"The world as we know it is about to end — again —
if you believe this biblical doomsday claim" in the Acts of Faith section.
NASA senior scientist David Morrison debunked an apocalyptic claim that a planet called Nibiru is on a collision course with Earth. (NASA)
A few
years ago, NASA senior space scientist David Morrison debunked an
apocalyptic claim as a hoax.
No,
there’s no such thing as a planet called Nibiru, he said.
No, it’s not a brown dwarf surrounded by planets, as iterations of the claim
suggest. No, it’s not on a collision course toward Earth. And yes, people
should “get over it.”
But the
claim has been getting renewed attention recently. Added to it is the
precise date of the astronomical event leading to Earth’s destruction. And
that, according to David Meade, is in six days — Sept. 23, 2017. Unsealed, an
evangelical Christian publication, foretells the Rapture in a viral,
four-minute YouTube video, complete with special effects and ominous
doomsday soundtrack. It’s called “September 23, 2017: You Need to See This.”
Why
Sept. 23, 2017?
Meade’s
prediction is based largely on verses and numerical codes in the Bible. He
has homed in one number: 33.
“Jesus
lived for 33 years. The name Elohim, which is the name of God to the Jews, was
mentioned 33 times [in the Bible],” Meade told The Washington Post. “It’s a
very biblically significant, numerologically significant number. I’m talking
astronomy. I’m talking the Bible … and merging the two.”
And Sept.
23 is 33 days since the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse, which Meade believes is an
omen.
Play Video 1:33
How did people view
solar eclipses in the past?
Capital Weather Gang's Angela Fritz takes us
back in time to show how mankind has reacted to eclipses over thousands of
years. (Claritza Jimenez, Daron Taylor, Angela Fritz/The Washington Post)
He points
to the Book of Revelation, which he said describes the image that will
appear in the sky on that day, when Nibiru is supposed to rear its ugly head,
eventually bringing fire, storms and other types of destruction.
The
book describes a
woman “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a
crown of twelve stars on her head” who gives birth to a boy who will “rule all
the nations with an iron scepter” while she is threatened by a red seven-headed
dragon. The woman then grows the wings of an eagle and is swallowed up by the
earth.
The
belief, as previously
described by Gary Ray, a writer for Unsealed, is that the
constellation Virgo — representing the woman — will be clothed in
sunlight, in a position that is over the moon and under nine stars and three
planets. The planet Jupiter, which will have been inside Virgo — in her womb,
in Ray’s interpretation — will move out of Virgo, as though she is giving
birth.
To make
clear, Meade said he’s not saying the world will end Saturday. Instead, he
claims, the prophesies in the Book of Revelation will manifest that day,
leading to a series of catastrophic events that will happen over the
course of weeks.
“The
world is not ending, but the world as we know it is ending,” he said, adding
later: “A major part of the world will not be the same the beginning of October.”
...
No, the World Won't End Next Week and There's No Such Thing as a Christian Numerologist
If we start speaking up about bad "Christian" reporting, maybe people will do it less.
...So let’s
take a look and see just how fake this news really is:
First,
there is no such thing as a legitimate ‘Christian numerologist.’
Sure, the
writers of Scripture do, indeed, use numbers to point to a few things—that’s
first-year seminary. But it stops at first-year seminary because there are not
secret numerical codes that require a profession called “Christian numerology.”
Seminaries
don’t offer this as a formal degree nor do any professional, accredited
institutions. David Meade, the man the Fox News article cites as their source
for these claims, doesn’t have any formal, academic training in numerology.
That’s
right, multiple news outlets are referencing the findings of a man with,
according to his website, nothing more than a bachelor’s degree in Economics
and Astrology from an unnamed institution.
Furthermore,
Meade doesn’t provide us with evidence of any biblical training he has received
in order to speak authoritatively about the end times. He is discussing biblical
matters of profound significance and making predictions about events of global
importance without any real authority on these topics.
To make
matters worse, the planetary alignments that Meade is using to support his
claims about the end of the world have, according to an Express article, already happened four
times in the past 1000 years.
Meade is
a made-up leader in a made-up field, and should not be on the front page of
anything, let alone Fox News.
And when
we remind people of this, maybe they will be less likely to report on it next
time.
If we
start speaking up about bad "Christian" reporting, maybe people will
do it less.
But,
before getting carried away, it is important for all of us to look in the
mirror for a moment and consider the role we play in the making of this mess.
After all, ‘we the people’ bear partial responsibility for allowing Meade and
others like him to perpetuate these tall tales.
Until we
start calling out these individuals and vocalizing our rejection of their
stories, the public will never be empowered to open their eyes and see the
truth.
So, I’m
doing my part.
Second,
while it is true that numbers do have significance in the biblical narrative,
making these kinds of broad sweeping predictions about the end of the world
simply doesn’t makes sense.
Whenever
someone tells you they have found a secret number code in the Bible, end the
conversation. Everything else he or she says can be discounted.
But are
there numbers in the Bible? Yep. And they don’t require a numerologist...
...It’s simply fake news that a lot of Christians believe the world will end on September 23. Yet, it is still a reminder that we need to think critically about all news.
We can’t just believe everything we hear the media shouting in our ears; instead, we must think both carefully and critically about what we read at news sites, watch on the news, and hear our peers discussing. We need to consider our sources and, when situations like this arise, be careful to seek out answers from people who actually know what they’re talking about.
Contrary to popular beliefs, these practices don’t necessitate our becoming grumpy skeptics who assume that everyone in the world is out to get us. It is possible to practice the virtues of empathy and understanding while also being diligent to carefully filter the beliefs and ideas being presented to us...
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