Rapture Ready is an Evangelical Christian website, originally a Usenet forum, founded by Todd Strandberg[1] in 1987, that promotes the belief that the rapture will occur in the near future, with true Christians being taken up to Heaven.[2] The site tracks the real-world occurrence of events that Strandberg believes are prophesied in the Bible,[3] and uses these to calculate what Strandberg sees as the approach of the rapture.[4]
Originally, Rapture Ready (then called "Rapture Index") consisted of threads in Usenet newsgroups such as alt.bible.prophecy and alt.christnet.second-coming.real-soon-now. In 1995, Rapture Index became a website. In 1997, it was renamed "Rapture Ready".[5]
Features
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The "Rapture Index" keeps track of activities which Strandberg believes could be indicators of a time when the Rapture might occur.[6][7] The index includes Strandberg's numerical measurement of world events[8][9] and trends in light of conservative Christian views on Bible prophecy regarding the end times.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Miller, Lisa (2008-11-14). "Belief Watch: Is Obama the Antichrist?". Newsweek.
On Nov. 5, Todd Strandberg was at his desk, fielding E-mails from around the world. As the editor and founder of RaptureReady.com, his job is to track current events and link them to biblical prophecy in hopes of maintaining his status as "the eBay of prophecy," the best source online for predictions and calculations concerning the end of the world.
- ^ Knowles, Steven (2013). "Rapture Ready and the World Wide Web: Religious Authority on the Internet". Journal of Media and Religion. 12 (3): 128–143. doi:10.1080/15348423.2013.820527. ISSN 1534-8423. S2CID 144758646.
One of the clearest examples of this can be found in a popular, fundamentalist, evangelical Web site known as Rapture Ready
- ^ Chapman, Jennie (2013-09-12). Plotting Apocalypse: Reading, Agency, and Identity in the Left Behind Series. University Press of Mississippi. p. 65. ISBN 9781617039041.
Rapture Ready, a Web site that tracks current events and compares them with biblical prophecies to calculate the proximity of the rapture.
- ^ Gibbs, Nancy (2002-07-01). "Apocalypse Now". Time. Archived from the original on 2013-01-12. Retrieved 2015-03-14.
That is how Todd Strandberg reads his paper. ... he's the webmaster at raptureready.com and the inventor of the Rapture Index, which ... tracks prophecies: earthquakes, floods, plagues, crime, false prophets and economic measurements like unemployment that add to instability and civil unrest, thereby easing the way for the Antichrist. In other words, how close are we to the end of the world?
- ^ Howse, Christopher (2006-08-12). "Sacred mysteries". The Telegraph. London.
Mr Strandberg began the Rapture Index in the 1980s as an attempt to standardise signs that the end-time was a-coming. In 1997, he renamed his site Rapture Ready, but it still features the Rapture Index, adjusted weekly.
- ^ Strandberg, Todd (September–October 1998). "That's the News and I Am Outta Here". Politics. Mother Jones (Interview). Interviewed by Paul Tough. Retrieved 2015-03-15.
The total, a number between 45 and 225, is that week's Rapture Index. Anything over 145 means we're in the 'alert zone,' and signals that the Rapture may be imminent.
- ^ Boyett, Jason (2006-08-07). "Apocalypse soon". Salon.
The Rapture Index, a meticulously categorized barometer of end-times activity posted at the popular Web site Rapture Ready, hovers around the mid-150s.
- ^ Zeller, Tom Jr. (2006-08-14). "A Christian Site Grapples With Muslim Mysteries". Technology. The New York Times.
When Israel and Hezbollah began trading blows last month, the community at RaptureReady.com, a fundamentalist Christian site dedicated to the proposition that the end times are near, was atwitter, taking the conflict as another sign of an impending judgment day.
- ^ Zahn, Paula (2006-07-24). "Paula Zahn Now" (transcript). CNN.
Take a look at the Rapture Index on the World Wide Web. It assigns numerical values to wars, earthquakes and disasters. And tonight, it's at 156, which is in the 'fasten your seat belt' category.
Further reading
edit- Frauenfelder, Mark (1996-12-12). "If Rapture Index is High, End of the World is At Hand". Wired. Archived from the original on 2002-07-24.
The Rapture Index attempts to quantify the likelihood that the Rapture is about to take place, based on the observations of index creator Todd Strandberg, a 31-year-old Air Force sergeant stationed at Offutt Air Force base near Omaha, Nebraska.
- Alter, Alexandra (2006-08-08). "For some evangelicals, Mideast war stirs hope". Religion & Values. Miami Herald. Archived from the original on 2006-08-23.
The Rapture Index this week: 158. The spike reflects many U.S. evangelicals' view that growing conflict in the Middle East signals the start of a global struggle leading to Christ's return.
- Lanham, Robert (2006-09-05). The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right. New York City: New American Library. p. 157. ISBN 9780451219459.
The site's creators generate what they call 'the Rapture Index' by assigning a numerical value to dozens of end-times indicators, such as Inflation, Liberalism, False Christs, Beast Government, Satanism, Interest Rates, Oil Price, Earthquakes, Famine, Plagues, and Globalism.
- Stack, Peggy Fletcher (2008-10-31). "Rapture: Distress about wars and the world economy feed apocalyptic warnings". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2015-03-16.
Strandberg ... created a Rapture Index, modeled after the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which consists of 45 categories of prophetic indicators from the occult to inflation and the crime rate. Each is assigned a value of one to five depending on the level of activity in that category. The numbers are adjusted weekly, and the higher the number, the faster the world is moving toward its end.