Freethought & Rationalism Archive

funinspace · 05-16-2005, 11:33 AM

As to the books...read a few, and thought they were poorly written, and stopped bothering reading them, when I was a Christian.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeda

As to the Rapture theory itself, it is indeed a rather recent invention. The Rapture itself is never mentioned in the Bible, but instead the Bible dwells on the 2nd coming of Christ, and the setting up of an earthly kingdom.

The Rapture comes from a verse that mentions meeting Christ in the air. It is I believe a escape hatch for Christians who don't want to deal with the realities of living in the real world, and/or their eventual deaths. An escape hatch from secular society and an avoidance of the tribulation that they believe will take place as God judges man and our society.

Rapture is just another descriptive word:
(Yahoo Dict.)Rapture: The transporting of a person from one place to another, especially to heaven.

You do not see any of the above described with their canon? Now there are many conflicting theories as to when this "rapture" will occur as related to other events. Revelations is quite convoluted, so I can understand this difficulty. The 1,000 year earthly kingdom is something that comes later after the tribulation. See the below sampling of verses for "rapture" context.

Ma 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

1Thessalonians 1:10 And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thes 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Harpuia · 05-16-2005, 01:56 PM

My reply about this series:

Quote:

The high point of the Left Behind series: Nicolae got assassinated. Book 6-7 (also sold the least # of copies of all 12 books)

The low point: Books 1-3 and 10-12 (sold the most)

Here are some of the problems I had:

With the entire series, they made all of humanity seem like they are a bunch of idiots who couldn't outsmart monkeys. Have any of you noticed how they all just cheered when Nicolae started naming every country in alphabetical order in the U.N.? What's so special about that? When did Geography become something divine? I guess that's why my 8th grade Geography teacher called herself "The Goddess".

Second is "Tribulation Force". This should be renamed simply, "How Buck and Chloe got Married". Two-thirds of the Satan-awful book (pun intended) were on the mishaps of Buck and Chloe, their relationship, and how they got married. I was wondering where the heck Nicolae was.

He only got 42 of 430 pages in a book with his name titled on it, "Nicolae".

Next comes Carpathia's attitude change. Anyone with a brain would revolt on this dude in a split second. The whole world would be on him with the attitude he had in the later books. I'm serious, no class, no dignity. Apparently, the devil has no brain either, which means, right there he's indirectly proving that all those demons that were in your head were really just that, your head.

Finally, The Millenial Kingdom. Being a born-again ex-Fundamentalist, LaHaye's idea of a MK scared the shit outta me. I always thought the MK would be like God reigning King and his people roam around the place. Not everyone sitting still and acting like the Borg from Star Trek...

And that's just 1% of the problems that are in this book series.

And one more thing to add to the authors.

If the Anti-Christ is the most popular character in the entire book series, you know that your CHRISTIAN fiction has failed.

BTW, Queen of Swords, that GAFF site rocks.

WCH · 05-16-2005, 05:52 PM

My father, an Anglican priest, describes the books as "the single best argument against a pre-trib rapture." Basically, he argues, if what the books/movie show is accurate to the concept of a pre-trib rapture, then clearly such a thing would be inconsistant with the character of God, and therefore could not happen. QED.

This is the same guy who says that rather than being pre millenialist or post millenialist, he's pan millenialist: it'll all pan out in the end.

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05-16-2005, 05:52 PM	#23
WCH Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Toronto Posts: 6,290	My father, an Anglican priest, describes the books as "the single best argument against a pre-trib rapture." Basically, he argues, if what the books/movie show is accurate to the concept of a pre-trib rapture, then clearly such a thing would be inconsistant with the character of God, and therefore could not happen. QED. This is the same guy who says that rather than being pre millenialist or post millenialist, he's pan millenialist: it'll all pan out in the end.

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