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Author Topic: The End is coming, sinners!
majorvictory
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posted 27 February 2004 08:48 PM      Profile for majorvictory     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The end of the world

quote:
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

When David got home from school, the third grader looked everywhere for his mom and sisters. They couldn't be found in the house or the yard. Suddenly the youngster panicked. What he'd been taught in church must have happened - they'd disappeared in the "rapture," and he'd been "left behind."

For children raised in a fundamentalist Protestant background, "that wasn't an uncommon experience," says David Currie of his frantic moments years ago. They were taught Jesus could come at any moment to whisk believers to heaven and leave others to face seven years of "the great tribulation." Only after that period of suffering, violence, and disasters on Earth would Christ return in the Second Coming.

Today, as belief in this end-times prophecy sees a resurgence among Americans - partly because of the phenomenal success of the "Left Behind" series of novels (58 million sold) and the disturbing "signs" of terrorism and war - Mr. Currie and others are seeking to refute the apocalyptic theology.

Fundamentalists represent a minority of Christians - an estimated 25 million - but the interest in end-times prophecy has spread beyond their circles, and is not only shaping people's lives, but, say supporters and critics, even influencing US foreign policy.

A 2002 survey showed that 59 percent of Americans believe that the events in the Bible book of Revelation will occur in the future.

The theology behind end-time prophecy - premillennial dispensationalism (from the idea that God has divided history into ages, or dispensations) - emerged in 19th-century England. It was brought to America by missionary John Nelson Darby and spread at evangelistic conferences.

While believers say it spurs righteous living and helps discern God's plan for the world, others see it as fostering a skewed sense of history and of what Christianity is about.

Rather than the single Second Coming of Christ expected by other Christians, it presents a two-stage return of Jesus, with the plagues and catastrophes depicted in Revelation literally to take place on Earth in between. The current "church age" will end with the rapture, when Jesus will take true Christians to heaven, and the rest of humanity will face the outpouring of God's wrath, designed to turn them to Him. Many insist it will occur within a generation.

"I know people who have sold their houses and lived with relatives because they thought the world would soon come to an end," Currie says. "I know others who've cut their education short because they thought it more important to witness to people than to get their degree."

After becoming a missionary and preaching the rapturist prophecy, Currie eventually came to a very different conclusion - that this teaching was not true, and is not in the Bible.



From: Toronto | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged
Dr. Mr. Ben
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posted 27 February 2004 08:57 PM      Profile for Dr. Mr. Ben   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by majorvictory:
When David got home from school, the third grader looked everywhere for his mom and sisters. They couldn't be found in the house or the yard. Suddenly the youngster panicked. What he'd been taught in church must have happened - they'd disappeared in the "rapture," and he'd been "left behind."
Embarassingly, that still happens to me every once in a while.

From: Mechaslovakia | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
oldgoat
Moderator
Babbler # 1130

posted 27 February 2004 09:53 PM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Mr. Ben:
Embarassingly, that still happens to me every once in a while.


Levity aside however, what can one do but shake ones head at the thought that it is these people who influence the President of the United States.


From: The 10th circle | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Polunatic
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posted 27 February 2004 09:59 PM      Profile for Polunatic   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Can we have an atheist forum on Babble where we can say whatever we want about God, Jesus, religions of all sorts without the risk of offending or being disciplined in the babblian sense? I had a great one liner for the Mel Gibson thread but it would have cost me big time.

Other than that, "no comment".


From: middle of nowhere | Registered: Oct 2002  |  IP: Logged
DrConway
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posted 29 February 2004 12:49 AM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Believe it or not, these people actually say Left Behind plays fast and loose with doctrinal correctness.
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Doug
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posted 29 February 2004 01:17 AM      Profile for Doug   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
"In the month of April, 2001, The Lord led me to purchase all the Left Behind books that had been written up until that point."

And Satan made me buy kitchen gadgets.


From: Toronto, Canada | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
redshift
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posted 29 February 2004 01:17 AM      Profile for redshift     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
how do you know you haven't been left already? all existence is perceptual and subjective valuations make tribulations variable. lot of people dead everyday by a nasty assortment of means.
the blue bus is calling us.

From: cranbrook,bc | Registered: Oct 2001  |  IP: Logged
Tommy_Paine
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posted 29 February 2004 01:13 PM      Profile for Tommy_Paine     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well, they're a little late.

The world already ended during the 1340's.

And Jesus was a no show.


From: The Alley, Behind Montgomery's Tavern | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
paxamillion
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posted 29 February 2004 01:34 PM      Profile for paxamillion   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Non-partisan partisan:
Can we have an atheist forum on Babble where we can say whatever we want about God, Jesus, religions of all sorts without the risk of offending or being disciplined in the babblian sense? I had a great one liner for the Mel Gibson thread but it would have cost me big time.

Have you had a look for atheist boards that already exist? Posts into a babble forum would still appear in the active threads page. So, posting without offense seems unlikely.


From: the process of recovery | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged
Pogo
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posted 29 February 2004 02:15 PM      Profile for Pogo   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by redshift:
how do you know you haven't been left already?

Are you saying Elvis left us behind?


From: Richmond BC | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
paxamillion
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posted 29 February 2004 02:19 PM      Profile for paxamillion   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Tommy_Paine:
And Jesus was a no show.

Completely missed by CNN, too.


From: the process of recovery | Registered: Jul 2002  |  IP: Logged
Lard Tunderin' Jeezus
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posted 02 March 2004 11:23 AM      Profile for Lard Tunderin' Jeezus   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Well, they're a little late.

The world already ended during the 1340's.


And again during the great Y2K meltdown.

No sign of Jesus then, either.


From: ... | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
Mr. Magoo
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posted 02 March 2004 11:32 AM      Profile for Mr. Magoo   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This sort of thing seems to happen to cults occasionally too.

1. Cult leader announces the world will end/aliens will come/whatever on a certain date at a certain time

2. True believers mark their calendar and dispense with all worldly goods at two cents on the dollar

3. 3:10 a.m., and the true believers are huddled in a cornfield, waiting for the end of days

4. 3:15 a.m., and they're showing signs of doubt

5. 3:30 a.m., and the charismatic leader wisely announces that "the calculations were off", and, if he's smart, blames "the world of men"

6. Next day, whole world has a right jolly laugh at them

quote:
Can we have an atheist forum on Babble where we can say whatever we want about God, Jesus, religions of all sorts without the risk of offending or being disciplined in the babblian sense?

Oh, pleasepleaseplease! And can it be set up like the feminism forum, wherein all discussions have to take place "from an atheist point of view"? That way we don't have to keep going 'round the same mulberry bushes of explaining that nobody's proven there is a God, and that therefore not believing in him does not constitute a faith of its own, etc.

Pleeeeeeeease?

[ 02 March 2004: Message edited by: Mr. Magoo ]


From: ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø, | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
al-Qa'bong
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posted 02 March 2004 11:36 AM      Profile for al-Qa'bong   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Can we have an atheist forum on Babble where we can say whatever we want about God, Jesus, religions of all sorts without the risk of offending or being disciplined in the babblian sense? I had a great one liner for the Mel Gibson thread but it would have cost me big time.

Other than that, "no comment".


There could be a babble section called "The Sump" or something, in which folks could just get it off'n their chests. Say whatever you want about anything and not have to pay a penalty. People enter the thread knowing it will be offensive to start with. Tasteless jokes could even go in there; bad recipes too.


From: Saskatchistan | Registered: Feb 2003  |  IP: Logged
UrsaMinor
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posted 02 March 2004 12:45 PM      Profile for UrsaMinor     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Tan'si,

Couldn't this be the Christian version of the American Terrorism Alert. The Red-Yellow-Green system of the Terror Alert is a great way for the American government to control the stres/emotions of their population. Need a little tension, put the Alert on red and tell everyone that all the shadows hold terrorists.
If people believe that Jesus is coming tomorrow, they will be much less likely to back-slide and much more likely to 'chip in' for Earthly expenses, because we already have mansions in Heaven, don't cha know?


From: Canada | Registered: Feb 2004  |  IP: Logged

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