A ruptured rapture

There have always been religious “nuts” predicting the end of the world. But what I will never understand is why so many gullible and naive human beings believe these “nuts.”

Those using the bible as their source of information for the rapture are totally ignorant and illiterate regarding biblical literature. Many are “self styled,” so-called “ministers” who still believe that the bible is the “infallible word of God,” even while they are reading an English translation. So, considering the fact that the bible was written in Hebrew and Greek, this would mean that over several thousand years, you would have needed thousands of “infallible” translators in order to infallibly reach you today in an infallible English translation. And considering the fact that in any biblical book store you have a choice of dozens of translations, all different in the use of language…well, you can ask the clerk on duty, “which is the translation that is infallible?” The clerk will promptly change the subject. So, you finally choose one you think might be infallible. What good is it? Unless you can find an infallible reader… who can infallibly read the infallible translation.

Most churches like to advertise that they have bible “study” groups, which is pure nonsense. What they really have are bible “reading” groups with the blind leading the blind. In my 40 years of church experiences I have never seen a bible “study” group in any church.

A “study” group would have to include all of the complexities of the Greek and Hebrew language, plus thousands of years of translation and transmission problems, combined with the historical religious, archaeological and sociological implications of the times that produced the material, plus an exhaustive exposure to comparative mythologies.

You can rest assured that you will never hear about any of this from the pulpit of your church on Sunday morning. If he, or she, does not share current scholarship with you, it is deceit. If he, or she, does not know current scholarship, it is pure ignorance.

Christian radio host, Harold Camping, who predicted the “rapture” and end of the world for May 21, 2011, is among the most ignorant of the ignorant. Now he has moved the date up to October 21… and once again, the gullible and naive will believe that baloney and hogwash. Lets call it BS.

The word, “rapture”, is an old English word, which means to be “caught away.” The word is NOT in the King James Bible. But the phrase “caught up” is used several times. An example: “the Lord will descend with a shout, the dead in Christ shall rise, then we which are alive shall be CAUGHT UP with them in the clouds and so shall ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.

Going all the way back to the 17th century, the date for the end of the world, combined with the so called “rapture,” has been predicted by the biblical illiterates hundreds of times. Religious “nuts” are not new to our time and our century. And neither are the naive and gullible. The 18th and 19th centuries were filled with the biblically ignorant making “rapture” predictions.

Lets face it. Biblical literature is archaic.

Dr. James Bennett Pritchard, is recognized internationally as one of the most distinguished biblical scholars and archaeologists in the world. Professor of Religious Studies, the University of Pennsylvania, the curator of the Near Eastern section of the museum at that University; biblical advisor to “National Geographic” magazine as well as the British Broadcasting System and Time-Life Books. Authentic biblical scholars of this caliber are rare indeed. In this “profession” of religion and bible teaching are more phonies, quacks, and charlatans than any other known to me. Dr. Pritchard said this: “it is no longer possible to read the bible as our grandparents did. Far too many discoveries have been made, using dating methods that are the most sophisticated known.”

For anyone who is interested in the end of the world, it is NOT the bible that gives us a glimpse; it is Einstein and Bohr with Hawking, who might have a slight clue as to when the earth might burn itself out in this universe… the size of which transcends language.