WORZALA'S WEDNESDAY WORD 12-13-06
Today's word is "rapture" as in "Wow, have you heard about The Rapture?"
I've recently come across a blog called Slacktivist. In it, Fred Clark is slowly but surely making his way through the popular premillennial dispensationalist fiction series Left Behind. He reads two or three pages at a time, then posts his opinions about the book. Even if you don't really care about religion, it's a fun site to read because apparently the Left Behind series is not only bad religiously, but it's also just poorly crafted as a story. This is just one of the many examples.
For those of you wondering what "premillennial dispensationalists" means but you're not in the mood to look it up, it's a section of Christianity that believes in The Rapture. The Rapture, in case you were wondering, is where Jesus is going to come back (though technically he won't ever set foot on the ground) and take all the True Believers (not in a Marvel Comics sort of way) up into Heaven with him. Then for seven years everyone outside of, I'm not making this up, about 200,000 people will suffer torments under the hands of the Antichrist before Jesus comes back and starts murdering everything around him. Seriously. I believe the phrase used is "until the blood runs as high as the bridal on a horse."
Fun Times huh?
Here's the thing, the Rapture isn't true.
The idea of the Rapture is based off of a dream a little girl had back at the turn of the 20th Century. It is never mentioned in the Bible. You can look, you will not find the word "rapture". The entire set of beliefs of Rapture-ists is based off of maybe 5 verses in the Bible that have to be both read both "literally" as well as severely creatively interpretted to come up with anything close to a Rapture event.
Read the blog, do yourself a favor. There are people out there in the world that believe this garbage is true.
"But Matt," you may say. "You're a religious type guy, and I already KNOW there's not a God. What makes you less an idiot than these people?" That's a good question and I'm glad I asked it for you. The difference, to me, is this. My faith is meant to inspire me to help others, to treat all people well, to try and stop poverty and hunger, and to care for this planet that God made for us. If I'm deluded, so be it, we should all be lucky to be so deluded if you ask me. And if I die and you die and it turns out we just rot in the ground... well I guess I won't really care, cause I'm dead. And it's pretty hard to convince a dead person that they're wrong.
On the other hand, there are premillenial dispensationalists who believe that since the world will be ending soon (it's supposed to end "any day now" since the late 1980's) there's no reason to care for the environment. They also believe that armed conflict in the Middle East is a good thing. Not so much to liberate people, but because it is a sign of the End Times. And the End Times, for the miniscule few who get a free pass to heaven, are going to be pretty rocking. Sucks to be everyone else, including the people we just liberated. They also believe that peace between Palestine and Israel is not only a bad thing, but an Un-Christian thing, as Israel is required to swell her borders to include not only parts of Iraq, but Syria as well, if the End Times are to happen.
How, in this day and age, can you be against peace in the Middle East? Oh, because you think it'll get you a free pass up to heaven and the chance for Jesus to come back and hand out those beatings everyone that's not you so richly deserves.
Riiiiiiight.
So read the blog, educate yourself, have a laugh and get a little scared. More than 10 million people read these books, it's up to the other 290 million people in the country to known enough that they can say "Hey, none of this is True or Right."
One last thing, just to again illuminate how silly this idea is. The Rapture will happen when Jesus pulls people off the planet. However, Jesus can not return until the Great Temple has been re-built and then destroyed. That will allow Jesus to come back. Look at that again. THE SON OF GOD (who, you may have heard, created the entire, you know, everything out of nothing) is powerless until humans stack some bricks on top of each other. Cor. You might as well say "Jesus can't come back until a young boy speaks the magic word of power, the magic word... SHAZAM!" It's no less believable.
I've recently come across a blog called Slacktivist. In it, Fred Clark is slowly but surely making his way through the popular premillennial dispensationalist fiction series Left Behind. He reads two or three pages at a time, then posts his opinions about the book. Even if you don't really care about religion, it's a fun site to read because apparently the Left Behind series is not only bad religiously, but it's also just poorly crafted as a story. This is just one of the many examples.
For those of you wondering what "premillennial dispensationalists" means but you're not in the mood to look it up, it's a section of Christianity that believes in The Rapture. The Rapture, in case you were wondering, is where Jesus is going to come back (though technically he won't ever set foot on the ground) and take all the True Believers (not in a Marvel Comics sort of way) up into Heaven with him. Then for seven years everyone outside of, I'm not making this up, about 200,000 people will suffer torments under the hands of the Antichrist before Jesus comes back and starts murdering everything around him. Seriously. I believe the phrase used is "until the blood runs as high as the bridal on a horse."
Fun Times huh?
Here's the thing, the Rapture isn't true.
The idea of the Rapture is based off of a dream a little girl had back at the turn of the 20th Century. It is never mentioned in the Bible. You can look, you will not find the word "rapture". The entire set of beliefs of Rapture-ists is based off of maybe 5 verses in the Bible that have to be both read both "literally" as well as severely creatively interpretted to come up with anything close to a Rapture event.
Read the blog, do yourself a favor. There are people out there in the world that believe this garbage is true.
"But Matt," you may say. "You're a religious type guy, and I already KNOW there's not a God. What makes you less an idiot than these people?" That's a good question and I'm glad I asked it for you. The difference, to me, is this. My faith is meant to inspire me to help others, to treat all people well, to try and stop poverty and hunger, and to care for this planet that God made for us. If I'm deluded, so be it, we should all be lucky to be so deluded if you ask me. And if I die and you die and it turns out we just rot in the ground... well I guess I won't really care, cause I'm dead. And it's pretty hard to convince a dead person that they're wrong.
On the other hand, there are premillenial dispensationalists who believe that since the world will be ending soon (it's supposed to end "any day now" since the late 1980's) there's no reason to care for the environment. They also believe that armed conflict in the Middle East is a good thing. Not so much to liberate people, but because it is a sign of the End Times. And the End Times, for the miniscule few who get a free pass to heaven, are going to be pretty rocking. Sucks to be everyone else, including the people we just liberated. They also believe that peace between Palestine and Israel is not only a bad thing, but an Un-Christian thing, as Israel is required to swell her borders to include not only parts of Iraq, but Syria as well, if the End Times are to happen.
How, in this day and age, can you be against peace in the Middle East? Oh, because you think it'll get you a free pass up to heaven and the chance for Jesus to come back and hand out those beatings everyone that's not you so richly deserves.
Riiiiiiight.
So read the blog, educate yourself, have a laugh and get a little scared. More than 10 million people read these books, it's up to the other 290 million people in the country to known enough that they can say "Hey, none of this is True or Right."
One last thing, just to again illuminate how silly this idea is. The Rapture will happen when Jesus pulls people off the planet. However, Jesus can not return until the Great Temple has been re-built and then destroyed. That will allow Jesus to come back. Look at that again. THE SON OF GOD (who, you may have heard, created the entire, you know, everything out of nothing) is powerless until humans stack some bricks on top of each other. Cor. You might as well say "Jesus can't come back until a young boy speaks the magic word of power, the magic word... SHAZAM!" It's no less believable.
Labels: Worzala's Wednesday Word
posted by Matt Worzala at
10:13 AM
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