People that participate in these pages don't scoff at foolishness.
They're too busy promoting their own brand of off-the-rails ideology to pay any attention to Biblical intent or context or the sad history of others who've done the same. Priests and pastors are the chief offenders in this game for it is profit not prophecy that motivates them all. Few spiritual leaders are concerned with spiritual responsibility. Those that do concern themselves with spiritual responsibility speak with muted voices for American Christians do not want to hear their words. People simply do not want to be told what to do.
One of the chief heresies of American Protestantism is the idea that one learns from the Holy Spirit in a perverse form of spiritual osmosis. By the time most of us reached the third grade level of elementary school we'd been taught that knowledge doesn't come by osmosis. One cannot press a book upon one's brow and expect a mystical transference of knowledge to be absorbed directly from paper to brain.
2 Timothy 2:15 advises the reader to "
study to show yourself approved".
Study means work in the form of reading, humble acceptance of guidance from a qualified instructor, consideration of circumstances, and acquisition of skills to acquire knowledge from a variety of sources. The Holy Spirit acts as guide to good instruction, to proofs of God's Word in the physical world, and devices by which one may learn discernment of truth from propaganda,
buzz words and religious slogans. Unfortunately the American protestant church has substituted the latter two forms as truth for the honest labor of scholarship. In other words,
we've become too lazy to bother with learning something solid. Consequently anyone with a hair brained idea can pass it off as divine revelation or prophecy by osmosis. Do I need to remind the reader the Bible warns against
FALSE PROPHETS? Do I need to remind the reader the Bible chronicles times when
the devil USED SCRIPTURE for its purposes? How shall we discern the difference? We do so by study, by working at learning - not by osmosis. Does it hurt to think? If so, then studied exercise is a prescription best suited to cure the malady of Biblical illiteracy.
There is no such thing as RAPTURE.
Five hundred years ago the Protestant Reformation swept over Europe. It promised a fresh approach to learning and teaching God's plan of Redemption. The Roman Catholic Church, fearing a loss of revenue and control over its members, began several programs to reverse the trend. One was the publication of a work called
FUTURISM by Jesuit priest Francisco Ribera. In this work, approved by the Vatican, Biblical statements indicating the RCC was the anti-christ religious system were redefined and recreated. A series of fantastic future events were substituted so as to mask the true involvement of the Vatican in the suppression of God's Word and redemptive work. One of these false doctrines of the devil was the idea that the church, not Israel, was God's gift to the world. The RCC went on to certify it by continuing to murder as many Jews as possible and to claim the Pope is God, not Jesus Christ.
"
The Pope and God are the same, so he has all power in heaven and earth."
Barclay Cap. XXVII, p. 218. Cities Petrus Bertrandus, Pius V.
He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. -
Daniel 7:25
In the mid-19th century, American false prophet and consort of witches John Nelson Darby published RCC FUTURISM and gave it a new coat of paint by naming his version
DISPENSATIONALISM. Most of his tome marched in lock step with Vatican assertions and was fully accepted by the American Protestant church with all due fanaticism and ardor. It didn't matter to anyone in the western hemisphere that no other branch of protestantism on earth bought the idea. In the USA it became unquestioned gospel as it is to this day. The doctrine of the rapture as well as Replacement Theology/Supersessionism are two primary examples.
Lastly I am compelled to point out that it isn't the church that represents the Bride of Christ, it's
ISRAEL.
"God did not reject His people..." - Paul as quoted in
Romans 11:2a.
When one accepts Christ one becomes a Jew (
Romans 2:29), not a member of a church dedicated to anti-Semitism and doctrines of demons.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LICENSE TO SIN.
One of the chief SINs of the American Protestant church is rejection of the LAW and the God who gave it. Jesus did NOT abolish or destroy the LAW and is quoted as saying so by
Matthew 5:17. In truth most American churches are so confused about the Son of Man that they don't even know who He IS. Why was it necessary for God to die on the cross? Most do not know because their spiritual leaders are too busy promoting their latest real estate improvements or additions to their staff (few of whom are actually educated in Biblical studies). TV evangelist Jimmie Baker never read the Bible until he was sentenced to prison for real estate fraud. The Baker case is emblematic of the current situation in America of our leadership. As recently as a month ago I asked an ordained leader of a Methodist church in upstate New York about the meaning and importance of repentance. She did not know.
The work of scholarship needs to progress in ways never before observed else what remains of the church will be swept away. Our games of trivia may one day include memories of a religious organization that was once respected and honored. Today its place has been usurped by the untouchable respected and honored LGBTQ community.
How far have we fallen, yet how sincerely we continue to cling to doctrines of the devil and scholastic laziness. It is time to repent for the sake of ourselves, our families and our communities. God might appreciate the attention too.
that's me, hollering from the choir loft...
PS
Please to not reply to this post with another nauseating list of scriptures to prove rapture dogma. We've all heard and read that jazz before. It's as false now as it was five hundred years ago when Ribera first concocted the scheme. We don't need to be punished with reiterations of it today. "
All effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand." - Adolph Hitler.
RAPTURE dogma erodes faith in God to save. It was, is, and will always be A LIE.