The Sky is Falling
Have you gotten “the sky is falling” syndrome yet?
I spent some extra time studying Revelation last night because I found out that Tim LaHaye’s pre-trib rapture and one world government are not the only way to interpret scripture. There is a more optimistic interpretation based on Jesus’ victory at the cross and the early church’s boldness through persecution. I’m not convinced yet but I sure am looking for something more encouraging than singing “kum by ya” while clinging to a sinking ship.
Either way this country is feeling the wrath of God. We need to confess our greed, perversion and abortion or else we will go the way of ancient Israel. I’m convinced that God is leading his church into a lesson of “being content no longer in plenty but in want”.
At the same time this might become the most exciting time of our life because it would tap into the natural masculine desire to protect, defend, provide and solve problems. If you’ve ever seen “The Incredibles” they capture the emasculation of the super-strong father perfectly when they put his fat and depressed frame into a tiny office cubicle. Office jobs are okay if we have an aggressive mission, like department of defense office personnel, but rubber stamping the status quo is like AIDS to the masculine soul. That’s why we Christian men need to remember our spiritual “battle” no matter where we are. We can fight and win the invisible cosmic war even when sweeping the floor.
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About
Yes, that’s a chicken on my shoulder. I used to be a pastor in rural Pennsylvania and a friend of ours treated it like a pet. This blog is for me to think through life’s highs and lows with a devotional attitude toward God. There is so little thoughtful conversation these days (internally with God or externally with others) and I bet I am not the only one who craves something better.
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Help My Doubt 
The NEWEST Pretrib Calendar
Hal (serial polygamist) Lindsey and other pretrib-rapture-trafficking and Mayan-Calendar-hugging hucksters deserve the following message: “2012 may be YOUR latest date. It isn’t MAYAN!” Actually, if it weren’t for the 179-year-old, fringe-British-invented, American-merchandised pretribulation rapture bunco scheme, Hal might still be piloting a tugboat on the Mississippi. roly-poly Thomas Ice (Tim LaHaye’s No. 1 strong-arm enforcer) might still be in his tiny folding-chair church which shares its firewall with a Texas saloon, Jack Van Impe might still be a jazz band musician, Tim LaHaye might still be titillating California matrons with his “Christian” sex manual, Grant Jeffrey might still be taking care of figures up in Canada, Chuck Missler might still be in mysterious hush-hush stuff that rocket scientists don’t dare talk about, John Hagee might be making – and eating – world-record pizzas, and Jimmy (“Bye You” Rapture) Swaggart might still be flying on a Ferriday flatbed! To read more details about the eschatological British import that leading British scholarship never adopted – the import that’s created some American multi-millionaires – Google “Pretrib Rapture Diehards” (note LaHaye’s hypocrisy under “1992”), “Hal Lindsey’s Many Divorces,” “Thomas Ice (Bloopers)” and “Thomas Ice (Hired Gun),” “LaHaye’s Temperament,” “Wily Jeffrey,” “Chuck Missler – Copyist,” “Open Letter to Todd Strandberg” and “The Rapture Index (Mad Theology),” “X-Raying Margaret,” “Humbug Huebner,” “Thieves’ Marketing,” “Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “The Unoriginal John Darby,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” “The Real Manuel Lacunza,” “Roots of (Warlike) Christian Zionism,” “America’s Pretrib Rapture Traffickers,” “Pretrib Rapture – Hidden Facts,” “Dolcino? Duh!” and “Scholars Weigh My Research.” Most of the above is written by journalist/historian Dave MacPherson who has focused on long-hidden pretrib rapture history for 35+ years. No one else has focused on it for 35 months or even 35 weeks. MacPherson has been a frequent radio talk show guest and he states that all of his royalties have always gone to a nonprofit group and not to any individual. His No. 1 book on all this is “The Rapture Plot” (see Armageddon Books online, etc.). The amazing thing is how long it has taken the mainstream media to finally notice and expose this unbelievably groundless yet extremely lucrative theological hoax!
Wow. That’s too much information. I think I have seen some of MacPherson’s material. What I have been reading is not so much the finished work of others but rules for interpretation (i.e. exegesis & hermeneutics). It has been helpful to remember that Revelation is a mixture of prophecy, like Isaiah, which warns God’s people to be faithful to the covenant, and an epistle, like Galatians, which applies the covenant to a specific situation, and an apocalyptic letter, which reveals the future. I am not a convinced post-trib-post-millenialist but I am a convinced exegete. We need to be very careful to understand the original meaning and be aware of our own biases.
I don’t know that I would call the pre-trib folks authors of a hoax. That implies impure intentions. Nor would I joke about these brothers’ experiences. Christians who defend their doctrines should do so with humble respect and you have disrespected these sons of God.
Grace to you, Nick.