Bishop Alan Wilson was interviewed last night on Channel 4 News about the Rapture.
You can see and hear what he said via this page: World fails to end.
The US evangelist who said the world would end on 21 May stands by his prediction, as the Bishop of Buckingham tells Channel 4 News Saint Paul would have said “don’t be silly”.
But the best explanation of why it didn’t happen is undoubtedly this.
A less amusing but very sensible analysis is by Paul Roberts and is titled Life after the rapture – on grabbing the microphone.
The biggest “Christian” internet event of the year so far was the prediction that the world was going to end on 21st May 2011 at 6pm in each time-zone. The reaction by Christians has been either to ignore it, to join in lampooning it as extremely stupid, to protest loudly that they have nothing to do with the speculations of Harold Camping or to grow increasingly depressed at the amount of media interest that such an example of a group of Christians being extremely (and publicly) foolish has generated…
“HA HA! LIFE GOES ON!” These numbskulls are truly giving Christianity a bad name. Now crawl back into your trailer parks and go back to soap operas. And “stop being SILLY!”
Fundamentalist religion and millennial preachers have always attracted the poorest and most deprived sections of society who need some hope of deliverance from their difficulties. While the preachers are fair game for ridicule, I think their followers are not. There is no shame in living in a trailer. Poor and ill-educated people do not crawl. Shame on you, evensongjunkie. And shame on you, Thinking Anglicans.
We prayed this morning, in the intercessions, for Camping and his followers.
So much for the fundamentalists – of any ilk – but especially those who seem obsessed the the ‘sins’ of the present generation. We human beings are prone to sin. But God has provided a remedy, as only God could have. Deo Gratias.
What a travesty of a stereotype. Many fundamentalists are intelligent, educated and prosperous. Religion ( of most varieties, Christians and non Christian) in peoples lives invariably brings discipline and order. The sad fact is that religion which elevated many British people and now many young people ( with no religion ) are lost in a culture of hedonism and drinking. I see this amongst the children I teach.Religious people invariably have a purpose in life, feel an accountability and do not follow the crowd. For instance in 20 years of teaching I have never encounterd a badly behaved Jehovah’s Witness… Read more »
I agree with Robert (I think for the first time). Many fundamentalists are as he describes, but there are others who are not, and they deserve to be spoken of with respect and understanding, not as evensongjunkie did. TA needs to review its moderation policy.
I think Bishop Wilson should have used the occasion for more illuminating comments on biblical eschatology.
I have actually lived in a trailer park and some my relatives still do. In my experience, most people who live in TPs don’t go to church because they know they will be subjected to the same classism shown by evensongjunkie in his remarks. Actually, such classism is prevalent in every Christian denomination. The only places free of it are probably the little store front churches in the poorest neighborhoods, and then not for long. Too often the prosperous are convinced that they are morally and spiritually superior to those with less, and have no understanding at all of the… Read more »
Of course, St Pauls comments of “dont be silly” may have been because St Paul hadn’t been raptured. Or perhaps he realised that the Lord’s salvation plan was going to be much much bigger than what must have been 10s or 100,000’s of believers. He certainly seems to see a lifting up to the heavens, whether physically or in the Spirit, ahead of or as part of the return of the Lord. People argue whether it is before, during or after the Great Tribulation. It seems more in keeping with the Christian experience of suffering, of picking up your cross,… Read more »
Susan,
Your comment is prophetically relevant. James 2:2-4 and 1 Cor. 1:26 say much the same.
This week we will be remembering John and Charles Wesley who got the strange idea that the Christian faith was for everyone … and last Sunday we had the martyrdom of Stephen – read that, and dream yourself a rapture!
Nat: We prayed this morning, in the intercessions, for Camping and his followers.
What a wonderful, Christian thing to do. I wish we had thought of that.