Re-Post: Nearing Midnight for June 12th (Part 1)
06/06/06; A Good Rehearsal for the Rapture
It was about two months ago when I first became aware that June 6th had a numerical connection to the 666 antichrist number. Over the years, I’ve had people send me an unknown number of these date speculations; 06/06/06 just seemed one more to add to the pile. If you know the truth, why worry about something that will come and go without any lasting importance, which is now the case.
As the date drew closer, I realized the press was going to turn 06/06/06 into a big media event. Terry and I decided that we weren’t going to be swept up in any hype. When reporters contacted us, we told them that the date had absolutely no link to the mark of the beast. The only relevant connection to prophecy I can think of us was, ” An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign” (Mark 12:39).
All the resulting press attention did wonders for Rapture Ready’s traffic flow. The site received more hits than any time in its history. Last Tuesday was the first time the site had logged over a million hits in a single day – this board measure of traffic includes all html pages and graphic components. We estimated that the media coverage exposed over 100,000 new people to the site.
It’s a good thing we had decided to move the main site to a large server. In a two-day period we ran through 30 gigs of bandwidth.
It is very rewarding to see RR get all this media attention, but I have a higher goal in mind. Any traffic spike leading up to the rapture is simple a dress rehearsal for the main show. As I said with the coverage we received with the 2002 Time Magazine cover story article, “This is not the big one.” Up until now, the traffic is measured in the thousands. When the rapture takes place, the visitor rate will be in the millions.
The quality of the visitor is another big consideration. This past week, a large part of traffic surge came from people who had no real interest in prophecy. According to our site tracker, 60 percent of these people spent less than minute on the site. When the rapture takes place, RR will swamped by people desperate for information.
Most of the media outlet that mentioned the site, did so with tepid interest. A few reporters were outright hostle to end-time message. There is one example from a San Francico paper:
“I am sitting here not at all on fire, not at all reeling in unrelenting pain, not at all staring into the hot face of vile eternal doom without a single oscillating fan to cool my aching bones. Yet another portentous day has passed and the Rapture Index is almost off the charts with seething Armageddon certainty, and yet I’m still getting perfectly good cell reception. What gives? After all, the time is now. The pump of doom is perfectly primed. The elements are all in place: massive Bush Co abuse and vicious war and increasingly violent storms and armies of the ignorant and the righteous broadcasting their hate and their abominable fashion sense across the land. Do you not feel it? Man, we are so ready.”
Our search connection to 666 is actually rather low. One of the reasons RR was mentioned in all these 666 articles is that the site has built up a reputation for being a good end-time information resource. Some of the reporters who contacted us remembered the site from previous times when interest in prophecy has spiked.
At the conclusion of one interview, a reporter said he would get in touch with me the next time some current event becomes noteworthy in the light of prophecy. As he made that remark, I had to wonder if I would be around the next time the end times pop up on the news radar.
I have a long list of things that I plan to add to the site. My top goal will always be to make Rapture Ready rapture ready. At some point, the rapture is going to occur and the site will likely play a key role in explaining to people the reality they will then face. The main reason the site has become the leading source for end-time information is because we trusted God at His Word.
— Todd
Original Link.
