May 21 = Day of Rapture?

[laansolo 3]

It was prophesied a good many years ago by some Italian philosophizer that this Saturday would be the end of the world, all Christians going up to heaven, everyone else, just dies. I am an atheist, and believe in this as much as I do the 2012 theory. However, I would like to know what you people think. I personally am not bashing on any religions, and please don't accuse me of doing so. I'm just curious is all. Anyway, these are the questions I'm asking.

 

1. Do you believe this? why?

2. If you don't, then why do you think this is believed to happen?

3. if you do, what do you think will happen to those left behind?

 

edit: got rid of Hebrew, as Cheif pointed out, it's a language, not a religion, i failed :sweatdrop:

Edited May 19, 2011 by laansolo

[ForeverZer0 44]

To believe it would make you contradict your own belief. If you believe in God and the Rapture, then you would also believe the Bible where it states that "no man, no not one" knows the time of the second coming of Jesus.

 

If you don't believe in God, then you can't believe in the Rapture because that too would be a contradiction, so the question can not be answered logically on that standpoint either.

[laansolo 3]

you seem to misread, I said that I do not beleive in the rapture. and I asked why do you belive people think this will happen, not what do you think will happen.

Edited May 19, 2011 by laansolo

[CrimsonInferno 35]

I believe in a lot of things: aliens, ghosts, trolls etc etc and even the end of the world, Jesus Christ and The Lord. But there is also the mention of not knowing when this happens in the Bible, but we are also told a peace treaty will be made (forcefully I believe....) between Israeli & enemy, so there are some things you can follow from the Bible.

 

I'm a Christian and I believe in the Day of Rapture. I just pray its not going to happen for hundreds of years. There's still so much I want to do. :sweatdrop:

[FranklinX 37]

We've had many predictions about the end of the world. There is evidence that the bible is edited for certain people to have advantages in life. I believe in Jesus and God. I do not believe the Bible word for word.

[Chief 30]

First some notes...

 

Catholicism is just a denomination of Christianity, thus making it Christian. Its not a separate religion.

Next, I don't like the word religious. It makes God sound all formal and boring. If you would use the word spiritual, it makes much more sense. After all, the core of Christianity is Love, not sitting in some pew with a suit on, lol

 

On to the rapture.

No, it will not be May 21st, lol. As ForeverZer0 said, it states clearly that no man will ever know when it will really happen. The group of people saying this should have read their bible, lol. 2000 was also supposed to be the end of the world. Some time in the 70's was also supposed to be the end. 2012? no. People just get all upset about these things.

 

edit:

lolwut? Hebrew is language, not a religion. lol

[FranklinX 37]

The people who are promoting this may be speaking money. Some famous churches in America require you to pay before you enter the Lord's house.

[laansolo 3]

Catholicism is just a denomination of Christianity, thus making it Christian. Its not a separate religion.

Next, I don't like the word religious. It makes God sound all formal and boring. If you would use the word spiritual, it makes much more sense. After all, the core of Christianity is Love, not sitting in some pew with a suit on, lol

I failed, my bad.

 

edit:

lolwut? Hebrew is language, not a religion. lol

 

i failed again. im not religious, and my school doesnt explore other countries very much. I think I meant Islam, not Hebrew, but I failed.

[totalsticks 1]

I dunno either way, I mean, I would prefer NOT to know when the end of the world was, otherwise I'd have that impending doom/gloom hanging about my head. As for the May 21, 2011 bit, I seriously hope not, would be one horrible birthday for myself.

[CrimsonInferno 35]

@Chief:

Although Catholicism and Christianity are the same religion, they should never be used to say they are the same. If I'm a Christian and my sister is a Catholic, you don't say "You are Christians/Catholics". Believe it or not, they are separate in what they believe, though not enough to say they aren't the same. What I mean is, they are not synonyms of each other and can't be used as such. Such distinguishing between the two should be done.

 

The same can be said for Islam (another religion not included, but that's okay. Has so many different sects to keep track of). There is Shīʿah (Shīʻatu ʻAlī; people who follow ʻAlī, second largest Islamic Sect) and even the true, Orthodox Muslims known as "ʾAhl ūs-Sunnah". The mental and spiritual differences are so huge, it wouldn't be right (historically, correctly, politically etc etc) to say "You are a Shīʿah/Ahl ūs-Sunnah Muslim" to two Muslims who one follows Ahl ūs-Sunnah and one who follows Shīʿah Way. Even though they are under a Abrahamic religion branch (Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism and Islam ), the sects are different and named different for real big reasons.

 

A big (and there is a huge list) reason as to why Christians and Catholics are different, is because Catholics believe that God not only speaks through the Scriptures of the Bible, but through the Churches, the Saints and the Pope. Christians, as the Bible says to be, believes in the Scripture -- sola scriptura. And then we have, what is from I have studied and felt, to be the biggest difference between us. Which is (I couldn't explain this part clear enough, so I'll provide a quote):

 

Catholics believe that only a person perfectly open to God can enter heaven; thus, when someone dies the sinfulness left inside is purged (Purgatory) by God's love. Purgatory is not a place but an experience. Protestants do not accept the doctrine of cleansing/purgation but say that a soul goes immediately to either heaven or hell. However, Christians that accept that Jesus died for all of their sins, and thereby reconciled them to God, believe that everyone who accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior, who died to deliver them from their sins goes to Heaven.

 

There is a even bigger list of differences. :biggrin_002:

 

(Sorry for wall of text; I study religions. :sweatdrop: )

 

The people who are promoting this may be speaking money. Some famous churches in America require you to pay before you enter the Lord's house.

That would be the Bapist Churches. Those churches are always full of crazies...okay, sometimes. I know from experience of knowing some.

 

They make people pay to enter, force people to apologize for getting rape and the like. Its really crazy >.>

 

(Also, if people vote for Atheism and mean they don't believe there is, can be or might be a God, you mean to say "Antitheism". Atheism is completely different than "Antitheism" :P)

Edited May 19, 2011 by CrimsonInferno

[laansolo 3]

Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.[1] In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.[2] Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist.[3] Atheism is contrasted with theism,[4][5] which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.[5][6]

i think antitheism and atheist mean the same, but...

Antitheism (sometimes anti-theism) is active opposition to theism. The etymological roots of the word are the Greek 'anti-' and 'theismos'. The term has had a range of applications; in secular contexts, it typically refers to direct opposition to organized religion or to the belief in any deity, while in a theistic context, it sometimes refers to opposition to a specific god or gods.

nah, I'm atheist, i don't believe in gods in general, not just specific gods.

BUT this has gotten off topic, so, the train needs to get on the topic rail.

[CrimsonInferno 35]

To go back on topic:

 

3. if you do, what do you think will happen to those left behind?

 

I'm not God so I don't know exactly what to say to answer this question besides what the Bible and the word of God has said. I don't know what will happen to those who know of Christianity and Catholicism and just doesn't believe (I mean besides what is said to happen in the Bible), but I do know what will happen to those who are, in the nicest way I can put it, "ignorant" of Jesus Christ, God and the Bible. They, according to many verses, will be saved and will be welcomed in the Kingdom of God.

 

As a Christian...I'm not really scared of the Rapture, I would just like to complete everything I wanted to do before I either die or the Rapture happens. The only thing that scares me about the Rapture, is that people I love may not be in Heaven when I arrive and that would be the worse thing to feel. :(

 

==========

Antitheism is the belief there are no gods, specific or not. Multiple gods or singular. Atheism, not the western adaption of incorrect belief, is...well, here is a better explanation:

 

Atheism - Having no belief in any deities (meaning they don't believe in any Gods)

Anti-Theism - An antitheism person opposes the belief in alldeities (meaning there isn't a God and therefore belief in gods and religion is against what they believe).

[Chief 30]

Crimson. Catholics are christians, but not all christians are catholics. Therfore you could say that you and your sister are both christians. but not both catholics.

 

Also, its not "the baptists" that are doing this, and saying that theyre all crazy is pretty offensive. People that do these kinds of "rapture" scares are people that I would say leave the sound doctrine behind and go for a power grab, and money.

 

I have studied religions as well. I know my own religion, lol. Catholics are indeed Christians. Its a denomination, as is Lutheran, baptist, etc. They may have different beliefs here and there, but the very core is the same.

[CrimsonInferno 35]

Yes, they are the same religion (see my post where I said they are). But you don't call a Catholic Christian and you don't call a Christian Catholic. :P

I guess we're just gonna disagree, so let's agree to disagree, eh? :)

 

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be offensive when I said that. Its really hard for me to word what I mean -- which is why I used quotes sometimes for my posts. Again, I'm sorry. I had fixed the "crazy" part by saying "okay, sometimes" and "its crazy".

Doing what exactly? I was just talking about the "paying money" to enter churches part. >.> I was just referring to the Media Bapists (WBC) when I said "crazy" who are -- I'm sorry -- crazy. :sweatdrop:

Edited May 20, 2011 by CrimsonInferno

[Broken Messiah 20]

That would suck if its true, but if it is I just want it to be quick, like the world explodes or something.

[rgangsta 43]

It's going to be fine. Nothing's going to happen. Trust me. It's just another one of those guys causing mass hysteria to try and get attention. :alright:

[Broken Messiah 20]

That attention could lead to mass chop sueycide

[Marked 197]

That attention could lead to mass chop sueycide

Natural selection :P

 

My best friend growing up in highschool was a Christian and me not so much, so I find the debate soooo boring these days.

 

What I am interested in though, is those that believe in the 21st of May thing, how do you feel after it doesn't happen? You guys (if there's any) should post back, I'm curious what it would do to a faith.

 

 

Also living where I do, its the 21st here like a day sooner than in the US. I hope god works on your time :P

 

I would be indifferent about if it actually happened though. Obviously because I don't believe in life after death. I'd be all gutted while its happening, but that wouldn't be a long-term feeling.

[Broken Messiah 20]

And thats the flaw, TIMEZONES. what sucks is a friend of mine birthday is on the 22nd. I dont believe it at all, but yeah, that would suck. But if I had to be given a choice between being raptured and not, I not sure what I'd choose...

[zane203 8]

First of all... my graduation is on saturday... if it ends, ima be pissed...

 

and no i dont believe it will end, i dont believe in the rapture, i dont believe in jesus.

 

I believe people believe they stumbled upon something and are doing what plenty of people before them have done. Predict something that they cant.

 

so if someone trys to mug me... on my graduation day... im going to put his face into the ground so he can come to his senses.

[Enigma 10]

Im a Christian and a Scientist by nature, and both of these parts of me are calling this a hoax. Theres no sign supernatural or natural of the End Days coming, nothing like in Revelation. In fact I just barely heard about this end of the world date. I expect this to happen after the current doomsday date, 2012 but whadya know.

Don't know why everyone is so keen on waiting for armegeddon, Christians are supposed to worry about serving God not about dying, most other religions are similar. Even Atheist should focus more on living rather than dying since we have a limited time on Earth.

 

Can't live when you spend life worrying about dying. :mellow:

[Knuckles 1]

The same nut-job has a history of predicting a time in the 90s for a rapture, yet it didn't happen.

 

Ya, I never buy into rackets.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Knuckles

[FatYogi 6]

if the rapture does happen, the ones chosen go to god all the good stuff (lots of wine, party with Jesus) everyone else that is left behind (cause we werent invited to gods party )

fight and fend off demons and such in the apocalyptic war

 

aka

 

im going to be fighting zombies ~

 

 

 

*edit

also youd expect to be some Rapture sales :S

i want my 99% off

Edited May 21, 2011 by FatYogi

[laansolo 3]

6 o clock PM in New Zealand. Sooo... has the Rapture affected Marked?

[Marked 197]

Nope. Still alive. :B):

[laansolo 3]

alright, well, guess there was no "rapture"

 

glad that you're alive, Marked. Very glad.

[Broken Messiah 20]

Well, maybe the 6 was referring to the timezome that the guy who said this was in

[madanchi 18]

hey heaven was pretty nice earlier today...

 

anyway, no I don't believe it, and never do with these end of the world craps, and why would the world suddenly come to a halt, unless we do in fact have some allmight creator/s and get bored of us and everything so ends it, kind of a crap thing if you ask me to just end everything

[ShinyToyGuns 29]

omg...5 hours later and I'm still alive...what a surprise XD

[rgangsta 43]

Rapture my ass. I'm tired of these attention seeking false prophets. I bet that old guy is first of many to come.