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Rejecting Rapturemania

cyril
edited October 2014 in Faith Issues
Rejecting RAPTUREMANIA: Making Sense of the Second Coming

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00NURMN50/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1412338098&sr=8-1

http://preachersinstitute.com/2014/09/13/rejecting-rapturemania/

In anticipation of the major Hollywood movie “Left Behind” which will hit theaters Oct. 5th, Preachers Institute is offering a booklet to help Orthodox Christians (and any others) understand what the Rapture is, where it came from, and what the Church teaches, and has always taught, about it.

Comments

  • mabsootamabsoota
    sounds great!
    if anyone gets it, please review it here.
    if it's good, i may try to get it via my church book shop (i have trouble buying things on line).
    :-)
  • minasolimanminasoliman
    I made it a habit never to watch productions by Protestants.  They're awful productions, unrealistic, fact-twisting, and always carries some heretical message.
  • cyril
    What about the movie Courageous? A lot of Churches were promoting that movie.
  • ReturnOrthodoxyReturnOrthodoxy
    Couragous and Fireproof (both terrible movies by the same horrendous production company) have really only taught me one thing. That is: unless your job involves some physically heroic thing (like being a firefighter who saves someone from a collapsing burning house single handedly or being a police involved in a shootout where you save someone) then your journey to God isn't worth telling. 

    To horrible movies. I remember a church (a "mission" church) was supposed to play the movie "Ostrov" and I was super amped. For SMSV to play that movie was something I was getting excited about. Last minute they changed the movie night to "courageous." My mind just went *whoopy cushion.* 

    These movies are just so done up, its ridiculous. Like seriously its comical. Stepping back from the fact that courageous promoted a very hardline protestant view of fatherhood/parenthood as being solely a mans job with his wife as an almost inferior head nodder, it was a movie that portrayed life as a fairy tale. Everything about it was a fairy tale. That in itself is quasi-heretical. God is real, and He exists in reality. To portray Him and His works in such a light makes him more irrelevant to the person than if the movie had never been made. 

    The fact that these two movies (Courageous and Fireproof) were shown in our churches (in the case of my church PHYSICALLY in the Church on the TV screens they installed in the church for "sing-alongs") is an indication that we've come to lack any real depth. Chrysostom and marriage and his theology of marriage is thrown out for a sob story about a guy who's dad writes him a book on how to make your sad wife happy again. 

    Ray

  • minasolimanminasoliman
    I actually had "Fireproof" in mind when I made that comment: unrealistic and awful
  • Theophilus 1Theophilus 1
    Return Orthodoxy 

    I loved the movie Ostrov too. But I wonder how many people will be content with reading subtitles to watch an Orthodox movie. I am sure as the second largest group (after Roman Catholic) there are a lot of Orthodox movies out there, albeit in other languages. How hard is it to dub movies in english? 

    Theophilus  


  • ophadeceophadece
    @returnorthodoxy,
    The film was played inside the church? Seriously? That's very wrong.. where's @AntoniosNikolas from all of this?
    Oujai
  • Apromise225
    Is the only proof used that the rapture is not true because Jesus said the elect would go through the tribulation but the days would be shortened? how do we know the elect are not Jews and other non christians left behind who become christians?

  • emg
    edited October 2014
    For those interested, I wrote an academic article a few months ago on this very topic in anticipation of the release of the movie "Left Behind". The article is titled "Left Behind or Left Christ?" You can find it at http://stcyrilsociety.org/forum/left-behind-or-left-christ/

  • AntoniousNIkolasAntoniousNIkolas
    I don't have time to make a long post at the moment, but here are some articles that might help you in preparing your flock to reject the heresy of the "rapture".

    http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/04/rapture-indisputable-christian-heresy.html

    http://orthodoxmeditations.blogspot.com/2011/05/heresy-of-rapture.html

    http://www.orthodoxresearchinstitute.org/articles/dogmatics/cozby_rapture1.htm

    It's not even debatable.  It's a heresy.
  • ReturnOrthodoxyReturnOrthodoxy
    @ophadece I know, but if our new "Bishop" is no match for our self governing priests, no reasoning from AntoniousNIkolas will do anything. 

    Ray
  • ophadeceophadece
    You are right @returnorthodoxy.. it Of course saddens me that bishops as discussed on this forum before are only interested in pleasing the congregation to bring in larger numbers at the expense of rites, and principles and dare I say even dogma sometimes. But who am I to even question these manoeuvres? I just hope you are not referring to bishop Karas as I personally respect him..
    Oujai
  • ReturnOrthodoxyReturnOrthodoxy
    He is not the Bishop of My Diocese. 
  • minasolimanminasoliman
    I would never jump the gun to lay blame on anyone.  First, this happens at a parish level, and so priests and Sunday School servants have the primary responsibility.  If the nearest bishop is a general bishop, I would even lay less blame, because he has no true authority by himself.  He usually handles an area that has priests who are quite powerful.  Thus far, I've heard the situations are usually stable in areas that do have diocesan bishops.
  • ReturnOrthodoxyReturnOrthodoxy
    Mississauga. Bishop Mina. Less stable than Francium undergoing rapid radioactive decay. Yes our priests also carry the greatest responsibility in this matter. In this and like matters, having approached our priests, Ive decided it isn't a productive use of time anymore. The problem is that were starting from completely different world views. Like there is little common ground in these discussion. Protestant ideologies have permeated very deep. 

    Ray
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