Whoa! “Insensitive and patronizing” I can see, but calling him as bad as der trihs? Perhaps you exagerated a mite.
I think there have been very, very few times in history that don’t fit the description found in various religious traditions of “the End Times”.
Comet Halley could in fact cause the end of civilization and possibly the human species- its orbit intersects ours (giving us the Orionid meteor shower), so it could hit the Earth. It’s about 10km in diameter, which is the size we think the dinosaur killer was, so things could be a bit unpleasant if it did hit us.
Of course, that wasn’t going to happen in 1985-86- it missed us by 93 million kilometers.
The church I went to said something similar. It’s one of the biggest things that turned me off Christianity. At least liberal Judaism doesn’t go in for this End Times stuff.
Yeah, count me with those who want to hear that that number has actually grown before I start to care. I’ve been hearing about how Jesus’ return is imminent for at least 30 years from my fundy relatives.
Point. I still find that attitude obnoxious, condescending, and worthy of scorn. But it isn’t quite as bad as our red shirt.
What I have trouble with,is that if god is going to pluck the rightous from their clothes and whisk them to heaven,why would he take war mongering neocons. People like the dalai lama would be more logical. However he must be born again to qualify. What a bunch of arrogant shits they are.
Because they believe!
But I totally agree with that last bit.
Nah, it just seems that way because of the hard pews and the lack of A/C in most churches.
I think the second coming has to be right around the corner. Consider:
Surely there can’t be too many people who were standing there with Jesus that are still alive, and he has to come back before the last one dies. Maybe these people who are trying to bring about the end of the world should find these people and bump them off. But let me know if you are planning to do this so I can max out all my credit cards first.
Also consider:
People have thought it was the end times since a few years after Jesus was here. I won’t hold my breath.
Let’s not forget the terminally boring sermons in most of those same churches.
For me, it was the idea of spending eternity with those people. The way they descibed heaven made it sound like one long church picnic. Fire and brimstone started looking mighty appealing in comparison.
I think that my principal’s fascination with the End Times was sort of akin to the reason people go to scary movies. She seemed to get a thrill out of the whole “worm that will not die” thing-- since she’d be safely in heaven watching it, of course. I think she was genuinely dissapointed when Itzhak Rabin didn’t come back to life. She had speculated about him possibly being one of the three people who will rise from the dead when the shit goes down.
She also told us about this big supply of building materials that have been set aside for “rebuilding the Temple” in Jerusalem. She assured us that one of these days, sombody’s going to blow up the Dome of the Rock which is rudely refusing to surrender the spot. See, some Christians believe that the Temple must be rebuilt before Jesus can come back, so the supplies have already been gathered to start building as soon as that pesky dome is demolished.
She warned us with shivers of horror that the Mark of the Beast is already being applied to babies. It was some sort of microchip, inserted in the baby’s hand without the parents’ knowledge. One of these days, “they” will suddenly reveal a purchasing system based on those microchips and most people won’t be upset by it because they’ll find out that they already have the chips conveniently in place. The ones who don’t have it will be mocked as being paranoid, or something like that, but anyhoo, you won’t be able to buy or sell anything without that chip and would starve to death for Jesus. (Guess she’d never heard of the barter system.)
Oh, the humanity when all of those suddenly unpiloted planes and cars go crashing into the people who were left behind! She used to muse about it, seemingly revelling in the idea of action-movie-style carnage.
'Twas an interesting experience, my Christian school years.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a good number of that 42% are liberals though. How often have you heard leftists spouting about how we’re all screwed thanks to Bush and that the world is about to end? And the whole deal about “Fundies in office with nukes”. I wouldn’t be so quick to implicate the Eeeevil Religious People here.
Totally agreed, the only thing Christians should be doing to “immanentize the Eschaton” is global evangelism & ministry so that all peoples are reconciled to God through Jesus, and yes, that includes a certain ethno-religious group with whom Christians share a Biblical heritage and without whom the Christian Church is incomplete.
I, and I would wager most Adventists*, are against performing or inciting violence to bring the Apocalypse closer. Most of us do support existence & security of the State of Israel, and would like to see, if not harmonious, then at least non-violent co-existence of Israel with its Arab/Muslim neighbor states. I for one am not opposed to a free & peaceful State of Palestine being established. I will concede that many Adventists do despair of such a lasting peaceful settlement being accomplished.
- I use the term for any Christian who believes we may be approaching the soon Return of Jesus to defeat wickedness and establish God’s Kingdom. It includes but is not limited to Rapturists (who believe in the removal of true Christians to heaven before the AntiChrist arises and God’s Wrath falls upon the Earth) and
Millenialists (who believe that Jesus’s Return will bring in a thousand-year Earthly Kingdom). The Seventh-Day Adventists for example believe we are approaching
Christ’s return but not a Rapture or an Earthly Kingdom.
Arthur: This makes sense. All my life I’ve felt like there was something bigger out there.
Slartibartfast: No, that’s perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the galaxy gets that.
I don’t mean to be overly picky, but since when are guests…?
Permission to unashamedly rip this off when appropriate?
Where is the applause smiley when you need it?
BRAVO! BRAVISSIMO!
I’ve been to some Condo Association meetings that were like that.
Sailboat
Y’know, I read this and thought, “Why would a violinist’s death and resurrection be a sign of the end times? Does Jesus really groove to classical music? Besides, he’s not dead!”
Then I realized Lissa meant Yitzhak Rabin, the late Prime Minister of Israel, not Ithzak Perlman, the master violin player.
:smack:
Egads, I need more coffee.
Still don’t get it, do ya?
And as one of those Jews, who you evidently won’t even specifically name, I’d like to cordially invite you to go fuck yourself. And you can shove your unmitigated arrogance and sense of superiority up your ass while you’re at it.
If your Chruch isn’t complete without a seperate religion that has no desire to be part of your club, then that aint nobody’s fault but your own.
Or, to elaborate: your view is that of the skeevy stalker who tells a girl who wants nothing to do with him that she’s destined to be his, and that he’s not complete without her.
Well spoken!
Any time.