| A Native American called Wovoka, but known | | | | that year and the Jehovah's Witnesses have since |
| better to history as Jack Wilson, was transported | | | | remain fixed in the conviction that the generation |
| to heaven on January 1, 1889 during a solar | | | | of 1914 is the generation that Christ predicted will |
| eclipse, and in the presence of God he saw a | | | | not "pass" before the end of the world comes. |
| vision of heaven, a beautiful place populated by | | | | The Seventh Day Adventists also evolved from |
| large herds of wild game. He saw the ancestors in | | | | similar failed predictions of the "end of the world." |
| heaven spending their time happily in the Native | | | | The incident recorded in the New Testament |
| Americans' favorite leisure activities. | | | | Book of Acts were the activities of a typical |
| The term Ghost Dance arose from the spiritual | | | | Native American type Ghost Dance movement. |
| renewal movement that Wovoka founded among | | | | What were the disciples of Jesus, estimated by |
| the Native Americans in 1890. By the 1880s, the | | | | the writer of the Book of Acts at about 120 |
| Native Americans had fallen into very hard times, | | | | adults, doing in the upper chamber of a house in |
| confronted with the dire specter of hunger, | | | | Jerusalem on Pentecost? The writer of the Book |
| disease and extinction of their cultures due to | | | | of Acts admits that they were gathered in |
| European immigrants into the New World. The | | | | expectation of an extraordinary event on that |
| new European immigrants were systematically | | | | fateful day. One can imagine that the days which |
| dispossessing Native Americans of their land and | | | | followed the "Lord's Ascension" were days of |
| were forcing them to submit to "government" | | | | excitement for the group. It is not generally |
| authority and relocation to bleak reservations. | | | | appreciated that the core beliefs of Christianity |
| Wovoka prophesied an end to European | | | | developed from an interpretation of the seven |
| dispossession and exhorted the people to help | | | | feasts of the Jewish calender in eschatological |
| hasten the commencement of times of renewal | | | | terms. |
| God had promised by doing the "round dance" as | | | | The ascension of the "Lord" to heaven, from the |
| prescribed. The Native Americans complied | | | | Mount of Olives, was thought of as fulfilling the |
| eagerly and what came to be known as the | | | | symbolism in the feast of the relatively sparse |
| Ghost Dance began with the Peyote of Nevada in | | | | early spring harvest, the first barley harvest. This |
| 1889 and spread very quickly among the Native | | | | was known as the feast of first-fruits, Christ |
| Americans of the West as far as California and | | | | himself being the "first-fruit" sheaf of barley |
| Oklahoma. | | | | harvest offered to God. Counting fifty days from |
| The Ghost Dance prophet promised dramatic | | | | the feast of first fruits was Pentecost, the feast |
| apocalyptic changes in which the earth would be | | | | of the first wheat harvest. Wheat, rather than |
| renewed by the supernatural expulsion of the | | | | barley, was the staple and its first ripening was a |
| Europeans, re-population of the land with buffalo | | | | time of joy and promise of plenty for the people |
| and antelope and, most welcome of all, the return | | | | in the new season. No wonder the Nazarenes |
| of the ancestors to their children in a world free | | | | were in an excited and ecstatic state on that day. |
| of violence, disease, warfare and death. But for | | | | If the fulfillment of the first spring harvest was |
| these miraculous changes to happen they would | | | | the ascension of Christ then the fulfillment of the |
| have, according to Wovoka, to give up their evil | | | | second harvest, the first wheat harvest referred |
| ways and adopt a new lifestyle of high moral | | | | to as the "counting of the omer," would logically |
| integrity which involved ceremonial ablutions, | | | | imply the ascension of the group of 120 |
| magical chants and dances. The American | | | | Nazarenes, also, to heaven! The early disciples had |
| government panicked at what appeared a | | | | actually been expecting to be caught up to the |
| mobilization of the "Indians" for renewed warfare. | | | | heavens after Christ in fulfillment of the |
| A misunderstanding between the European | | | | symbolism of the wheat sheaf offering, even as |
| Americans and the Lakota Indians led to the | | | | Jesus, the Barley sheaf, was offered. This |
| infamous incident at Wounded Knee. | | | | eschatological interpretation of the seven Jewish |
| The term Ghost Dance has since then been used | | | | feasts must have been strengthened by the |
| by some Anthropologists as a general term for | | | | coincidence of Jesus executed by the authorities |
| what is also referred to, in traditional cultures, as | | | | on the day in which the Passover lamb was slain! |
| Millenarianism. A millenarian movement is one in | | | | How neatly everything fitted together for the |
| which adherents believe firmly in an imminent | | | | Nazarenes. |
| transformation of society. Millenarianism has been | | | | Trumpets, in ancient times, were heralds of war. |
| described as the religion of the oppressed who | | | | Thus, we read the Apostle Paul describing Jesus |
| view the dominant group or class as imposing a | | | | as leaping from the heavens at the "last trumpet |
| corrupt and immoral regime which would be | | | | call" to wreak the havoc of the vengeance of |
| swept away by an unprecedented cataclysm. The | | | | God on the wicked. The feast of trumpets was |
| term "millenarian," of course, arose from the | | | | interpreted by the small crowd of Nazarenes as |
| Christian belief, derived from the prophecies | | | | the day they would return with Jesus from the |
| recorded in the Book of Daniel and the | | | | heavens to judge the world. The failure of the |
| Apocalyptic Revelations of St. John, in which a | | | | prophecy of ascension of Christians to heaven on |
| new kingdom of heaven was prophesied to | | | | Pentecost explains the tortuous eschatological |
| overthrow the kingdoms of rulers of the world | | | | agenda elaborated by Paul in which Christians are |
| who oppressed, first the Jews, and then later the | | | | first caught up in a private rapture to heaven "to |
| Christians in Roman times. | | | | meet the lord" in the air at the "last trump" |
| As one might expect, European scholars and | | | | before returning immediately with Jesus at his |
| commentators on the Ghost Dance movements | | | | second coming to judge the world, and |
| of other traditional cultures pay only very little | | | | consequently fulfill the symbolism in the Feast of |
| attention to the fact that the Christian religion | | | | Trumpets. The Day of Atonement symbolized |
| itself started in the form of a Ghost Dance cult, in | | | | the day in which, according to Apostle Paul, "all |
| the Jewish synagogue, known to history as the | | | | Israel would be saved" after the trumpet call day |
| Sect of the Nazarenes. The tendency of Ghost | | | | of "Armageddon." The Feast of Tabernacles was |
| Dance movements to transform, after the | | | | understood to refer to the Millennial reign of Jesus |
| disappointing failure of "end of world" prophecies, | | | | over the world with his saints. |
| from what is referred to by sociologists as a | | | | The disciples had actually gathered in the upper |
| "cult," into an "ecclesia" is well documented in | | | | chamber for the same reason that the Native |
| history. | | | | American Ghost Dancers did: to enact ceremonial |
| The North American continent has been described | | | | dances and rites by which they would ascend to |
| as being especially fertile ground for millenarian | | | | the heavens just like Jesus did. The prophecy of |
| movements. The sect of the Jehovah's Witnesses | | | | ascension to heaven on Pentecost failed but like |
| began as a typical millenarian movement with | | | | most other millenarian groups, as the Jehovah's |
| plenty of excitement over the "end of the world" | | | | Witnesses and Adventists, the group survived and |
| fixed on the Gregorian calender as sometime in | | | | adjusted to the "Great Disappointment" and |
| 1844. The prophecy failed and the date for the | | | | moved on undaunted through history till it finally |
| beginning of another "end of the world" was fixed | | | | mushroomed into modern Christianity. |
| at 1914. Fortunately, the First World War began | | | | |