Teh Rapture?

Hm.

Judgment Day 5-21-2011: Harold Camping on the... by 21mai2011

Mister Brother Harold Camping, The Man In The Chair, he of vast agedness and Fulsome Biblical Scholarship has repeatedly predicted End Time Are A-Coming. Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord.



But the Rapture never comes.

"Rapture" is in fact non-Biblical and non-Scriptural. It's a funny thing, and I've been puzzled where the concept comes from, because it is not in the Bible and not in the Teachings of the Church through history.

It seems to have arisen some time in the 19th Century, perhaps around 1830, probably somewhere in the United Kingdom, through the agency of a Presbyterian minister by the name of Irving and a delusional Scottish woman by the name of Margaret Macdonald.

The concept rapidly spread throughout the English Speaking World, finding a fertile host in the United States of America, always a welcoming home to batshit insane religious theory and doctrine.

And of course, every bit of the origin of the Rapture Doctrine can be and has been disputed.

The point is that it is not Biblical and it is not part of the historical teaching of the Church or any denomination thereof prior to 1830.

Consequently, we can assume that Rapture Doctrine is heretical on its face and has nothing to do with Christianity or the Return of Christ to judge the quick and the dead, leading to Heaven and/or Hell, with various stops in Purgatory along the way.

It's simply a fantasy.

But one that is a powerful driving force among certain segments of the religiously susceptible population, particularly among those who speak English or are influenced by those who do.

So I wonder if there is something in British culture, lore and legend that can account for the origin and persistence -- and nearly unique belief -- among English speakers.

This is a kind of Exceptionalism that needs further examination, not from a religious standpoint but from the deepest levels of society.

What gives rise to it? And why is it pretty much confined to people who speak English?