http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_carol_wo_070113_nuclear_armageddon_3f_.htmNuclear Armageddon? The Rapture Cult, Path of Deathby Carol Wolman
OpEdNews
January 13, 2007
There's lots of talk going on about nuclear armageddon. Israeli pilots are training to nuke Iran's nuclear facilities, Bush attacks the Iranian consulate in northern Iraq, Syria is being demonized again. Russia and China are allied with Iran, will they stand by, let Iran be nuked, and not retaliate with nuclear weapons against Israel or the USA?
Scary times. Bush is barreling ahead despite huge opposition, even from within his own party. Pat Robertson claims that God told him there would be a massive attack against America this year. It seems like a good time to re-publish a piece I wrote a while ago, looking at the Christofascist ideology which allows and encourages suicidal behavior on the part of the man with his finger on the button.
The Rapture Cult- Path of Death
Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life.
Tens of millions of Americans have read "The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsay, and tens of millions more are avid fans of the "Left Behind" series by LaHaye and Jenkins. These science fiction books claim to give a true interpretation of Bible prophecy. They preach the rapture cult, a heretical view (so labeled by the Presbyterian Church) which says that believers will be "called out" and "meet Jesus in the clouds" while the rest of us are to be "left behind" to suffer and perish in the tribulation.
This is the path of death. The rapture cultists have psychically abandoned planet earth and all responsibility for its fate. They support George Bush and his rapid destruction of the biosphere, thinking that this will hasten their being "called away" by the returning Christ. They suspend conscience and discernment, believing the false prophets who tell them that Bush was chosen by God to lead America and that his lying murderous ways should be overlooked.
George Bush serves the corporate beast, and all his policies are designed to enrich those who profit from its plunder. Bush acts as CEO for the beast, whose greed is destroying the biosphere. The corporate beast has stolen "personhood" in America from human beings through a legal fiction, which entitles corporations to the rights of persons, without any of the responsibility and accountability of human beings. In fact, the only goal to which corporations are legally bound is to make profits for their stockholders.
The rapture cultists become "little Eichmans", working for the beast, buying its products, upholding its reign, and its exploitation and slaughter of indigenous peoples the world over. They worship success, not God, and are lulled by the false prophets into believing that they will go to heaven if only they hate homosexuals, pro-abortion people, and Muslims. They are encouraged to extend this hatred to "liberals", "progressives", "tree-huggers", and indeed, to all of us who are fighting to preserve life on planet earth.
The false prophets of the rapture cult, people like Pat Robertson, are predicted in Revelation, and serve the corporate beast:
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http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_carol_wo_070827_pharisees_and_the_ra.htmPharisees and the Rapture Cultby Carol Wolman
OpEdNews
August 27, 2007
We live in an age when politics and religion, specifically Bible-based Christianity, are inextricably mixed. The main reason Bush and Cheney have gotten away with what they've gotten away with is that they have the backing of the evangelical churches. These churches have provided these evil men with a cadre of blind but dedicated volunteers who will torture, kill, corrupt the electoral process, and keep Bush and Cheney in power with the belief that in so doing they are hastening the return of Jesus Christ.
The right wing Republican churches have become Zionist, and AIPAC has teamed up with them to corrupt Congress as well. The zeal of their congregants, who refuse to believe anything bad about Bush and Cheney, no matter how much evidence they are shown, is based on a belief in the rapture cult.
It is imperative to understand how the rapture cult works. It's also called dominionism and dispensationalism. Their sick interpretation of Biblical prophecy would have us believe that nuclear holocaust is inevitable, and that the faithful will be raptured up on a mushroom cloud with Jesus to a happier realm. Dominionism, because political domination by these churches is part of the picture. Dispensationalism, because those who join the cult are presumed to be cleansed of all sins from that time forward, so they don't need to be held accountable for their actions. So true believers can do what they want, and be saved if they support Bush.
This doctrine has been cynically fabricated and publicized by the modern-day Pharisees to garner a crowd of faithful. They provide a veneer, a thin veneer, of legitimacy to Bush and Cheney, by providing enough votes and enough poll cheating to make it appear that they won in 2004. This was Karl Rove's strategy, and it worked to the point where elections will no longer be necessary, because martial law will have been declared- at least that's their plan.
The rapture cult was promulgated by science fiction writer Hal Lindsey in the 60's and 70's, with the immensely popular "The Late, Great Planet Earth". LeHaye and Jenkins took up the baton with the "Left Behind" series, which has around 70 million readers. Lindsey and LeHaye, by the way, are both close to Bush.
This was all cynically planned by thinktanks like the Hoover Institute. The Christian Right
took over the Republican party and installed the thugs Bush and Cheney, and continue to support them. The rest of us are intimidated by the theology, much as we may pooh-pooh it. We deal with it by rejecting the Bible altogether, and thus denying ourselves the powerful weapon of righteousness backed by God's word.
Jesus had this to say to people like Bush, Cheney, Lindsey and LeHaye:
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