Do you know any "End Timers"?

I know about a dozen or so, and they are seriously convinced that its coming soon, and they've been saying for at least 35 years now. Hell, they may even be right for all I know, but some of the things I've heard them say are quite interesting to say the least.

Some people who have never actually talked to end timers probably wouldn't believe how serious they are or how immersed they are with it.

Do you know any personally? How do you perceive them, and how do you deal with them?

end timer is gw *

not to mention The Vatican's insistence on forcing people to have unprotected sex, spreading AIDS and poverty.

have spent all their lives worrying about what might happen and how they will be 'rewarded' for saying a few magical words of belief. They are totally outside of reality. By the way, the 'End Times' have been predicted to happen since about 1840. But don't attempt to point out to them how wrong all those that came before them were.

My response: "You have GOT to be kidding," and a closed door.

I would have engaged them had they not dragged young children along (most likely for protection from heathens like me).

be locked away.

My ex-wife's parents were, but I haven't seen them in over 15 years. Maybe god ferried them off to a better world. right.

They look and act just like normal people, but in truth they were hatched from pods.

I perceive them as deluded idiots. I am sure they perceive me as hellbound.

I don't deal with them. Their corrupted brand of "Christian" hysteria makes me sick.

Even the nice ones, even the ones in my family. If anyone is actively trying to engage me in a conversation about religion, I go all icky and pissy and I just can't relax.

I usually have to politely say that I don't wanna hear that shit.

loving, funny grown-ups. The kids, to a one, are meticlous citizens of varying personalities.

They love animals and care for them better than anybody I've seen in a long time.

But they believe that Jesus is checking his wristwatch every minute or so, waiting for the final thunder to sound.

I disagree with their interpretation of events and destinies, but they are damned nice folks.

One cousin is a Christian missionary in Israel... oh, yeah, ballsy, that.


I keep reminding them that "No one knows the day our hour" and that they could be making serious fools of themselves and God will be pissed because they just weren't paying attention to what he said!

...."...how lucky we are to have a President who is a Born Again Christian and believes in The End Times like other Christians do. "

Another time this same person said, "I am so happy our President Bush will bring my Lord and Savior back to us. I so look forward to seeing My Lord."

I said something to the affect of, "If he's not careful I'm not so sure about the WH Idiot Boy bringing back your Lord and Savior but he may just bring on WW III if he keeps this stuff up." This person's reply believe it or not was, "Yes, won't it be wonderful to have WW III and get it over with so we can have our Lord and Savior back?" All I could do after I picked my jaw up off the floor was to say, "Are you serious? You look forward to all the killing and the slaughter of a WW III just for the fulfillment of your religious views?"

I've never talked to that person too much since then, I'm afraid of what I'd hear these days.

Did they answer? Could they? Or were they picking their jaw off the floor at your response?

.....she just smiled.:spank:

NUH UH!!! Bullshit to the max. She probably criticizes other people to death too although we were told not to backbite and speak evil. These phonies just piss me off!

I would have never thought of starting a war or anyhting to make the end times come faster, but I thought it was really close. Now I think its just kinda silly. Most people get their understanding of the end times from "Left Behind" and their pastors who do not understand symbology. REvelation is NOT literal.

On edit: when Jesus says that no one knows the day or hour, that was not a challenge.

as well. My Folks were too! But, and this is a big but.... None of us ever believed that we , or anyone else should "push it along" if you get my drift. As I can recall, God was giving us enough time to spread the gospel to every man before the end time came. I don't think we've gotten that far yet. I am not as fervent as I was when I was involved in the AG Church. As a matter of fact I don't go to Church much anymore, but I am still a believer. Don't hate me for that, just know that "There will come a day" (Faith Hill's song ) DC

There will be an end of time, I do believe that, nothing lasts forever.

(because those people are nuts)

n/t

n/t

to further his third century political aims (among other gross edits annotations and deletions through history)

and your imaginary friend

have you convinced the end of the world is imminent?

you're welcome. seek help.

Some pastor announced he had read through the Bible and using a code only he knew, he calculated the date of the Rapture and told his flock that the endtimes were coming on some exact date a couple of months away. People left their jobs, stopped plowing their fields, etc. The big day came. Some more-competitive people climbed trees to get a jumpstart on their friends; some ladies opened their parasols to help with their ascension; others strapped themselves to their favorite belongings so they would go with them, and the higher-class people stood as far away from the poorer-class as decorum would allow so they didn't ascend into Heaven too close to the riff-raff.

Nothing happened, and people came down from the trees, etc. and demanded an answer from their pastor. The pastor went back to his calculations, found a couple of math errors and told his flock that he had miscalculated, and they still had two months to go, and the whole scene played out again.

That church eventually evolved into the 7th Day Adventists (the church that Koresh was a minister of).

TlalocW

“Some pastor announced he had read through the Bible and using a code only he knew,” TlalocW

Well…..kinda…William Miller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Miller_%28preacher%29)
was one of that ‘first wave’ that read the Bible (comparatively) free from prior denominational indoctrination (no priests looking over his shoulder telling him what the book means).
The ‘code’ he applied was ‘mathematics’…he calculated the time for the return of the messiah from the prophecy in the Book of Daniel.

“that the endtimes were coming on some exact date a couple of months away”

Yea….. his first calculated date was 21 March 1843…he subsequently worked
out that there was no ‘year zero’ in the Gregorian calendar and recalculated to
October 22, 1844.

“The big day came….(snip)…..Nothing happened…..”

Well….that’s what the Scribes and Pharisees said the first time round ;-)
They expected a mighty Messiah with a sword of fire who would smite the enemies of Israel…
they got a carpenter on a donkey instead and they declared “Nothing has happened”.

It might all have a great deal to do with what folk are expecting and why.

In 1844 no one was seen to come floating down on a cloud (that’s what they expected…many still do ;-) and indeed it was called the year of ‘The Great Dissapointment’.

Perhaps something else…unexpected….happened?

On 24 May 1844 Sam Morse sent his first telegraph message (ushering in the technology
we now employ)….the message was “What hath God wraught”.

Have a good look at May 23.

;-)

...he didn't see how Christ would delay his return for even ten years. All the "signs" were there. This was in 1976. Said minister has done well for himself, too, riding that message all the way up to the number two spot in a large Pentecostal denomination.

Father in-law is drinking his way through the rapture. n/t

When they come to your door, ask them if they believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God. They'll say yes. Tell them to open their Bibles to Deuteronomy: 18:20-22, which concerns false prophets then remind them that their church elders have routinely made predictions about when the world was supposed to end, and as you're shutting the door, tell them that your religion forbids you to listen to those God has denounced as false prophets.

Step on my property, and I'll gladly make you question your faith, beyotch.

TlalocW

While visiting a shop in my community after a rather long absence, the manager and I had a chat. She was looking quite unhappy. I asked why.

She stated emphatically that the end times were near. I attempted to make a joke, but quickly realized she was serious. My brain began to tilt as I had thought for the past five years that she was a rational person.

She spooked me bad. After a polite farewell, I made a fast retreat out the door and din't look back until I was blocks away.

Since then, I've decided there is nothing in her shop that I really need and will not visit again.

I am convinced that end timers have a mental illness.

the End Times. I went to the FSM website but couldn't find anything. where's our DU prophet?

And you'll never reach the end times.

look busy. :evilgrin:

like Bush. I view them as fanatic cultist who want to save everyone so we can all die together. Sure, there will be an end time - the sun will one day not be there - but many of them don't want to wait and force the end times like Jones Town or Waco.

Fanatical cultist are the enemy of critical thinkers - many of which are at DU. Christian & Muslim fanatics have much more in common with themselves than with everyone else. The old testament is their common ground.

In fact the past 35 years is right. I started to become serious about Christianity in late 1970, just about the time I turned 20, and went to meetings at my college campus of Campus Crusade for Christ. And at the same time I also listened to Garner Ted Armstrong's program the World Tomorrow, in which he believed we were just about at the time that the present age was coming to an end.

The people at Campus Crusade seemed really friendly, and seemed, at first glance, that they were really happy, and had really found something in their relationship with Jesus Christ. However in a very short time I became very uncomfortable with some of the things they believed, like that people need to accept Christ or they are going to hell. And I could never accept the idea of having to go up to people and tell them about Christ, or share with them the "Four Spiritual Laws".

The people at Campus Crusade were very serious about believing in biblical prophecy, and that the signs pointed to these as being the "End Times". It was through them that I was introduced to Hal Lindsey and his book Late Great Planet Earth, which had come out in 1970.

After my brief stint with Campus Crusade, I was still serious about Christianity, but had started going to more mainstream churches, where I was much more comfortable, and found that (in general) their beliefs were much more acceptable.

However I was sometimes in church or Christian fellowship groups where some of the members did have fundamentalist beliefs, and believed in the "End Times".

I struggled with my beliefs for a long time, and it was by a long process by which I finally came to realize that I was unhappy with Christianity itself, and that it had not been of help to me (even though I respected, and still respect, non-fundamentalist Christians).

Right now I pretty much have little contact with people of that persuasion. I try to avoid them. But every once in a while I might happen to come close to somebody of such persuasion. In fact I think there was one such person sitting at a restaurant booth adjacent to mine yesterday; he and the waiter were talking about the news in the Middle East and about the predictions in the Bible. I can't think of any occasion recently in which it was called for for me to say anything to any such person.

I pretty much came to the conclusion some time ago that thinking one has God's plan figured out appeals to what I feel are base and juvenile or childish fantasies, and not, I would think, to anything ennobling. I. e. they are all ready to meet Jesus and go to heaven while the rest of the world goes through tribulation.

One former student at a conservative christian college told me someone had plastered the campus before 1989 warning that the end was nearly here. The student was himself a conservative christian but said the end comes not in a certain year but when you, the idividual, die. So, he continued, all this talk of endtimes was essentially nonsense.

Many at the school believe in the rapture. One young woman came back to her dorm room late at night to a meeting of her 'friends.' She entered the room and found the clothes of her 'friends' arranged on chairs as if they had been raptured and only their clothes were left behind. She burst out crying, and her 'friends' tried to console her.

To me, this story says that although many outwardly say they believe some tenet of the faith-branch they're a member of only a small number really believe. Her 'friends' thought it was a joke; she took it seriously.

my experience concurs w. yours and i like the story of the girl w. the "raptured" friends

even among fundies and end-timers, the person who actually believes that crap is considered pretty lame and pathetic -- most know it's a social game you play to advance in this society -- "pray on sunday and prey the other six days of the week" -- the true believer is not the minister cashing in or the inner circle, the true believers are the lame-os at the v. bottom of the church clique

There was a major power outage in the city; all the electricity was out; it was about 2am. One guy came out from a restroom and saw no-one. He yelled 'hey, where is everyone? have you all been raptured?'

The way the story was told to me: he for a few seconds was really scared and wondered and then realized that it was a power failure. The guys on that floor joked about the whole thing the rest of the year.

edited to add:

Only at a conservative christian school. <sigh>

talk is really bad interpretations. I laugh when I hear those like Sedar, Garaffalo, and Malloy talk about end times. By the way, I think these 3 are spot on for political commentary, but they have listened to the wrong crowd on prophesy.

1) The end of time is so far off. It's the end of the age that seems to be close. What this is, is, the Messiah returns to set up the kingdom on earth. Something the Jews of his day expected him to do the first time around, but it was not the right time. The old testament has prophesies about the Messiah ruling the earth from Jerusalem; this has not happened (yet!).

2) Only God knows when the end of the age will be, but we have events that are clues. And, no, * cannot force the end of the age anymore than Judas and others in the Messiah's day forced him to take the government upon his shoulders. "Unto us a child is born (first coming), unto us a son is given (second coming) and the government will be on his shoulders."

3) People look to Revelation for a lot of end time sequences. A great reference, but the symbols are in our future. Daniel is a great book too. Daniel's 70th 'seven' will take place when the false messiah signs a covenant with the 'many.' Then you have 7*360 days until the end of the age.

4) Learn the parable of the fig tree. When its branches are tender, you know summer is near. When Jerusalem was recaptured, I take this as the sign that the end of the age sequences are close. In the same way that Daniel's 70 'sevens' started when Xerces gave the okay to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. "When you see these things take place, I tell you the truth, that generation will not pass away until the end of the age."

5) A view of generation is 51 years. 1967+51=2018. So, does that mean the Messiah will return by 2018. No. It depends on getting the sign correct that marks the generation and there's still 51 years in that generation.

6) No man knows the hour. But, we are closer to the end of the age today than we were yesterday.

I don't necessarily think it's time either but I've always had the date 2017 in my mind all my life for some reason. Not that it would be the Second Coming but something important. I always had a feeling of dread for 2004 for the same amount of time. Now I think I know why...!

I am a Christian lib too and get tongue-tied with all the mis/disinformation people have.

Does it mean I wish it to happen? Not really - though the promise of peace is cool.

I see these things as unfolding as predicted. This is after a lot of studies, years of being atheist, then buddhist, and so on - ie, I was as objective as I could be.

Do I believe a lot of it? Yep. Could I be wrong? Hell yes.

in a bunker since the beginning of the millenium. Refuses to be called by her given name, but wants to be called by a Jewish name and has started all sorts of weird dietary and other practices. Doesn't talk to people really--just prays at you. More recently, they don't answer the phone.

It's quite shocking to realize they are out there. Thankfully I have not bumped into any recently in person.

He drives me crazy. I don't trust him and think he's insane. I only talk to him when I have to- if I'm at a family gathering I can't just ignore him, yanno. But I quit calling him and taking his calls.

This same man, and his wife, once claimed to me that I was supposed to have died in a car accident, they had a vision, but they prayed and prayed and it didn't happen. Both my brother and birth father had died in separate car accidents, so I think this was meant to lure me or something. Maybe they really believed it, I don't know.

He is in the "Pray for Bush" camp and believes God made him President and that we are fighting a Holy War. He believes that Europe didn't back us because they were taken over by Muslims- and that if we don't kill all Muslims including women children and babies that they will take over the world and the end Times will never come.

This same man, and his wife, accused me of witch craft and summoning demons, because of some vision they supposedly got from God. And consistently throughout my teen years tried to convert me.

His wife believes everything that he does. Alcoholism, Addiction, Adultery, Homosexuality, etc etc are "Demons". No not metaphorically- to them they are literal demons and my uncle claims he can see them in people.

Makes me sick to think about.

me that Gore was Satan the other night and that Bush was trying to make America great again.

none of them are speaking to me any more since god cursed me by making me win a lot of money at the casino instead of them

you will read this and think i'm joking

i'm not

as far as i can tell, any sin can be forgiven except the sin of being luckier or more successful than the fundy

most end timers don't, in their hearts, believe that crap, they are just too full of superstitious fear to admit it, as my fundy friend w. cancer once said, "i was praying to jesus to save me and then i looked around that room and realized that everybody there was praying to jesus"

they all know that jesus will do feck-all for them, they just can't give up their crutch -- but even when you know them well it is only in a RARE moment of honesty that they admit to this

Doesn't stop me from feeling that the end is neigh.

I think it was great.

How was it for you? ;-)

The world, as known to Christ and companions, has, to the *greatest* degree
come to an end.

Test it…picture yourself as a first century Palestinian transported to your current location…………….recognise anything? Anything at all? What is immediatly familiar to you?
Even if you have some wooden furniture it is unlikely to be recognisable.
Your clothes, your plastics, your books, your windows, your pc, your lava lamp…
every hue and colour is an unfamiliar shock to any ancient visitor. His world is gone…
*ended*…the physical environment and the social structures…ended.
The role of women, the absence of slaves…..good God! Who stole all the horses!?

You could take our hypothetical first century Palestinian and relocate them to almost any location in any century and (though they might be uncomfortable) they would still recognise most of the world. Not so from the mid 1800s onwards…the world became increasingly unrecognisable…it ended and continues to end at an explosive (apocalyptic;-) rate.

Speaking his language you could explain the 4th, 5th, 6th through to 16th 17th centuries in terms he could comprehend. But, my Lord,....even if you had a clear line of telepathy you would be unable to convey an understanding of 'DNA', 'Space Travel', 'Hypertext' and 'Avril Lavine' to the poor man...his world has ended...yours is beyond understanding.

“Don’t think Jesus is coming to save us”

Neither do I….but then again I see no scriptural reference that would lead me to believe that ‘Jesus’ (the man) was returning.
There is a great deal to indicate that the ‘Christ’ (anointed of God) would return…
but that would be as a “Thief in the Night”.

I doubt Gods thief in the night would get caught floating down on a cloud for all to see ;-)

My husband is friendly with them -- I'm very wary of saying anything beyond "Hi" to them anymore.

We used to be more friendly, our daughter babysat their kids, our son was their assistant soccer coach, that kind of thing. But John really takes exception to my bumper stickers, among other things, and the past several years he's been very cool toward me.

What do I do? Wave. I want peace in my neighborhood.

Hekate

Not giving money to the temple rebuilding wackos, not actively trying to bring the end times, but quietly and totally convinced that he's going to be raptured.

geez, I'm surrounded by them here in Arkansas

I don't see any in the streets celebrating war in the ME

but I don't know that they aren't in their homes or Church gyms doing that!


If the end comes soon it will likely be at the hands of humans nuking the shit out of each other to a point that it destroys our planets ability to sustain life.

How do I deal with them? I don't really talk about things like that with people I work with, and people I go to church with aren't LaHaye types, and I don't associate with them as much as possible elsewhere and certainly don't discuss religion.

like an idiot? I don't believe in the rapture. But I do believe we can off ourselves as a species quite handily and we have lit the pilot light to do so in the Middle East.

Those of us who are Christian (or Jewish or Muslim, for that matter) have always looked to the ME as the seat of it all. If we do extinguish ourselves, I believe this is how it will happen.

Sorry if I am bringing you down. I'm weary of being a human being at the moment and ashamed of my species.

Just as we could have screwed ourselves royally at any time by playing with nukes a few decades ago, we're playing with fire now. The rapture is the delusion of a pastor from the 19th century that caught on with the fundies. Unfortunately in trying to bring their collective fantasy to fruition they may have started what will become WWIII, and ultimately the end of the world. Sadly it won't end in paradise for anybody.

Jesus said to his disciples “It must needs be that trials and tribulations will come, but woe to those by whom they come. It would be better for such to have a millstone rung around their neck and be thrown into the sea…” (Luke 17:1-2).

I would think those words would especially apply for those who are eager to bring about the Great Tribulation.

Those people seem to have read very little of Jesus' words, despite calling themselves Christians. :-(

in part because of the Mideast thing. Since the Wingnutty Cable Company switched my area over to the city cable system, instead of TBN, I now have this freak show called God's Learning Channel. It consists mostly of an incredibly weird, boring couple named Al and Tommie sitting around talking to other incredibly weird, boring people about Israel. I don't wanna know what Al and Tommie are talking about right now. Or that Arab-hating guy whose moustache doesn't match his hair on TBN. I can't remember his name ... Hal Somebody?

Here's Al and Tommie's website. I'm afraid to look. Al and Tommie have a tendency to crash my dinoputer anyway. Freak Republic has the same effect.

She sometimes sends me canned goods for food storage, because President Wrinkley ... er, I mean Hinckley says things are gonna get really bad.

been a lay reader and on the vestry of my parish (Episcopal), "What does the Episcopal Church teach about the Rapture and Tribulation?" I laughed for a minute or two, until I realized he was dead serious and was not making a joke.

I told him that was dogma and not doctrine, and that our clergy preached the Gospel adn only the Gospel that was read on that day, and that noone of our clergy would dare preach or teach such things as they were all based on Dwight Moody and the Scofield Ref. Bible and not the 39 Articles or ancient church teaching. Then I consiliated (being the good eucumenical Episcopalian I am) and said, in other words, we are free to believe whatever we feel led -- it's the end of the world, I don't really think it matters when there are hungry people to feed that are living.

I was one. Still know many.

I have no problem with them; when something comes up I disagree with, I stay quiet. If there's a group of them, they realize I've dropped out of the conversation, and some will steer the conversation in other directions.

There's little point in fighting with them. They know my views; I know theirs.I'm not going to change their minds, they're unlikely to be able to change mine, and there's little to discuss.

shares the same root as the word "rape"? The Latin rapere: to seize or take by force. The Latin term for the act of rape itself is raptus if I am not mistaken (which I often am - which saves me from being an End Timer. lol)

... this confuses me even more. Is this like the Leda & the swan story where Zeus rapes someone? Does that mean that people are to be "taken forcefully" at the end times? That is f'd up for sure. Kinda changes the whole dynamic of the thing I'd say.

One of them is so sure it's so soon that he pulled all retirement savings and is living off them instead of working. Doesn't even expect to still be around for the tax penalties.

And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, "Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. 25 "And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.' 26 But his master answered and said to him, "You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. 27 "Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. 28 "Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.' 29 For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (NASB)

back in the early 80s (graduated 1983). She dropped out of school to get married as a junior (she was not pregnant) because her father (an endtimer preacher) wanted her to "experience married life" and "have babies" before the rapture happened.

At that time he was fairly certain it would happen in the 80s. Oops. Guess they're still waiting. Meanwhile her kids are in high school now. I wonder if she's having them drop out to "experience married life" before the end comes?