Jan 09 2013

Farah: The End is Near

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In the old days, fringe cranks who wanted to declare the coming judgment had to walk the sidewalks with a sandwich board saying “The end is near!” These days, they do it on popular websites like the Worldnutdaily. Here’s Joseph Farah’s version of that ridiculous old claim.

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” – 2 Timothy 3:1-5

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” – 2 Timothy 4:3-4

We may have survived Dec. 21 and the end-times predictions of the Mayan calendar, but time’s still running out on business as usual in this world of ours.

The signs are everywhere.

God is sitting on His throne in heaven, but He’s about to act…

For instance, is there any more apropos description of the time we live in than the one described in 2 Timothy?

Turn on the television and you will see the evidence.

Read the news and you will see it.

Yeah, and if there was television in 1800 or newspapers in 1300 or 700 or any other time in history, one could say the exact same thing. There has never been a time in history where one could not point to the existence of people who are “covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents” or of “wars and rumors of wars” or of “false teachers” and other such vagueries. In every single age for the last 2000 years, including the days of Paul and the first disciples, Christians have believed they were living in the end times. They’ve always been wrong.

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26 comments

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1

shouldbeworking

January 9, 2013 at 9:07 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

The babble is full such examples. The end has been coming for 6000 years now. Almost as bad as waiting for my tax refund cheque.
2

Gregory in Seattle

January 9, 2013 at 9:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

“Popular websites like the Worldnutdaily.” Maybe the end really is nigh.
3

democommie

January 9, 2013 at 9:15 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

“Farah: The End is Near”

Ed, stop teasing us like that.

Here I was, doing some research on sexually dystopics (the production values are stupendous!) and I see that header. I’m thinking that Pornstache Joe is about to pop his clogs and what do I get, just more of the same-o Jo-jo.

Rats.
4

dingojack

January 9, 2013 at 9:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Well these bad people shouldn’t be too hard to spot – they’ll be the ones in adult diapers.
Remember amonst many other discriptors they’l be ‘incontinent’‘.
Dingo
5

Gretchen

January 9, 2013 at 9:34 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

In every single age for the last 200 years, including the days of Paul and the first disciples, Christians have believed they were living in the end times. They’ve always been wrong.

Including, I would say, Jesus himself. The original doomsday prepper: “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
6

tiredofusernamerules

January 9, 2013 at 9:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Is it ironic that the authority Farah cites (2 Timothy) is a forgery?
7

hexidecima

January 9, 2013 at 9:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

when will the Christians get around to stoning to death all of these false prophets per their god’s demand?
8

eamick

January 9, 2013 at 9:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

We may have survived Dec. 21 and the end-times predictions of the Mayan calendar

You mean those nonexistent predictions? Idiot.
9

richardelguru

January 9, 2013 at 10:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Yup Dingo, now’s the time to buy shares in whoever makes Depends.
10

John Hinkle

January 9, 2013 at 10:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

“…And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” – 2 Timothy 4:3-4

Huh, I never noticed that the Bible could be self-referential.
11

Tabby Lavalamp

January 9, 2013 at 10:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

false accusers

Well, Farah and the WND are certainly doing all they can in this regard.
12

peterh

January 9, 2013 at 10:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Well, the religiots have missed the boat a great many times already, but a few more are coming down the road for them to miss also. Here’s just one compilation of their End Times nuttery:

http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm
13

lclane2

January 9, 2013 at 10:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Wikipedia documents end of the world predictions. Bayesian probability indicates that their likelihood is 0%.
14

Sastra

January 9, 2013 at 10:28 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

I sometimes wonder if one of the reasons people are so quick to assume that the current age is in a rapid decline and is therefore the “worst” it has ever been might be due to a universal psychological tendency to measure the world by our own lives. When I was a baby, then toddler, then child, I had little awareness of what was going on outside the scope of my direct concerns and environment. As I got older, it was as if everything started changing. My recognition of the scope of “evil” expanded. It was everywhere!

It wasn’t like that before.

Our emotions color our evaluations. If we’re all instinctively comparing the world as we see it as adults with the way we thought the world was when we were a child, then complaints about how things are now going to hell in a handbasket will seem intuitively plausible. It feels that way to all of us. Statistics require mental work to comprehend, as well as to do.

I suppose one could test this hypothesis by looking at cases where children lived through some major pubic trauma in their youth which has now stopped — a war or pogrom, say. Would they be as quick to agree that it’s obvious that things now are worse than they have ever been?
15

Moggie

January 9, 2013 at 10:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

“Pubic trauma”?
16

raven

January 9, 2013 at 10:46 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

The idea behind most End Timers seems to be wishful thinking.

They hope the world will end.

Their lives are meaningless, desperate, and going nowhere. They are hoping for suicide by cosmic Sky Monster. With 7 billion other murders tossed in as a side benefit.

I’ve never spent much time at Rapture Ready. People who have say the denizens are by and large socially, intellectually, and mentally marginal.
17

Doug Little

January 9, 2013 at 11:08 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Isn’t this just a case of a petulant childlike mind.

Nahhhh, my big imaginary friend is gonna teach all of you atheists a lesson, stop laughing at me.
18

Avenel

January 9, 2013 at 11:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

I think you mean the last 2000 years, not the last 200, Ed.
19

matty1

January 9, 2013 at 11:19 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

@14 That calls to mind two of my favourite ideas, the first is Douglas Adams three stages in dealing with new ideas (paraphrased since I can’t be arsed to look it up)

1. Anything invented before you are ten is just part of the natural order of things

2. Anything between your 10th and 30th birthday is new and exciting and you can probably make money out of it.

3. Anything invented after you are 30 is wrong and unnatural and shouldn’t be allowed.

The second I don’t even have a source for is an ‘explanation’ of conservative attitudes.

The speaker is certain that the modern world has gone too far, it is overcrowded, unhealthy and in danger of falling apart. At the same time he would not want to go too far into the past when the woods were full of dangerous beasts and life was short and brutal. Clearly a happy medium must be found and by a staggering coincidence this coincides with the time of the speakers own childhood”
20

tacitus

January 9, 2013 at 11:23 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

The idea behind most End Timers seems to be wishful thinking.

They hope the world will end. Their lives are meaningless, desperate, and going nowhere. They are hoping for suicide by cosmic Sky Monster.

I tend to disagree with the second part — if that was true, then they wouldn’t fight so hard to stay alive when facing things like terminal cancer. After all, whether you die or are raptured, the end result is supposed to be the same.

I think it’s more that they want to believe that their generation is special in some way, and that they will be the ones who live to see Biblically foretold events unfolding before their very eyes, washing away any lingering doubts about their beliefs (not to mention allowing them an “in your face” to their detractors).

Thus, the wishful thinking is akin to being a Chicago Cubs fan who believes that their generation will be the ones to witness their team finally winning another World Series, no matter how forlorn that hope really is.
21

democommie

January 9, 2013 at 11:54 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

@14:

Sastra; I think Dr. X had a post that bears on the first part of your comment. It’s here:

http://drx.typepad.com/psychotherapyblog/2013/01/the-end-of-history-illusion.html

I would say it’s more likely that Pornstache Joe’s current delusions don’t square with his previous delusions, leading to whatever is the penultimate state of cognitive dissonance.
22

John Pieret

January 9, 2013 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears

Doesn’t that about describe the readership of WingNutDaily?
23

miles

January 9, 2013 at 12:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

” In every single age for the last 200 years, including the days of Paul and the first disciples”

Think you meant 2000?
24

jnorris

January 9, 2013 at 1:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

Before Farah will say the soothe again, you must run seven times around the seven hills of Rome.
25

montanto

January 9, 2013 at 3:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment

I’ve got a new response for this line courtesy of Mr. Indris Elba
26

bradleybetts

January 10, 2013 at 7:37 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof”

OK, let’s go through this from a personal perspective:
Lover of thine own self- So “not self loathing like the church says I should be”? in that case, yes, yes I am :)
Covetous- I am covetous of many things, particularly good food and alcohol. And cars. OK, I’m covetous.
Boasters- Yep
Proud- In general, yeah.
Blasphemers- Hell yes.
Disobedient to parents- Yep.
Unthankful- Nope.
Unholy- Most definitely :)
Without natural affection- Er, nope. As in, I do have natural affection.
Trucebreakers- Nope.
False accusers- Nope.
Incontinent- Incontinent!? I’m 22! No!
Fierce- Meh, when I’m riled.
Despisers of those that are good- Huh? No, we just have different definitions of good.
Traitors- Nope.
Heady- What does that even mean?
High-Minded- See above.
Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God- Most definitely :)

9/18, so by my calculations I should bring about 50% of the end of the world. Is that how it works? Or does everyone on earth have to possess every single one of those qualities? Oh, sorry, “For men shall be”, I forgot this was the Bible. So does every man on Earth have to possess every single one of those qualities?