Thursday, January 05, 2006

Rapture and Rosaries

I was in German Village in Columbus yesterday (which may explain this occurence, for those of you who understand the eclectic make up of the place), and saw both of the following on one vehicle:

1) a rosary dangling from a rearview mirror
2) a sticker that read "in case of rapture, this car will be empty"

This is strange because, as a rule, Catholics don't believe in the rapture. At all. The fact that we don't, and because of many other things, has even led to the book Will Catholics Be 'Left Behind?' , by Carl Olson, which explains the faults of Rapture logic and debunks it. It's a great book, available via Ignatius Press.

Oh, and another note, while were on the topic: please, good Catholic people, don't read the Left Behind books, or get the kids' ones for your children. They ar virurently anti-Catholic dressed up as Christian literature, but it's pretty clear that the Catholic Church is (again) the anti-Christ. Just because it's an NYT best-seller (indeed, maybe because it's an NYT best seller) doesn't mean it's good! (see my thoughts on the DaVinci code other places in this blog). What amazes me about this Protestant notion (and yes I know not all Protestants believe in the Rapture, or think we're the anti-Christ) is that it directly contradicts the biblical idea of a tree and its fruit. It we really were the anti-Christ, then I don't think we'd have over a billion members that believe Jesus Christ is their savior and are living to serve Him and believe in Him. I don't think there'd be anything good coming out of the Church, and yet there is much good fruit. But we're still the anti-Christ. Isn't this a little old? Just a bit? And to go in the "if this happened to Jews/ Muslims/ other Christians, the reaction would be..." category--can you imagine if someone wrote a book saying these same things about Jews/Muslims/ other Christians? The reaction would be incredible.But you can say it about Catholics and end up on the best seller lists for years. Sigh.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Emily, for mentioning my book. German Village in Columbus — that brings back some good memories. When we lived in Heath, Ohio, for one year (2002-3), we would go to German Village from time to time for coffee, books, beer, etc. Anyhow, I'll just say that I've met quite a few Catholic who do believe in the Rapture (or some variation of it), and cannot understand why they shouldn't. Which is, of course, part of the reason I wrote a detailed book about the topic. I would emphasize that the vast majority of Protestants do not believe in the "left behind" theology (or premillennial dispensationalism). In fact, the strongest critics of the Rapture (or, more specifically, the pre-tribulation Rapture) are Evangelicals from the Reformed/Calvinist tradition. Also, most anti-Catholic Fundamentalists would say that the size of the Catholic Church is simply one more indication of how many have been deceived by a false religion. In fact, they would probably insist that there is a very small number of "true believers" and that the Catholic Church, because of its global presence, will eventually be part of the One World Religion soon to be established by the antiChrist.

Thanks again!

Carl Olson