Christian Nationalism

Far-right pastor Joel Webbon declares that Christian nationalists are allowed to impose their values on everyone "because we're right": "Christians don't have to tolerate degeneracy, and degenerates absolutely must tolerate righteousness or they need to go to jail."

 
Visionary Sinclair Lewis said in 1935 “when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
 
Well, but it is a great fear tactic. It does an awesome job of pitting the good guys (Christians) against the bad guys (all others) who will be left behind, and the world falls into chaos without the moderating effects of the Christians.

Fear tactics have always worked and are currently kicking ass, any basis in fact is not required:
- Immigrants steal your job/eat your pets
- Blue cities are crime infested hellholes
- Vaccines are just moneymakers for pharma and healthy people don't need them
- Tylenol
- Election stealing

The powerful want to give us enemies other than them because they know the divide between the haves and have-nots is huge and increasing. They like it and don't want the have-nots to go after them so they give them others to worry about. There are a lot of powerful within the leadership of Christian churches.
 
as a Lutheran , I've always got a lot of STRANGE LOOKS and even gasp in Oklahoma when someone eventually ask about my thoughts on the Rapture and I inform them that most Lutherans do not believe in a literal Rapture and that there is No such thing as the Rapture in the Bible.
 
Well, but it is a great fear tactic. It does an awesome job of pitting the good guys (Christians) against the bad guys (all others) who will be left behind, and the world falls into chaos without the moderating effects of the Christians.

Fear tactics have always worked and are currently kicking ass, any basis in fact is not required:
- Immigrants steal your job/eat your pets
- Blue cities are crime infested hellholes
- Vaccines are just moneymakers for pharma and healthy people don't need them
- Tylenol
- Election stealing

The powerful want to give us enemies other than them because they know the divide between the haves and have-nots is huge and increasing. They like it and don't want the have-nots to go after them so they give them others to worry about. There are a lot of powerful within the leadership of Christian churches.
The first rule in interpreting scripture is that scripture cannot mean now what it has never meant. Rapture falls into that category. That simply isn’t how anyone interpreted it until John Nelson Darby.

You don’t have to tell me about pharma, vaccines and fear.

It’s all about power, isn’t it.
 
Christians ain´t Christians anymore...maybe never were...
American Christianity today in a lot of places is a brand meant to be consumed. Not all are like that but a lot are commercialized productions taking in hoards of cash. Then you force true churches to compete bc they can’t afford to lose 20% of their congregation to the new rebranded shiny church down the street.

In America it’s a declining “customer base” so they are forced to market and attract from other brands bc they have to keep revenue consistent or growing.
 
American Christianity today in a lot of places is a brand meant to be consumed. Not all are like that but a lot are commercialized productions taking in hoards of cash. Then you force true churches to compete bc they can’t afford to lose 20% of their congregation to the new rebranded shiny church down the street.

In America it’s a declining “customer base” so they are forced to market and attract from other brands bc they have to keep revenue consistent or growing.
yeah, I am not anti-religion, I just get sick of seeing my family members, friends, others call themselves Christians and go to church faithfully and spew verses, but their actions and thoughts and talk are nowhere near ´Christian´ (IMO) AND they worship tRump who is the furthest thing from a Christian (judge not, lest you also be judged...blah, blah, I judge, U judge, we judge)...I consider myself a non practicing Christian...I look at many Bible verses differently now than when I was younger...and do not believe some of the things that are/were preached; such as the Rapture...with that being said, true Christianity is a dying thing...
 
as a Lutheran , I've always got a lot of STRANGE LOOKS and even gasp in Oklahoma when someone eventually ask about my thoughts on the Rapture and I inform them that most Lutherans do not believe in a literal Rapture and that there is No such thing as the Rapture in the Bible.
I’m not going to call it a lie, I believe it is a misguided interpretation. That said… if you repeat a lie often enough and loud enough and fervently enough then people will believe you.

When interpreting scripture you have to begin with an understanding as close to the understanding as the original audience as possible. If you start at any other understanding you are likely making an error. For instance, and to provide an absurd example, when Abraham tells Isaac “God will provide the ram” and you think “random access memory” you are probably wrong because the original audience would not have thought that. To provide a more concrete example, in Genesis when it says that God destroyed the world by flood the original audience had no concept of a geoglobe and to try to force a geoglobe into that is torturing scripture. God flooded their world, not ours.
 
WHAAA???? This is nuts


Doug Billings is now seeing parallels between the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the death & resurrection of Jesus.

What an idiot!
 
WHAAA???? This is nuts


Doug Billings is now seeing parallels between the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the death & resurrection of Jesus.

IMG_5163.jpeg
 
Well, but it is a great fear tactic. It does an awesome job of pitting the good guys (Christians) against the bad guys (all others) who will be left behind, and the world falls into chaos without the moderating effects of the Christians.

Fear tactics have always worked and are currently kicking ass, any basis in fact is not required:
- Immigrants steal your job/eat your pets
- Blue cities are crime infested hellholes
- Vaccines are just moneymakers for pharma and healthy people don't need them
- Tylenol
- Election stealing

The powerful want to give us enemies other than them because they know the divide between the haves and have-nots is huge and increasing. They like it and don't want the have-nots to go after them so they give them others to worry about. There are a lot of powerful within the leadership of Christian churches.
There are too many gullible people out there with little or no critical thinking skills. And bad people, such as Donald Trump, who want to take wrongful advantage of them. Some people, like you, though, may rightfully wonder if Trump is also being gullible, so it's the gullible leading the gullible, kind of like the blind leading the blind.
 
as a Lutheran , I've always got a lot of STRANGE LOOKS and even gasp in Oklahoma when someone eventually ask about my thoughts on the Rapture and I inform them that most Lutherans do not believe in a literal Rapture and that there is No such thing as the Rapture in the Bible.
I'm not going to debate the Rapture with non-Christians because I see that as a futile exercise. However, as a Luthern to state that "there is No such thing as the Rapture in the Bible" isn't accurate. Sure the word "Rapture" isn't written in the Bible, but the concept certainly is (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The word "Trinity" isn't written in the Bible either, but do you deny that too?
 
I'm not going to debate the Rapture with non-Christians because I see that as a futile exercise. However, as a Luthern to state that "there is No such thing as the Rapture in the Bible" isn't accurate. Sure the word "Rapture" isn't written in the Bible, but the concept certainly is (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The word "Trinity" isn't written in the Bible either, but do you deny that too?

Here, u can argue with the church and FYI the Bible also talks about Basilisks , Giants, Unicorns, Dragons, Behemoths , Leviathans, etc. Do you deny those too ??


Lutherans Interpret
1 Thessalonians 4:17 as describing events of the Last Day, not a secret pre-tribulation removal of believers. Instead of a rapture, Lutheran theology teaches that Jesus will return visibly, the dead in Christ will rise first, and then the living believers will be "caught up" to meet Him, all as part of His one visible return at the end of time.

Key differences in belief
  • Timing: The rapture is often taught as a secret event before a period of tribulation, but Lutherans see the events in 1 Thessalonians as taking place at the visible, final return of Christ on the Last Day.
  • Separation of believers: A core belief in the rapture is the removal of believers from the earth before judgment, leaving the unrighteous behind. Lutheran theology holds that on the Last Day, Christ will come to judge the quick and the dead, and believers will be gathered to Him, but it is not a secret removal.
    • The "caught up" event: In the rapture view, believers are taken off the earth to heaven. In the Lutheran view, the "caught up" event is the moment when living believers join the resurrected dead to meet the returning Lord in the air as part of His final, public return.
    • Purpose of 1 Thessalonians: Lutherans view the passage as a source of comfort for believers who were grieving over those who had died before Christ's return, not as a description of a secret removal from earth.
 
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Here, u can argue both the church


Lutherans do n the rapture, but they interpret
1 Thessalonians 4:17 as describing events of the Last Day, not a secret pre-tribulation removal of believers. Instead of a rapture, Lutheran theology teaches that Jesus will return visibly, the dead in Christ will rise first, and then the living believers will be "caught up" to meet Him, all as part of His one visible return at the end of time.

Key differences in belief
  • Timing: The rapture is often taught as a secret event before a period of tribulation, but Lutherans see the events in 1 Thessalonians as taking place at the visible, final return of Christ on the Last Day.
  • Separation of believers: A core belief in the rapture is the removal of believers from the earth before judgment, leaving the unrighteous behind. Lutheran theology holds that on the Last Day, Christ will come to judge the quick and the dead, and believers will be gathered to Him, but it is not a secret removal.
    • The "caught up" event: In the rapture view, believers are taken off the earth to heaven. In the Lutheran view, the "caught up" event is the moment when living believers join the resurrected dead to meet the returning Lord in the air as part of His final, public return.
    • Purpose of 1 Thessalonians: Lutherans view the passage as a source of comfort for believers who were grieving over those who had died before Christ's return, not as a description of a secret removal from earth.
I'm not sure where you got that, but eschatology is a very complex subject. To say that the Rapture is "often" taught as a secret event before tribulation is also disingenuous unless you define "often" as maybe sometimes.

There are pre-tribulation premillennialists, mid-tribulation premillennialists, post-tribulation premillennialists, amillennialists, postmillennialsts, and probably some views I don't even know about that all believe different things about the Rapture. To say that there are complex and different views on the Rapture is one thing, but to say "there is No such thing as the Rapture in the Bible" is inaccurate.
 
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