PLEASE NOTE:
*
CCNet 136/2002 - 22 November 2002
---------------------------------
"Two strong activity peaks of the Leonid meteor shower were
predicted. The times fell between 03:48 to 04:04 UT for the first
one,
and between 10:23 to 10:47 UT for the second peak, both on
November 19,
2002.... Both peaks occurred later than the predictions by about
the
same time lapse. The predictions of the Leonid stream model of
Vaubaillon
(WGN 30:5, 2002) are closest to reality according to this first
analysis."
--Rainer Arlt, 22 November 2002
"That extrapolation is a convincing use of the best existing
data,
says planetary astronomer Robert Jedicke of the Spacewatch
program at the
University of Arizona, Tucson. "But variations in the impact
rates are
inevitable," he adds, because disrupted comets or collisions
among
asteroids can create more intense streams of objects. Brown
agrees, noting
that 8.5 years of data isn't nearly long enough to account for
such
episodes."
--Academic Press, inScight, 20 November 2002
(1) LEONIDS SURPRISE AGAIN AS TWO FINAL STORMS BOTH REACH ABOUT
2500 METEORS
PER HOUR
Cosmic Mirror, 22 November 2002
(2) LEONIDS 2002: AND THE WINNERS ARE ......
Rainer Arlt <rarlt@aip.de>
(3) "METEORIC RISE IN ASTEROID SAFETY": A COLLECTION OF
MEDIA HEADLINES
(4) GREEN LIGHT FOR ROSETTA COMET CHASER
Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
(5) ANTARTIC METEORITE SEARCH PROGRAMME GETS $1.6 MIILION NASA
GRANT
Ron Baalke <info@jpl.nasa.gov>
(6) AND FINALLY: THE RAPTURE TRAP
National Review, 18 November 2002
=============
(1) LEONIDS SURPRISE AGAIN AS TWO FINAL STORMS BOTH REACH ABOUT
2500 METEORS
PER HOUR
>From Cosmic Mirror, 22 November 2002
http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~dfischer/mirror/246.html
None of the five predictions in the last issue had it all right,
but
Vaubaillon & Colas got the best timing while - unfortunately
for the visual
observers - Langbroek 'won' with respect to the meteor rates.
Both predicted
peaks materialized, both were some 10 minutes late, and both
reached a
zenithal hourly rate of only about 2500 (which was further
diminished by the
light from the almost full Moon). Nonetheless the Leonids did it
again, even
four years after the parent comet had passed by.
And while the two storms of 2002 rank only as the 3rd and 4th
strongest of
the five that pleased us in 1999, 2001 and 2002, there were again
all the
features we've come to expect from the Leonids: earthgrazing
meteors while
the radiant rose, bright meteors all over the sky and occasional
fireballs
with persistent trains (though not nearly as many as in 2001, let
alone
1998). The peaks were very sharp, however, with full width half
maximum
times of only about 45 minutes each (in this respect, by the way,
Jenniskens
'won').
This unusually spiky ZHR profile threw more than one observer
into confusion
as there wasn't the steady rise over several hours towards the
peaks - when
the radiant rose at the geometrically optimal sites in Europe and
America,
the rates were surprisingly low, only to take off after several
hours. In
Europe there was a pleasing encore, though, after the main peak
from the
7-rev. trail as apparently two other, lesser dust trails kept the
meteor
rate from falling all the way back until sunrise. (Based on the
IMO Shower
Circular of Nov. 22 and the webmaster's own impressions on
Tenerife)
===============
(2) LEONIDS 2002: AND THE WINNERS ARE ......
>From Rainer Arlt <rarlt@aip.de>
-------------------------------------
I M O S h o w e r C i r c u l a r
-------------------------------------
LEONIDS 2002
Two strong activity peaks of the Leonid meteor shower were
predicted. The
times fell between 03:48 to 04:04 UT for the first one, and
between 10:23 to
10:47 UT for the second peak, both on November 19, 2002.
A first activity analysis from the reports of 86 observers, who
logged 19443
Leonids, is given below. The ZHR refers to a stellar limiting
magnitude of
+6.5, a radiant elevation of 90 deg, and counts of single
observers. A
population index of r=2 was applied, although the inspection of
data
suggests a large abundance of faint meteors, thus a larger r. The
ZHRs would
increase likewise.
The peak time of the first maximum is 04:10 UT with ZHR=2350. The
second
peak is found near 10:50 UT or a few minutes earlier with
ZHR=2660. Both
peaks occurred later than the predictions by about the same time
lapse. The
predictions of the Leonid stream model of Vaubaillon (WGN 30:5,
2002) are
closest to reality according to this first analysis.
--------------------------------------
Nov UT Sollong N
LEO ZHR +-
--------------------------------------
16 2000 234.257 2
10 19 6
17 0300 234.551 6
15 6 2
17 2200 235.349 13
96 37 4
18 0400 235.601 12
78 26 3
18 2000 236.273 21
431 98 5
18 2300 236.399 22
195 100 7
19 0000 236.441 26
330 101 6
19 0110 236.490 27
271 188 11
19 0140 236.511 24
218 201 14
19 0210 236.532 21
266 249 15
19 0220 236.539 20
332 305 17
19 0240 236.553 36
342 300 16
19 0255 236.564 16
157 275 22
19 0306 236.571 22
205 375 26
19 0316 236.578 28
329 497 27
19 0327 236.586 27
484 583 27
19 0335 236.591 48 1047
756 23
19 0343 236.597 20
412 930 46
19 0345 236.599 32 719
1162 43
19 0353 236.604 35 768
1344 49
19 0358 236.608 47 1341
1542 42
19 0402 236.610 36 1248
1966 56
19 0408 236.615 31 1335
2353 64
19 0413 236.618 17 912
2332 77
19 0418 236.622 30 1253
1995 57
19 0426 236.627 35 933
1367 45
19 0436 236.634 38
681 989 38
19 0447 236.642 24
416 635 31
19 0500 236.651 31
395 675 34
19 0518 236.664 50 505
1014 45
19 0535 236.676 22
189 572 42
19 0555 236.690 15
97 144 15
19 0620 236.707 15
87 142 15
19 0800 236.777 14
166 272 21
19 0905 236.823 21
217 307 21
19 0930 236.840 27
99 152 15
19 0947 236.852 21
72 267 32
19 1000 236.861 21
128 293 26
19 1010 236.868 31
192 707 51
19 1018 236.874 19
396 907 46
19 1023 236.877 15
134 965 83
19 1030 236.882 27 288
1364 80
19 1040 236.889 26 350
2108 112
19 1050 236.896 28 587
2656 110
19 1100 236.903 19 297
1061 62
19 1112 236.912 17
130 490 43
19 1135 236.928 7
184 366 27
19 2200 237.366 6
99 123 12
20 0500 237.660 11
4 10 5
---------------------------------------------
Solar longitudes refer to equinox J2000.0, N is the number of
observing
periods involved in the average ZHR, LEO is the number of Leonid
meteors.
The error of the ZHR is simply ZHR/sqrt(LEO) here. No special
zenith
exponent was applied to account for non-geometrical effects in
radiant
elevation correction.
We are very grateful to the enthusiastic community of meteor
observers who
have sent in their results, mostly through the online express
form. All
observers are encouraged to send their FULL DATA including
magnitudes and
possibly shorter time-bins for the counts within the next week.
(An error in the online form script has lead to erroneous output
in
geographical latitude and radiant elevation; the actual results
presented
here are not affected though.)
V. Krumov, M. Gyssens, R. Arlt
2002 November 22
==============
(3) "METEORIC RISE IN ASTEROID SAFETY": A COLLECTION OF
MEDIA HEADLINES
NEW FINDINGS SHOW LOWER CHANCE OF BIG ASTEROID STRIKE
Tampa Tribune Nation/World News, November 21, 2002
MID-SIZE ASTEROIDS STRIKE ONLY ONCE A MILLENNIUM
The Houston Chronicle Space, November 20, 2002
GIANT ASTEROIDS BLAST EARTH EVERY 1,000 YEARS
Detroit News - Technology, November 21, 2002
WHEW! ASTEROID MENACE RECEDES
CBS News SciTech, November 20, 2002
RISK OF DEATH BY ASTEROID IS LESS LIKELY
The Daily Telegraph, 21 November 2002
THOSE ASTEROID ODDS JUST GOT BETTER
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 21 November 2002
METEORIC RISE IN ASTEROID SAFETY
MX (Australia), 21 November 2002
STUDY DISPUTES BELIEF ON ASTEROID STRIKES
Austin American Statesman News, November 21, 2002
THREAT OF KILLER ASTEROIDS DOWNGRADED
CNN Europe, November 21, 2002
DON'T LOSE SLEEP OVER ASTEROIDS
Richmond Times Dispatch, November 21, 2002
ASTEROIDS LESS THREATENING THAN EXPECTED
St. Petersburg Times World & National News, November 21, 2002
SATELLITE DATA HELP DOWNPLAY ASTEROID THREAT
Omaha World-Herald National & World News, November 21, 2002
ASTEROID THREAT EXAGGERATED: STUDY
Times of India Headline News, November 22, 2002
RELAX, ASTEROID MENACE OVERRATED: ASTRONOMER'S DISCOVERY DEBUNKS
THREAT OF
ARMAGEDDON
CNEWS Space, November 21, 2002:
STUDY LOWERS ODDS ON AN ASTEROID STRIKE
The Boston Globe, November 21, 2002
"Yet, knowing that catastrophic hits are rare provides cold
comfort because
scientists cannot predict when or where a specific rock will
land. "When you
cross a busy street, you don't care what the statistics are of a
pedestrian
being hit. You want to know if a car is headed for you,"
said Morrison."
IMPACT DELAYED: ASTEROID PERIL DOWNGRADED BY STUDY
SpaceDaily, November 20, 2002
STUDY DOWNPLAYS RISK OF ASTEROID IMPACT ON EARTH
Salon.com Technology, November 20, 2002
SCIENTISTS REVISE ODDS ON ASTEROID COLLISION
Reuters UK Science News, November 20, 2002
FEWER FIRES FROM THE SKY
Academic Press - inScight, November 20, 2002
"That extrapolation is a convincing use of the best existing
data, says
planetary astronomer Robert Jedicke of the Spacewatch program at
the
University of Arizona, Tucson. "But variations in the impact
rates are
inevitable," he adds, because disrupted comets or collisions
among asteroids
can create more intense streams of objects. Brown agrees, noting
that 8.5
years of data isn't nearly long enough to account for such
episodes."
ASTEROID STUDY DOUSES THOSE GREAT BALLS OF FIRE
The Globe and Mail, 22 November 2002
"Anyone who has ever been frightened by the Hollywood movie
concept of an
asteroid smashing into Earth can rest a little easier because of
Canadian-led research published yesterday. Scientists have used
previously
secret U.S. military satellite data to estimate that a
destructive impact
will occur an average of once every 1,000 years. Previous
estimates had
suggested that an asteroid could strike once every 200 to 300
years."
ASTEROIDS LESS THREATENING THAN EXPECTED
St. Petersburg Times World & National News, November 21, 2002
EARTH'S ASTEROID THREAT NOT AS BAD AS PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
USA Today Health, November 20, 2002
AND FINALLY: IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD ... JUST YET
Glasgow Daily Record-News, November 21, 2002
"SCIENTISTS yesterday insisted the end of the world isn't
nigh - at least
from an asteroid impact."
=============
(4) GREEN LIGHT FOR ROSETTA COMET CHASER
>From Andrew Yee <ayee@nova.astro.utoronto.ca>
ESA Science News
http://sci.esa.int
21 Nov 2002
Review Board gives green light for Rosetta
With less than two months to launch, ESA's Rosetta comet chaser
is
undergoing final preparations at Kourou spaceport in French
Guiana.
Confidence is high after the green light was given by the Rosetta
Mission
Flight Readiness Review Board on 13 November 2002.
As engineers continued to ready the spacecraft for its 10-year
interplanetary odyssey, about 40 representatives of ESA and
participating
countries met in Kourou to assess the flight readiness of the
most ambitious
robotic space mission ever undertaken by Europe.
The Mission Flight Readiness Review Board -- which comprised
senior members
of the Agency -- was co-chaired by Professor David Southwood, ESA
Science
Director, and Rene Bonnefoy, the ESA Inspector General. The
Rosetta
Scientific Principal Investigators also attended the review to
present the
status of the ground calibration of their instruments.
After carefully reviewing all aspects of the mission, the Board
declared
itself fully satisfied with the state of the spacecraft, the
payload, the
Lander and the ground segment.
"I am delighted to say that the Board identified no 'show
stoppers' that
will cause us to delay the launch," declared John Ellwood,
Rosetta Project
Manager. "There are still some areas relating to preparation
of the launch
vehicle that are a little behind schedule, but we are confident
that they
will be completed in the next few weeks."
Meanwhile, the 3-tonne Rosetta Orbiter has been assuming its
final form
inside the spacecraft preparation facility at Kourou. First the
2.2 metre
diameter high-gain antenna was carefully lifted into place and
integrated
with the spacecraft's main structure. Then the huge solar arrays
-- each 14
metres in length -- were gingerly extended and stacked against
the side of
the Orbiter.
Once the all-embracing thermal blankets are once again wrapped
around the
intrepid comet explorer, the way will be clear for the filling of
its fuel
tanks and integration with the Ariane-5 launcher.
The launch of Rosetta is scheduled for the night of 12-13 January
2003.
USEFUL LINKS FOR THIS STORY
* More about Rosetta
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/
IMAGE CAPTIONS:
[Image 1:
http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12&oid=30999&ooid=31002
]
Successful High-Gain Antenna deployment test, 1 November 2002.
[Image 2:
http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12&oid=30999&ooid=31005
]
Deployment test of Rosetta's solar arrays.
[Image 3:
http://sci.esa.int/content/searchimage/searchresult.cfm?aid=13&cid=12&oid=30999&ooid=29092
]
Rosetta Lander integrated with the Orbiter at ESTEC, 3 December
2001: the
spacecraft is lying on its side while the Lander is lowered down
onto the
Orbiter.
============
(5) ANTARTIC METEORITE SEARCH PROGRAMME GETS $1.6 MIILION NASA
GRANT
>From Ron Baalke <info@jpl.nasa.gov>
po.cwru.edu
216-368-1004
Antarctic search for meteorites program at CWRU expands with
support from
$1.6 million NASA grant
November 20, 2002
CLEVELAND--As the Antarctic Search for Meteorites program
(ANSMET) of Case
Western Reserve University begins its 26th annual trip onto the
ice fields
of Antarctica, new support from the National Aeronautics and
Space
Administration (NASA) has allowed ANSMET to create a new
reconnaissance team
to augment the existing National Science Foundation (NSF)
supported team.
These teams will search the blustery, frozen landscape for pieces
of Mars
and other solar system bodies during six weeks of exploration.
Support for CWRU's new ANSMET team and its 2002 field season came
from a
three-year, $1.6 million grant from NASA. "NASA's support of
the ANSMET
program allows this valuable planetary science program to grow in
new and
promising ways," says Ralph Harvey, CWRU planetary geologist
and ANSMET
director.
The new ANSMET team will travel light and be well-supported by
small
aircraft, allowing them to explore many poorly known and
hard-to-reach sites
in a single season while also recovering significant numbers of
new
meteorites.
This year, the reconnaissance team will explore ice fields in the
region
around the Pecora Escarpment, roughly 200 kilometers from the U.
S.
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
The larger NSF-supported team will focus on systematic recovery
of meteorite
specimens from ice fields where high concentrations have been
previously
discovered.
This year they will search near the Goodwin Nunataks and
MacAlpine Hills,
near the head of the Beardmore Glacier in East Antarctica.
The prospect that enables the expedition scientists to brave
Antarctica's
cold and windy conditions is the potential of collecting
specimens that
originated from Mars or other exotic solar system bodies,
explains Harvey.
Of the more than 11,800 meteorites recovered by ANSMET over the
past quarter
century, about 5 percent are unusual enough to be of high
scientific
interest, and about one out of 1,000 is from the moon or Mars.
The five Martian meteorites found by ANSMET have been central to
NASA's
advancing efforts to explore Mars, says Harvey.
ALH77005, found in the Allan Hills region by ANSMET in 1977, was
the first
Martian meteorite found in Antarctica and the seventh specimen
known
worldwide. It generated enormous scientific interest and brought
this
enigmatic group of specimens into the forefront of planetary
research.
EETA79001, recovered two years later at the Elephant Moraine ice
field,
provided the dramatic conclusive link between these meteorites
and Mars.
LEW88516 was found in 1988 at the Lewis Cliff Ice Tongue and has
been the
focus of many studies including research on the abundance of
water on Mars.
ALH84001, found by ANSMET in 1984 near the Allan Hills, is
perhaps the most
famous of all the Martian meteorites, and the focus of intense
debate
concerning possible signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. The
last
Martian meteorite found by ANSMET was QUE94201, a uniquely young
but
primitive volcanic rock found in the Queen Alexandra Range in
1994.
Curated by the Johnson Space Center and Smithsonian Institution,
ANSMET
samples are available to researchers around the world for
planetary geology
research.
"As NASA prepares to embark upon a decade of intensified in
situ exploration
of Mars and on the way to an era in which sample return will be a
key facet
of our program, the collection of priceless meteorite samples
from
Antarctica is a vital step," says James Garvin, NASA lead
scientist for Mars
Exploration. "By supporting a dual-sampling team approach
this year, NASA
hopes to return a diversified set of meteorite samples and to
increase the
possibility of discovering additional meteorites from Mars,"
adds Garvin.
Participating in ANSMET's meteorite recovery efforts this year
are Carlton
Allen, Dean Eppler and Catherine Coleman from NASA's Johnson
Space Center;
Andy Caldwell, a high school teacher from Douglas County High
School in
Castle Rock, Colo.; Daniel Glavin, Max-Planck Institute for
Chemistry in
Mainz, Germany; Diane DiMassa, University of Massachusetts at
Dartmouth;
Dante Lauretta, University of Arizona; Scott Messenger,
Washington
University in St. Louis; and Linda Welzenbach, Smithsonian
Institution.
Nancy Chabot of CWRU's department of geological sciences is a
veteran of two
previous ANSMET expeditions and will be the lead scientist for
this year's
fieldwork, while James Pierce of Colorado and John Schutt of
Washington
State will be the expedition mountaineers.
For information, contact Ralph Harvey at 216-368-0198 or by
e-mail at
rph@po.cwru.edu. Further
information on ANSMET activities, including maps,
images and daily updates from the field can be found at the
ANSMET Web site
at http://www.cwru.edu/affil/ansmet.
The ANSMET Web site also includes links to associated sites such
as
Antarctic meteorite facilities at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
===========
(6) AND FINALLY: THE RAPTURE TRAP
>From National Review, 18 November 2002
http://www.nationalreview.com/dreher/dreher111802.asp
Afraid You'll be Left Behind? The Rapture Trap.
By Rod Dreher
In 1980, I was 13 years old, and someone had given me a copy of
Hal
Lindsey's mega-selling The Late Great Planet Earth to read. The
Soviets were
in Afghanistan, the American hostages were in Tehran, I had
become fixated
on the fear of nuclear war and - suddenly, thanks to Late Great,
the chaos
all made sense. There was no need to be afraid. This was all part
of God's
plan. Accept Jesus as your personal savior, and you wouldn't have
to suffer
through the worst of what was to come, for you would be spirited
away in the
Rapture. And if you didn't - well, too bad for you when the
Antichrist comes
knocking.
The premillenial Rapture is the belief, held by many Protestant
Christians,
that believers will, "in the twinkling of an eye," be
taken body and soul
into heaven to meet Jesus Christ - this, just as the world is on
the brink
of seven years of unprecedented suffering and strife, preceding
the Second
Coming and the end of history. If you think the end of the world
is upon us,
it's easy to see why believing you won't have to suffer the worst
of it
would be calming. On the other hand, you might exchange one set
of fears for
another. When I was in Late Great's grip, I would wake up every
morning in a
mild state of panic, wondering if the Rapture had happened while
you were
sleeping, and I'd been ... left behind!
I don't believe in the premillenial Rapture anymore, but it's
easy to see
why so many people want to. For Christians and others whose
religious
beliefs predict an apocalyptic final act (even Islam and the New
Age have
their own versions), these days are unusually anxious. It isn't
difficult to
find in today's headlines - wars, rumors of wars, natural
disasters,
plagues, religious strife and technology run amok - evidence for
the belief
that history is quickening toward some sort of climax.
No wonder, then, that the same sensational theological teachings
that
excited believers in the 1970s and earlier are more popular than
ever. The
Left Behind fiction series, whose title refers to those who
weren't raptured
before the Apocalypse, may well be the best-selling Christian
books of all
time, not counting the Bible.
Given the amount of popular publicity given to the Rapture and
its attendant
doctrines, it may surprise (and disappoint) many Christians to
learn that
this set of beliefs, generally called
"dispensationalism," is not explicitly
taught by the Bible, nor has ever been widely held by Christians.
In fact, neither Roman Catholicism nor Eastern Orthodoxy, which
together
include most of the world's Christians who live now and who have
ever lived,
profess dispensationalist eschatology (which means the study of
the End
Times). The Rapture is also alien to the historical Protestant
confessions
(as this story from a Baptist newspaper makes clear). Martin
Luther had
never heard of such a thing, nor had John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli,
or any
other Protestant divine until a pair of 19th-century British
small-sect
pastors developed the notion apparently independent of each
other. One of
the men, John Nelson Darby, traveled widely in North America
between 1859
and 1874, where his dispensationalist teachings spread like
wildfire. (For a
more detailed explanation of this theology from a
dispensationalist
viewpoint, go here and here)
Given world events, particularly in the Middle East and Europe,
the
dispensationalist fire continues to roar among Christians, who
understandably want to know if today's headlines can be explained
and
tomorrow's headlines can be predicted from ancient Scripture.
Unfortunately,
many Christians are under the impression that dispensationalist
teaching -
on Christianity's theological fringe, historically speaking - is
the first
and last word on the matter. Most Catholic priests, as well as
their
mainline Protestant counterparts, downplay or ignore their
congregations'
natural - and sociologically predictable - interest in the End
Times,
leaving lay believers open to instruction by those who, however
misguided,
take it seriously. That's why Paul Thigpen, a Yale-trained
religious
historian and Catholic convert, wrote The Rapture Trap.
"I began to see so many Catholics taken in by this Left
Behind stuff,
because they've had no religious instruction in
eschatology," Thigpen tells
NRO. "In so many parishes the homilies are like, 'Love your
neighbor, be
nice.' If priests never get around to talking about who Jesus is,
there's no
way they're ever going to get around to talking about the Second
Coming."
Though he writes from a Catholic perspective, Thigpen, an
ex-Pentecostal and
former editor of Charisma magazine, takes care to demonstrate in
the book
how none of the leaders of the Reformation believed in the
Rapture. He says
the "historical myopia" of American culture leaves
people vulnerable to
those who can exploit ignorance of the past with convincing
presentations of
vivid theologies. Besides, America has always been fertile ground
for
apocalyptic religion.
"In the early days, the Puritans thought the Kingdom of God
would start in
North America, in their colony," Thigpen says. "We have
several large
denominations in America, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, who
owe their
existence to millennial fervor."
Eschatalogically-focused expressions of faith have swelled in
popularity
during times of social distress and dislocation, such as after
the Civil
War, and during the period of rapid industrialization and
immigration. There
was another great surge of it following World War II, says
Thigpen, and
again in the 1970s, as a reaction to countercultural upheaval.
The
dispensationalist apologetic The Late Great Planet Earth was the
best-selling nonfiction book of the decade, and though he has
never
apologized for his erroneous predictions in that book, author Hal
Lindsey
continues to be considered by many an authority on Biblical
prophecy. Being
a dispensationalist evangelist means never having to say you're
sorry.
Why should any of this matter? As I wrote this past summer,
apocalyptic
beliefs dictate the behavior of many true believers. American
dispensationalists were early non-Jewish supporters of Zionism,
believing
that the ingathering of diaspora Jews to their Biblical homeland
was a
necessary precursor for the return of Christ. Though many
Evangelicals and
other Christians support Israel today for other reasons, no small
number of
them do so because their end-times belief mandates it. Thigpen is
not so
much worried that Rapture-expecting Christians will blow up
Jerusalem's Dome
of the Rock to hasten Armageddon as he is concerned about the
spiritual harm
that may result from acceptance of dispensationalist beliefs.
"When times look tough and threatening, perhaps people find
a comfort in
believing in the Rapture, that God will help them escape events
before they
become too bad," Thigpen says. "Ideas have
consequences. One, the Rapture
doctrine ignores the redemptive power of suffering, which is a
powerful
Christian theme. Two, the Bible also shows that God chastises His
people as
well as their enemies; believers share in suffering as well.
Three, if
people wrongly believe Christians won't be around for the
persecution that
Scripture tells us will precede the Second Coming, they won't
prepare
themselves spiritually or otherwise."
Just because Catholicism doesn't teach the Rapture or focus on
end-times
prophecy doesn't mean the Catholic world has escaped popular
apocalypticism.
The particularly Catholic version comes as a mania for
apocalypse-centered
apparitions and private revelations claimed by contemporary
visionaries. The
Rapture Trap writes of the spiritual danger of uncritically
accepting such
claims, and offers discernment guidelines drawn from
Catholicism's
conservative tradition.
"What we're dealing with are people who are scared and
confused by what's
going on in the world today, and who aren't getting the
information they
need to separate what's real from what's vain and even harmful
speculation,"
Thigpen says. "As Christians, we believe Jesus is coming
back, and we have
to be ready for that to happen at any moment. But this game of
'plug the
headline into the Scripture verse,' or into the latest message
from a
supposed apparition, is a losing proposition."
Copyright 2002, National Review
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