This is number 2 in my series of updates for Camping’s predicted Rapture Day, to follow on after Rapture update 1: New Zealand untouched. Don’t worry, I won’t be posting these updates every hour through the day, but just when significant times have passed.

It is now past 6 pm in Japan. They don’t have daylight saving, so we don’t have to worry about that factor. And we can thank God that he has not allowed another major earthquake today in that country already suffering so much from the March earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

If any of the small Christian minority there have been raptured, we might not know about it yet. But we would surely have heard if masses of Christians had disappeared from Sydney, Australia, where it is now after 7 pm.

I don’t have a lot of pity for most of the Christians who will probably find out by tonight that they have been deluded by Harold Camping. I think in fact there are rather few of them, mostly in the USA. They really have only themselves to blame if they put their trust in someone as unqualified as Camping, who has already shown himself untrustworthy.

But there is one group of deluded Christians for whom I have a lot of pity. As reported by the BBC no less,

In Vietnam, thousands of members of the Hmong ethnic minority gathered near the border with Laos earlier this month to await the 21 May event.

These poor people, if they are disappointed when the Rapture is supposed to come to them in just over an hour, may be left with no homes to go back to. That would be really sad. If that happens, Camping and friends ought to be held responsible.

Archdruid Eileen is right: the Christian proclamation should not be bad news for the poor, but good news. If it is bad news for anyone, it ought to be for the complacently rich, including those in churches, who don’t show any concern for the physical or spiritual state of poorer people around the world. Well, this whole Rapture scenario do some good, even if no Rapture happens, if it shakes some Christians out of their complacency into understanding that the end will come, at least for each individual at death, and that God will have something to say about how they have spent their lives which is nothing to do with how much wealth they have stored up.

Meanwhile Matthew Malcolm is liveblogging from Perth, Australia, where the Rapture is due in a few minutes …

Good morning from England. In New Zealand it is already after 8 pm on Saturday 21st May. But there are no signs yet of the Rapture having started there at 6 pm, as predicted by Harold Camping. No reports of earthquakes or backwards-twisting tornadoes. For a suitable image I had to find one of the February earthquake in Christchurch.

Why should this be? Is there no one in the whole of New Zealand worthy of being raptured? Well, if even one of their distinguished theological professors, Tim Bulkeley, could pour scorn on the predictions of judgment day today, then that just could be the explanation.

Or perhaps the damage Down Under was so massive that no reports have reached the rest of the world? I note that Tim has not yet posted today, so perhaps, despite his scepticism, he has been taken up to heaven with his fellow Kiwis.

Or could it be that Harold Camping is wrong? If so, it is only the church that will be damaged by today’s non-events.

I am embarrassed that I missed the clearest evidence in my post The Rapture: will we be clothed or naked?, which is from the story of Elijah. In the Bible there are only three people who were taken up into heaven alive: Enoch, Elijah and Jesus. We don’t know anything about Enoch’s clothes. Jesus had already left his earthly grave-clothes lying in the tomb when he was resurrected, and presumably what preserved his modesty during his resurrection appearances was some kind of heavenly raiment which could ascend to heaven with him.

So we are left with the story of Elijah being taken up to heaven in a whirlwind, in 2 Kings 2. This is the clearest and most detailed biblical account of any kind of rapture. And what do we read?

Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him …

2 Kings 2:13 (NIV 2011)

So it should be more than clear that our clothes will fall off us if and when we are raptured, for others to pick up.

Presumably, since the metaphorical sense of “mantle” derives from the KJV rendering of this story, the metaphorical mantles of those who are raptured will also be available for the first to claim them. In that case, as Joel Watts is expecting to be raptured on Saturday, as I already commented on his blog I want to claim “his mantle and a double portion of his anointing”, not least so that I can overcome the attacks of enemies of Gentle Wisdom and win that #1 biblioblogger place.

The Elijah passage also gives an insight into the mechanism of the Rapture. He was taken into heaven in a whirlwind, otherwise known as a tornado. Will the earth be hit by a massive outbreak of tornadoes? Were the ones which devastated the US Bible Belt a few weeks ago God’s practice run? It seems odd to me that Harold Camping is predicting earthquakes but has not mentioned tornadoes. And in the darkness and confusion inside a tornado there won’t be much danger of anyone’s nakedness being noticed.

So be ready for tomorrow just in case, but don’t worry about clothes. To quote Jesus (out of context? who said that?),

So do not worry, saying, … ‘What shall we wear?’ … ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. …

Matthew 6:31,34 (NIV 2011)

On Saturday the Rapture, and its associated earthquakes, may or may not sweep around the earth. Well, probably not. But already Rapture fever is sweeping around the world, and claiming among its victims bloggers in New Zealand (Tim Bulkeley), Canada (Martin Trench) and England (Archdruid Eileen, and, I suppose, myself) as well in Harold Camping’s native USA. Here in England even the secular press is falling victim, as seen in today’s edition of Metro. And in the USA the infection seems to be spreading into the academic sector (thanks to James McGrath for that link).

Meanwhile, in a post which seems to suggests that Roman Catholics will miss out on the Rapture, Joel raises an interesting issue, in passing in an image caption:

If you see me naked on the streets, it may or may not be because of the rapture

The image (reproduced here) suggests that Joel expects to be raptured naked, leaving behind all his clothes and even his socks, not to mention his phone and coffee mug. But the text written over the image, Revelation 16:15, seems to suggest the opposite, that it will matter how we are dressed when the Rapture comes.

So, which is it? Will we be taken up to heaven naked or fully clothed? Should we all put on our Sunday best this Saturday to make sure we give the right impression when we land at the Pearly Gates? After all, just in case we have committed a few sins that the death of Jesus Christ was unable to atone for, maybe if we look the part we can persuade St Peter to overlook them. I jest, of course.

There do seem to be Bible passages which suggest that we will be naked when we arrive in heaven, just as Adam and Eve were in Eden:

For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

1 Timothy 6:7 (NIV 2011)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud …, let us throw off everything that hinders …

Hebrews 12:1 (NIV 2011)

Other passages suggest that in heaven we will be given all the clothing we need, at least to keep us going for the few months until the final end of the world:

Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer …

Revelation 6:11 (NIV 2011)

So what do we make of the verse that Joel used?

Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.

Revelation 16:15 (NIV 2011)

It seems clear that we shouldn’t be wandering around naked as we wait for the Rapture. Anyway that wouldn’t be very sensible, at least here, in our cool May weather. But it probably doesn’t matter what we are wearing, as long as it is decent. It will all be left behind, perhaps in a mess as in Joel’s picture, or perhaps nicely tidied up by angels like Jesus’ graveclothes. Then before we can enter God’s kingdom and the marriage feast of the Lamb we will be clothed in our proper wedding garments (contrast Matthew 22:11-12).

Oh dear, this post has become far too serious! It is almost beginning to sound like I believe in the Rapture on Saturday!