[John H K]

Wow, frightening so many people can be so aggressively stupid and illogical.

Interesting this becomes Drudge's Headline right after I get involved in the silly "New Madrid" thread.

Basically, what sets me off so badly is people claiming to be religious blatantly LYING; from websites I've read, most of the posts about it on FR, apocalpytics repeatedly and profusely lie and fabricate about various aspects of the world being uniquely bad now or recently compared to the past.

Most common, and easily proven wrong, is the incessant garbage relating to earthquakes and volcanoes; which can be shown, beyond a shadow of a doubt, NOT to have increased in number or severity at any point recently or in any recent time period you care to name.

But applies to most anything else, including world violence, wars, etc...nothing remotely unusual now compared to history; the current violence in the Middle East is trivial compared to what we've seen in the history of the world, or even the history of the Middle East going back to the beginning of recorded history.

Pretty pathetic if the only way you can be interested in God or religion or just being a good person is if you believe the Apocalypse might be in a few years; a truly religious person would act the same if they knew for certain it would be 1 million years from now. I know you see some, but I can't understand why you don't see more respectable relgious types publicly coming out against this garbage and religious mental masturbation like the "Left Behind" series.

Finally, proves my suspicion that a heck of a lot of people are HOPING for more terrorist attacks, and seemingly are upset every day one doesn't happen or some rumor or threat doesn't pan out, and are ROOTING for World War III...guy in the article comes out and admits it. I had thought it was merely people desperate to find an excuse to hate all Muslims/Arabs more, but it seems more clear to me now it's also largely really nutty Apocalpytics.

[Don Myers]

bttt for later reading.

[Northpaw]

Apocalyptic/Eschatology/Raptur e books keep the cash registers ringing at Christian bookstores. Pre-Trib Christians are obsessed and consequently deluded by this "Left Behind" baloney. I know some that wish not to fight the good fight, hoping to expedite the "End".

[gg188]

Figures the Christian bashers would be doing their reading in Time magazine.

Why would someone come on FR, bash Christians, and cut-and-paste Time Magazine? We come to FR to get AWAY from bs like that.

I really don't think this is the place for Christian-hating. If you don't like what has been given to you in this Christian nation, just enjoy it and be quiet, or go start one of your own. Or just wait, I guess---the Time Magazine, Christian-haters are busy, with your help, changing the USA into the theocracy-of-the-left and the religion of post-modernism. So I guess it is the Americans who will have to go find another country.

[Russell Scott]

Yeah, too bad Time gets it wrong again. The "fly-away rapture" is the biggest crock of religious propaganda ever invented. I wish Christians would study its origins. Look, if your "raptured" by the transformation of your body from corruptible to incorruptible, then "a thousand can fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand". You become an indistructible, eternal being of flesh, blood, and bones, just like Jesus, the "first fruits among MANY brethren". Thats why Jesus said " I go to prepare a place, that were I am, you may be also". The "mansion over the hilltop" is your eternal body, soul, and spirit because "your body is the temple of (God) the Holy Spirit". Jesus said "don't look here or there, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you". There is so much confusion in the Church, but thats all about to change because the Sons of God, the Bride of Christ, is about appear, and destroy the works of the Devil (including the last enemy death), and prepare the earth for Christ's second coming to rule and reign a thousand years. The Great Tribulation is caused because of the clash between God's Army of Sons battling Satan and his demon forces. The Apocalypse is the full revelation of Jesus Christ through His perfected Church. The first Eve messed up this planet, the second Eve (Christ is the second Adam) will restore it to its Edenic state.

[Love of Country]

The parable of the fig tree might give you some idea. Also Isaiah predicting the re-birth of modern Israel in one day. That might give you cause to ponder. Nah!

[TomSmedley]

... apocalpytics repeatedly and profusely lie and fabricate about various aspects of the world being uniquely bad now or recently compared to the past.

and then they go on their merry way to the bank, as though nothing happened. Strangely enough, their deluded followers keep coming back for more.

Apocalyptic hysteria is an addictive psychic poison that cripples a man in the core of his confidence. Blessed are they who escape its clutches.

[Rodney King]

I am a Christian, and nothing bothers me more than all the Christians who think the end of times is coming every time something minor happens in the world.

Matthew 24:42-51: "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. 43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.

Be prepared always. If you are prepared, then it will not matter to you when the time comes.

[sweetliberty]

Actually, I think the article is a very good read, standing in stark contrast to your condescending commentary. In your obvious contempt for deep religious belief you mock a huge number of Americans AND FReepers being disrespectful in the extreme. While I find your approach offensive, I consider your opinion insignificant because of the way in which it is framed. If you want to be taken seriously and have your opinions treated with respect, I suggest that you start by showing the same consideration for others, even though they don't share your jaded view.

[ctonious]

..The grays are beginning to leak out of the way people view the world..

I knew the Aliens were involved. More seriously, the most irresponsible thing about this whole phenomena is the active interest of fundamentalists in egging on a World War to get themselves Raptured. If they're wrong, they're gonna have to join the rest of us in cleaning up one helluva mess they'll have created.

I used to believe all this stuff when Hal Lindsay was writing about it. I used to go see him speak at a very small Palos Verdes high school gym - doubling as a church. After awhile - it became obvious that the man was a complete charlatan, who shamelessly re-translated Greek and Hebrew phrases to twist biblical passages to "prophesy" the momentary political crises of the day. "..I discovered on further linguistic analyis, that the Hebrew word for "laden camel", also means InterContinental Ballistic Missile with MIRV capability!" - and so on.

And so now we have a new set of authors, picking up the slack. The more things change...the more change they rake in.

[Barbara14]

Im glad someone successfully posted this article! I tried, and some goober deleted it! And, whatsmore, that person was not even nice enough to leave me a note as to the article was removed. Sheeeesh!

[firebrand]

Not only would a Christian act the same if the end of the world were tomorrow as if it were a million years from now, but it is faintly pagan to be trying to see the future and to be so concerned with exactly how much suffering we're going to have to endure. If you look at it in its best possible light, none of it matters, and in its worst, it keeps us from our proper focus and attentive to something essentially selfish and disputatious, and undermines our trust.

[Timesink]

Fully 59% say they believe the events in Revelation are going to come true, and nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the Sept. 11 attack.

Yes, and before that they thought OKC was the trigger predicted in the Bible. And before that, Waco. And before that, the Cold War. Or Mount St. Helens. Or the Six-Day War in the Middle East. On and on and on.

I mean, i'm a Catholic so obviously my take on that whole section of the Bible is just a TOUCH different from that of hardcore fundamentalist Protestants, but whatever happened to "no one will know the time or place"? It always seemed to me that means as long as anyone, anywhere is saying "It's about to happen between X date and Y date, then the possibility of it happening at all is ZERO. No?

(Be gentle on me. I'm no biblical scholar by any means.)

[DreamWeaver]

What scares me the most is the so called " Christians " (that are IMO religious whacko's) who are taking matters into their own hands to MAKE IT HAPPEN! If God says it will happen ( in scripture) it WILL HAPPEN, without any human being bringing it about, without any mere mortal lifting one finger !

[Kerberos]

If there is one theme that is constant throughout all of recorded history it is that in every generation there has always been a certain amount of people that were just sure that the end of times was at hand. Just as they were sure that the current immorality of society was the beginning of the end.

But alas it never happened. The truth is that civilizations rise and civilizations fall. That is the reality of existence.

[niki]

bump

[Timesink]

The books were enough to persuade Sandra Keathley, a Boeing employee in Wichita, Kans., not to buy Microsoft's Windows XP, because she has heard rumors that it carries a method of tracking e-mail.

Real Christians use Mac OS X! Unix forever!

[Prince Caspian]

The mysteries of what God is up to as this earth nears its final chapter are not to be found in Time Magazine. Or in most of what parades itself as mainstream Christian eschatology, for that matter. The Rapture is a counterfeit. We will ALL be participants in earthly affairs until that day that every eye beholds Christ who then raises the righteous dead and transforms the righteous living. The dead are dead and remain dead until that event.

[Dog Gone]

nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the Sept. 11 attack.

25% of Americans actually believe this? How many were saying this BEFORE the attack?

Maybe it's because people have no idea what is really is in the Bible, or they try to apply real-world events to vague passages AFTER the fact.

Either way, the Bible didn't predict this.

[truth_session]

Look it people, when the end of the world comes we'll all know it. What the hell can you do about it anyway?

[the]

Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw back when I lived in Laurel, MD:

In case of rapture, this car will have no driver

This then set off the whole christian fish, darwin fish pendulum again: