Don’t Worry about being “Left Behind.” Have a Holy Fear of being taken up to Judgment

http://blog.adw.org ^ | October 2, 2014 | Msgr. Charles Porter

[NKP_Vet]

The movie “Left Behind” opens today. And while, in a secular culture dismissive of any consequences for unbelief, we can rejoice in any salutary reminders, it is unfortunate that the reminder is riddled with questionable theology and dubious biblical interpretation.

In certain (but not all) Protestant circles, and especially among the Evangelicals, there is a strong and often vivid preoccupation with signs of the Second Coming of Christ. Many of the notions that get expressed are either erroneous or extreme. Some of these erroneous notions are rooted in a misunderstanding of the various scriptural genres. Some are rooted in reading certain Scriptures in isolation from the wider context of the whole of Scripture. And some are rooted in reading one text and disregarding others that balance it.

The Catholic approach to the end times (eschatology) is perhaps less thrilling and provocative. It does not generate “Left Behind” movie series or cause people to sell their houses and gather on hillsides waiting for the announced end. It is more methodical and seeks to balance a lot of notions that often hold certain truths in tension.

[ealgeone]

You know, it certainly seems that way. The only thing I've ever agreed on with Joe Biden was his comment this week that the world seems to be coming apart at the seams.

We may wish it would happen sooner, but God is patient so that none should perish. I'm glad He's patient.

If we're not in the end-times, I'm not sure I want to see them. They will be brutal.

[Iscool]

Don’t Worry about being “Left Behind.” Have a Holy Fear of being taken up to Judgment

A fear of what??? We Christians have been judged already...

Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

[Lee N. Field]

he Catholic approach to the end times (eschatology) is perhaps less thrilling and provocative. It does not generate “Left Behind” movie series

FWIW, I have seen Roman Catholic end times fiction. As well as Mormon end times fiction. (Should have picked them up when I saw them.)

[NKP_Vet]

Same beliefs instituted by Christ 2,000 years ago. Beliefs that don’t change with the wind or a show of hands. The total opposite of breakaway faiths - that broke away because they want to do it their way and not God’s way. And let me be the first say Catholic priests have more theology/scriputural training in their big toe than 99% of protestant pastors, where thousands have no training at all in preaching the Word of God. They just start preaching and call themselves a pastor or reverend. As in Reverend Al Sharpton, or Pastor Joel Osteen, neither one having one minute of theology and or Biblical education.

[ealgeone]

Your use of Joel osteen and sharpton as mainline Protestant pastors is laughable at best. You then resort to a third grade retort that cath priests have more training in their big toe than most Protestant preachers. Is this really the best you’ve got??

[Jan_Sobieski]

I am not saying that everything in the Left Behind series is scriptural, however Paul, Jesus, Peter, John and other apostles spoke of meeting of the Lord in the clouds prior to God's judgment. I know few Christians who even know who Darby was...we go to the Apostles. All throughout the Bible, God pulls his beloved out before judgment falls (e.g. Noah, Lot, Daniel & Co, Church in Jerusalem to Pella, etc.)

The finest Escatological Scholars in the World (Arnold Fructenbaum, Dave Hunt, James Jacob Prasch, and scores of others confirm this theology). The only thing demonic is perhaps your staggering ignorance!?!

[caww]

......”Those who are left behind will be with Christ. Those who are taken will be in perpetual darkness”......

What?......

Well there are ‘two’ comings....one ‘in the air’...the other Jesus’s ‘feet stand on the earth’.....

It’s written In Thess. 4....”we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord ‘in the air’.

and here...in Zechariah 14..... “In that day ‘His feet will stand’ on the Mount of Olives.

Neither of those accounts mention anything about those ‘taken’ being in darkness.

[caww]

They keep throwing out the dingy pastors few Protestants really listen too....yet their Pope actually meets woth Olsten...LOLOL

[metmom]

A fear of what??? We Christians have been judged already...

Christians don't have fear or have to fear.

Romans 8:15-16 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

[metmom]

The “rapture” stuff did not really come out until the 18-19th centuries.

It's really ironic that Catholics use that in an attempt to discredit the theology of the rapture, when all the assumption of Mary stuff wasn't declared by the vatican until 1950.

That's even later to the game than the rapture thinking.

So that must mean that the assumption of Mary is even more invalid as dogma or doctrine.

[caww]

...."The Catholic Church is the Rolls Royce of Christian faiths, .......

Well yes, you could call it that.... the Bishops do indeed love their hot rods...

and their lifestyles too!..

And they love their kids too

[ealgeone]

Your post #50.....excellent observation!

[Old Yeller]

Never in my life have I been to a protestant church where the people in the pews got up and read the Bible. The few protestant faiths that do this, like Lutheran and Episcopalians are only copying the Catholic Church. Most baptist, pentacostal and other evangelical churches are nothing more than a self-appointed pastor (some with no training at all), pacing back and forth on the stage, beating his fist on a Bible, and telling you you’re going to hell if you don’t change. Every two of three minutes he says “can I hear an amen, then the congregation repeats “amen” ad nauseam. Most Catholics I know are like me, they bring their own Bible to church. They read the Word, and they certainly hear the Word at each and every Mass. The Catholic Church is the Rolls Royce of Christian faiths, the fallen away faiths beat up Pintos just trying to keep from blowing a gasket.

I call BS on everything you've said here. You're claiming stereotypical perceptions Catholics have toward non-Catholics, and also being a former Catholic I know that Catholics don't bring their own Bibles to church instead they rely on missalettes in the church pews. If they have a Bible at all it a oversized thing at home sitting on the shelf collecting dust and the only time it is opened is when the family records another infant baptism in it, or maybe the date of death of a family member, then it goes back on the top shelf.

[Old Yeller]

....Or to use an American made car, the Catholic Church is like the Cadillac car or top of the line type of car. The Protestant churches more like the VW’s.

Catholics are so wrapped up in pride and arrogance of their man-made religion. I'm sure the Pharisees were the same way.

[Louis Foxwell]

Taken refers to the condemned. Look it up.

[Louis Foxwell]

Careful. My ignorance does not extend to eschatology.
The reign of Christ upon His return is here on earth, not in some sweet by and by.
Satan takes. Christ delivers.

[SaraJohnson]

We are going to be judged by Jesus...I am not afraid of the inevitable. I believe His promise that He’ll forgive the sins of Christians who believe in Him and who have confessed and repented from sin.

[caww]

Frankly no...can’t agree with your post by any means of distorting the meaning of ‘taken’ you may find convenient to support your take... Taken in full context of the scriptures given and also the fact scripture itself interprets scripture.... I’ll stand on what it states.

[Louis Foxwell]

Christ does not return to leave but to stay and reign.

[ealgeone]

Taken refers to the condemned. Look it up.

Dude, check the Greek. The taken are the close ones.