The Rapture of Hope and Confusion
Amman, Jordan
The hour has drawn near folks. Again, that is. Friday October 21st, the date set for the destruction and dissolution of the universe. The date is a result of the intensive, Bible investigations of Harold Camping. The first date, May 21st, set by Camping, was to be the Rapture of believing Christians from the planet. The second date, October 21st, was the logical (logical?) conclusion for the destruction of the Universe. The Last Day. Of course, we all know Camping’s prediction failed on May 21st in the apparent sense; there were no earthquakes, volcanoes, or other strange events. Yet Camping maintained his calculations were correct and termed May 21st a spiritual Rapture. Not a physical Rapture (didn’t know there were categories). Only those special folks (and they are out there) whose lataif are opened as channels to the soul felt any kind of significance on that day. I didn’t feel a thing. My lataif are completely closed.
I hope the old wizard is in good spirits. |
Yet despite the inactiveness of my lataif, I can still relate to Mr. Camping. I can relate to him through the lens of the postmodern, academic study of religion paradigm (I take refuge in God from the accursed Satan). The Christian Science Monitor relates:
‘I would not be surprised to discover that Mr. Camping sees this prediction as his life’s work, the culmination of decades of intensive Bible study, filtered through the sieve of faith,’ said Lorenzo DiTommaso, a professor of religion at Concordia University in Montreal. ‘If this is correct, then perhaps he sees in the world a reflection of his self.’
“The world a reflection of his self.” So if a human is farting around on the planet, proclaiming apocalyptic judgments, what kind of self is he carrying?
It may seem odd that Camping’s faith remains strong, but apocalypse experts say that doomsday prophets have often built their entire lives around their end-of-the-world views, and that worldview is hard to shake. For an elderly preacher like Camping, who suffered a stroke in June, apocalypse beliefs may also reflect his struggle with his own mortality.
A self afraid of death. It’s a nice notion. Packaged in a clean, easy to understand way that helps us comprehend why someone would hold to clearly wrong, apocalyptic judgments. The man is afraid of death. He sees destruction on the planet, the death of the planet, and the degradation of its people. I can relate to that. All of it.
All of it except one that is. I am not afraid of death insofaras I am young, a 23 year old youth without the looming spector of death attached to my shadow (though in reality it is there, if we were but aware of it). But if there is one thing that is dominant to my state it is confusion and seeming degrading state of the earth. There is too much information, it is difficult to connect the dots in a way that allows us to respond accurately and effectively. And all of this information seems to be particularly bad and deceptive. Just go to that bitch of a website, Huffingtonpost.com and see the muddled mess of aimless, confusing information. Occupy the Wallstreet. Jumanji in Ohio with animals running everywhere. Celebrity gay bashing. Cute dogs. Pictures of womans’ breasts (no reason to link this one) And did you know Susan Surandon called the Pope a Nazi?
Click the link titled ‘Jumanji in Ohio’. I imagine a police officer in Ohio using Marx’s famed line tonight at the poker table. |
On top of all this we recently saw the US Govt. (or some faction of it) try to pull one over the eyes of Americans with an Iranian, Mr. Bean style assassination plot. It was obvious the plot was a fake from the beginning but, in this case, the questioning of the mainstream narrative even reached the mainstream narrative. Why would the US try to pull something fake, Hollywood, and without imagination? I suppose to see to what extent they can dupe the American people. What else?
Here in the Arab world, there are ‘revolutions’ yet these revolutions all to quickly are hijacked by ‘The West,’ perhaps ‘Globalists’ is a better word, or perhaps rich power mongers who want to get richer and more powerful is even better. Egypt got rid of Mubarak but the military goverment plays Israel’s fiddle. Egypt will likely be taking a new IMF loan insuring their slavery. Libya has been a Western Powers playground from the beginning of the revolution. Saudi is suppressing the Shias in their country and in neighboring Bahrain. Iran is firing up Shia groups around the Middle East in an attempt to grab influence from Saudi.
The Eurozone is a dead horse. The Eurozone on one day is saved by the heroic actions of Germany and France and then put in peril the next by the cowardly actions of Germany and France. How can we solve this? UK big head Gordon Brown says global economic crises need global solutions. This makes sense but I hope that doesn’t include a global Federal Reserve type organization controlled by rich people I didn’t vote for.
There is debt in America. Government debt, student debt, credit card debt, mortgage debt. The banks are getting richer by the day. Except Goldman Sachs lost $400 million this quarter. And in the previous quarter they gained $1.7 billion. Can anyone comprehend these numbers?
The world is being occupied by an occupy movement gaining steam on a daily basis. Even Fargo-Moorehead, North Dakota-Minnesota has joined the ranks of disgruntled individuals, tired of corporate money controlling the political system.
All this is happening while each individual makes their own life decisions. Each individual, the center of their own individual universe, interacts, maintains relationships, seeks God, seeks wealth, seeks happiness, seeks to end the tyranny of corporations in America or, better yet, the Federal Reserve in America (Andrew Jackson agrees with me). How to make sense of it? What will bring it all together in a way that is meaningful, makes sense, and has a clearly defined result? October 21st. The Last Day of the known universe.
According to the academic study of religion, postmodern paradigm, Camping would believe the world is awful, humans are deceptive, heartless, sinful, and each one of us is hurtling toward death and, as a result, he interprets the Bible in a dark, apocalyptic fashion, fitting to his dark, beleaguered consciousness. How is such imaginative oppression to be escaped? Through a day when the chosen are relieved from struggle and the remaining perish. Where the confusion is laid to rest in a final meaningful moment (for him). So Camping will hold onto his Judgment Date one more time in hopes of a positive solution (for him).
And why not? Why can’t there be a day when the crazy, bizarre confusion ends? When the fog clears and the dust settles? It’s possible but I will be placing my money on March 23rd, 2023 the day Pluto exits Capricorn. On that day we can at least rejoice the heavenly upheaval has subsided, the lessons have been learned, and rest in the hope of slower times ahead.
Austin Wayne Luebke is residing in Amman, Jordan on a Fulbright scholarship. The opinions expressed here do not represent Fulbright or have anything to do with the Fulbright Organization.
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