The Rapture Index is one of my guilty pleasures and has been on my bookmarks list for a few years now. Being a computer science geek with professional experience in simulation and modeling (not to mention computer game design), I’m fascinated by the idea of someone trying to judge our “end times” status by assigning values to 45 different factors (“False Christs”, “Occult”, “Unemployment”, “Inflation”, “Ecumenism”, etc.). As the author says:

The Rapture Index has two functions: one is to factor together a number of related end time components into a cohesive indicator, and the other is to standardize those components to eliminate the wide variance that currently exists with prophecy reporting.

The Rapture Index is by no means meant to predict the rapture, however, the index is designed to measure the type of activity that could act as a precursor to the rapture.

You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we’re moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture

• Rapture Index of 100 and Below: Slow prophetic activity
• Rapture Index of 100 to 130: Moderate prophetic activity
• Rapture Index of 130 to 160: Heavy prophetic activity
• Rapture Index above 160: Fasten your seat belts

I admire the author’s efforts at quantification of prophecy. Still, as a computer science geek with modeling and simulation experience, I could point out all the actual and potential flaws of such a model (selection of factors, weighting of factors, non-objective measurement of factors, applicability and predictive nature of model, presumptive biases, etc.), but then I’d end up also explaining why I remain a skeptic of most current claims regarding anthropogenic global warming (hint: for exactly the same reasons). ..bruce..