The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #71422 Message #1230150
Posted By: Don Firth
20-Jul-04 - 04:36 PM
Thread Name: BS: The end of the world is nigh.
Subject: RE: BS: The end of the world is nigh.
This whole "Rapture" business is, to quote our old friend DougR, "horse puckey!!" It comes from a complete misinterpretation and misrepresentation of verses taken out of context from the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, plus distortions of presumed quotations of Jesus (again, badly misinterpreted) cherry-picked and taken out of context from here and there all over the Gospels. But then, this is the stock-in-trade of many fundamentalist "Christians," who, incidentally, get their sobriquet "fundamentalist" from the contention that the Bible must not be interpreted, it must be taken literally, word for word. They make their own patchwork quilt version of "Christianity," and it bears no resemblance to what a simple, straightforward reading of the Bible (reading it like straight through, like a novel, not pecking here and there like a nervous chicken) shows Christianity to be. Bizarro!!!
Several months (perhaps as long as a year) ago, Rev. Barbara R. Rossing spoke to an adult forum at a church that I frequently attend. Rev. Rossing is a theologian who teaches at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and is the author of several books. One of these is entitled The Rapture Exposed. She wanted to title it The Rapture Racket, but that made her publisher nervous. Anyway, here is a link to the book [Blicky]. Scroll down for an editorial review followed by reader reviews. Rev. Rossing is a very intelligent and articulate person, and she finds that Jesus' message of unconditional love doesn't exactly square with the image of his waving a hand and causing people to split open and dump their guts on the ground.
As you can see, the book didn't go over too well with some folks, which, of course, was to be expected. Electric preachers like Jack Van Impe, et al who trade in raving about the "Rapture" and gloating about how people they don't like will get their come-uppance when Jesus returns waving his flaming sword, had a shit-hemorrhage over the book and devoted much TV and internet time to condemning Barbara Rossing to The Pit.
What's really distressing is how many people buy and read this "Left Behind" series of books and believe that "Rapture" crapola. And what's worse, their idea of what being a Christian is all about.
The Dark Ages are still about, it would seem.
Don Firth