Let Down

There has been a rather big deflatement in the eschatological community. A few months back (May 8), I wrote about a theory promoted by a Washington preacher that the Rapture might happen over Rosh Hashanah due to his noting of some very interesting astronomical data that will occur over the next 7 years.

Well, Rosh Hashanah has come and gone and we’re all still here. I was skeptical about it then and it seems that my skepticism was justified. Again, I thought it was good scholarship and I still think that we should expect some very interesting happenings over the next 7 years. But there is a real sense of let down among a lot of people I think.

Probably the biggest source of let down is one of the most valid points that had been made in that previous argument: the fact that the Tribulation will probably correspond to a Sabbatical Cycle. The downside to getting everyone hyped up over Rosh Hashanah 2008 is that now that it is past, the next period where we should be examining the signs and thinking that the Rapture is immanent is around Rosh Hashanah 2015. Very little is more depressing that being told that you need to wait at least 7 years before something that you really want will arrive. There is also the very real possibility that 2015 will not be the time of things either and we’ll all have to wait until 2022, etc. This is why we are forbidden to date set. The let down is extraordinarily destructive to morale.

Now, it is important to remember that all this scholarship could be way off and the Rapture could happen tomorrow. I think that’s unlikely, but I’m not God and I don’t make the rules. So, it is important to continue to keep watching and being attentive. But is also important to remember what Paul told the Thessalonians: don’t forget to live. Live and work, but be watchful. So buck up. Yes, we might be waiting for a good seven years or longer, but it’ll happen and in the meantime, we have work to do.