wanting to be raptured away, leaving the world to end in chaos and suffering, is kinda twisted, no? jesus is reported to have said many things about love, why do some of his followers hate so much? religion should comfort one, if christianity is leaving you so ill at ease with the world, perhaps you should be exploring alternatives... please explain to me the message of love contained within that of apocalypse [i know that not all christians are waiting for driverless car scenarios, this is not addressed to you]
Holding onto the world, or rather the illusion of it, is what causes the suffering, not the letting go of it. And i think this 'apocalypse' is rather talking of the end of an illusory world, in the eyes of it's human inhabitants, not the world itself. But if the world were to die then another lifeform dies as all forms do ultimately, but the life that the world is will live on.
I am not sure why people believe that you are going to be whisked away from earth. The bible never says such a thing, which is the basis/foundation of Christianity. It say in Psalms 37:29. The righttous themselves will possess the earth and will reside forever upon it.
that does not seem to me to be a particularly christian attitude nor reflect the beliefs and desires of those so interested in the apocalypse i am interested in the world dictator and the armies of gog and magog and all of that crap please restrict your replies to the joys of death and destruction :cheers2:
i like that. i think you have a point. well i almost know u have a point. when i die i dont want it to be a situation of suffering, i want to leave the earth smoothly.... and i DO think the world is an illusion, so everything is kind of bizzare lol
The doctrine of the "Rapture" is a very Protestant evangelical idea that most other Christians don't accept. The Bible doesn't mention the word "rapture', and it isn't mentioned in any Christian writings until 1830, when a Pentacostalist teenager, Margaret Macdonald, saw it in a vision, and preacher John Nelson Darby popularized the idea. Those who believe in it cite various Biblical passages, but others dispute this interpretation. I consider it to be a bizarre and dangerous doctrine, for many of the same reasons you suggest. I think it's dangerous, as well as ethically questionable, that Christians expect to leave the earth before the Tribulations, thereby escaping the consequences of the foolish Republican policies they support. As for the "love" in Revelations, I agree with Crossan that the Book of Revelations is off message.
I agree with what you said concerning the "Rapture". I disagree though with your take on Revelation. I think it has been used quite literally and therefore for the wrong reasons. It is not a depiction of what will literally happen to the earth (for example, it describes a star creating a bottomless pit and then scorpion-person-centaur creatures crawling out and hurting people for 5 years with stingers). In the context of when it was written, I think it shows that people desired immediate justice for any persecution that they had suffered, hence the reference to six hundred sixty six (or any variations) as possibly referencing Nero. As for the love, that is more difficult.
My understanding of the basic Revelations is not for the end of the World. In fact the whole Bible may be refered to as the revealing of the Word into what materialistic worlds have in store for us all. Is the material world eternal? If so, then we all have no soul and that would be the consequence of modern living turning out the failure to deal with the environment, I guess. Is the material world a finite meditation about failing the knowledge of all that is substantial in the Environment? If so, then the Spirit of Life is revealed in the Tribulations on the mark of It. I can't understand all of these versions of ending the Bible. It's all about either frustrated Sex to me, or about underating the failure in life. The republicans taught US WE HAD A RIGHT TO FAIL.
why do so many follers hate is a good question. all of my roommates (three of them) follow the bible very close. two of them are nice and keep there beliefs to themselves. well im the outcast agnostic black fly in this place. the bad roommate is very very racist to anyone that isnt a blonde blue eyed. he is also so homophobic that he told me a story of a family that disowned there son because he was gay. he agreed fully. i keep to myself in this house tell i can move!
listen dude the supposed christian trinity is only a binary system - father,son,holy spirit is actually incorrect - the true trinity of god is from egypt - amun ra ptah is the oldest trinity of egypt and all other trinitys are related - amun is the hidden aspect of god=the father, ra is jesus christ, ptah is horus who is the reincarnation of ra and creator of the universe - the myth of osiris is about set (lucifer) and horus(the 2nd coming of christ)-for the whole story see the thread cult of osiris - the rapture is a false prophecy but the end of the world is real something like a comet!
Nobody else finds fault with his thinking here? Who are you to say what someone's religion should do?(comfort one?) Why are you looking at it from the standpoint that christians WANT to leave the world behind in chaos and destruction instead of just that they are believing as they have interpreted what they've found in their religious text? I don't get this "where's the message of love in the apocalypse" crap. The bible doesn't blow sunshine up your rear end from beginning to end so therefore it's wrong? You talk as though even if the bible never mentioned blood as high as the horses bridal, or one third of the earth destroyed that christians would still want it to happen because of the hate. Or if Jesus came back and said "everbody chill" snapped his fingers and the Earth was paradise again that christians would be disappointed that there was no carnage. What if there isn't a message of love in the apocalypse? If you read through this thread you will see a variety of interpretations of the bible explained. Some christians believe that there will be a rapture and an apocalypse and guess what???There is just as much scripture to support that idea as much as some of the ideas mentioned in this thread, like it or not. Sure you don't have to interpret it that way, but little girls having visions in 1830 aside there is scripture to support the concept. Jesus came so that those which believe in him may not PERISH. UH OH, where is the love in the word perish? Perish sounds pretty bad, I'm not feelin the love. Maybe we need to omit parts of what Jesus said now, so that it is more to your liking. Now don't get me wrong, many christians are obviously not walking in love, I get that, and there is blatant hatred preached from the pulpits towards gays for example. It's a sad fact. Jesus showed compassion for sinners, even died for them and the few times he showed anger, it was focused toward the church of that day, not the homosexuals, prostitutes, or thieves. But you can find all this out by reading the bible, the same one with all the destruction in it.
did i say that i hated bipolar people? or religions? i guess i feel sorry for anyone who has to struggle with it and that i prefer to know that they are so that i can sort out their behavior understanding is not hatred
If you feel sorry for people with the disorder as you claim maybe you shouldn't use the term so loosely. Did I say you hated bipolar people? Nah man, I was just playing your game and looking at things from a narrow field of view, then implying the absurd.
it's just all a bit confusing, 'bring a sword' vs 'perish by the sword' confounded by the sermon on the mount choose carefully...
