One thing that bothers me about all this Rapture talk

[berni_mccoy]

I just saw on CNN that there are many many evangilcal ministers preaching we are near the end times and that very soon we will all witness the end times. It sounds like crazy talk, but the thing that bothers me, is that all these high-powered ministers have connections into this administration.

Could they know something that is coming that the public does not? Do they know that Bush is planning on allowing Israel to keep pounding Lebanon into the ground until Syria and Iran get involved? Imagine this Rapture scenario:

Bush has reigned for 7 years causing great evil (he's their antichrist)
The "saved" Christians are spirited away to safe underground bunkers (the "rapture")
A great war eminating out of Israel is fought and great fires of destruction from the heavens (nukes) are rained down on the enemies of Israel
The world is destroyed (full nuclear war if Russia/China get involved)

These ministers preaching this stuff are completely off their rockers, but if they do know something, they could be mapping something like the above scenario into their interpretation of the Book of Revelations... if that's the case, it's time to be scared.

[JuniperLea]

1. Nothing would surprise me

And I hope they all get their Karma...

[DoyBoy]

10. They'll get theirs....

Karma's a bitch!

[Warpy]

2. Not really. They've been waxing ecstatic over this stuff

the whole time I've been alive. Yes, they've got tentacles into the White House. However, I think the wealthy will pull the plug on this bunch before they get to the point of telling Stupid that pushing the nuclear button will kick Jebus off his heavenly throne and get his ass back down here.

Honestly, the arrogance of these men is staggering, thinking they can give their god marching orders like that.

I don't think the rich will want to live in ashes even if they're spirited off to bunkers deep within the Rockies with a supply of young trophy wife meat. I think the tentacles reach only so far, and are being used to deliver a voting bloc to the rich, not using the rich to start Armageddon.

And ashes would be all they'd have left.

[Beelzebud]

3. Crazy religious freaks have been barking about end times...

Since the Beginning Times.

They are (or should be) irrelevant.

[panader0]

4. I'm ready to go "Today is a good day to die"

But I've got three kids, and I know how beautiful the world could be, so I keep my hope.........

[MuseRider]

7. Perfect response.

Me too.

[existentialist]

5. It just seems like seven years, it's just a bit more than 5 1/2.

[elocs]

6. They are not off their rockers.

Various scriptures have to be forced together to create the doctrine of the Rapture, which has been known for less than 200 years of the nearly 2000 year church history. Especially in the last 30 years or so, Christians who believe in the doctrine of the Rapture have always tried to force world events to fit their pet doctrine. What is different now is that there are right wing Christian believers who may have it in their power to move world events toward fitting the doctrine of their longed for Rapture.

When it comes down to it, Christians are the easiest bunch in the world to fool. If there is any politician who spouts the right words or phrases, then Christians will fall all over themselves to prostrate themselves at his or her feet. These politicians do not have to show their fruits, just words. In the doctrine of the Rapture you have the False Prophet who deceives Christians because they are so easily deceived. Wouldn't it be ironic, within the doctrine of the Rapture (which I have closely studied as a believer and do not believe is true) if the False Prophet was not a person, but a group of persons like the Neocons who spread a false message to deceive believers?

[MuseRider]

8. They are forcing this.

Do they really think they can force God?

I don't understand why they think they can and they are busy making a real mess of this world doing it.

[kenny blankenship]

12. Most religion is about telling God what to do through prayers & sacrifice

and alternately telling the laity what to do through endless elaborations of commandments, purification rituals, dietary law etc.
i remember reading a set of instructions penned by the late Ayatollah Khomeni that someone had dredged up, mostly concerned with how a believer should cleanse himself in the event of touching an infidel or a woman having her period or pregnant or cases like that. I'm sorry it's been too many years for me to retrieve the details with any clarity but it was truly maniacal--fully on par with the insane horseshit that can be found in Leviticus and other early books of the Bible. What the believer needed to perform in order to be clean again, or how long he needed to wait before the unclean taint would pass depended on how much moisture was present on the skin that was touched. We're not talking about "feeling fresh" or a fear of body odor here--the object of these rules was some kind of metaphysical cleanliness, and its absence was a deep down moral and spiritual taint gotten from merely touching the unclean, and that was something that could and should be expunged by rituals not soap and water alone. That someone living in the 20th century could spend hours considering and crafting such rules--and they were clearly intended as rules not suggestions--was so astounding to me that I was impressed with a deep and durable appreciation that people like that Ayatollah fellow, as well as people who follow people like that, were over there on that side of the globe and I was safely on my side of the globe. For some damn reason, though, people on my side of the globe seem intent on stirring shit up on that side of the globe--and then they act surprised that the other side goes beserk and kicks back. You'd think that if they have an interest in that other side in the first place, they'd be first among us westerners to understand that those other people over there really are driven by different motives than we can readily relate to on our side of the world.

[MuseRider]

13. Good post.

From what I remember of my days when religion was a part of my life I was taught that you "asked" for things in prayer and you worked toward being worthy of them. It seems that somewhere along the line the RW Fundamentalist Christian community has gone from humble asking to demanding and forcing issues to try to force the hand of God.

[benddem]

9. but revelations

indicates Christ will come and there will be 1000 years of peace. How does this jibe with the ?righteous ?being swooped into heaven? excuse me on edit...the wrongness!

[Doctor Venmkan]

11. My take on all conspiracy theories...

You can't prove 'em to be the real thing...

But I can't prove 'em NOT to be the real thing...!!! :scared:

Maybe I should be fitted for a :tinfoilhat: but I could EASILY see something like this happening...

And MuseRider, I could not agree more...* can start raining nukes all he wants to, but if no man can KNOW when "the end" will come, then no man can force it's hand before the appointed time...!

(though it sure looks like they're trying their darndest...)