and that he had been left behind. An hour or so later his parents came home and set him straight.

Matt did well in high school and then went away to college at the University of Minnesota, a 3 hour drive from home. Much to the chagrin of his father who had him for 18 years the university managed to turn him into a Liberal in just 4 years. Matt went on to become a part-time stand up comic and still does gigs in the upper midwest. He used that story for a long time in his act, and he is still a Liberal.

[dimbear]

36. Jesus promised to some of the crowd standing right there that they would see the end.

I hear they're getting impatient.

[Meshuga]

44. Why the 21st of May?

Why not today? Why the delay? The outfit is not ready for the big day? Do the developers still have bug fixes before God can use the holy machine for the fire and brimstone? What is going on? Damn angels can get their shit right. God should fire them.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

45. I voted "Yes, it's prophecy"

Just to fuck with your poll numbers. Now they're less scientismic.

:hi:

PS: if there are any real rapturists out there who won't be needing their BMWs, houses, jewelry, hot girlfriends, etc., I can promise that I'll be around to take care of them for you after the rapture hits.