Why are the apocalyptic interpretations of this date unfounded

A splinter of the Quaker movement, the Shakers preached complete celibacy as the true path to redemption. The Shakers knew an opportunity when they saw one and embarked on a month mission throughout New England, which brought them hundreds of converts. Members of the legislature, fearing the apocalypse had come, moved for adjournment. If it is not, there is no cause of an adjournment; if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore that candles may be brought.

Charles Piazzi Smyth, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, became convinced that the pyramid had been built not by the Egyptians but by an Old Testament patriarch perhaps Noah under divine guidance. As such, Smyth saw theological implications in just about every measurement of the Great Pyramid, including a calculation for the End of Days. Early that year, British and Irish writers opined that the comet was a harbinger of a forthcoming invasion by Germany.

Some Parisians blamed the comet for a massive flood of the Seine River that devastated their city. Most scientists sought to reassure the public. But the damage had already been done. In , John Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann wrote a best-selling book, The Jupiter Effect , warning that in March , an alignment of the major planets on the same side of the Sun would trigger a series of cosmic events - culminating in an earthquake along the San Andreas fault that would wipe out Los Angeles.

The book had an aura of credibility, since both authors were Cambridge-educated astrophysicists and Gribbin was an editor at the prestigious science magazine Nature. Several scientists criticized The Jupiter Effect , saying its argument was based on a tissue-thin chain of suppositions. It was also a best-seller. At least during this apocalyptic scare, there was someone to blame: Over the decades, computer programmers had used two, rather than four digits, to represent years.

Some pundits defended the programmers, noting that their actions had been a logical way to conserve precious computer memory and save money. Others were less flattering. Still, panic over the Y2K Bug never quite reached the fever pitch that many anticipated. Billions of dollars were spent worldwide to fix the Y2K Bug, and debate still rages over how much of that spending was necessary.

Ever since the early s, the media has reported that the Large Hadron Collider LHC could potentially create a black hole that would swallow the Earth. The LHC—which was switched on in September —is 17 miles in circumference and buried feet beneath the Alps on the Swiss-French border.

The collider has the capacity to smash together proton beams at velocities up to In doing so, it can simulate the conditions and energies that existed shortly after the start of the Big Bang—thereby providing insights into critical questions as to how our universe was formed.

Still, some skeptics worry that the high-energy collision of protons could create micro black holes. Between and , religious book sales grew percent, compared with an overall industry growth rate of 70 percent. Moreover, it continued to grow at approximately 15 percent a year, with evangelical books representing the fastest-growing sector of that market. Although evangelical publishing was large and growing rapidly in the s and s, mainstream media often ignored its influence or dismissed it.

Lindsey, in particular, had a significant public relations problem. Scholars and intellectuals, meanwhile, condemned The Late Great Planet Earth for being theologically wrong, historically inaccurate, and aesthetically bad. As a scholar of popular books, I was fascinated by this gap between popular celebration and frequently justified scholarly condemnation. Why would so many Americans read a bad book with such intensity and passion?

Rather than dismissing them as stupid or tasteless or assuming they suffered from false consciousness, I decided to investigate how and why The Late Great Planet Earth mattered to millions of lay people. From reader reviews posted on Amazon before and comments collected from an online discussion group devoted to religion, I explored what this controversial book meant to readers in the s and s and how we might think about it now.

Evangelical houses were happy about the larger audience for Biblical truth, and paperback publishers were thrilled to have the profits. Lindsey was no stranger to the youth movement. For seven years, he had been an evangelist for Campus Crusade for Christ, preaching to crowds of college students at the University of California—Berkeley and San Francisco State University.

Here, he honed his presentation style and material in lectures and Bible studies. His colloquial way of writing set Lindsey apart. If you have no curiosity about a subject that some consider controversial, you might as well stop now.

Lindsey began by talking about astrology and other popular forms of divining the future before turning to Bible prophecy as a more accurate, proven method. If this is your case, you may wish to skim over the high points. For others, it will prove to be rewarding to check carefully the grounds upon which the historical case is built. Fundamentalists have long been interested in the apocalyptic books of the Bible—Ezekiel, Daniel, Revelation—and there is a tradition of interpreting them in light of contemporary events.

Lindsey wanted to reach the not yet converted. Although his potential readers might have lacked familiarity with the prophetic scriptures that identified harbingers of the end times, Lindsey presumed that they were fascinated and terrified by the events of their own time.

Premillennial dispensationalists believe that ambiguous scriptures describe events that will happen as the second coming of Christ approaches. As the end times approach, the Antichrist, disguised as a global peacemaker, comes to power.

True Christians are transported to heaven the rapture. Lindsey also wove together contemporary accounts of nuclear proliferation and World War III scenarios with the prophetic scriptures he believed predicted them, convincing lay readers that the Bible offered a framework to give meaning to what was happening in the present. Evangelical Christians were convinced of the truth claims made by Lindsey in The Late Great Planet Earth and read it in order to reconcile disturbing events in the news with predictions made in prophetic books of the Bible.

Readers were told they had a special role in convincing others of the truth so they could accept Jesus as their savior in time to be rescued from the impending apocalypse. The Jesus Movement, a vast, amorphous revival and renewal movement among youth, had many faces churches, communes, coffeehouses, free newspapers, street ministries that shared an anti-institutional approach to religion and a fundamentalist theology.

They were unlike the counterculture, however, in that they pursued these ends not through drugs, but through Bible study and prayer. It bore little resemblance to the controversial communes whose residents turned their backs on this world to study the Bible and evangelize on the streets.

It appeared next to the Bible in almost every movement commune, church, or coffeehouse, and was responsible for drawing in converts.

For them, it was engaging fiction. They found its fantastic elements appealing precisely because they offered escape from contemporary life, and certainly nobody was moved to action. Some readers recognized the book as both religion and speculative fiction. One reader wrote that he discussed the book with his colleagues when he was in seminary i. For some, its sci-fi and fantasy elements were what made the book so bad. Readers made themselves partisans of their flag book, but did not engage with those outside their reading circles.

To read and talk about these books was a way of publicly claiming a particular religious identity and membership in a community of believers.