What to do if you miss the Rapture?

As I’ve said before, every once in a while you run across a web site that is, to say the least, "interesting."

Following a trail from DEFCON about the Vanity Fair article on Tim LaHaye, the author of the “Left Behind” series, I got to the page of an associated ministry entitled “The King is Coming.” One of its subpages is entitled “What to do if you miss the Rapture?”

Since they appeared quite serious about this, and I really wanted to know what kind of advice they were going to give, I decided to check it out.

What a gyp! They didn’t tell me what to do! They just hit me with the same tired story about how God is going to spirit away all the Christians just before things start going all to hell and then they tell me to send away for their free booklet about “What to do if you miss the Rapture?”

Oh well, how about we consider some of the information on the page.

“When will this amazing event (The Rapture) take place? It will take place at the onset of a terrible 7-year period of time the Bible calls the Tribulation.”

So it’s going to happen just before the Tribulation. And when is the Tribulation going to occur? Why just after the Rapture.

“During those gruesome days, over half the population of the world will die amidst wars, natural catastrophes, plagues, as the result of economic manipulation, and especially at the nefarious hand of an evil world ruler known in the Bible as the Antichrist.”

How the hell does one die “as the result of economic manipulation?”

“Are we close to that event even now? Well, if you are a Christian, the answer is ‘Happily, yes!’ The Bible is full of signs that indicate the approach of the Tribulation. Globalism, a united Europe, interlaced economies and mounting technology all point to the nearness of that time.”

Sigh, of course none of these signs are in fact in the bible. For example it doesn’t say when the “European Economic Community is formed,” rather it warns against things like a ten headed beast which in reality doesn’t make any more sense today than it did in the 2nd century. Come to think of it, it probably makes less sense today.

Notice that Christians are supposed to consider the end of the world a GOOD thing.

But never mind that, what I want to know is if God is going to save all the Christians from the Tribulation, why do you have a booklet about what to do if you’re left behind? You figure God might make a mistake?

“However if you are not a Christian, the answer for you is 'Sadly, yes!' Sadly, because if you do not move quickly and come to believe in Jesus as Savior before the Rapture, you will be left behind after the Rapture to take your chances with the Antichrist and the world of his oppression.”

Notice the assumption that “belief” is a choice. The fact of the matter is that I can no more control what I believe than I can control the color of my eyes. Let’s see now, since I really can’t control what I believe, I guess I’m going to be stuck in a world with no more Christians. ALRIGHT!!! The party is at my house!

“Your chances of survival will be less that 50/50, and most of those who will survive will be forced to join the new Satanic world economic system. But beware, the Bible says that joining that economic system (called the Mark of the Beast) will involve aligning yourself with the Antichrist, which will erase any chance you have to come to salvation.”

So is this a form of the unforgivable sin? According to Jesus, in Matthew 12:31 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

Let me make sure I understand this properly. Assuming I manage to survive, I’m going to be FORCED to align with this Antichrist dude, and that means I lose all chance of salvation. Being FORCED to join the “economic system” of the Antichrist is tantamount to a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost? What the hell kind of “economic system” could this possibly be?

This would have been a good spot for a quote from scripture to demonstrate that the bible says any such thing. The "Antichrist" and "The Mark of the Beast" comes from Revelations which is such gibberish you could convince yourself it says almost anything you want it to. The synod must have been either drunk or hung over when they decided to include John's Apocalypse in the canon. The fact that they thought, incorrectly, that the author was the Apostle John probably was a factor too. So much for the idea of infallibility.

I can’t believe that there are people out there that actually believe this crap. The folks sponsoring these web pages don’t believe it, because on virtually every page they unabashedly ask for donations, so it’s easy to figure out where they’re coming from.

This is hucksterism at its worst. First you try to scare the hell out of someone who’s too ignorant to realize what you’re up to, then you hold out salvation and then you ask for money. This con game as been going on since the day after the first hooker opened up shop.