"Society is always unfinished, always in motion, and its key problems can never be solved by social engineering"

Apocalyptic Ponderings

by Bradley J. Birzer

Toward the end of the twentieth century, closing two thousand years of history since the time of the Incarnate Christ (or close enough), millennium fever struck the western world hard. A fist across the face and a punch to the stomach. Many fundamentalist Christians were calculating the time since Israel’s re-creation as a marker, while a number of Catholics were counting down the number of good, true, and legitimate popes remaining before a supposed anti-Pope arose. As such, the Virgin Mary had supposedly appeared in former Yugoslavia, dropping hints about popes and anti-popes and a variety of other fancies that many assumed were not fanciful. Radical doomsday cults (well, are there any other kind?) emerged out of the woodwork—or seeped into the aquifers in Yellowstone, depending on what kind of fuel and storage tanks they were using for the End—and evangelical authors had a field day (and a billion runs to the bank) predicting the End in fictional form.

Would you be Left Behind? What kind of Tribulation would there be? And at what altitude? At the top of the stairwell? Eight stories up? Eight miles high? Would JC rule before the New Jerusalem arrived, or after? Would humans build the City of God here and now? How many seals would be broken by angels? Just who is that fourth horseman? And why are Catholics the only ones worried about that dragon devouring Mary?

Of course, it is not all religious. Remember the fears regarding Y2K. Were you ready? Just how angular could all of this be?

The End is near!!!! The End is near!!!! Very near!

Sadly, such fever and fervor has yet to subside, really. We were just treated (subjected would be a more appropriate word) to a remake of the horrific, hate-filled Left Behind, this time with Hollywood superstar Nicholas Cage fronting. Why could the dear leader of North Korea not have gone after that one instead of the one from Sony? Sheesh, many might have even become convinced he is the anti-Christ. He would probably like that.

We worried about Harold Camping’s two dates for the end. Both were wrong. We worried about the Mayans ending their calendar. Nope. Even the Vikings seemed to have predicted the end right around now. Again, did not happen.

In fact, I can write with certainty that not a single prediction of the End has come true. Not one. Not even close.

Though it is quite possible that many ends have come and gone, each a rehearsal for the End.

Christian humanist scholars such as Eric Voegelin, Josef Pieper, and Thomas Molnar did much to prepare the world for the end of the twentieth century and what would amount to barely-contained lunacy regarding the End.


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