Americans are already beginning to examine their Y2K stores. What will become of the new DC generator stored in the garage, the porta-potty, the water purifier and the freeze-dried beef and canned wheat? A few who feared Y2K might have bought a remote cabin retreat with a garden plot, or left good jobs to avoid expected inter city ethnic catastrophe. We wish them well; they are not the first.
For most, Y2K will simply be a memory and a useful dry run in self-preparedness. The biggest beneficiaries will be those who sold stuff and bad advice. The most surprised people may be retailers with a no-questions-asked return policy, for it is likely their parking lots and return lines will be very busy indeed. There may actually be a serious Y2K retail backlash from reverse sales when stuff gets returned and the family decides to eat up the stored Spam and canned stew, however reluctantly, reducing their shopping needs for a few months.
I have seen no polls on the matter, but without a doubt Celebrity Christians, who were most susceptible to the apocalypse epidemic, influenced many of those most affected. The Y2K rip-off is part of a more damaging fleecing that has been perpetrated upon the Christians for three generations. It is part of the great “end times” hoax that is far more enduring and destructive than its adopted Y2K stepchild.
The doomsday cult was hatched in the 1830’s in England in the person of John Nelson Darby, the inventor of the British Israel movement. Before Darby’s revelations believers in Christ’s deity generally thought the “end time” ended when Jesus was murdered by the Pharisees and raised by God. (Jesus told his Disciples they were living in the last days) Jesus taught his followers that they lived in the times of responsibility, that come to be known as the church age, a period of sober discipleship when it was the responsibility of the Christian to carry out the “great commission”– to evangelize the unsaved world. And they did.
The rapture cultists, many of whom write books, have built their theological empires (and in some cases vast fortunes) by convincing us that Jesus was speaking directly to us, not his Disciples, when he talked about the last days. And what better time for an apocalypse, the Rapturist reasons, than when the world is celebrating the Year 2000. God could hardly pick a more symbolic moment to punish the wicked and reward the righteous.
The idea that God practices numerology and that the Year 2000 means something special to Him is of course quite unchristian. * Numerology games were not played by Jesus, nor practiced among the Disciples. This is more a part of the pagan religions of the non-bible people, including the Babylonians who taught it to the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. Jesus and the Disciples denounced the scribes and Pharisees who followed the superstitions of these ancestors.
“Last days” theology effectively ended an era of Christian growth. For many, the notion that Christians should be of preparing for a “tribulation” has replaced the responsibility of evangelizing one’s neighbors. Every war, famine, earthquake and evil act of man is viewed as another sign of that the “end times” have arrived. It has throttled the idea of self-sacrificing discipleship that once fired Christians to compass the world for Christ. In its place we have been influenced to accept a fatalistic view of our neighbors and leave it to God to take care of the unsaved after Gods people depart. For who will set a Christian example for those left behind in the chaos of the “tribulation”? No one! In vivid contrast, Jesus’ plan called the righteous to teach by witness and example, thus bringing the plan of salvation to the ungodly, even unto death.
Y2K appealed to the apocalyptic spirit of most Celebrity Christians who saw an opportunity for God to do something really big during an impending mini-catastrophe. Most Celebrity Christians helped God along with his planning, not bothered by Jesus’ words that warn not to do so. They loved Y2K because it fit the Darby pattern, and it sold rapture books as never before.
Many frauds have been perpetrated upon the American people in the 20th century by government. But not so with the Y2K hype which bureaucrats played down for their own selfish reasons. All kinds of people, including churchmen, are honest believers in the chaos to come and shared with their friends out of good will. Some few promoted Y2K opportunistically for personal gain and should not be allowed to forget it. Others simply went along with those they considered to be technical authorities, and so the mania became an epidemic. Y2K will soon slip into history as another apocalypse that did not happen, at least for now. Not so with its stepfather, the much more important “end times” hoax, which will not go away.
The “last days” are here to stay because that is a politically promoted notion. Powerful non-Christians who benefit from its application have sold it to the Celebrity Christians. The Celebrity Christians feed end times theology on to their followers. Who are the people behind doomsday? Ask yourself, who benefits from it? Heads up will examine this question in coming issues.
* Definition of Numerology: “the study of the occult significance of numbers”. (Webster’s New International Dictionary, 2nd Edition, 1955)