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Broke? Tired of school? Hate your job?
Not to worry. If a booklet causing a stir among fundamentalists here has any merit, all worldly concerns will fade next week with the Rapture - in the theology of fundamentalist and evangelical Christians, a glorious event when true believers will be rescued by God before Judgment Day. According to the booklet - "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Come in 1988" by Edgar Whisenant - the Rapture will take place this month at Rosh Hashana, the 48-hour Jewish New year holiday that begins at sunset on Sept. 11.
According to ultra-conservative theology, the Rapture will be followed by Judgment Day, a time when God's wrath will be poured out on those the Rapture leaves behind.
Whisenant also argues that World War III is imminent and that before a decade ends, the Battle of Armageddon - an apocalyptic battle between good and evil - will usher in the Millenium.
To conservative Christians, the Millenium (Millennium) is not just any 1,000-year period. It's the 1,000-year period when Christ will reign over the Earth, as described in the Book of Revelations.
Whisenant's booklet bases its timetable on the theory that biblical prophecies are being fulfilled by current world events.
Fundamentalist Christians widely subscribe to that theory and concur that the world as we know it is coming to an end, although many disagree with Whisenant that an exact date can be set.
Neither that disagreement nor the fact that mainstream Christian biblical scholars pooh-pooh all such predictions, describing them as absurd, has stopped ultra-conservative Christians here and elsewhere from snapping up the Whisenant's booklet. It is being distributed by the World Bible Society in Nashville.
Norvall Olive, executive director of the society, estimated in a telephone interview that 2 million copies were in the hands of evangelical Christians in the United States. Spokesmen for several bookstores here that cater to conservative Christians said...