It's The End of the World As We Know It...

...and I feel fine!

No earthquakes. No floods. No dead bodies everywhere. And unfortunately, none of the crazies have been taken up to heaven to be with their god and leave the rest of us alone. *sigh*

And the CDC had even come out with a blog post about what to do in case of the Zombie Apocolypse. I was so looking forward to putting the plan into action.

NOT!

I'd like to say that I don't understand why so-called holy men (it's almost never a woman) predict the end of the world, but unfortunately, I do.

It's buried on the ebiblefellowship site, which has already taken down the "end of the world" prediction page. Not that I expected any less, seeing as how it didn't happen.

But they still haven't taken down this page. It's their donation page, and it was live right up to and beyond the apocolypse. Just in case they change the wording, I'll quote what was on there up until at least the time of this blog post:

Donations to EBible Fellowship are no Longer Accepted

EBible Fellowship is NO LONGER ACCEPTING DONATIONS due to the shortness of time until May 21, 2011. If you still wish to make a donation, please make it to Family Radio (see below).

For all those who have given over the years, we thank you for your faithfulness in assisting to get the Gospel out into all the world.

Donate to Family Radio

Although EBible Fellowship has no affiliation with Family Radio, we do believe them to be a Biblically based ministry used by God for the furtherance of the Gospel. Contributions can be sent to them at:

In addition, you may donate to Family Radio through their secure donation form.

That's right. Despite the fact that the end of the world was coming when they wrote this, one part of their conglomerate (which they claim isn't affiliated to the other part. Like Hell...) was and is still accepting donations. Apparently, Family Radio intended to continue even past the end of the world.

Which tells me that the perpetrators of this scam didn't believe a word they wrote. It was only a scam to get money out of ignorant god-fearing folks. Unfortunately, it worked rather well on some people. A man took out his life savings to put up billboards all over NYC, I'm told, and I read about a couple who stopped paying their mortgage and saving college funds for their three teen-aged children because they thought it wouldn't matter past today.

As far as the perpetrator is concerned, he should be charged and convicted of fraud, since it's patently clear that he lied in order to obtain money, and innocent if ignorant folks are going to suffer big time because of his duplicity. I wasn't counting too much on the world ending today, so I didn't get myself in deep water financially or anything, but I'm sure that some folks will be in torment for far longer than the five months the tribulation was supposed to last because of this idiot.

And for the victims, I have only this to say: Wise up! It's fine to be a conservative or evangelical Christian, but fundamentalist Christians who believe this sort of nonsense are the laughingstock of atheists everywhere. Get an education in science and world history and textual criticism. Start questioning authority, especially the authority of anyone who claims to know the mind of God on any matter. And be doubly suspicious if they not only have a direct line to God, but claim that God wants you to give them all your money.

I'm a Christian, and I'm passionate about my religion. I love and serve God (or at least I try to...). I genuinely believe that if a society is to function optimally, there needs to be a religious cohort present. Certainly I don't know of any society from the beginning of recorded history until now that has successfuly functioned without one.

So it makes me truly sad and angry to see folks who might have been helped and comforted by having a religious faith become passionate unbelievers because of stupid nonsense spouted by greedy and/or ignorant preachers.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Matthew 18:6, NIV)

ETA: I wrote this post, and had to come back to edit it, because someone on the Absolute Write forums linked to this article.

I will quote the writer:

This is what religion encourages: fear based on imaginary terrors.

One nutcase, with about ten followers, and people who don't know any better take them as representative of all religions.

If you are an atheist, please have the intelligence to realize that the overwhelming majority of religious folks are not like this, nor does most religion encourage "fear based on imaginary terrors." If you're so inclined, I give you a challenge: find a mainstream denominational church with a liberal bent and attend services for a few Sundays in a row. I'm not hoping you'll convert to Christianity if you do this, but I do hope it will educate in the matter of the wide diversity of Christian beliefs. You can also read some of my former posts on this blog, many of which are sermons I actually preached to good reception.

I have no real qualms with atheism, but fundamentalist atheism scares me as much as fundamentalist Christianity or Islam or Judaism does. And so I say the same to you as I say to the religious folks: get educated!

Are You Ready (For the Rapture)?

So apparently, I won't be blogging tomorrow. Or ever again. Because it has been declared in the Bible (as interpreted by one solitary nutcase who's done this sort of thing before) that tomorrow, the rapture begins. Earthquakes. Fire. Torment for five months, then Judgement. And zombies. Lots and lots and lots of zombies, as all of the humans who have ever lived will be raised. The good folks (Or: Christians of Right Thinking) will go immediately to heaven. The bad folks will just lie there until Judgement day, five months down the line.

So I guess I'm down for five months of torment before shunted off to Hell forever.

If you've read past posts, then you know that I am a Christian. So why, you ask, would I consign myself to the damned?

Well, in the first place, I don't consider the Bible to be the "Word of God." In fact, one of the few clear statements in the Bible says quite clearly that the Bible (which didn't exist as a closed Canon until more than three hundred years after Jesus died) is who (not what) the "Word of God" is: "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14, NRSV)

So I don't consider the Bible to be the "Word of God." The Bible is neither historical nor scientific fact.

The Bible is not God's revelation to us. Rather it is the story of our search for God in a world that often does not make any sense. And if I read more of the Bible than is quoted in this article about the rapture, I come up with a far different picture of God, and of God's plan, than the end-of-the-world fanatics.

First of all, we can define that illusive thing called "love": "Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." (I Corinthians 13:4-8a, NRSV)

This has to be one of the most beautiful things ever written. Well done, Paul!

And now, to cross-reference with some other quotes:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:16-17, NRSV)

So, since I do believe in God and in Jesus Christ, maybe I won't be tormented with the unbelievers?

But there's more to consider:

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48, NRSV)

Taken together, these readings give me an entirely different picture of God than the God portrayed by the proponents of the rapture. God loves us. Love seeks to heal and build up, not destroy and torment the loved one.

The problem is, of course, that the Bible was written by humans. It often says more about human temprement and longings than it says about God, and I like to think that the parts where God torments "his" enemies is more reflective of human nature than of Godly nature.

Because one thing has been abundantly clear to me for a number of years. If I live in a universe where God destroys whole cities and even the whole earth, including children and animals, because "He's" fed up with sinners; if I live in a world where God condemns half the population to be of less worth than the other half because of one supposed sin committed by one woman at the beginning of time; if I live in a world where homosexuals are created (by God, one supposes) with attraction to partners of their own gender but are consigned to Hell if they give in to such attractions, then I don't need to be condemned to Hell.

I already live there, and God is not God of the heavens and Lord of All Good, but the Devil Incarnate and evil beyond the human imagination.

Fortunately for me, my experience of God is more in line with the Biblical writers who write about God being love, rather than those who write about a God of judgement. And while I'm very human and sometimes get mad enough to wish my enemies to perdition, I'm glad that I live in a world where God is better than I am, and has infinite patience with sinners. Because I'm not perfect, and I need God's love and forgiveness just as much as anybody eles.

And in that case, I'll be back tomorrow with another post. Unless it's really sunny out, in which case I may just enjoy "rapture day" with a nice picnic in the park.