If there was a prize for the most misunderstood source for bad predictions, it would go to the Book of Revelation. It may be the Bible's ultimate crossover -- no other book's imagery and language has so penetrated popular culture. Even people who have never read the Bible are familiar with its references: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Red Dragon, and the seven bowls of plague. Revelation is filled with such contagious imagery that one theologian who has studied its text calls it a "multimedia" book whose popular images operate like an infectious disease.
Empty shelves in a supermarket in London, Thursday, March 19, Beal says many people quoting Revelation get the meaning and the symbolism wrong. Many people, for example, believe that the "Rapture" -- when it's believed that Jesus returns at the end of the age and all Christians, dead and alive, will rise up in the air to meet him -- is in Revelation.
Not true, says Beal. There is no explicit mention of the Rapture in Revelation. There are references to the concept in scriptures like 1 Corinthians , which says, " For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. But Beal says the Rapture theory actually originated in the 19th-century work of a theologian named John Nelson Darby. A police officer checks the temperatures of passengers at a checkpoint in Manila, Philippines, on March 16, How about the Antichrist?
Isn't that in Revelation? Nope, Beal says. The writer of the first book of John in the New Testament warns of generic "Antichrists" who deny that Jesus is the messiah. But there is no figure like the central character in the film, "The Omen," a cunning son of Satan with the number stenciled on his body. So what about -- isn't that in Revelation? Yes, but it doesn't refer to Satan. Instead, theologians say the number references another incarnation of evil for the first Christians: Nero, the Roman emperor.
Jones, the Texas church youth director, cited Revelation , which warns about "seven angels with seven plagues. Why invoking doomsday scenarios can be harmful. Invoking "end-times" biblical passages may actually bolster some people's faith by giving meaning to events that seem cruel and arbitrary.
But people who invoke the terrifying imagery of Revelation in connection with COVID can do more than get scripture wrong. They can damage others' psychological health, Beal says. She had an absolute panic attack because she felt like she was in the book," says Beal, a religion professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.
Doomsday predictions from the Bible can also lead to another danger -- doing nothing, Beal says. He believes people who are seized with panic over something like Covid may ignore other chronic issues threatening humanity's survival, such as climate change.
Hundreds of people line up to enter a Costco store on March 14, , in Novato, California. But that probably won't stop people from invoking Revelation when a pandemic hits. By: Clint Pumphrey. It seems like every few years, someone comes out with a new doomsday prophecy. The latest apocalyptic craze places Earth's final day on Dec.
But whether the supposed agent of doom is aliens, asteroids, floods or earthquakes , the outcome is always the same -- the Earth manages to endure. Such predictions are nothing new. In the first century A. And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
Since then, there has been no shortage of apocalyptic forecasts. But why? Why do people continue to predict the end of the world, and why do others insist on believing them? Perhaps some zealots feel the need to justify their preconceived worldviews through revelations about the latest celestial event or natural disaster.
And maybe those who trust such doomsayers are simply hopeful for an escape from a world that seems cruel or chaotic. Whatever the case, you're sure to enjoy our list of 10 doomsday prophecies. Martin believed that aliens from the planet Clarion had beamed down messages informing her that a massive flood would soon destroy the planet. Her wild prophecies attracted a small group of followers known as the "Seekers," many of whom had quit their jobs and sold their belongings in anticipation of the end.
They gathered at Martin's home on Christmas Eve, , singing Christmas carols while they waited to be saved by the aliens in their flying saucers. As the night wore on, Martin's followers became increasingly impatient.
Finally, at a. This story has a side note that is almost as interesting as the prophecy itself. A small group of psychologists and students organized by University of Minnesota social psychologist Leon Festinger infiltrated the Seekers in an effort to study and better understand apocalyptic cults.
The movie, "," is a minute showcase of apocalyptic eye candy, with enough death and destruction to bring up the question, "What's so bad about ? The fear is based on the way some people interpret the Mayan Long Count calendar , which is divided into Great Cycles lasting approximately 5, years. One of these cycles ends on Dec. They also have numerous theories about how exactly the world will end.
Some claim that a mysterious planet known as Nibiru, Planet X or Eris, or a large meteor, will collide with Earth. Another popular theory is that the Earth's magnetic poles will reverse, causing the planet's rotation to reverse as well.
Scientists have already dismissed these theories as laughable. They contend that if a celestial body were on a crash course with Earth , they would have already noticed it.
And while astronomers recognize that the magnetic poles do reverse every , years or so, they insist that this event does not affect the Earth's rotation and will not harm life on Earth. Perhaps the most interesting part of this whole apocalyptic fad is that the Mayans themselves don't expect that the world will end in , rather, they expect it to be a time of great celebration and luck when the planet completes the current Great Cycle. The Bible is pretty clear about doomsday prophecies : "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father," reads Mark But that hasn't stopped some believers from trying to make predictions anyway.
One such man is Harold Camping, a retired engineer who believes that the Bible is a numerical code book that can be deciphered to reveal clues about the end times. Camping, the founder of the independent ministry Family Radio International first predicted that the world would end in September But when the apocalypse failed to materialize, he attributed the error to incomplete research.
Camping recently gained additional attention for his latest doomsday prediction: May 21, In an interview with New York Magazine on May 11, , the year-old was brimming with confidence, saying, "God has given sooo much information in the Bible about this, and so many proofs, and so many signs, that we know it is absolutely going to happen without any question at all.
When May 21 came and went without interruption, Camping did what any good doomsayer would -- he blamed the mistake on a mathematical error and moved the date back to October William Miller and the Millerites may sound like a good name for a s pop act, but in the s, they were a fairly successful doomsday cult. That is, if you measure success by the number of followers, not the eventual occurrence of the predicted apocalypse. Miller was a product of the Second Great Awakening, a period of intense religious revival from which several modern denominations were born, including the Mormons and the Seventh Day Adventists.
A farmer-turned-preacher, Miller crested this wave of spiritual fervor with his prediction that Jesus would return to Earth in March He derived his prophecy from a complex system of mathematical calculations and promoted it by giving sermons and passing out pamphlets during the s and early s. Scholars estimate that of the some 1 million people who heard his message, about , actually chose to follow him.
As March neared, many of these believers sold all of their possessions, donned white robes, and climbed to the tops of mountains and hills to await their rapture into heaven. When nothing happened, Miller moved the date to October , which also proved to be a bust, leading some to label the non-event "The Great Disappointment.
A unique astronomical event is a surefire way to inspire a doomsday prophecy. I found the general lack of fanfare around the tablets a bit odd, given the worldwide excitement around the Maya prophecy. And there it was, bolted onto the wall, a flat piece of off-white stone that most of us would skip right past in most museums. The whole of Monument 6 consists of three rectangular slabs, which were originally placed on the back wall of a ceremonial building in Tortuguero in a T-shape a symbol that represents the wind in Mayan iconography.
Events from the past are also highlighted on the stone, such as wars, the dedication of new buildings, a great fire, and the opening of a steam bath. According to the Maya long count calendar, that date is December 21 st , December 21 st , December 21 st , Staring at the actual carved inscription of the final passage of Monument 6 was both exciting and a little underwhelming. Like any history buff, I find any bit of old writing pretty thrilling, but as a traveler in search of hard facts, I found the handful of Maya glyphs offered me very little to go on.
Academics still debate their specific meaning, but the translation offered at the museum is as follows:. No fire and brimstone, or planetary collisions or global floods or polar shifts. Naming this particular deity opens up a whole new field for interpretation and speculation, since Maya gods can represent a whole host of meanings and events.
I had traveled all the way to Villahermosa for the true source of the prophecy — What I found was a damaged stone, like a tattered corner ripped from some old newspaper, printed with outdated headlines and one final cryptic sentence. Seeing the prophecy for myself popped the doom-and-gloom rumor balloon that surrounds , but like all good clues, it left me with new questions.
All rights reserved. All good rumors start with a whisper of truth. Share Tweet Email.
0コメント