dianeduane: (Default)
dianeduane ([personal profile] dianeduane) wrote2008-08-17 12:44 pm

That antichrist thing again

This came up the other day. Now I see that Mark Evanier has had an email about it too.

But then Mark does one of the things he does best and asks the next question 

[identity profile] karenthology.livejournal.com 2008-08-17 12:30 pm (UTC)(link)
What people often forget is that Jesus once said, "you shall not know the day nor the hour."

[identity profile] dewline.livejournal.com 2008-08-17 12:32 pm (UTC)(link)
There was another "next question" I remember some novelist posing in the course of one of their works: something about how in order to have your fated-by-Revelations Kingdom Come, you had to have your Apocalypse...and the Anti-Christ who ushered it in, first. So what's a good Christian to do in the face of that logic?

[identity profile] tammy-moore.livejournal.com 2008-08-17 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Besides, isn't the antichrist a necessary component to the whole end-times thing where all the elect are offered a lift on that elevator to Heaven whilst the rest of us sinners wallow in our own shame and have lots of fun parties? I thought your average born-again Christian was all for bringing on that sort of thing?

[identity profile] tammy-moore.livejournal.com 2008-08-17 12:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Ohhh, beat me to it!

Hey, maybe this isn't anti-propaganda by McCain. Maybe it's a cunning plan by Obama's team to get the Bible Belt on side?

[identity profile] dewline.livejournal.com 2008-08-17 12:42 pm (UTC)(link)
If it is, this book's author (http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/k/victor-koman/jehovah-contract.htm) ought to be getting a payment from the Obama campaign team for the usage of the idea. The author posited an entire church based upon the concept as a sidebar to the main plot. :-)

[identity profile] gfish.livejournal.com 2008-08-17 04:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I've been wondering if this will backfire for that reason. These are people who support Israel for the soul purpose of bringing about the end-times, after all.

[identity profile] dewline.livejournal.com 2008-08-17 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
And if/when the Rapture actually happens...what'll they do if they don't find themselves exclusively and utterly in the ranks of the Elect?

[identity profile] anton-p-nym.livejournal.com 2008-08-17 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"What if They Held a Rapture and Nobody Came?" *giggle*

-- Steve probably should've waited for more coffee before posting.

[identity profile] stokerbramwell.livejournal.com 2008-08-18 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
Only according to premillennial dispensationalist eschatology. There are a LOT of other views on the End Times and the Second Coming than those popularized by American Evangelicals. And some of them actually have Biblical basis. Take THAT, premillennial dispensationalism!

[identity profile] stokerbramwell.livejournal.com 2008-08-18 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
Well, do they expect the Antichrist to get cheap haircuts? He's got to go to some creative barbers to hide his horns.

[identity profile] stokerbramwell.livejournal.com 2008-08-18 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
As I mentioned below to another commentator, that logic only applies to a very new, very flawed school of theology. There are many, many other schools of eschatology that do not require an Antichrist.
kayshapero: (Default)

[personal profile] kayshapero 2008-08-18 07:42 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you for pointing that out. Sometimes I feel like I'm alone out here.

[identity profile] stokerbramwell.livejournal.com 2008-08-18 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
Why fancy meeting you here!