Posted by PS on October 29, 2002 at 10:46:48:
In Reply to: can't interpret your dream but do have my own vibe on it..... posted by giveawayboy on October 29, 2002 at 01:06:13:
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: : I really wondered, I was kinda disturbed...
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: I can't interpret your dream as I don't know the inner workings of your heart and all your inner symbolic languages. However, I will say how I feel about me being in the dream, if it can help you at all. It seems consistent w what I would normally feel about 'pre-trib rapture' teachings or any rapture teachings in general where I feel that the focus lifts off of a disciplined life and goes into this sort of speculative wondering about the afterlife that bears litte on our earthly affairs or on how we grow as sons and daughters of God. So, for me, any 'dazzling show' would seem unworthy of our attention if it was going to be to the detriment of our spiritual growth and to consistency as disciples of Christ. That's all. Even if it was the REAL rapture, I think that the attention given to it could be wrong. For us more traditional types, the rapture and the second coming are the same event.
: Later, Bill
Interesting dream, Marcos. Excellent observation, Bill.
I would add that many church organizations really like to promote these kind of depictions to help their sheep respond appropriately. Remember the "Thief in the Night" movie and the six (?) sequels, and the book "Late Great Planet Earth"? These kind of offerings really got the trend started in the 70's. The recent movies, like the one with Kurt Cameron, are still building on the theme, but trying to do it with better production, so as to at least be good entertainment as well as prophetic admonition. Consider the deluge of fictional novels lately about the tribulation and the fulfillment of (their interpretation of) eschatological prophecies. This apocalypse is coming on this generation, we are told assuredly, according to these modern prophets' privileged interpretations of the allegories of (arguably previously-fulfilled) biblical prophecies. The fact that every generation since Christ was sure they were the last one (and had the more revealed understanding) is never really addressed.
Is there value herein about how we should live our lives day to day? There are many normative exhortations offered about how to live in the light of this imminent apocalypse, and no doubt many of these may stimulate more correct prioritizing in the light of our imminent end. But how will the exhortation continue to be received once the believer has endured long enough to be disillusioned about these literal apocalyptic interpretations? Will the believer's drive to live as though we are at the doorway to eternity be to a great degree invalidated? I think it is likely. It is a human tendency tend to throw the baby out with the bathwater (when we can even tell the difference between the baby and the bathwater).
Why not focus on the imminent end of all of our lives to stimulate realism and contemplation? Certainly the frailty and temporal nature of our lives is easily enough demonstrated. Statistically, we have an astronomically better chance of being hit by a truck or dying of cancer than hearing the trumpet blast of a pre-trib rapture in our few remaining years of life. And what if we do hear it? The person who is comfortable with their physical mortality and assured of their immortality in God will have no problem with the rapture if they are blessed enough to be a part of it. The hopeful mortal will be just as ready (if not moreso) than the certain rapturist who has put all eggs in that one basket. The faith of the hopeful mortal can not be invalidated by any unexpected apocalyptic development, because his/her faith was never based on a specific understanding, but rather in the person of Christ.