End Times and the Class Divide

Fitzgerald observed that the “rich are very different”, apparently so are the poor. Of course, one person’s different is another’s normal depending on where you sit on the socio-economic ladder. A recent Upshot Article in the New York Times examined how Google searches vary by geographic location and by extension socio-economic status. The study suggests that the well-off want to know about digital cameras while the poor obsess about the Antichrist.

Specifically, the study looked at what searches correlated with what the researchers deemed the hardest places to live in the country and the easiest. The study employed a six-factor index (education, household income, unemployment, disability, life expectancy, and obesity) to determine the difficulty of life in each county in the country.

The top ten highest correlated searches to the hardest places to live include “antichrist”, “the antichrist”, “rapture”, and “about hell”. Apparently, where life is hard, people like their religion hard as well. Admittedly, a search for “rapture” may indicate an escapist fantasy but it also has a dark side. Those left behind will go through the “tribulation”—an ironic analogy to the divide between rich and poor.

At its heart, tales of the endtimes are ghost stories, albeit “Holy Ghost” stories. Fearing something that is not real, or cannot be proved to be real can be a diversion from a very real life of grinding poverty. It also suggests that fate or “God’s will” plays a part in one’s station in life. In some ways, accepting the “God’s will” argument parallels the final stage of grief, acceptance. But what happens when the hopeless suddenly have hope?

Revelation 11-First in the Revelation Trilogy is set in a small Central Pennsylvania mining town where the coal and iron veins have been exhausted. The people who remain eke out a living by commuting long distances or running marginal small businesses. When a mega-church set up in an old high school broadcasting fire and brimstone to the world via satellite starts pumping money into the local economy, the residents are all too willing to believe their long-awaited salvation is at hand. Whether it is or not is the story’s essential mystery.

Through a Glass Darkly

Many religious texts begin with the assumption that humans and God are separated, that humans feel for and stumble toward God in spiritual darkness. In Judeo-Christian theology light is often a metaphor for God. For example, Jesus proclaimed himself to be “the light of the world.”

The description parallels mental illness or at least deep dysfunction where the individual stumbles somewhat blindly through life. Often those observing can identify the individual’s self-limiting false perceptions, but telling the individual brings about no change. The change must come from within when the individual’s perception changes to accept reality. For example, anyone can tell a person engaging in addictive behavior that things will be better if he or she stops, but the addict will continue the destructive behavior most likely until death or "hitting bottom".

In literature, this irony, where the reader knows what is needed for salvation and character will not acknowledge it, creates tension that propels the story along its narrative arc. Because many of us have observed or experienced self-destructive behavior, the story is at once a mystery and familiar.

I have experimented throughout Revelation 11 and its sequels with characters being a part of something they don’t completely understand (the human condition?). Some characters conclude that we are living in the end times and the events occurring before them are unfolding Biblical prophecy. Others see only the events, not the prophetic context. For them, believing in prophecy requires too large a step of faith. Are they wise or foolish? What are the consequences of guessing wrong?

The apostle Paul said, “We see through a glass darkly and then face to face.” In Revelation 11, everyone sees “through the glass darkly” even if they believe they are seeing “face to face.”

End of Days

The HBO show, The Leftovers, based on Tom Perrotta’s novel, portrays a post-mass disappearance world struggling to understand this rapture-like event’s meaning. In previous decades, we have seen the Antichrist coming of age movies in The Omen series. In the 1970s, Hal Lindsey’s Late, Great Planet Earth and later books cast modern political events against a background of Biblical prophecy. The apocalypse never seems to lose its appeal.

In writing my novel Revelation 11, I’ve come across stories of people believing they were one of the two witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11 or the Antichrist himself. Of course, this is only the Christian side of the equation. Islamic eschatology also foretells Christ’s return, but with a different twist. Jesus returns to “break the cross”, a term used to mean that Jesus proclaims Islam to be the only true religion and Mohammed the prophet of God. For all I know there are adherents to Islam who believe they will play a role in the end times as well.

I cannot doubt the sincerity of people who believe they are destined to play a role in the Second Coming. My novel examines what happens when these people believe their time has come. My skeptic protagonist, Trog Davis, outwardly wants to have no part of it. When another character, Joe Stoner, asks him, “How would you act if you truly believed we were living the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy?” Trog realizes the people he is dealing with have a totally different view of reality.

So why is the apocalypse so fascinating? First, we know it is possible in some form. We have evidence of mass extinctions throughout the planet’s history and can conceive that humans can go the way of the dodo bird. The baby boom generation grew up knowing that nuclear weapons could easily lay waste to the planet. ‘Doomsday weapons’ was the quaint moniker for them before ‘weapons of mass destruction’ became the fashionable term. Now we face threats of environmental pollution and global warming. Jesus himself claimed divine intervention would be necessary to prevent humans from killing themselves— "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” (Matthew 24:22)

Finally, the apocalypse fascinates because it is the ultimate conspiracy theory. Someone, supernatural or human, knows what is going to happen, and the rest of us are along for the ride. We will need a hero to get to the truth. However, unlikely a hero he may be, Trog Davis may just be the guy for the job.