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What Is "The Rapture?"  
According to the fundamentalist, Christian religious leaders, any day now, the world, as we know it, is going to end in a major disaster, and when that day arrives, God will lift all the born-again Christians (and only the born-again Christians) directly up into heaven.   Graves will open, the dead will be alive again,  and all true believers  will ascend into heaven to be with Jesus.   Everybody else will be left in the garbage dump that humans have made of planet Earth.   

What's Bad is Good:  
For the true believer in "The Rapture,"  war, chaos, misery, and environmental destruction are good things because they mean that they (the true believers) will soon be in heaven with Jesus.   They consider that taking any action to stop the wars, and the environmental destruction is interfering with God's plan, so they either standby and allow the problems to get worse or they join, endorse and/or support the people who engage in problem-creating behavior.   They justify their attitude and their behavior by saying that since the world is about to end, environmental destruction, pollution, wars and the like are good things.   They are all part of God's plan to get us into heaven.   The more the destruction, the sooner we get to heaven.   

Are you aware of how perfectly the behavior of  "Resident" Bush fits this pattern?  If he's not a rapture believer, he's giving a good imitation of somebody who is.   Obviously he can't publicly say he's a rapture believer , but he is a self-proclaimed "born-gain Christian."   If he's a rapture believer, he unfit for the office he holds.   If he isn't, his "born-again" claims are a fraud. 

A Cash Cow:  

Those who think that "The Rapture" is the word of God, and that it's going to save them from tragedy have been misinformed.   "The Rapture" is actually a heavily distorted interpretation of several widely separated Christian Bible passages.       Unfortunately, it's also a huge cash cow.²    It's a money-making, mind-altering belief-drug.   It's psychological morphine that dulls the brain and inhibits physical action.  

Some religious leaders are pumping their egos and raking in large amounts of money with this story,  but what those leaders fail to mention to their followers is that the immanent-end-of-the-world story has been around in one form or another for about nineteen hundred years.   The plain, old, end-of-the-world story was first turned into the highly emotional, mind-bending fairytale by fundamentalist Christians preacher William Miller's in 1843.   

Since William Miller's in 1843 version, numerous other fundamentalist Christian leaders have gotten onto the cash-cow bandwagon.   Notable among these is con artist Cyrus T. Scofield. ^**msc1    He came up with the idea of linking several widely separated Biblical passages together to create a new story out of an old book.   Today, that story has become known as  "The Rapture."   They have taken several biblical passages from several different books in the Bible and made up a highly emotional, mind-bending story that easily sways the mindless followers*** who are looking for an easy escape hatch from their confusing and insecure lives in a very chaotic, rapidly changing world.   According to Kevin Phillips,  author of the book, "American Theocracy,"  forty-five percent of the true believers in fundamentalist Christianity in the United States believe that the rapture is coming very soon.  

*** The fundamentalist Christian true believers are commonly called sheep?   Why?   Because that's  the language used in the Christian Biblical.   Any sheepherder will tell you that sheep are biologically programmed to follow.   In a flock, wherever the lead sheep goes, all the others follow.  In theology, the word sheep is used as a symbolic metaphor for people who have their minds turned off and simply follow orders.

Confusing Reigns:  

The Rapture is more than a bit confusing for several reasons:   First, there's more than one versions of  this story.  Whose to say which one is "God's literal truth?"   Another question involves the role of Jesus.  He is scheduled to return to Earth and rule on Earth for a thousand years.  But all good Christian are to be  taken immediately to heaven, so who and what is Jesus to reign over?  Not only that, the Bible, itself,  has several passages which make this story extremely questionable.  The Bible tells those Christians who chose to read it that humans are gods in physics form, and that Jesus and God is within each of us already. 

“Behold, the kingdom of God is within you." 

    This same message can also be found in John 14:2,  --  Isaiah 41:23  --   and John 10:30-35  + 10:38.    Readers are also directed to these passages:     John 14:9,    John 14:10,    John 14:11,      John 14:20,    John 14:21,   and  
John 14:23.   
(Reference:   http://www.TLC-Life-Center.info/christian-values.html) ' 

And then there's the reverse version on God's instantaneous, supernatural, transcendental conception magic act. '   It's about God Creating "resurrection bodies" for all good Christians.    According to this story, God pulls all dead bodies of all diseased, good Christians  out of their graves gives them new eternal bodies.  They then proceed to heaven to be with God and Jesus.   

Another Perspective:  

From the non-Christian perspective, "The Rapture" can be seen as  a mutual-suicide pact based on a series of un-provable religiously inspired  fairytales.   Do you recall Jim Jones and the religiously inspired mass suicide he led in Jamestown, Guyana in 1987?   Well, peddling the rapture is a poison a million times more deadly than the cyanide- laced punch that he and his followers drank.   

But please don't believe us.   Examine the evidence.   Look in the Bible and see if you can find clear support for the rapture story.   Also, examine the pages linked below.   

   Imagine the God of Fundamental Christianity  -- What is He/She/It  Like? 

   Three Variations of "The Truth" °

   Some Psychological Factors to Consider°  --  Including:

Believing false stories --   Mass consciousness -- Mindlessness, --  How liars get caught in their own lies --The natural, human tendency to stretch the truth.   

Hypocrisy is Alive and Well:  
Now remember, the rapture peddlers  are the same Bible thumpers who claim that the Christian Bible must be interpreted literally.   One might ask why they completely ignore those passages that don't support the rapture story -- passages such as Luke 17:21, Matthew 7:15-16,   1 Corinthians 2:14, Ecclesiastes 11:5,  and   Ecclesiastes 3:11.    If they insist on reading the Bible literally, here are a few other passages that they should also read.°    Is it possible that there's a touch of two-face hypocrisy here?   Is it possible that some gullible Christian sheep are being duped by the devil.°      (Additional references:   Playing with Fire°   and   What If You're Wrong ' )   Is it possible that some of the leaders are under the influence of the ego, power, and/or The Great God Money?°

The rapture story has been built up to the point where today it's a core preaching story for some evangelical leaders who live very expensive lifestyles.    (Readers are invited to examine the life style of Reverend Benny Hinn.)    That's not to say that living in luxury is bad, but when you also hear fundamentalists Christians Leaders preaching Saint Augustine's words,  "The more you suffer the closer you are to God."  one has to wonder how close to God these so-called men-of-God really are.   Apparently it's only the followers, and not the leaders, who are supposed to do the suffering.

God's Again Punishing All Humanity:  
The Rapture peddlers preach that God is once again, about to punish all of human kind  (except the born again Christians, of course)  for being sinners.   The most heinous crimes for which all of human kind is about to be punished are gay and lesbian lifestyles,  intentionally terminating a pregnancy, and graphic depictions of human sexual activity.   Little things like lying to the Christian true believers, raping the public treasury, bribery, embezzlement, extortion, fraud, turning one's back to allow 40,000 children to die each and every day, and God's pending  intentional mass destruction of all but "the saved"  are somehow missing from the list of sins.   

There's still another unanswered question.    Why is God punishing all those people who are not gay, don't have abortions and are not into pornography?   One might also ask,  "What roles do  the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy play in this story.

Jesus and the Truth:  
And here's the real kicker in this story.  When the rapture day arrives and Jesus returns, He's going to use "the truth" to  slay the anti-Christ.

Commentary:  
Here's one mans' opinion.   What do you think?°

"This story sorta' kinda' makes ya' wonder what's gonna' happen  when all them  graves start openen' up.    Where's God gonna' to find the bodies of all them true-believing Christians that ain't got no graves 'cause they got et' by them lions in the Roman Coliseum.   One might guess that all those lion droppings would be pretty  hard to find by now.   But then, if God really does do  miracles, finding ancient, lion sh-t's  as good a miracle as any other." 

This entire escapade is dependent upon these (and other) fundamental Christian beliefs:

1)  That humans are separate from God,

2)  That humans are inherently evil, all-but-worthless, mud-groveling sinners,

3)  That human beings are their physical bodies,°  

4)   That reincarnation is a fairytale, 

5)   That the Christian Bible is the literal truth and the only sacred text that God ever wrote or inspired to be written, 

6)   That it's Ok to ignore all passages in the Christian Bible that contradict the Fundamentalists version of Christianity,

7)   That Christians have exclusive access to God and to Heaven,   

8)  That the attributes and behavior patterns of  "The Source of All Creation" are actually what the born-again leaders believe them to be,°

9)   That the only way to access God is through their brand of Christianity.      

Ref. 1:  Imagine a God Like This°   Ref. 2: Do You Believe in God?°        
Ref. 3:   Imagine the God of  Fundamental Christianity°      

D o you suppose it ever occurs to any of these co-called leaders that the anti-Christ° may be a symbolic metaphor for an internal character flaw called deception.°   And that Christ° may be another name for the truth that they are so eloquently denying.   

Know the truth and the truth will set you free.    If truth brings freedom, where do lies of omission° and the intentional peddling of ancient, known-to-be-unprovable, religious fairytales° leave us?

The Christian Bible clearly warns readers of the dire consequences of preaching messages that are not in the Bible and the dire consequences of pretending that certain  biblical passages do not exist:

"I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book.   And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book."   (Revelation 22:18-19, NIV)

How can anyone believe that the Bible is the true and accurate word of God and still peddle "The Rapture ?"   To all "Rapture" believers, the N.V.P. Team suggests that you read these two web pages:      

Playing with Fire°

and

What If You're Wrong°