There used to be a drunk guy in the block when i was a kid. One day he was making fun of evangelists when he stated: "christ is coming, christ is coming... And he never shows up!-we are still waiting".

After so many years i wonder to the truth in Those words. Doesnt occur to people that the entire history of mankind has been dangerous, that famine has always been around, catastrophies and evil has always reign? Wars are hapenning all over the world since always...
I think the drunk guy was right. The second coming was created to make us fear. There have been always "signs of times"... The second coming could have as well happened hundreds if years ago.

>The second coming was created to make us fear...

Oh, I rather think that it was "invented," in order
to make Jesus the son of Mary into some sort of
Davidic Messiah.

The Messiah was supposed to do this, and that, but
Jesus evidently failed to fulfill those expectations.

So, he must be coming back, in order to act like a
proper "Anointed One," right?

Probably some folks believed that, before much of
the subsequent "inventing" took hold in their religion.

UD

Believing in a second coming, or the rapture, or that disasters are a sign of God's displeasure is a sure sign that the person who believes is a control freak.

They can't face a world in which bad sh*t might happen to them, totally randomly, so they try and come up with an explanation that, oh by the way, means nothing bad will ever happen to them.

"Oh yeah? Well you're going to suffer big time when Jesus comes back! You'll see!"

Same people who toot the horn about rapture..etc. are the people who litter and don't give a sh*t about the earth because Christ is coming to clean it.

Maybe 8 - 10 years ago, I used to hang around on some of the nuttier religious boards, for the lolz
one such was 'rapture ready', a board devoted to the imminent rapture, with riveting discussions on Pre-trib Vs post-trib.

I recall one poster came on to post a moving tribute to his aged grandmother who had just died.

the grandmother had been preparing for the rapture - knowing it was just around the corner - right up to the end
she had been a dedicated believer in the imminent rapture for the last 50 years of her life.

When/If the rapture happens, what will it look like? How does Jesus Christ get the word out to the Earth's 7 billion people?

saviorself Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When/If the rapture happens, what will it look
> like? How does Jesus Christ get the word out to
> the Earth's 7 billion people?

I suppose that the rapture made more sense back in
1842, or even before that -- when knowledge was not
so widespread. How the inhabitants of a globe earth
could look up into the skies above them, and all
observe Christ and 144,000 resurrected saints descending
down upon the face of the planet is puzzling.

Beyond that, there is the prophecy of the two slain
Christian martyrs, lying dead in the streets of
Jerusalem -- with all the world watching -- for
three days, well prior to any anticipated rapture.

In a modern world, the entire scenario is absurd, no
matter how many "Left Behind" books are sold to the
unthinking gullible.

Even for the strictly literalistic Bible reader, there
is insufficient depiction in the NT, to support most
of the rapture myth's bells and whistles. Which is
why the more thoughtful biblical interpreters have
generally refused to support fundamentalist claims.

No... we shall not be swept up into the clouds, to
fly through the air with any supernatural gathering,
nor will any of the fundamentalist Christians who
wish to believe in such absurdities.

However, they will offer up their polemics and
arguments, just like Mormons defending stories about
Christ descending to the Nephite Temple at Bountiful.
There's no reasoning with such apologists. Reason
did not lead them to their various conceits, and
reason will not lead them away from such stuff.

UD

Isn't the so-called "Scofield Bible" of the late 19th century the source of a NT "translation" that presents rapture-ready speculations?

AFAIK, the "doctrine" of the "rapture" wasn't really popular until this Scofield Bible came into wide circulation.

hello Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Isn't the so-called "Scofield Bible" of the late
> 19th century the source of a NT "translation" that
> presents rapture-ready speculations?
>
> AFAIK, the "doctrine" of the "rapture" wasn't
> really popular until this Scofield Bible came into
> wide circulation.

No doubt some elements of the current rapture myth were
in circulation ages ago, but the thing really began
to come together in Puritan New England.

I think Scofield fell heir to the earlier Darby teachings;
theology that the first Mormons were also familiar with.

Modern Evangelical fundamentalism really got a shot in
the arm round about the time of WWI... which was when
the Scofield stuff began to be popularized. If I recall
correctly. I slept through most of the contemporary
Christianity lectures in grad school seminary classes.

UD

I have heard from several people how they, or their ancestors, patriartical blessings stated that they would be present on Earth when the second coming happened. I remember when one of these people died, it threw serious doubt in my mind on the truthfulness of the blessing. When I questioned my mom (TBM) how that worked she said that they would come back as angels when it happened. My first thought, I couldn't believe how perfectly orchestrated that response was (and many since then). I often wonder how they can believe all the crap they are filled up with regarding things that have no logical explanation.

I always thought it a bit strange that Christians seem to delight in hearing of someone elses Famine, someone elses war, someone elses earthquake as a sign for them to lift up their heads cos salvation draweth near!?!?!?

It didn't seem to occur to them that they could be the next war, famine, earthquake tragedy for someone else's cult to get excited about their own redemption drawing near.

My foolish father once told me that one of my greatgrandmothers (polygamous) was told in her patriartificial blessing that she would see Jesus before she died. But she went blind in her old age, so how could it happen? One day, in the throes of religious idiocy, she came stumbling out of the house saying, "I saw Him, I saw Jesus." She promptly fell off the porch and had a fatal encounter with a garden rock. The stone cut a perfect cross in her forehead.

I guess the point is that even if the end doesn't come, it does suggest itself through tall tales. I demand a refund on my childhood.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2013 09:47PM by donbagley.