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Though apocalyptic predictions have often turned tragic over the centuries, mass suicides seem to be a relatively new phenomenon. In a "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" broadcast on cult mentality following the 1997 Heaven's Gate suicide, Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, a psychiatrist teaching at the City University of New York, said, "I think this is a sign of our times. I mean, we're technologically advanced and schooled. We're spiritually adrift, and the combination can be deadly because the particular spiritual embrace can be all the more extreme."

This suicidal version of the problem may be new, but the temptation to predict, even force, the coming of kingdom bliss is not. And John Calvin's perspective seems as fresh as ever: "Though we very truly hear that the Kingdom of God will be filled with splendor, joy, happiness, and glory, yet when these things are spoken of, they remain utterly remote from our perception, and, as it were, wrapped in obscurities, until that day comes when he will reveal to us his glory, that we may behold it face to face."

* For more on the history of millennial thought, see Christian History issue 61: The End.

* The NewsHour transcript on cult mentality can be found at www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/religion/suicide_3-27.html

* Full coverage of the Ugandan doomsday cult is available at http://fullcoverage.yahoo.com/fc/World/Uganda/

Elesha Coffman can be reached at cheditor@ChristianityToday.com.

Copyright © 2000 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian History magazine.
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