Your View: The 'Rapture Ready' helped start Iraq War
(Reprinted from The Free Press, November 15)
Charles Mackay, writing in 1841, described the manias and hysterias of his time in his book “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.”
The same book today would surely include reference to the millions of Americans who favor war in the Middle East in order to bring about World War, Armageddon and “The Rapture.” That’s when true believers get wafted out of their shoes and sit at the side of Jesus to watch their enemies suffer The Tribulation, the ultimate schadenfreude.
The Rapture is usually attributed to a 15-year-old Scottish girl’s “vision” in 1830 and to John Darby, who tortured some Biblical verses to buff up the story. It was later popularized by Hal Lindsey and then the Left Behind series, which sold 60 million copies and spawned the Rapture Racket -- telehucksters and ten-percenters who peddle doomsday scenarios in order to fleece the gullible…tax free.
According to an AP poll earlier this year, 25% of Americans believe(d) the world will come to an end in 2007. They’ve learned nothing from past “prophecies”: 100% of end-times predictions have been 100% wrong 100% of the time. No matter. The hysterical 25% will answer the poll question the same way in 2008, and this time it’s really really going to happen.
Such delusions are normally harmless, but the Rapture Ready, mostly southern evangelicals who reportedly constitute one-third of the Republican Party, supported George Bush’s invasion of Iraq and his continuing search for enemies.
The belief that we should incite a world war because of a peasant girl’s nightmare is truly bizarre; the fact that millions of Americans think this somehow reflects God’s will is downright dangerous.
Tom Maertens
Charles Mackay, writing in 1841, described the manias and hysterias of his time in his book “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.”
The same book today would surely include reference to the millions of Americans who favor war in the Middle East in order to bring about World War, Armageddon and “The Rapture.” That’s when true believers get wafted out of their shoes and sit at the side of Jesus to watch their enemies suffer The Tribulation, the ultimate schadenfreude.
The Rapture is usually attributed to a 15-year-old Scottish girl’s “vision” in 1830 and to John Darby, who tortured some Biblical verses to buff up the story. It was later popularized by Hal Lindsey and then the Left Behind series, which sold 60 million copies and spawned the Rapture Racket -- telehucksters and ten-percenters who peddle doomsday scenarios in order to fleece the gullible…tax free.
According to an AP poll earlier this year, 25% of Americans believe(d) the world will come to an end in 2007. They’ve learned nothing from past “prophecies”: 100% of end-times predictions have been 100% wrong 100% of the time. No matter. The hysterical 25% will answer the poll question the same way in 2008, and this time it’s really really going to happen.
Such delusions are normally harmless, but the Rapture Ready, mostly southern evangelicals who reportedly constitute one-third of the Republican Party, supported George Bush’s invasion of Iraq and his continuing search for enemies.
The belief that we should incite a world war because of a peasant girl’s nightmare is truly bizarre; the fact that millions of Americans think this somehow reflects God’s will is downright dangerous.
Tom Maertens
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1 Comments:
You wrote:
The Rapture is usually attributed to a 15-year-old Scottish girl’s “vision” in 1830 and to John Darby
What have you been smoking man? Comments like that make you appear clueless. Here's what the rapture is attributed to:
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words.
Your criticism of "so called christianity" is well founded,however I think you need to study up on what the rapture is and why some people believe it's going to happen.
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