I Survived The End of the World (In 1988). We CAN know, yo! p.s. the world isn’t ending on May 21, 2011!

Posted on May 20, 2011 by elizabeth

I was going to write this, but it’s a story best told aloud. This is a true-life story about how one day when I was 10 years old, I actually believed the Rapture had happened and I’d been LEFT BEHIND! Stockpiles, secret meeting spots, family passwords, OH MY! Watch and laugh with me. And then? Go enjoy life. Life’s too short to be wasted on fear-mongers who tear families apart! :) Live, love, HOPE! :)

This entry was posted in My Videos, RecoveringEvangelicalsAnonymous, RecoveringFundamentalist and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • Allison

    You are awesome. Love this – well, not that it happened to you, but love how you made it into such a funny, engaging story. Live, love, hope. :)

  • Pingback: Recommended Reading: Have a Nice Doomsday! » Eric Pazdziora

  • http://outofthesilverchair.blogspot.com/2011/04/and-she-walked-away.html Julie

    this great! Thanks for sharing your story…I love what you said about your mom and realizing that she didn’t believe that you would be whisked up in the eighties :)

    For us it was the cult leader yammering over and over about “Jeremiah’s nuclear nightmare”. According to her the whole book of Jeremiah was about the nuclear destruction going to wipe out everyone not in the cult.

    Uh-huh.

    Thanks for being great, EE!

  • http://www.heathershodgepodge.blogspot.com Heather’s Hodgepodge

    I can completely relate to your video! During my childhood, I would freak out every time I couldn’t find my dad. I was certain that the rapture had come and I had been left behind.

  • Jack

    For those who believe in a pre-trib rapture (whether the Miller, Lindsay/Darbian, or Camping version)–what happens to the unborn children of expectant mothers?

    Hmmmmmmm??

    • Kathi Robinson

      There are a lot of things that the bible doesn’t tell us specifically. However as we get to know God through His word, we get to know His nature & can trust Him to do what is right & loving. My guess would be that they would go up with their mothers–probably also the same with small children. I can not imagine God leaving them behind.

      But, again, since the bible does not say specifically, we trust in God’s nature that He will take care of them.

      btw, definitely not Camping. I used to listen to his station–mostly just good programming except for him–back at the time of his previous prediction. It sounded somewhat like it fit, except not sure how he overlooked the verse in Matthew when Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour.

  • http://www.katarinailic.com Katarina

    I’m so glad you shared this with us. This was so hilarious and refreshing. Although I no longer believe in the rapture either, there’s still a little part of me that is affected by all this and still a little something in me going “could it be true?”….even though I truly believe it is not. So anyways, this really brought comfort to me. Thanks!

  • http://vox-nova.com/ Radical Catholic Mom

    This is so sad. I cannot imagine growing up with this mindset.

  • frogla

    this really brought me a lot of comfort. Thanks for sharing your rapture story. XO

  • Carmen

    Hi EE,

    I love your blog. Your rapture scenario really resonated with me. And here’s the kicker: I didn’t grow up ANYWHERE NEAR a cultish church scenario, I just have a very overactive imagination. Seriously, even still if my Christian BFF is staying with me and I can’t hear her in my house for awhile, I start hyperventilating. (Things to note: I have a physical disability, and I don’t feel too confident in my own salvation.) Can I ask EE, what is the Catholic stance on the rapture?

    From Carmen, a person who thinks your blog is one of a few that contributes to my sanity. :)

  • Danielle

    I loved this! Thanks for sharing.

    My upbringing was not nearly as extreme as yours but I had similar fears and a feeling of impending doom when I was young. My father’s family was very religious and often spoke of the world ending, while my mother’s family was what I would call spiritual but not religious.

    I lived in the country, and I remember staying overnight with my grandmother on my mother’s side. She lived in town and asked me to take out the trash by myself after dark. When I went outside, I looked over the trees and saw an orange glow in the distance. Immediately, I was 100% convinced that the orange glow was the rapture coming our way. I ran back inside and prayed harder than I have ever prayed before, hoping I wasn’t too late.

    After several minutes of praying, I was still there and I thought we had all been left behind. I was too afraid to tell anyone in the house what I had seen. I tried to act as normal as possible and had nightmares that night about what the world would be like in the morning when everyone figured out what had happened.

    The next day when I figured out the rapture had not happened, I took the orange glow to be a warning and a personal sign from God that I should get ready. It was months later when I learned that the orange glow was caused by the streetlights on Main Street, something I had never seen before.

  • Pingback: Daylight Atheism > The Rapture of Charlie Sheen

  • http://remnantofremnant.blogspot.com priest’s wife
    • http://www.elizabethesther.com elizabeth

      aw, thank you!!!

  • Kathi

    I am sad to hear that your family was so cultish about that & apparently not totally sincere either. I was raised in a mainstream bible believing fundamentalist (that simply means holding to the fundamentals of the faith–even though it has taken on negative connotations). I never saw that film that I can remember, but I did hear Hal Lindsey & read Late Great Planet Earth. But he never mentioned any dates. Anyone who is coming up with a date is wrong since Jesus in Matthew said that no one knows the day or the hour.

    But I & II Thessalonians & other passages do talk about the rapture (although not using that term which comes from the latin to catch up or something like that).

    Anyway, it grieves me to hear that people like those you were raised around & Camping mis-use bible teaching, picking & choosing verses & ignoring others.

    The bible does teach that Jesus will return for His followers & we don’t know when it will be, but the bible gives some signs. The important thing is to be walking with Him, getting to know Him through studying what His word teaches–not what men say. People, even good bible teachers, are not perfect. In Acts 17:10, 11 it tells of the people of Berea who were more noble than others since they searched the scriptures to see if what Paul & others were preaching was the truth. People can mis-use the bible, so we need to compare what they say with what the bible teaches & get to know it for ourselves. It is the truth–not just what some one says. & we need to measure what anyone is teaching by what the bible says.

    Actually, when you talk about secret passwords & things like that, it almost sounds like some of the 1st century heresies like gnosticism where people claimed to have some special & secret knowledge. Not so, God has revealed Himself in the bible & we can study that for ourselves.

  • Pingback: When Sunday religion hurts you, make soup | Elizabeth Esther