Why Evangelical Christians Love Israel VICE on HBO

[Quixote1818]

[SergeStorms]

1. Without Israel....

there can be no "rapture". I don't believe there's anything in the bible about any "rapture" though, so I don't know where the sky pilots came up with that.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. tortuously cherry picked from Revelations for the most part, as I understand it.

[SergeStorms]

3. Is there any mention...

of the exact word "rapture" though? I haven't read the bible since I was 13 for my "confirmation" into the Lutheran church. On my Dad's side of the family we had Jehovah's witnesses. I fled all that lunacy when I went to college, and I never saw a need to revisit it.

[slightlv]

4. Rapture

does not occur anywhere in the Bible. Furthermore, most educated (including theologically educated) people understand John was writing about Israel as it was at that time. IOW, "Armageddon" has come and gone as John thought of it.

This rapture crap is made up by dominionists, charismatics, and evangelicals. It's not Biblical. And the warmongers who want to bring on WWIII in the Middle East are gonna be pretty damned surprised when the bombs land next to their feet, which will be firmly planted on the ground. In the meantime, it enables false prophets and greedy preachers who are doing nothing more than leading their flock astray.

I'm not Christian, BTW... but I come from a LONG line (four generations) of preachers. I'll lay odds I know the Bible better than some of these "christianists."

[paleotn]

6. Probably most christianists.

Similar background here. What evilgelicals really don't like are apostates like us. We are steeped in the doctrine, so they aren't fooling us. Not for a second. We know them too well....how they think and what they believe.

[SergeStorms]

7. I'm sure you know the bible...

better than 50% of them, at least.

Christianity has been so manipulated by charlatans it doesn't mean anything now.

I'm a secular humanist, and looked down on by the rest of my family because of it. I don't attempt to dissuade them from their religion, but do they ever preach to me! It all falls on deaf ears now. After living a good, relatively clean life for 50+ years without it, I see no reason to indoctrinate myself anew. I'm good.

Take care.

[paleotn]

5. Extremely tortuous.

Outside of evilgelicals, most Christian groups don't believe in a pre-trib rapture. It's based primarily on non-cannon writings, some of dubious authenticity. In my mind, it's a cop out for the weak who fear ACTUALLY suffering for their faith during the supposed tribulation, instead of the fake "suffering" they complain about now. Pre, post, whenever, I'll just celebrate them all being gone.

[Crowman2009]

10. Frankly, I think the book of Revalations was an analogy predicting the fall of the Roman Empire.

I highly doubt the author had anything beyond that in mind.

[Warpy]

8. I have to wonder how these dumbass "Christians" would feel

if Indians walked into their houses and onto their farmland and told them to pack whatever shit they could carry and GTFO because god gave that land to the Indians thousands of years ago.

I think they'd be just a little ticked off.

They're just so wrapped up in horseshit dogma that they can't think this stuff through.

[Quixote1818]

9. Well said. nt

[Maggiemayhem]

13. They don't get that the Left Behind novels are well novels.

[Warpy]

14. Well, they don't get a lot of stuff and they like it that way.

When I inherited after my dad died I was sorely tempted to clean out a couple of thrift shops and arrange empty clothing in the parking lot of the megachurch here during one of their Sunday services.

I did restrain myself, but just.

[McKim]

11. Thank you for this excellent post!

Thank you for this excellent, truthful and timely post. Democrats really need to see this!

[panfluteman]

12. I Have a Palestinian Friend Living in Nablus Who Was Tortured by the Israelis for Five Years

And guess where he was imprisoned? Har Megiddo - yes, that's right - Armageddon! Yikes!

I have a website on Greek Medicine, which is the original traditional healing system of the region. I've even been to the Holy Land twice to give talks about it. You can see pictures and blog postings on my site, greek medicine dot net. My overwhelming impression of the place was that it had wonderful weather, lots of history, religion and culture, and had a very international, cosmopolitan vibe to it - kind of like California. Now if they could only get over this whole Israeli / Palestinian thing...

I have a good nickname for pastor John Haggee - I call him "Superjowls"!

When I stayed in Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee, I rented a bicycle and proceeded to ride my bicycle around the Sea of Galilee. The hot sun was quite merciless, and as I was nearing the end of my journey, I noticed that Israeli ambulances were following behind me, very closely. Obviously, they didn't think I'd make it. You can get great fish dinners in restaurants in Tiberias - yummy!