posted March 21, 2004 02:44 PM         

juniperb

posted March 21, 2004 08:52 PM         

If you're looking for how the specific date was arrived at, the answer won't be found in those terms. You won't find that in any documents or books.

posted March 22, 2004 03:15 AM         

You can find the answers in astrology, especially the numbers they reveal all, Gooberz, all around you. God's been preparing this/us since the beginning of your life.

posted March 22, 2004 01:17 PM         

Bewitched, I guess you didn't make the cut either?

..teasing...

posted March 22, 2004 01:34 PM         

juniperb

posted March 23, 2004 12:55 AM         

If you didn't sense it then all is fine. But most people just found love and were really happy.

Trillian it's not that you don't make the cut, you'll make it somewhat only will you make it with the experience of love and joy or will you make it through suffering and knowledge.

StarLover33 I guess you have that option, only I suggest you think of it carefully. You just might get what you wished for. What is the essense of what you really want.

I find it interesting StarLover that you and I were thinking about that yesterday.

posted March 23, 2004 07:46 PM         

I wrote a short story about the Rapture in H.S. I'm not a fan of the concept personally, but I meant no disrespect to your beliefs.

Now, you said in your last post: "I don't want to be anymore." I hope I am misunderstanding that, bewitched. Do you not love your life? There is so much to live for, as you said, you can choose love and joy, or suffering.

Please talk to us some more about what you're feeling. There are lots of big, wide shoulders here for you in LL.

posted March 24, 2004 02:35 PM         

Can you tell me a bit about your short story?
What do you mean you're not a fan of the concept?

I meant I don't want to be immortal anymore, but your very perceptive.

You can learn through love or suffering till a certain point.

I just want to know if anyone else had any experiences, and what happens now???

posted March 24, 2004 07:20 PM         

I said I'm not a fan of the concept, because I don't believe in The Rapture. I'm not a Christian of any sort, including fundamentalist. I'm not a person who subscribes to any organized religion or doctrine. And based on what I learned of The Rapture, it's an ugly concept, in which the righteous are ascended to heaven, while the sinners are left on earth to perish in their misery. Lots of fire and brimstone, dragons, all sorts of things taken from a literal interpretation of the bible.

I even remember fundamentalists passing out tracts to that effect. In fact, I think it might have been a tract I used as part of the research for my story.

There are loads of books about The Rapture in your local Wal-Mart, for anyone interested. They're called the "Left Behind" Series. The man who wrote them is a friend of and consultant for George W., which scares me to my bones.

Hmmm, thought I'd peek at a website or two, but bewitched, they seem to concur that The Rapture is yet to come.
http://www.raptureready.com/

If there's another angle to The Rapture that you'd like to share, please do. I'd be interested, in an academic way.

Now, why do you wish not to be an immortal anymore? And how do you reconcile being an immortal, with fundamentalist Christianity?

Best to you...

posted March 25, 2004 12:57 AM         

So I am not religious but spiritual. I never read the bible, I was more into new age, light and self healing. So I didn't believe in a punishing God. To me God was more like in the book Conversations with God.
All loving, forgiving...

I was talking to someone just recently who read the 1st and 2nd testament and he explained Rapture to me, and I realized it was the same as ascension and what I experienced.

So you read about ascension that it's suppose to come and they predict it in the year 2012 about. But they still leave you vague and basically clueless of what's happening.

So my point here is that even though I believed in only a positive God my experienced proved the God in the bible who judges is the true God. I never would have believed it.

I feel bad for saying this now, I am not suppose to say this but keep it to myself.
But there is a judgement day where you will get judged extremely harshly. And my soul got extinct, and god had no mercy. You have a very important mission on earth, basically to save yourself and love and raise the ones you CHOOSE to love. The gift you are is so precious and if you let others destroy you it's not taken lightly by him and by your soul. And when that judgement day comes you're being judged not the people who hurt you, no matter how much they hurt you, it's your judgement day. And there's no one else to blame but yourself for not taking responsibility and protecting yourself. No matter what age you are!!

And there is a form of dragons, devil, which is probably God himself. This is to test us.

Mass Rapture has come I'm pretty sure but maybe there is an individual one too that people experience at their own time. But I'm pretty sure it happened. From everything around me that I see the evidence points to it happened. And even though I say it's over, I still feel now this quietness you know the quiet before the storm. I feel something else might happen. Or one part is over. I read on a website that the entities responsible for making it happen say that it was suppose to happen later but we evolved much faster then they planned and we are ahead of schedule.

But I don't get my info from what I read, I experience and than the info confirms.

How do I reconcile being an Immortal with fundamentalist Christianity. Basically because even though the bible has been revised alot it still speaks about the truth and alot of mysteries of life, like being immortal.

Why don't I want to be immortal anymore that's another long story.

But who knows what God's plan is for the future, and what else he'll show of himself.

Does this make sense?

posted March 25, 2004 09:48 AM         

bewitched. Your post is so sorrowful, I wish I could help you heal your heart. Personally, I don't believe in the Bible, I don't believe God/dess/The Creator of All That Is, is vengeful, or a dragon, or hurtful or unforgiving. I don't believe that we will be judged in the harsh way you describe, in fact,while I was reading your post I was getting a vision of the light-hearted Albert Brooks' film "Defending Your Life," where we humans are all called "little brains."

My point is, I don't believe the Bible speaks the Truth. Oh, there may be pieces of truth in there, but generally, I see it as a manipulative tool used to control and debase people, to keep them locked in fear.

bewitched, you of course have every right to believe the things you choose. But you sound so sad...

posted March 25, 2004 02:32 PM         

I'm glad you don't believe. Stay happy
But like I said I didn't believe this either.

Can you tell me a little about the film defending your life?

And I never heard about the Left Behind books or the Handmaiden's Tale can you give me an idea of what it's about. I don't think I'd want to read it either, sounds terrible.

posted March 25, 2004 03:14 PM         

Of course, it's their own site, so it's slanted.

Here's the Catholic take on The Rapture: http://www.catholic.com/library/Rapture.asp

Here's an article entitled "What Is The Rapture?" http://www.godonthe.net/evidence/rapture.htm

Tink, I promise I will try to find the article for you this weekend, sooner if I have the time. It scared me.

"Defending Your Life" is a sweet comedy about life, death, and judgement, starring Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep. One of the running jokes is that we are "little brains," and those who were more highly evolved would brag about the percentage of brain they used.

Here's a review that can explain it better than I:

Death is not the end. At least, not in Albert Brooks's "Defending Your Life." In this witty, amiable satire, the dearly departed go to Judgment City, an Oz-like citadel more like Los Angeles than heaven. There are no singing angels, swirling clouds or soothing harps, just a lot of helpful people ushering the dead to their appointed trials.

Death, as Brooks is about to discover, means never having to say you're not represented. Moments after a fatal collision with a bus, he's given a room, a rest, an omelet and a court date. Dispatched to a courtroom-*** -movie theater, he has to watch scenes from his life, then answer probing questions from prosecutor Lee Grant. With the ineffective assistance of defense lawyer Rip Torn, he must refute charges that his life has been ruled essentially by fear. If Brooks "wins," he gets to ascend the spiritual ladder. But if Grant prevails, he'll have to undergo another earth life.

When Grant suggests Brooks was too scared to retaliate when a teenage bully hit him, Torn claims it was "restraint." Brooks, fast on the uptake, agrees.

"Well, I wanted to hit him back," he tells Grant, "but I had restraint."

Asked to sum up, Brooks says, "I feel very good about the restraint idea."

The movie is anything but a trial. Brooks, who also scripted and directed, creates a universe of consistent amusement. A sign at Brooks's hotel, for instance, welcomes the "Kiwanis Dead." The weather channel constantly forecasts "74 degrees -- perfectly clear all day." People can ogle at their former selves at the Past Lives Pavilion -- where the holographic host is Shirley MacLaine.

"Defending" progresses into a satisfying romance between Brooks and fellow soul Meryl Streep without faltering. Streep softens her thespian exoskeleton for a surprisingly engaging peformance. Unlike Brooks, she has been a spiritual goody-two-shoes on earth. When they check into separate booths at the Past Lives Pavilion, she sees a heroic Prince Valiant. He sees an African warrior being chased by a lion.

"Who are you?" calls Streep.

"Lunch," replies Brooks.

Brooks-the-performer embodies the movie's spirit with superb modulation. When a celestial valet shows him to his hotel room, Brooks absent-mindedly reaches for change. The trouble is, he's dressed in a pocketless robe. During the trial, he's a virtuoso of facial reactions. As he battles two judges and a determined prosecutor for his spiritual life, he seems to register all the known emotions; embarrassment happens to be his specialty.

It's pure delight to watch each new expression mark Brooks's face as his automatic chair whirs him from video screen to jury, then back again. This is definitely Brooks's day in court, and he makes comic heaven of it.

posted March 25, 2004 04:43 PM         

Thanks for those links I'll check them out

posted March 26, 2004 03:37 AM         

but it's a little vague....i'd like a little more discussion about what suppposedly happened.

posted March 26, 2004 01:41 PM         

I guess one of my knee-jerk reactions, because I'm pressed for time, is that when it comes to The Rapture/fundamentalist Christianity, I just don't like that God.

I wouldn't like a person who acted like that.

i.e., "You are my daughter, my creation. If you don't live exactly the way I tell you, I will bring you pain and suffering, I will disown you, and sentence you to hell. I will not love you like I love my obedient children. I created everything, everything that some see as beauty, some see as ugliness. But even though I have given you many powers, including that of taste, preference and discernment, you must still choose only what I have chosen for you. Or dragons will come out of the sky and feast upon your entrails, as you writhe in agony for all to see."

And yeah, the Left Behind fundamentalists pretty much believe that the dragons are coming. They follow a literal interpretation of the Bible.