Blogosphere abuzz with tales of Rapture, end of the world
Charles Enman, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, July 21, 2006

Have you heard of the Rapture? That's the moment when Jesus Christ will take true Christians into heaven prior to his Second Coming. Many of those who believe in the Rapture see great portent in what is now happening in the Middle East.

On the Internet, raptureready.com says it is time to "fasten your seatbelt." Its Rapture Index is now at 157 -- and those seatbelts needed fastening when the 145 threshold was passed.

The index has been higher. Just after the terror attacks on the United States in September 2001, the index hit 182.

Raptureready.com does not claim infallibility, but it does call the Rapture Index "a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity." The higher the index, "the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture."

Raptureready.com looks at plagues, volcanoes, crime rates, and even globalism as precursors of the end times.

For some observers in the blogo-sphere, the current hostilities between Israel, Hamas and Hezbolloh are eerily reminiscent of images from the 14th chapter of the Book of Zechariah. the rest