11 September-13 September 1988. Wingbat Prophet--Edgar Whisenant-- flames with his millenialist predictions
11 September-13 September
1988. Wingbat Prophet--Edgar Whisenant-- flames with his
millenialist predictions.
Dr. Rusten tells the story.
Rusten, E. Michael and Rusten,
Sharon. The One Year Christian History.
Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003.
Edgar Whisenant, a retired NASA engineer, from
Little Rock Arkansas, published two wingnut-dispensationalist books:
1.
Rapture Rosh Hash Ana 1988 and 88
Reasons
2.
On Borrowed Time: The Bible Date
of the 70th Week of Daniel, Armageddon, and the Millenium
The wingnut predicted Jesus would return between
the sunset of 11 September 1988 and
sunset of 13 September 1988.
By 11 September 1988, other wingnut-millenarian
fanatics bought 4.5 million of the first volume above. This wingnut sent 300,000 of them to
millenialist American clerks. They were
flying off the Christian bookstores hawking them to other gullible types,
evidence of modern lunacy and gullibility.
Some, reportedly, we putting their pets to sleep, selling off
belongings, and literally going to the hilltops to witness the Second Advent.
One huckster began hawking tours to Israel to
witness the Second Coming of Jesus to Israel.
The huckster offered this pitch:
“We stay at the Intercontinental Hotel right on the
Mount of Olives where if this is the year of the Lord’s return, as we
anticipate, you may even ascend to Glory from within a few feet of His
ascension.”
The price for the trip was only
$1975 from Los Angeles or $1805 from New York (including return if
necessary).
One wingnut TV broadcasting
operation made programming changes to coordinate with the event. Dr. Rusten does not identify the
nitwit-outfit. However, it 1988, it was
either the wingnut-CBN with Pat “the false prophet” Robertson or that
wingnut-TBNer, Paul Crouch. Whichever
one, not to lose a beat, they ran rapture-stories and videos up-to-and-through 11-13 September 1988. What else can one expect from fanatical
millenarians and Pentecostal enthusiasts? (Partial answer beyond the
incompetent theology is Hillbilly music)
Of course, Wingnut-Edgar
Whisenant failed. So, he revised his
dated to 3 October 1988. That failed so he wrote another book
saying he might be off by one year. That failed, blah, blah. Another book, The Final Shout Rapture Report 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993.
Let us raise the toast to
celebrate wingnuttery and American fanatics in print and on Pentecostalist
television. Let us never forget the
gullibility and stupidity not just of individuals, but also wide tracts of
other loons. Fanatics, the whole lot of
them.
Sources
Abanes, Richard. End Time Visions: The Doomsday Obsession. Nashville:
Broadman and Holman, 1998. 93-105.
Alnor, William M. Soothsayers of the Second Advent. Old
Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1989. 15-33.
Chandler, Russell. Doomsday: The End of the World Through Time.
Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1993. 273-74.
Whisenant, Edgar C. On Borrowed Time: The Bible Dats of the 70th
Week of Daniel, Armageddon, and the Millenium.
Little Rock, AS: by the author, 1988.
Whisenant, Edgar and Greg Brewer.
The Final Shout Rapture Report 1989 1990
1991 1992 1993. Nashville, TN: World
Bible Society, 1989.
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