Anonymous reply regarding the Rapture:
Perhaps the "Rapture" occurs exactly as many "fundamentalist" "Christians" believe, the mainstream manner in which
this heresy is taught. You know--Jesus physically appears in person, either before or during a worldwide nuclear war,
and the true believers float upwards, defying gravity, and somehow are so overjoyed at being with Jesus that their
hearts aren't saddened by billions of people suffering through miserable deaths. Perhaps such an outcome occurs in
in another warped timeline/alternate dimension/on another branch of quantum physics--the one where every blade of grass
in the entire world is literally burned up...
Revelation 8:7, apostle John;
7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down upon the earth.
A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up."
and the one where everything living in the oceans is made extinct
...
Revelation 16:3-7, apostle John;
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man,
and every living thing in the sea died."
[...and not only made extinct, but blamed for their demise--every jellyfish, mollusk and fish right on down to amoebic life-forms, all of
them blamed for their sin by the angel God left in charge of the waters...]
"5 Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:
You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged;
6
for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.
[...Yep, read it literally, without the spirit, and the lobsters shed the blood of Gods saints and prophets...]
7 And I heard the altar respond:
Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments."
(If the literalists without the spirit are correct, the heavenly altar itself declares the saint-killing octopi had to die. Or perhaps it could mean
something entirely different, something consistent with Christ's deeds and gospel, if we choose to read the account using a bit of saintly,
allegorical language--you know, the kind Jesus was known for using...)
John 16:25, Jesus;
Though I have been speaking figuratively,
a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father."
Matthew 13:34-35;
Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.
So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.
Matthew 13:13, Jesus;
This is why I speak to them in parables:Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand."
Back to John 16, expanded for greater clarity and context...Jesus speaking;
25 Though I have been speaking figuratively,
a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language
but will tell you plainly about my Father..."
29 Then Jesus disciples said, Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech.
30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions.
This makes us believe that you came from God.
Luke 8:10;
[Jesus] said, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you,
but to others I speak in parables, so that,though seeing, they may not see;though hearing, they may not understand."
(Why did I say "literalists without the spirit" just preceding the accounts of Jesus' use of figurative language above? Paul...your turn...
)
1 Corinthians 2:13-14, Paul;
13 This is what we speak,
not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.
14 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him,
and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
[
i.e., one must read the scriptures using the same spirit of love Jesus personifies to have the proper context for determining whether
something is meant literally, or figuratively. Literalists without the spirit butcher the gospel and make it appear that God is righteously
accusing mollusks of killing the saints and prophets. (Perhaps mollusks are the reincarnated spirits of the saints & prophets killers?) ]
Trust me, Dennis, God is not holding lobsters accountable for killing the saints and prophets. Paul was a good servant.
He used the same allegorical language Jesus used. Peter even said so...
2 Peter 3:15-16;
15 Bear in mind that our Lords patience means salvation,
just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort,
as they do the other Scriptures,
to their own destruction."
Why speak in riddles and allegorical language? We're being tested. Do we have the spirit of love in our hearts, or selfishness and
death wishes for others? How we choose to read the scriptures tells a lot about who we are. As for the literalist Rapture heresy...
Pete, your turn again...
2 Peter 2:1, Peter;
1 But
there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.
They will
secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them
bringing swift destruction on themselves."
Why do I use the term, "Rapture heresy"? Because the way the Rapture is commonly taught denies "the sovereign Lord who
bought them". There's a true "Rapture" (and we'll examine this later), but the way the "Rapture", as commonly taught, it's part of
a heresy that denies Christ. It denies his spirit and the intent of his words. It goes like this: Mankind comes to end of the age time.
If at any time prior to then one has mouthed the words, "I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior", one is "in". Doesn't matter
if one murders and rapes afterwards. We all do bad things, don't we? But these folks claim God's grace because they said their mantra.
No further responsibility required. Their words can be devoid of meaning and sincerity as long as they're vocalized. That alone is a
perverse heresy. It denies Matthew 25, for one. Or a favorite of mine, Matthew 7:21
...
Matthew 7:21, Jesus;
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
[Love him or hate him, but Jesus aimed this one specifically to and directly at Christians, the only ones who call Jesus, "Lord".
That is, unless Jesus has other names in other religions. If that were the case, they'd be liable, too.]
But now, here we are at the "End Times"--time for God to punish the sinners and damn them eternally in a linear time sense.
Anyone who failed to mouth the mantra--doesn't matter how much they followed the Golden Rule, doesn't matter if they couldn't say
it because so-called "Christians" relying solely on grace massacred their people--none of that matters now. Doesn't matter if they're
little children like the ones Jesus was so fond of in the Gospels. Doesn't matter that he's so bursting with love for us that he'd sacrifice
his life for us. Nope, the perfect person has had enough. Jesus has reached his love limit. Heart of gold has turned to heart of stone.
You didn't say the magic words--well, nukes to you and billions of others, and then burn in Hell for all linear eternity. But the "Rapture"--
yes, the "Rapture". Those who mouthed the magic words like "abracadabra" are whisked off the ground and taken up into the upper
atmosphere safely out of harm's way while Jesus and his servant angels totally trash the planet and all still remaining on it.
This heresy completely stands Jesus' gospel upside down and turns him into Satan himself--which was the point to the heresy
to begin with. Isaiah?
Isaiah 5:20-21;
20
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight."
By twisting allegorical language around until they have Jesus and the Father accusing sea urchins of saint-tricide. That's how Satan
is supposed to win the game--present an image of himself clothed with Jesus' skin and have all his followers praise him as God Himself,
praise him and thank him while he leads humanity astray by committing mass murder in the name of God. Now, if the "Rapture" heresy's
narrative took into account mitigating circumstances, if there was a glimmer of Christ's undying love for us present in this heresy, well
then, perhaps floating off into the air would be acceptable. But under circumstances in which Satan is substituted for Christ, that is simply
and totally unacceptable.
Then, there's another way in which the "Rapture" heresy denies Christ. Whenever a close-minded missionary or believer (and note,
I'm applying this only to the close-minded ones, not everyone) tells someone else the Message their people heard came from the Devil--
whenever that happens, they've denied the Source of that Message, too. If someone accurately relays a message of yours to a third
party, and that third party calls it a pack of lies, they may or may not be calling the messenger a liar, but they surely are calling the
originator of the message a liar. Doesn't matter if the same Source has also spoken to the third party, and the third party accepts
the Message given directly to them as truth, the third party is still calling the Source of the Message relayed through an intermediary
a liar. There's likely even more ways this "fundamentalist", heartless, Rapture heresy denies Christ. But we'll stop here. Point made.
(Anonymous)