For a $40 annual fee, you can store messages to nonsaved loved ones that will (if the system works) be delivered six days after the rapture. http://www.youvebeenleftbehind.com Not sure what I think of this.
I was wondering the same thing. Also, is the premise here is that the system will notify those left behind so that they effectively get another chance? That doesn't jive with my recollection of what believers in the Rapture believe -- that you get a second chance. Nevertheless, I don't believe that the bible mentions the Rapture anywhere and the allusion to it is based on a mistaken understanding of the scripture, particularly of 1 Thessalonian chapter 4:13-18 . Hopefully Pastor Keith will see this and weigh in. He and a couple others have a better understanding of the original scriptures than do I.
With my luck, the system would work, but a technical glitch would cause my messages to fail, and since its after the Rapture, its not exactly like I can call tech support or customer care and resolve it. Sheesh...what would be worse, have a technical glitch that prevents your message to go through, or following the Rapture, realizing you can call Tech Support but its still folks in India that answer the phone??
Sigh. I think if there were a website for every time someone thought the Rapture was coming, it would exceed porn as having the most sites on the internet.
now that is just silly. If there was a website for every star in the universe, it still wouldn't come close to exceeding porn
Here I am and the first word that comes to mind is "fraud". "Sick joke" follows shortly thereafter. You are correct Mal that the concept of rapture is a construction not an actual Biblical principal. It first arose in the late 19th century in the millienalist controversies of that time. It requires a shoehorning of the Thess text you cite into a constructed timetable made from Revalation and Daniel. The Thess text is an attempt to give confidence to those who have not died that 1) their loved ones are alive in Christ and 2) they will not be shorted in the end. As an aside, there is a fascinating play on words on words in the text. Just like today the ancients had euphemisms regarding death. One was "fallen asleep" much like today. Paul, uses that tendency to describe the difference for Christiians. Since Christ "died" (hard word) we but "fall asleep" (soft word). It was/is a great comforting text which I use regularly at funerals. So we either have non believers who are ripping money off from gullible believers or we have folks who, if their understanding is correct, couldn't be around to check whether their "product" gets delivered. Great business model if sleeping at night and looking at oneself in the mirror is not a problem for you!
It's fascinating. In my upbringing (Nazarene), the concept of the Rapture was pretty much a given. The more I read, the more I can see the question is very much in doubt. I guess the secret is live a life as close to God as you can, and regardless of when he does bring the curtain down, you'll be ready.
Martin Luther was once asked if he knew the world would end the next day what would he do? His answer was to plant a tree. Why? Because, he said, he didn't think he had done enough with nature and would want to be found by God tending it. The axiom I preach regularly is if you know the world will end tomorrow and it changes what you are doing today then you probably aren't doing the right thing today to start with! btw, no one says the contemporary concept of rapture is inherantly wrong, it is too limiting. That is one way to read the texts but not the only way. There are so many other ways to read the Thessalonian texts than some "in the sky by and by" which are meaningful for folks then and now for me to worry much about "end times". Since I am a bit off topic anyway, I will share one more piece about second coming stuff. One of the professors at our Trinity seminary in Columbus, OH, Dr. Mark Allen Powell, talks about when you pray the Lord's Prayer and say, "Thy Kingdom come", he always looks to the East for God's coming. If you pray for it he says you ought to expect it and one day it will indeed happen. I have kept that in my mind now for years. When I visited Jerusalem a couple of years ago I was walking on the crest of the Mount of Olives with the old city to my right behind trees. Suddenly we came out from the trees and there was the temple mound right in front of me and instinctivly I glanced over my shoulder to look for the coming of God since by tradition that would be the angle. I still get goose bumps thinking about it.
Great post. I totally agree with you. I always say, I'd rather live believing than to take a chance on the alternative.
Its a scam, just like all the emails I get telling me I inheirited a large sum of money as I am apprently 3rd in line to the Tibetian throne.
