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God. Also: Religion.
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Feb 17, 2021 00:07:02   #
JohnCo
 
I was in the Main (mostly political) section and someone started asking me questions about God or religion. So I decided to start a thread over here in "General Chit-Chat (non-political talk)" in case anybody wants to talk about God or religion.

I looked at the most recent topics here, and found three about "Rapture", but nothing else really recent about God or religion.

So, if anybody wants to say or ask anything about God or religion, go ahead.

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Feb 17, 2021 00:42:17   #
iFrank Loc: San Antonio
 
After researching the rapture, it’s not in Gods Word. Others mis-read words and are led astray . What says you?

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Feb 17, 2021 01:33:13   #
JohnCo
 
iFrank wrote:
After researching the rapture, it’s not in Gods Word. Others mis-read words and are led astray . What says you?


About "the rapture"? I think it could make a really good adventure story. I did read one rapture novel; it had "the antichrist" in it and part of that was interesting.

So, let me try to break down what the rapture is, or is supposed to be: It would be an event, in which some people vanish from Earth, all together in the same instant, and suddenly they're somewhere else, either in Heaven or on their way there; and all the other people are just left on Earth.

You mentioned "God's Word". It doesn't concern me much, whether something is said to be "in God's Word" or not.

I haven't spent very much time thinking about the rapture. I doubt there will actually be such an event. But supposing there were a rapture, what would be the meaning, or meanings, of it? What would it say about what kind of God God is? What would it say about the meaning of our lives? What would it say about how we know things or whether we can know things? What would happen to the people who are still on Earth after the rapture -- would they end up all going to "Hell"? Would they have some chance of eventually getting to "Heaven"?

After thinking about that for a few minutes, I think the rapture is part of the idea that there is a Heaven and a Hell, such that each human being on Earth cannot really be sure of which place he or she is going after death. I think it is unrealistic that God would operate that way. In particular, the idea I got about Hell, when I was a child attending a Protestant Christian church, was that once you're in Hell you're suffering horribly there forever with no hope of ever getting out; _and_, while you're on Earth, you cannot know just how good you have to be to avoid that fate. You could try to be perfect all the time. That would be a rather dreary life on Earth, always straight as an arrow, always doing your best. If I really believed that was how God works, I wouldn't have any time to relax on Earth, and _still_ couldn't be sure of avoiding Hell. I don't think God is like that. I think God is more reasonable than that. If my father can forgive me for something I did wrong, then surely God could do as well as my father does. I don't imagine that a good God would have a cutoff time, death, after which I would have no hope of ever being forgiven. I can imagine there might be a Heaven, but I find it harder to believe that there's a Hell where people can never be forgiven.

There's also the possibility that there's no God, or that what God there is (or what gods there are) are entirely different from how we currently imagine God to be. I think there is at least one God, and that God is something we cannot fully understand. But I don't think about it much. I think that God is like a friend, and God is polite and elegant, such that God does not interfere with the normal workings of nature. I think the universe came into being and is how it is exactly the same whether there is a God or not. And as for God, God is part of the universe. (Or, God is part of the multiverse.). God is probably an abstraction which is the most polite, elegant thing there could be in the universe. But I also think that there is some kind of God which can be a friend to any of us. I don't know whether the friend and the abstraction are the same God; they're probably two different kinds of god. That's what I think: there are at least two different kinds of god: there's an abstraction and there's a friend. I don't spend much time thinking about either one. Both of them are reasonable and forgiving. And if there were no god, we wouldn't have _that_ friend, but we could still learn to love each other and we could learn to love ourselves. And maybe that's the same as the friend god.

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Feb 17, 2021 02:17:03   #
JohnCo
 
I have a favorite book about Heaven and Hell. It is C.S. Lewis's _The Great Divorce_. It's a novel. It think it gives a pretty good description of what Heaven and Hell are for human beings. Or, to put it another way, it describes human nature.

I think I'd disagree with C.S. Lewis on some other things, but this one novel really seems right to me. I don't _like_ everything in it, but that's part of human nature too. It's really hard to like an angel who, in a way, is so much better than I am.

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Feb 17, 2021 02:21:10   #
Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall
 
JohnCo wrote:
I was in the Main (mostly political) section and someone started asking me questions about God or religion. So I decided to start a thread over here in "General Chit-Chat (non-political talk)" in case anybody wants to talk about God or religion.

I looked at the most recent topics here, and found three about "Rapture", but nothing else really recent about God or religion.

So, if anybody wants to say or ask anything about God or religion, go ahead.


There is actually a section for religious talk... It's called "Faith, Religion, and Spirituality"...

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Feb 17, 2021 05:07:50   #
Kevyn
 
JohnCo wrote:
I was in the Main (mostly political) section and someone started asking me questions about God or religion. So I decided to start a thread over here in "General Chit-Chat (non-political talk)" in case anybody wants to talk about God or religion.

I looked at the most recent topics here, and found three about "Rapture", but nothing else really recent about God or religion.

So, if anybody wants to say or ask anything about God or religion, go ahead.

There is no reason to wait for the rapture, you can do it yourself! Head down to Walmart and get a bunch of balloons some string a tank of helium and an aluminum lawn chair.



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Feb 17, 2021 12:19:07   #
kemmer
 
Kevyn wrote:
There is no reason to wait for the rapture, you can do it yourself! Head down to Walmart and get a bunch of balloons some string a tank of helium and an aluminum lawn chair.

OMG! Are those balloons the colors of the Rainbow Flag?? 😂😂😂😂

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Feb 17, 2021 15:07:30   #
TexaCan Loc: Homeward Bound!
 
Kevyn wrote:
There is no reason to wait for the rapture, you can do it yourself! Head down to Walmart and get a bunch of balloons some string a tank of helium and an aluminum lawn chair.


Sorry! Those of us who go UP in the rapture won’t be coming back down like “balloon man!” 😂😂😂

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Feb 17, 2021 15:28:02   #
iFrank Loc: San Antonio
 
Kevyn wrote:
There is no reason to wait for the rapture, you can do it yourself! Head down to Walmart and get a bunch of balloons some string a tank of helium and an aluminum lawn chair.


Same ol’ kevy, no understanding. But at least you have imagination, sandwiched between your stupidity.

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Feb 17, 2021 15:29:12   #
iFrank Loc: San Antonio
 
Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
There is actually a section for religious talk... It's called "Faith, Religion, and Spirituality"...


So what, if Admin moves it so be it.

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Feb 17, 2021 15:41:36   #
iFrank Loc: San Antonio
 
JohnCo wrote:
I have a favorite book about Heaven and Hell. It is C.S. Lewis's _The Great Divorce_. It's a novel. It think it gives a pretty good description of what Heaven and Hell are for human beings. Or, to put it another way, it describes human nature.

I think I'd disagree with C.S. Lewis on some other things, but this one novel really seems right to me. I don't _like_ everything in it, but that's part of human nature too. It's really hard to like an angel who, in a way, is so much better than I am.
I have a favorite book about Heaven and Hell. It ... (show quote)


Well in that ‘day’ is the 1000 years when Christ will be here, in the twinkling of an eye. Then will we be able to go into ‘hell’ and remind those that didn’t make it, the ‘first fruits’ of Gods plan. Even the foolish virgins and those who were taken by anti-christ weren’t chastised virgins after they read the Bible but went out and looked for the Christ but were not knowledgeable in the Word. No amount of pleading will get you into heaven if your name isn’t written in the Lambs Book of life. There is no rapture if you rightfully divide the Word of Truth.
I just wanted to know which road you were on.

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Feb 18, 2021 00:29:31   #
tNotMyPrez Loc: So. CA, USA
 
JohnCo wrote:
I was in the Main (mostly political) section and someone started asking me questions about God or religion. So I decided to start a thread over here in "General Chit-Chat (non-political talk)" in case anybody wants to talk about God or religion.

I looked at the most recent topics here, and found three about "Rapture", but nothing else really recent about God or religion.

So, if anybody wants to say or ask anything about God or religion, go ahead.

What's interesting about religious folks is the assertion that many of them make that one must be religious or have a religion in order to be moral or ethical.

When some of the most highly profiled leaders have made abysmal transgressions, the advocates seem to fall back on the "everyone's a sinner" gambit, and "god forgives sinners"...

Such hogwash...

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Feb 18, 2021 00:30:42   #
tNotMyPrez Loc: So. CA, USA
 
iFrank wrote:
After researching the rapture, it’s not in Gods Word. Others mis-read words and are led astray . What says you?

Not part of historic Christianity - - The Rapture is simply another construct "for" men conjured "by" men.



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Feb 18, 2021 00:30:55   #
tNotMyPrez Loc: So. CA, USA
 
Kevyn wrote:
There is no reason to wait for the rapture, you can do it yourself! Head down to Walmart and get a bunch of balloons some string a tank of helium and an aluminum lawn chair.

It's EITHER Wal-Mart OR:



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Feb 18, 2021 00:31:35   #
tNotMyPrez Loc: So. CA, USA
 
iFrank wrote:
Well in that ‘day’ is the 1000 years when Christ will be here, in the twinkling of an eye. Then will we be able to go into ‘hell’ and remind those that didn’t make it, the ‘first fruits’ of Gods plan. Even the foolish virgins and those who were taken by anti-christ weren’t chastised virgins after they read the Bible but went out and looked for the Christ but were not knowledgeable in the Word. No amount of pleading will get you into heaven if your name isn’t written in the Lambs Book of life. There is no rapture if you rightfully divide the Word of Truth.
I just wanted to know which road you were on.
Well in that ‘day’ is the 1000 years when Christ w... (show quote)

For those who believe in the rapture, if they're posting here, or any who are up to skulduggery elsewhere, doubt they're in that book...



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