Apocalypse now and then

What is it with Christians and the end of the world? Many of my co-religionists are pre-occupied with an apocalyptic finale being nigh, and to latch on to any sign that our time on Planet Earth is almost up.

The latest prediction touted Wednesday 7 October 2015 as the Final Day. According to eBible, an online Christian organisation, that was the day the world would be permanently destroyed.

“It will be gone forever,” said eBible founder Chris McMann. “Annihilated.” McMann predicted it would be by fire rather than by pestilence, flood or famine.

Of course, McMann is not the first luminary to predict the apocalypse. Rasputin had pencilled in 23 August 2013 and former US presidential hopeful, Pat Robertson, took a punt on 29 April 2007 – and that wasn’t his first effort. None of them were right. But still the predictions and prophecies roll in.

Although ourindividual lives are all going to end someday, what’s the point of predicting the end of the world? Admittedly, knowing when we are all going to be hanged, as it were, might certainly concentrate our minds wonderfully.

But then again, if the game’s up, why not just kick back and relax?  Even Jesus didn’t think we needed to worry unduly about what comes next: “Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,” he said.

I’m writing this just before midday on Wednesday 7 October, so if McMann was right and you don’t get to read this after all, was it really so bad that everything wrapped (or burned) up today?

For a start, just know that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will now ride high in the polls for eternity. We’ll never know the outcome of Russia’s foray into Syria alongside its new regime buddy, Iran. But then again, we’ll also be spared the slings and arrows of a Trump presidency after 2016.

But again, some will think eBible’s prediction was adrift by a few days. Fans of England’s rugby team know the world ended last Saturday. Back home, NRL fans – at least, those outside North Queensland – are certain it happened on Sunday.

Best of all, if the planet was annihilated on Wednesday, it took that pile of ironing in my back room with it.