In it till the Rapture!

sphenisc said:
I've a friend who's a rapturist and has kept me up-to-date on the relevant details, perhaps I can be of assistance?
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1) One radio show nutcase I listen too always mentions (gleefully) how there will be planes flying and the pilot will suddenly disappear (having been raptured out). In those cases, will he be beamed out a la Star Trek, or will a hole be made in the side of the plane?

2) Likewise, will those who are in their cars or houses get a warning to go outside? Or are the trumpets supposed to alert all those who qualify?

3) Presumably, Jesus will appear in Israel first. Will it be something like Santa Clause, where he goes all around the world collecting people?

4) When the raptured rise into the clouds to meet Jesus, what elevation will that be? It gets cold up there, and there is less oxygen - will they need coats and oxygen tanks? Won't it be inconvenient if they are naked?

5) Why would be people be raptured naked when God is so prudish?

6) After the clouds/Jesus reunion, what next? Will everyone be zipped around the earth to some common cloud location? What about after that?

7) How do they get to the place with the gold streets and the wall with the gates and gemstones?

8) Others have asked about the unborn - given the number of miscarriages and abortions already being direct admits, there must be a lot of unaccompanied minors in heaven. Who is raising all those children? Or do they just arrive as angels?
 
sylvan8798 said:
1) One radio show nutcase I listen too always mentions (gleefully) how there will be planes flying and the pilot will suddenly disappear (having been raptured out). In those cases, will he be beamed out a la Star Trek, or will a hole be made in the side of the plane? . . .
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While the logical traps and holes in rapture theology are fun to consider, the real point here is that the current US Secretary of State appears to believe this stuff, and that is frightening.
 
The Shrike said:
While the logical traps and holes in rapture theology are fun to consider, the real point here is that the current US Secretary of State appears to believe this stuff, and that is frightening.
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You think it's just one? Can't find Mike Pence using the word rapture explicitly but if you look in to his views and influences it's pretty hard not to escape the conclusion that he's a rapture believer. And even if he doesn't believe in the rapture or has one of the tamer interpretations of it, he still has the apocalyptic millennial views.

This rapture believing organization runs the weekly White House Bible study group. Ten of Trumps cabinet members support this organization.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43534724
 
sylvan8798 said:
1) One radio show nutcase I listen too always mentions (gleefully) how there will be planes flying and the pilot will suddenly disappear (having been raptured out). In those cases, will he be beamed out a la Star Trek, or will a hole be made in the side of the plane?
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Yes.

2) Likewise, will those who are in their cars or houses get a warning to go outside? Or are the trumpets supposed to alert all those who qualify?
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"No one knows the day or the time. The angels in heaven don't know, and the Son himself doesn't know." - Jesus H Christ

3) Presumably, Jesus will appear in Israel first. Will it be something like Santa Clause, where he goes all around the world collecting people?
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Don't be silly, Santa is a myth!

4) When the raptured rise into the clouds to meet Jesus, what elevation will that be? It gets cold up there, and there is less oxygen - will they need coats and oxygen tanks? Won't it be inconvenient if they are naked?
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You are assuming their physical bodies will rise...

5) Why would be people be raptured naked when God is so prudish?
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God a prude? No, quite the opposite. He will enjoy seeing your naked body.

Hebrews 4:13-15
13 No one can hide from God. His eyes see everything...

6) After the clouds/Jesus reunion, what next? Will everyone be zipped around the earth to some common cloud location? What about after that?
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That's the bit they don't tell you about. But...

Matthew 13:30
"Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn."

7) How do they get to the place with the gold streets and the wall with the gates and gemstones?
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You mean the slaughterhouse?

8) Others have asked about the unborn - given the number of miscarriages and abortions already being direct admits, there must be a lot of unaccompanied minors in heaven. Who is raising all those children? Or do they just arrive as angels?
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Not just miscarriages and abortions - even fertilized cells qualify! But not turned into angels of course - that would be silly.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
You think it's just one?
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No, you're right that these people are all over. I guess SoS bothers me a bit more though because that job usually* goes to a relatively sober and well-grounded person with our nation's long-term interest at heart. If there's some clown in that position as our diplomatic face to the world who thinks the world is only gonna be here another 10 or 20 years, then I grow even more concerned.

*Bracing for all the historians to bury me in examples of truly moronic and destructive Secretaries of State...
 
The Shrike said:
If there's some clown in that position as our diplomatic face to the world who thinks the world is only gonna be here another 10 or 20 years, then I grow even more concerned.
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From what I hear, we're not in the "last days" we're in the "last hours". Or maybe it was the "last minutes." Who knows? They seem fairly gleeful about the prospects, however.
 
bruto said:
Oh yikes. Does that mean the rest of us are going to have to clean up the corpses, or are we going to have to fend off the zombies?
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Well I was totally given to understand that the elect would rise in their current bodies and have them transformed in the air to the bodies they wished they had had at some younger and better time. Albeit I was not aware of the clothing issues (or lack thereof :eye-poppi).
 
sylvan8798 said:
Well I was totally given to understand that the elect would rise in their current bodies and have them transformed in the air to the bodies they wished they had had at some younger and better time. Albeit I was not aware of the clothing issues (or lack thereof :eye-poppi).
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Cue the angelic chorus singing "I'm too sexy for my shirt...."
 
bruto said:
Oh yikes. Does that mean the rest of us are going to have to clean up the corpses, or are we going to have to fend off the zombies?
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It's both better and a great deal worse than you're thinking. It's going to be like how a science teacher of mine once speculated the Star Trek transporters would work in real life: the body will vanish away, but only the body itself-- all the bacteria, food undergoing every stage of digestion, dental plaque, skin mites, contents of bladder, and some nasal mucus and spit will remain behind, falling out of the suddenly-empty air. Everyone will leave a wet heap of gross behind them when they go, and even if they leave their clothes behind you won't want them.
 
The Shrike said:
While the logical traps and holes in rapture theology are fun to consider, the real point here is that the current US Secretary of State appears to believe this stuff, and that is frightening.
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Especially if he thinks he's been appointed to play a central role in Armageddon.

Actually I don't know if the Rapture/Armageddon/Apocalypse are actually the same thing. Apparently the Rapture is from Thessalonians, while I thought all the end-of-the-world stuff was in Revelation. Probably would be a good idea to read that as well.

"The Rapture" was a pretty good '90s movie with Mimi Rogers.
 
Well, we have an official new date for Armageddon - Jan 21 st, night of the Blood Moon.
Some Doomsayers start early in the year.
 
a_unique_person said:
Evangelical/rapture believers. Same thing.
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Skeptic Ginger said:
:confused:

No it isn't.
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This is The End said:
The vast majority of evangelicals believe the rapture will happen at some point in the future.

A small subset of evangelicals believe the rapture will happen within a double digit number of years.

Glad I am able to clear that up.
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As someone who was raised in multiple flavours of Evangelical and related churches, I can confirm This is The End's comments.

All Evangelicals, and many other denominations, believe in the Rapture. Anyone who takes a literal interpretation of scripture must do so, because it's literally in scripture.

However, without going into the various permutations of Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Tribulation theology, the big debate is when it will occur, and how predictable its occurrence will be. When one believes it to occur will depend on how one interprets the "signs and wonders" passages of scripture.

There is a huge faction that quite seriously believes it will happen within their lifetime, or at least within their childrens' lifetimes, and therefore issues like pollution, climate change, etc. are non-issues for them. They won't be around long enough to care, and those who remain after they've been "called up" are evil sinners destined for hellm so anything that happens to their world is irrelevant to the Raptured Christian. Furthermore, war in the Middle East is not only not something to be unduly concerned about, it's actually something to be encouraged, because it's a "fulfillment" of scripture that presages the Rapture happening sooner rather than later. (A few of the more extreme believers think that they can accelerate the timeline, rather than simply sitting and waiting for G-D to sort it out.)

This faction may not be the majority, but they are an extremely vocal and politically-active minority. The more strident, invasive, and elitist a particular Evangelical sounds and acts, the more likely they are to be believe in a "sooner" version of the Rapture; particularly those who treat Trump as "G-D's chosen".

Now, not everyone who believes in some version, including the "in my lifetime" variant, will go about trumpeting it in public (that's not what Evangelical means). Most are either savvy enough to know that the majority of people won't care, and will treat them like they're lunatics; or are elitist enough to believe that such knowledge is for "the elect" only, not the damned masses.
 
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After reading this thread, I am more convinced than ever that religion is not something I can embrace. I'm much happier without it.
 
TragicMonkey said:
What happens to the placenta? And do the unborn babies get to grow to adulthood in the afterlife, or do they have to just flop around as fetuses forever? Or worse, do they get implanted into the wombs of heaven residents who just have to be pregnant for eternity? Or do they give birth to them, and then they age? The main problem I have with theories of the afterlife is that nobody ever seems to really sit down and think out the details. It all gets very silly very quickly when you get into the details.
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Ask Scorpion, he likes to make up stuff like this and pretend it's real.
 
Meanwhile, we have STILL not yet determined accurately how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Answering this vital question will no doubt lead to further startling revelations.
 
The Shrike said:
While the logical traps and holes in rapture theology are fun to consider, the real point here is that the current US Secretary of State appears to believe this stuff, and that is frightening.
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This would appear to be the bit that actually matters. It does no harm if a person in charge of keeping the place running has some crazy belief in magical events that'll happen some time in the far future. But it really matters if they think long-term planning is pointless because the world is about to end.
 
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