a call for information....

[lagilman]

A story decided to bite me on the ass yesterday as I woke up, and I seem to need specific references to the Rapture, being unmanned, etc. in both the original and reinterpretation-by-various-fanatics fashion. Sadly, my library is lacking in such things. If anyone has sources or links to share, you can post 'em here or e-mail me at wrensergei at lycos dot com.

Thanks!


ETA: Thanks, everyone! Was looking for primary sources, so some of this is quite helpful, thanks.

Comments

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

Brief summation of main schools of Protestant Evangelical thought and the Catholic view here, complete with the significant Bible verses that started all the fuss:

http://www.catholic.com/library/Rapture.asp

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

I've always liked the idea of believers being lifted bodily to heaven wherever they are, whatever they'rre doing. (I saw too many Rapture tracts as a small child, I think, when in the care of Evangelicals for a while.) I have long wondered, does that mean if you've got your pants around your ankles in a port-a-pot when the Last Trump sounds, do you bash your way through the plastic roof and ascend to heaven with your unwiped butt hanging out? What does "bodily" mean, precisely? (And yes, I've written about it that way.)

[paleologa.livejournal.com]

I have long wondered, does that mean if you've got your pants around your ankles in a port-a-pot when the Last Trump sounds, do you bash your way through the plastic roof and ascend to heaven with your unwiped butt hanging out? What does "bodily" mean, precisely?

That's exactly what it means, though I'm sure your butt would be magically clean, and shining with the purity and light of a thousand suns.

Did you ever see that episode of Six Feet Under where a wacky chain of events resulted in a truckload of helium-filled, life-sized, naked, female-shaped balloons floating over the streets of LA? And some poor woman who thought the Rapture had started wandered into oncoming traffic?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Google can find you many things, from Rapture Ready to Letters left to those left behind.

Speaking of which, anything discussing Left Behind would cover this territory.

Also google anything on End Times Terms

If you want the real wingnut version - illustrated - check out Jack Chick's site.

Hummm....

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Google can find you many things, from Rapture Ready to Letters left to those left behind.

They seem to be 404s . . ..

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

Fred Clark, blogging at Slactivist, has been running an in-depth critique and analysis of the Left Behind books since (going to check) Fall of 2003.
If you scroll to the very bottom of his "L.B. Archives", or at least to the entries from Oct 18 and Oct 20 of 2003, et seq., he seems to have a good bit of explication about these concepts (and why they're antithetical to true Christian theology). His essays seem to be generally well-regarded in the liberal blogosphere, if I may so describe it :-)

http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/left_behind/index.html

HLC in NYC

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

Well, according to the bus stop bench down the street, the Rapture is due in 2007. Beyond that, I couldn't tell you a thing.

Re: Hummm....

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Last time I just pulled the links from Google - now I'll follow 'em and post what's working:

http://www.raptureready.com/
http://www.raptureready.com/rr-armageddon2.html (armageddon clock)
http://www.raptureletters.com/ Rapture letters - they will be emailed when the dead-mans switch isn't input weekly (!)

Working for me.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I second this rec: those essays are brilliant.

Re: Hummm....

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Something seems to be wrong with my coding in the first comment - so it was the HTML, not the links that were wrong.

My Inaugural Address at the Great White Throne Judgment of the Dead

[alienbrain1.livejournal.com]

My inaugural address at the Great White Throne Judgment of the Dead, after I have raptured out billions!

At: My Inaugural Address (PDF File) (http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman/inaugural.pdf)
My Site (http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman/)
Also at: Other Site (http://www.geocities.com/alienspaceman/)



Your jaw will drop!

[bill-leisner.livejournal.com]

How about The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Book of Revelation (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0028642384/sr=8-9/qid=1141761013/ref=sr_1_9/002-8373111-6653657?%5Fencoding=UTF8)? I can't recommend it, per se, but having flipped through it at the bookstore in a fit of curiosity, it did seem to cover a variety of questions and interpretations.

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

I see that numerous others have beaten me to pointing out the Left Behind series. It's pretty schlocky — yes, to my great embarrassment, I have read much of the series — but it's probably the preeminent popular interpretation. Or at least the most recent one. There was a movie too.

And just to add to the ick-factor, one of the authors is the husband of the founder of Concerned Women for America.

[lagilman]

Oh, I know all about the Left Behind series (ask me about meeting with one of the authors one time, when I was wearing my Editor hat), but I'm looking for original sources, not what other fiction writers have done with the concept...

Re: Hummm....

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Don't you just love the excitement of intermittent links . . ..