Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Doomsday doesn't dawn in Korea Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 14:38:17 EST Message-ID: \SE A;WORLD \HD Doomsday doesn't dawn in Korea \SH Thousands had gathered for rapture \BY Michael Breen \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT SEOUL SEOUL - Thousands of Korean Christians of the Dami Church gathered in prayer groups yesterday to await the end of the world and went home disappointed when nothing happened. Riot police, fearing mass suicides, sealed off the largest church, the Dami Mission Church in western Seoul, keeping reporters and onlookers at bay while several hundred white-robed believers inside held what they believed to be their final service. At the climax of the service at midnight Korean time (10 a.m. EST), the faithful expected that God would whisk them physically off the face of the earth into heaven. The intensity of the preparation for the prophesied event, known as the rapture, had sent shock waves through Korean Christian circles. Women reportedly had abortions to make themselves lighter, and some believers took martial-arts classes so they could kick away people who might try to hold on to them as they flew upward. Others quit jobs and sold houses. About 10 p.m., a woman apparently decided she no longer needed her money and ID card and threw her purse out a church window into the crowd of reporters. Just before midnight, the singing stopped and congregation members could be seen through a window swaying and moving their heads in frantic prayer. Shortly afterward there was silence. Twenty minutes later, the first bewildered believers came out of the five-story church building and ran a gantlet of police and journalists. "There were a lot of long faces," said Lee Pyong-il, 53, an apartment janitor. "But the Lord is still my shepherd. I trust my God." Mr. Lee said that the Rev. Chang Man-ho, who conducted the service, told the congregation he was "terribly sorry" and urged them to continue to love God. "I don't feel cheated, because I believed sincerely with all my heart," one woman said in response to a barrage of shouted questions from reporters. Mr. Chang was standing in for the Dami church founder, the Rev. Lee Chang-rim, who is in jail on charges of misappropriating church funds and illegal possession of foreign currency. Christian experts estimated that 250 Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches with 20,000 members had been teaching that the rapture would occur this year. Most of these congregations believed the deadline was midnight yesterday. The belief was based on spiritual experiences of three teen-agers, Kwon Mi-na, Kim Hyun-jin and Ha Bang-ik. The phenomenon of the rapture is widely believed by Christians all over the world who take the Bible literally. It is common among evangelical Christians in the United States. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM