So I was reading Tom Sawyer Abroad, one of Twains lesser works. (He drops the N-word more often than Chapelle at the Apollo.)
Anyway, they discover "Time Zones" where Jim, the religious one amongst the travelers, disbelieves in them. After all, Revelations talks of a Judgement "Day", yet as we tell time now, there are usually two days on Earth at any given time. Depending on where you are at, and the time of day, usually somewhere else its either yesterday or tomorrow.
There are three alternatives I can think of.
1) The Rapture rolls across time lines, happening say at 3:15 on May 8th, everywhere. The problem with this theory is that with current communications, once we discover the Rapture beginning, it gives us hours to realize our mistakes and convert before it hits us.
2) The Rapture happens universally at one time, say 3:15 on May 8th, in New York, but that's 2:15 in Chicago, etc, etc. This means that we would record it as happening May 8th/9th (or 7th/8th. Its to early to figure out the time zone thing in my head). While this may contradict what is literally said in the Bible, it gets the spirit of the idea correct.
3) God will pick the one exact moment when the whole world is on one day. That would be Midnite at the International Date line. However, the Bible also says we can not know when the rapture is coming. This tells us when, time wise if not date wise. If where you are living, its 5pm when the international dateline is at Midnite, at 5:01 every day you can say, "Whew. Made it another day. I'm free to sin until tomorrow."
Basically, I figure if we work hard at getting this problem spread around the world, it won't be long before the powers that be demand that this blasphemy of "Time Zones" be removed.
Posted by Snail (Member # 9958) on :
I've always wondered about this. It's the logic I used to convince myself as a child that all talk about end of the world at a certain hour was perfectly illogical and that I'd live past the year 2000.
However, surely the Biblical Rapture would follow clock hours in the Jerusalem timezone? Which is the same as the Finnish timezone, coincidentally.
Posted by anti_maven (Member # 9789) on :
Maybe after an initial feasibility study the Almighty has decided to create independent working parties to cope with the logistical difficulties inherent in a globally synchronised rollout programme.
*grabs coat, hails taxi*
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:1) The Rapture rolls across time lines, happening say at 3:15 on May 8th, everywhere...
Holy crap! I only have five more days?!? Gotta get movin' on my debauchery then!
Posted by Seatarsprayan (Member # 7634) on :
You won't find "The Rapture" talked about in the Bible at all. Judgment Day, yes. The end of the world, yes.
But the word "day" in Judgment Day doesn't refer to the date, anymore than when you say "back in my we did this" you are talking about a particular date.
I knew the world wouldn't end in the year 2000, because (apart from "no man will know the day and hour"), what is significant about the year 2000? 2000 years since what? Jesus was born in about 5 B.C. by our calendar, so it'd be really weird to have their be a significance to the 2000th anniversary of Jesus being 4 or 5 years old...
Now, 2030, which is two thousand years after the crucifixion/resurrection, that's more of a significant date.