Posted on 06/08/2003 6:35:26 AM PDT by TaxRelief
The Roman Catholic bishops of Illinois are condemning the best- selling, Christian-themed Left Behind books as "anti-Catholic."
...Catholicism teaches that the Rapture actually happens at Christ's Second Coming, and not seven years before, as LaHaye and Jenkins describe and many other Christians believe.
It's a subtle difference, but one hotly debated by Christians since the 1880s, when the idea of a pre-tribulation Rapture was popularized by theologians including evangelist Dwight L. Moody, founder of Chicago's Moody Bible Institute.
"The bishops' main worry is, if they don't say anything, there could be Catholics of good will reading this stuff, and it sounds biblical and sounds like it's based on Scripture, and they may start believing it," Wichmann said.
"We want to make it clear that that shouldn't be happening," he said...(more)
1 False Christs 2 18 Ecumenism 4 35 Date Settings 1 2 Occult 4 19 Globalism 4 36 Volcanoes 3 3 Satanism 1 20 Tribulation Temple 3 37 Earthquakes 5 4 Unemployment 5 21 Anti-Semitism 5 38 Wild Weather 5 5 Inflation 1 22 Israel 5 39 Civil Rights 5 6 Interest Rates 1 23 Gog (Russia) 4-1 40 Famine 5 7 The Economy 4 24 Persia (Iran) 4 41 Drought 3 8 Oil Supply/Price 2 25 The False Prophet 4 42 Plagues 4 9 Debt and Trade 5 26 Nuclear Nations 5 43 Climate 4 10 Financial unrest 3 27 Global Turmoil 5 44 Food Supply 3 11 Leadership 5 28 Arms Proliferation 5 45 Floods 4 12 Drug abuse 3 29 Liberalism 3 13 Apostasy 5 30 The Peace Process 3 Rapture Index 170 14 Supernatural 1 31 Kings of the East 5 Net Change -1 15 Moral Standards 5 32 Mark of the Beast 4 16 Anti-Christian 3 33 Beast Government 5 Updated: 2 June 03 17 Crime Rate 5 34 The Antichrist 5
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Record High: 182 (24 Sept 01)
Record Low: 57 (12 Dec 93)
excerpted from Rapture Ready.com (One man's attempt to measure the near likelihood of the second coming of Christ)
Summary For May 26-June 1
Space weather reached severe levels last week. A category G4 (severe) geomagnetic storm began on May 29th and lasted through May 30th. The source of the storm was a powerful solar flare that produced a strong (R3) radio blackout very early on 28 May. This powerful event was preceded by another R3 event just one hour earlier. An S1 radiation storm, associated with these flares occurred late on the 28th. Another R3 event occurred on 29 May, and an R2 event was observed on 31 May. An S1 event followed the R2 event on 31 May. A very large and complex sunspot group on the sun was responsible for all this activity.
Category G2 (moderate) geomagnetic storm occurred on May 28th due to high speed solar wind from a coronal hole on the sun. Often times geomagnetic storming results when high speed solar winds interact with Earths magnetic field. For a list of adverse system effects related to space weather storms, please refer to the NOAA Space Weather Scales.
Outlook For June 4-10
Space weather for the next week is expected to be at minor levels. Category G1 geomagnetic storms are expected early in the week due to coronal hole rotating into a favorable position for interacting with Earth. Category R1 (minor) radio blackouts are possible early in the week due to an active sunspot region on the sun.
Data used to provide space weather services are contributed by NOAA, USAF, NASA, NSF, USGS, the International Space Environment Services and other observatories, universities, and institutions.
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
6 "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 "All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. 10 "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 "Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 "And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
13 "But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
14 "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. 15 "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), 16 "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 "Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. 18 "And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes.
19 "But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! 20 "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. 21 "For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 "And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened.
23 "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it. 24 "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 "See, I have told you beforehand. 26 "Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it. 27 "For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 "For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.
29 "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 "And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.
33 "So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near-- at the doors! 34 "Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 "But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 "For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 "and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 "Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 "Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 "Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.
43 "But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 "Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. 45 "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 "Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 "Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.
48 "But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' 49 "and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 "the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 "and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Until the mid-18th century, Christians, almost universally believed that the second-coming of the Messiah would happen after a period of Great Tribulation. In 1745(?)while in seminary, Morgan Edwards, a Baptist minister, wrote a paper that presented the hypothesis that the rapture of the devout would occur before the terrible period of tribulation.
Since then, a large percentage of Christians have embraced this much more comfortable theory. Strict traditionalists generally reject this idea that contradicts the long held view of "martyrdom in the final days".
Indeed, if we look at Mark's version of the Olivet events, we see an interesting addition:
12 "Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. "And you will be hated by all men for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
I refuse to divulge that information.
Please do add anything that you think applies!
Notice, I didn't even bring up Isiah, Daniel or Revelations yet. We also need some posts of- or links to- recent weird happenings.
Some news of interest
"Dispel Mark of Beast Phobia", replace cards with biometrics, 100 million users, pilot launched
Number of Visa smart cards to reach 100 million worldwide by June 2003
Global push for biometric standard
UN aviation agency adopts biometric identification to improve travel clearance
Blunkett presses ahead with national biometric ID card plan (UK)
let's see....moving to a cashless society....talk of inserting chips into forehead or hand....hmmmm....I'd say go ahead and max out that credit card.
;) gotta keep that sense of humor....
not even to us fellow FReepers? c'mon....it would really help with summer vacation planning.
A small but growing number of domestic terrorists could attempt to use biological weapons in the belief that doing so would advance their goals. The most likely are religious and extreme right-wing groups and groups seeking revenge who view secular rulers and the law they uphold as illegitimate. They are unconstrained by fear of government or public backlash, since their actions are carried out to please God and themselves, not to impress a secular constituency. Frequently, they do not claim credit for their attacks since their ultimate objective is to create so much fear and chaos that the government's legitimacy is destroyed. Their victims are often viewed as subhuman since they are outside the group's religion or race. < end snip - more at link >
"Identity (and some other millenarian sects), however, expect to be present during the apocalypse.24 Because of this belief, some followers of Christian Identity believe they need to be prepared with every available weapon to ensure their survival. "
I have no idea, but I do own the soundtrack.
The Bible is problematic to Catholics since their teaching does not align with the Bible and God forbide we can't have them reading the Bible!
As for the Left Behind series, it doesn't have my approval but for different reasons. Trying to dramatize Biblical teachings isn't what I think Christ had in mind to become a Christian. Something is not sitting well with me in that approach.
Yup! Saved Christians won't be here when all hell breaks lose. God is CONSISTENT in not subjecting His own to His wrath. The Bible is actually quite clear on this, IMHO.
My guess is that since the Catholic church isn't big on teaching from the Bible, their teachings don't match and they don't want to lose more credibility.
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