Chawlk

1. Drawar
2. Fenxy
3. Decaflon
4. Two Credits
5. Wriging
6. Loose Suits
7. Chixe
8. Dud3s
9. Wing Colors

 

Thank you for sharing Liz. My personal belief is that it is not my place to judge any other person or their religious beliefs. There is a passage in Romans that I often think of "... there are no righteous men, no not one."

The point being that no matter how much we try to be without sin, we fail utterly. Keeping that in mind, if you looked at it in celestial terms, if we are on earth, and God is the equivalent distance of say pluto the most a devote christian could hope to move towards God by his or her own effort would be say the top of Mount Everest if sea level would be for instance where people who do not believe in go are (atheists).

You see even the most devout and holy person is still divided by an insurmountable distance from God. Only God can traverse that distance, and it is only through God that we are ultimately saved.

I'll keep it simple: No, i never have and unless something motivates me to change -- which i highly doubt will happen -- i'll stay that way for the rest of my days.

Naaaaah. Besides- i'll just grab onto chuck norris and be sweet.

I'm totally atheist, but since I don't know much about any religion, so I don't judge. However on the case of Rapture vs. Reincarnation, if you do believe, what do you think sounds better?

1. You get to live again, maybe as something cool like a cat. You sleep all day and get petted and go outside and eat and then sleep more.

2. You... "fly" out of your grave (enlighten me- like you actually come out of the ground and soar through the sky?) in a new body, meet Jesus, and then what? Spend eternity in Heaven? What is Jesus just shows you there and you never get some quality mano el mano? What is Heaven isn't like buildings and stuff like in the movies and it's just chilling in the clouds with insane people that have managed to end up with no sins on their plate (or whatever the req's are)?

I'm looking at my cat right now, sleeping by my feet, and I'm a little jealous.

And is this who you'll meet in heaven? Christian warriors?

so i'm new to 9rules and i saw this thread when i first logged in so i thought i would check it out. all i can say is i just did A LOT of reading. lol but i think that it's a good conversation to have.

to answer the original question...yes, i do believe in the rapture. i just do not believe in it the way the "left behind" series does. sadly many christians like the thought of escaping before things get really bad on earth, but i don't think that scripturally accurate.

i believe Jesus is coming back to reign on the earth. (no, i'm not jehovah's witness...lol) i believe that people who have been loving and waiting/longing for Jesus to return will be taken up (as He is coming down) to accompany Him as He returns to the earth to take over. yes, i'm sorry (not really...lol), the Bible talks about an endtime theocracy, but if creates a perfect world for a time...isn't it worth it?

anyways, i answered more than i was asked.

lol at anyone who believes in the rapture.

You will be waiting for this glorious event your entire life, what a waste of your life. Enjoy it while you have it.

Rapture on Bioshock will always be a real place to me!

Answer to your question : no.

As a disciple of Jesus, I affirm certain elements of the rapture, but i hate rapture theology. It was concocted by a bunch of deceivers to pull people away from what is really important: Loving God with all you've got and loving every human being as much as you love yourself.

In addition, the Biblical emphasis is not on the Rapture, but the resurrection of the dead (which Muslims, and some Jews affirm as well).

I could say a lot more, but how about I just direct you all to what the Bible says about it: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Nope, don't believe in the Rapture or any other religious mythos.

I don't believe in the Rapture and I don't believe that Newton did. I don't believe in a dualistic notion of good and evil.
Why do so many people want to simplify the wonderful riches of the universe in which we live?
Theology has only one mission; to make people sinful. Avoid it.

I believe the rapture is a purely Christian invention. I don't believe in Jesus, I don't believe in God and I don't believe the rapture will affect me. Christians like to claim their god is loving. But if she/he truly is, why is it that god is going to be a total prick and damn people for eternity?

At least William Channing had the right idea about Universal Salvation or Salvation by Character.

2. You... "fly" out of your grave (enlighten me- like you actually come out of the ground and soar through the sky?) in a new body, meet Jesus, and then what? Spend eternity in Heaven?

No, not eternity.

Christians like to claim their god is loving. But if she/he truly is, why is it that god is going to be a total prick and damn people for eternity?

Only certain Christians believe God will "damn people for eternity" (Arminians and Calvinists); and even that belief isn't in the Bible; it's something that Tertullian (and, to an extent, St. Augustine) cooked up somehow, and most Christians have been running with it ever since; and this has resulted in loads of mistranslations and misinterpretations of the scripture.

Before that (as you seem to allude to, Jessica), most--if not all--early Christians believed in Universal Reconciliation/Restoration: that God would save and restore/reconcile everyone to himself (first, there would be a purging of sin during an eonian--NOT eternal--separation from God). There are some Christians who believe this now.

I have to amend my last post a bit; I'd gotten a little confused when I first wrote. The Second Coming--from where I sit--happens after the Tribulation. The true Christians will spend 1000 years in Heaven; everyone else will be separated from God for the millennium, and after that, there will be the restoration of all things ("a new heaven, and a new earth", etc.).

The first part of this link tells how the doctrine of a pre-Tribulation "secret" rapture came to be...
http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/rapture.htm

One other quick thing, and then I will wrap this up, is I have often thought how many times those who are suicide bombers have completed their ‘mission’ and crossed over to the pits of hell only to wish that they could return to tell other (like-minded) followers, “Don’t do it!!! It’s a lie that we are buying into and complete deception! Please, spare your soul, your eternity, your life.”

Which "hell" are you referring to? Sheol/Hades? Tartarus? Gehenna? (All four words have been mistranslated as "hell". The first three mean "the grave/unseen", the last is an actual place in Israel that used to serve as a landfill and is now a garden.)

http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/hell.htm

What people often overlook about Revelations is that it is not a plan God has devised to punish, but rather bring people to him. What would it take for an atheist to believe? Probably quite a bit. I would think that say, seeing the oceans and rivers turned to blood might give even the staunchest atheist pause to consider his/her beliefs.

The people that end up in trouble are the ones who make it to the end of everything and still refuse to believe.

John 3:16

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton son and thou whoever should beliveth in him should not parish but have ever lasting life.

- RR

I beliveth, but I sin and repent daily.

In my minds eye my shoes leave my feet, I walk down a path in a beautiful garden to a waiting fountain which i neal down and speak without speaking thrusting my words up to my god. Gathering water into my hands I drink, wash my face and then walk away. This is our place to meet halfway.

Anyone have visuals like this?

I am a Christian, but a rather liberal one at that. I tend to mix both science and religion by taking parts of the bible as being metaphoric. For example, I think the seven days that it took to create the Earth could easily have represented 7,000 years or even 7,000,000 years. He created it with the big bang and created us through evolution. I tend to look at it as a sculpture process. He started with apes, which are the uncut marble blocks, and progressed to make changes until we looked like him, or as he desired. This ideology catches me a lot of flak from conservative Christians, even my own mother, but in my opinion evolution and other things aren't important. The only thing needed to get to heaven is a strong love for both God and Jesus, and an effort to live your life morally to the best of your ability.

As for the rapture, I'm not sure if I believe in it. I guess part of me believe it will happen, while most of me does not expect to ever experience it. I just don't understand the Christian need to wait for the rapture and live for the rapture. I live my life the best I can, but I focus on living without giving any thought to what would happen if the rapture were to occur. If it happens, it happens, and if it doesn't, then at least I didn't spend my life living as though I expected to be plucked off the Earth at any moment.

@ PunkNoodles - Nice to see someone with the same ideology as myself regarding the 'Seven Days' (or six if you count the going to bed for a well earned snooze).

I am sure it was stated that before the great flood (of Noah fame) that people lived for hundreds and hundreds of years, therefore why can't days represent millennia, eons, etc.

The Bible is a book and like all old books has been tinkered with, edited, translated numerous times. It is on occasion (and this is my belief) taken too literally. However like art, people should be allowed to read it and make up their own minds. The message it carries, however, is quite clear. It is just up to the individual how to enact upon it.

Trying to understand the world in the context of an ancient religion is like trying to sequence DNA with a knife and a fork. In biblical times people had no microscopes, no telescopes, no maps of the world, no real democracies, and really just no way to develop a thoughtful model of the world, how it came to be, and what our role is.

Now we have almost all of that, and people still believe the crap they used to explain the universe hundreds and thousands of years ago. Why?

The idea of having all people who believe swept off the planet is very seductive, mainly because, afterwards, we might actually get a reasonable political dialog going -- without all the nuts who think there's a king in heaven with final say over everything, and only those who claim a personal relationship with this big bearded alien being can be elected. It guarantees irrational governance and it gnaws away at democracy when the only model of leadership and decision-making revolves around Lords and Kings and Miracles and Angels and who embraces these fantasies the most.

I think a better question would have been do you believe in a pretribulation rapture or a post-tribulation rapture. Rather than do you believe in the rapture. It looks like alot of people are getting them a little confused.

I am a Christian and I do believe in the rapture. The rapture is only a name given to the time when Christians will be 'caught up' with Christ. It is an event of Christ's second coming. Contrary to what Jonah claims above, the rapture was the normal belief for Chrisitians since the beginning. We have good record of this belief in both the New Testament and in the writings of the early Church Fathers. - citation needed? ; ) i'm not going to go back and look but at least finish reading that wikipedia article for the references.

As far as whether the rapture is pre or post tribulation I don't know. I used to beleive in a Pretribulation rapture, then I found a Post-tribulation rapture pretty convincing and then I said forget it and decided to lay my faith on the fact that the bible says clearly that Christ will come and I will be with him.

Interesting Post. I just signed up here an noticed this post on the front page.

My stance... I am a Christian and I do believe that God is going to send his son Jesus to come back and get his children. I know that the term rapture is not in the bible and the word was not even around for quite some, but I think we can look at the New Testament and see that Jesus said "I am going to prepare a place for you." And we can look at other books in the bible and see where Paul talks about about Jesus returning and John talks about it in the book of Revelations.

It all comes down to, "Do you believe in the Bible as God's true words to us?" I hope you do, it will bring life to you.

As for the topic of 7 literal or figurative days of creation....Thats a another topic which I am currently writing a paper on. :-)

I can not truthfully say I believe a word of the book of Revelation. The words contained within are little more than the ramblings of some crazy guy who lived in a cave and hated Nero. How it ended up as a canonical book simply floors me.

To me, the bible is a book of fables... Though much of it describes real events that can be backed by archaeological findings and whatnot, I find that little more than the events themselves are valid. Descriptions of how the people /perceived/ an event can be helpful in determining what really happened, but that's about it...

The rapture would be really neat. Can you imagine 1/3 of the people on earth gone? Well truly it'd probably be like 1/10 considering how many people claim christianity but don't actually believe or practice it's tenets.

Earth could do with 1/3 less people methinks, regardless of their religion.

I don't think it would be too cool... I mean, from the "artist renditions" I've seen they drop dead in their tracks and their souls float on up... leaving us with a PILE of dead bodies to deal with. Now if only we could mark the annoying ones for "rapturization"?

UGH