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To: topcat54
Is the Pretribulation Rapture Biblical?

No. In many ways what we see in this pretrib rapture mess is a very close parallel to the fossil ‘record’ in evolution. Both scriptures and fossils are reinterpreted (like we were told at a very conservative Christian college: John’s call in Revelation to “come up hither”, to heaven for his revelation, was ‘the rapture’) and rearranged, the subsequent elaborate intellectual structures themselves acquiring status as proof of something that is nowhere evident, or that is even contradicted, in the specifics of the Biblical record or the fossils as they lie in situ. The structure is covered with bits and pieces of scripture or fossil. When challenged as to the reality of the structure, the proponent points to it and says "Of course, it's scriptural/scientific. Look there's scripture/scientific datum there and there and there!" Their particulars acquire a special meaning on account of the context they've created for them. The fact that the particulars indeed exist is then used as evidence for the independent existence of the intellectual schema they used to collect and arrange them. In both cases, the proponents are usually extremely dismissive of any criticism and use any criticism as evidence of the intellectual or spiritual unsoundness of the critic. Criticisms are ignored or flippantly replied to, secondary hypotheses are invoked to rescue the failed primary hypothesis. Critics are branded as heretics.

At least in the case of the Bible, it involves language that is fairly clear and consists of actual discussions of major Christian doctrines and is less amenable to what takes place with fossils and evolutionary taxonomy. In the case of a pre-tribulation rapture of the Christians (Warning: In event of rapture this vehicle will be unmanned!), we see active deconstruction of clear passages (such as the “One shall be taken, one shall be left”) so that fragments can be taken and reassembled into something that does not appear in the text itself.
119 posted on 04/02/2007 9:45:29 PM PDT by aruanan
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To: aruanan

Well, you’re just full of assertions aren’t you?


135 posted on 04/03/2007 5:25:53 AM PDT by Blogger
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