THE RAPTURE CULT
THE RAPTURE CULT
The false prophets of our day, through popular books like The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and the Left Behind books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, preach that there will be a "rapture" (a term nowhere found in the Bible), during which the faithful will be beamed up to heaven. Those left behind will have to go through a seven year period of tribulation, culminating with an all-out nuclear war, which they call Armageddon. The Left Behind books have over 60 million readers. This doomsday doctrine is also preached by Jerry Falwell, who "anointed" George W. Bush to be president. Tim LaHaye is politically active, and the followers of these false prophets form Bush’s main political base.
They preach that all you has to do is believe fervently in Jesus, and you escape responsibility for dealing with the planetary mess. There is no need to sacrifice the American SUV for the good of the planet as a whole, or to work for peace. You don't have to care about the biosphere. It will be destroyed by all out nuclear war anyway, so just believe in Jesus and save your own skin.
2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
Because, in the view of the unholy trinity, planet earth is doomed, they have no compunction about exploiting and raping it, and thus hastening eco-catastrophe. Faith in their delusions evidently excuses them from normal moral behavior. They welcome war, as a harbinger of the Second Coming. Meanwhile, they enrich themselves and their cronies.
1 Timothy 6: 3 If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and godly teaching, 4he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Of those who preach such things, the prophets say:
Isaiah 33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.
Amos 5:18 Woe to you who long for the day of the LORD! Why do you long for the day of the LORD ? That day will be darkness, not light.
Luke 6:24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
posted by carol wolman @ 4:13 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Why is it all those that tend to use the bible against the so called righteous use it out of context. When you use the bible, take the time to read a few verses before and after to get its meaning. Your quotes lack the full use of the scripture, don't pick and choose what you see that fits your opinion, use it all, that is what it is there for.
Hal Lindsey's Pretrib Rapture "Proof"
Is Hal Lindsey's proof for a pretrib rapture "100 proof" - that is, 100 percent Biblical?
In "The Late Great Planet Earth" (p. 143) Lindsey gives his "chief reason" for pretrib: "If the Rapture took place at the same time as the second coming, there would be no mortals left who would be believers" - that is, no believers still alive who could enter the millennium and repopulate the earth.
We don't know if Lindsey's amnesia is voluntary or involuntary, but earlier (p. 54), while focusing on chapters 12 through 14 of Zechariah, Lindsey sees "a remnant of Jews in Jerusalem" who are mortals who will become believing mortals at the second coming and then become repopulating mortals!
During the same discussion of Zech. 12-14 Lindsey overlooks some of the final verses in Zech. 14. They reveal that some of the tribulation survivors "of all the nations which came against Jerusalem" will refuse to go there "to worship the King, the Lord of hosts." Here's what will happen to those "heathen" rebels: "upon them shall be no rain."
So the facts about the repopulating mortals, in unbelieving as well as believing ranks, cancel out Lindsey's "chief reason" for opposing a joint rapture/second coming - the ONLY rapture view to be found in official theology books and organized churches prior to 1830!
(See historian Dave MacPherson's "The Rapture Plot," the most accurate and most highly endorsed book on pretrib rapture history - available by calling 800.643.4645. Also Google "Pretrib Rapture Stealth," "Pretrib Rapture Pride," "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy" and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty.")
Although Hal Lindsey claims that his "Late Great" didn't set a date for Christ's return, many of his followers - including copycats Bill Maupin ("1981") and Edgar Whisenant ("1988") - did view Lindsey as a date-setter, and his later book "The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon" (the sort of title that date-setters and their ga-ga groupies love) became another fizzle - unless we're still living in the 1980s!
In Old Testament days false prophets were stoned to death. Today they're just stoned!
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