EDITORIAL - Apocalypse Now, later - Opinion

EDITORIAL - Apocalypse Now, later - Opinion

While browsing through my CourseWeb assignments and Pitt e-mail, I came across this article in the Pitt News. Though I liked the general message (the world didn't end on 6/6/06 after all), the staff authors didn't research this article as carefully as it may seem. There are a couple errors that I found a bit annoying and worrisome. As a Christian, I've read most of the Bible, and I can tell you that Moses and the Israelites didn't wander in the desert for 40 days. It was 40 YEARS.....quite a bit of difference, though still a long time to be "rocking it in the sand." As far as Revelation goes, the "beast" has 7 HEADS, not backs, and as to whether or not they symbolize Rome's hills...who knows? My point is that it's either bad research or bad proofreading. Either way, shame on them as writers.

As for the article itself, I say "Bravo!" for emphasizing the importance of studying the context of the Bible. It's a collection of historical events that took place in a culture very different from ours. As the authors stated, our perceptions of what things mean in the Bible aren't necessarily right or even close to what the original authors meant. If we took the time to study the Bible like any other historical document, we'd begin to understand that as the saying goes, "Things are not always what they seem." Other than the two errors I pointed out, I think the rest of the article's facts were accurate, though.

I think it's also interesting to note that the Bible specifically says we won't know when the end of the world will come (Matthew 24:36-37, Mark 13:32). So to the rest of Christian culture, who do we think we're kidding?

Alright, so that was my rant.....if you get a chance, the article's short and worth a look.