I sort of don't believe the Rapture theory... for one single reason: it was cooked up by a Jesuit...
Quote from vhehn:
have you even read the bible?
Kill the Entire Town if One Person Worships Another God
Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)
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Kill Followers of Other Religions.
1) If your own full brother, or your son or daughter, or your beloved wife, or you intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods, whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand or far away, from one end of the earth to the other: do not yield to him or listen to him, nor look with pity upon him, to spare or shield him, but kill him. Your hand shall be the first raised to slay him; the rest of the people shall join in with you. You shall stone him to death, because he sought to lead you astray from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. And all Israel, hearing of this, shall fear and never do such evil as this in your midst. (Deuteronomy 13:7-12 NAB)
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Kill Old Men and Young Women
"You are my battle-ax and sword," says the LORD. "With you I will shatter nations and destroy many kingdoms. With you I will shatter armies, destroying the horse and rider, the chariot and charioteer. With you I will shatter men and women, old people and children, young men and maidens. With you I will shatter shepherds and flocks, farmers and oxen, captains and rulers. "As you watch, I will repay Babylon and the people of Babylonia for all the wrong they have done to my people in Jerusalem," says the LORD. "Look, O mighty mountain, destroyer of the earth! I am your enemy," says the LORD. "I will raise my fist against you, to roll you down from the heights. When I am finished, you will be nothing but a heap of rubble. You will be desolate forever. Even your stones will never again be used for building. You will be completely wiped out," says the LORD. (Jeremiah 51:20-26)
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Quote from peilthetraveler:
Try to imagine you meet a man that tells you who is going to win the superbowl before playoffs even start. Imagine he is right. Next year he does the same thing and is right again. Imagine this man predicts the superbowl winner every year for 30 years straight. Is it stupid to think he might actually be right for the 31st time in a row?
Well if you had never seen him make the first 30 predictions, then you might think he is crazy, right?
This is the same thing for people like you. You never read the bible, you only hear the last prediction so of course you think its crazy. You are ignorant of the prophecies that already happened, so of course its all craziness to you.
Quote from RangeBar:
First, show me a person who has correctly predicted the Superbowl winner for 30 years straight: I'll even spot you the 'before the playoffs even start' criteria. Then you'll get my attention.
I've read the Bible a couple of times. Even won a Championship, #1 scholar in the book of Acts in a Christian summer camp more years ago than I care to think about. I have several versions of the Bible on my bookshevles: in the Fiction section.
The "prophecies" cited in the Bible, or more correctly, cited by the followers of the Bible, are vague and inconclusive at the very least. Many are outright contradictory.
In any event, believe what you want but, my ONLY point is this: let's assume that all the superstitious stuff that HURTS the individual is WRONG and let's structure society to suppress that belief. Let's work toward the end of ENHANCING individual freedom & expression and let the god(s) sort it out in the end.
My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.... When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom to-day this poor people is plundered and exploited.Quote from peilthetraveler:
Yeah you are so right. Its all those commandments where God tells us to do all that, right? I mean you have "Thou shall kill, thou shall steal, ect. Oh and lets not forget the one that Jesus said. "Hate your brother as yourself" Yeah all these terrible messages in the bible right?
Oh wait...it doesnt say that in the bible. It says the opposite.
Stop blaming Christians for what atheists do.
Quote from RangeBar:
However, we have reached the point in our evolution that disposes of all of those superstitions. Now is the time to realize that our choices lie, not in superstitions, but in how we are going to apply our knowledge of science and clear understandings of commonm sense. Will we accept that ALL of us are constrainted by our limitations of 'training' (indoctination)? Will we accept the fact that nobody KNOWS what we were BEFORE this life (if anything) and have no more info concerning what is coming AFTER this life (if anything).
The basic fact of the matter is this: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF A CREATOR OR A LIFE AFTER DEATH. Accept that fact. Better yet; SMiLE- there is no HELL !! In the end, all we can do is act in a HUMANIST manner to ensure the absolute maximim degree of freedom and self-expression. It is hard: try your best to stop thinking about yourself for a change.
Quote from Misthos:
My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice.... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.... When I go out in the morning and see these men standing in their queues and look into their pinched faces, then I believe I would be no Christian, but a very devil if I felt no pity for them, if I did not, as did our Lord two thousand years ago, turn against those by whom to-day this poor people is plundered and exploited.
-Adolf Hitler, in his speech in Munich on 12 April 1922
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Let me guess peil - your christianity is the "right interpretation" and Hitler's was the "wrong interpretation."
How about this: both "interpretations" are based on mythology? And therefore - worthless.