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On Nov 12, 2005, at 10:53 PM, Victor Martinez wrote:
> Part 1: THE POPE COMES OUT SWINGING AGAINST CREATION DEBUNKERS AND > SLAMS > THE 'INFIDEL' EVOLUTIONISTS! "THE WORLD IS NOT A SEQUENCE OF > SPONTANEOUS > BROKEN SYMMETRIES!" > > > Part 2: FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIANS SAY THE END IS NEAR AND THE RAPTURE > NIGH,... ARE YOU > 'SAVED' SO THAT YOU WILL DISAPPEAR 'IN THE TWINKLING OF AN EYE' BEFORE > THE ANTICHRIST STEPS IN AND MAKES YOUR LI'L LIFE A LIVING HELL ON > EARTH! > AWAKEN PAGANS! > ----------------------------------------- > > > THE POPE ON CREATION: "IT WAS AN 'INTELLIGENT PROJECT' BY GOD! > By The Associated Press, Sunday, November 13, 2005 > > > VATICAN CITY, Nov. 13 (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI has waded into the > evolution debate in the United States, saying the universe was made as > an "intelligent project" and criticizing those who say its creation was > without direction. > > Benedict's comments, made during his general audience on Wednesday, > were > published Thursday. > > The pope focused on scriptural readings that said God's love was seen > in > the "marvels of creation." He quoted St. Basil the Great as saying that > some people, "fooled by the atheism that they carry inside of them, > imagine a universe free of direction and order, as if at the mercy of > chance." > ------------------------------------------ > © Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company / Click at bottom for > "Printer Friendly Version." > ------------------------------------------ > http://www.oregonlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/living/ > 113143851032440.xml&coll=7 > > > WARS! EARTHQUAKES! PESTILENCE! > WITH AN EYE ON THE NEWS, > SOME RAPTURE-BELIEVING CHRISTIANS ARE SAYING TIME IS SHORT – > By Nancy Haught, The Oregonian > Saturday, November 12, 2005 > > > Whether you see earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis as natural > disasters or acts of God, this has been a bad year for the world and a > good one for the rapture index. > > The index, a feature on the Web site > > http://www.raptureready.com/ > > is a measure of how quickly the world is careering toward the Second > Coming of Christ. On a good day, it claims 15,000 hits. > > "Rapture" is a word that some Christians use to describe the moment > when, they believe, Jesus will call them home to heaven and the rest of > us will struggle on with only the antichrist and the apocalypse to look > forward to. The time between the rapture and the Second Coming is > called > the tribulation. > > Interest in all of this is peaking these days, spurred on by the > apparent frequency and intensity of earthly disasters, last month's > release of the third "Left Behind" movie and the prospect of a bird-flu > pandemic. > > Keepers of the Rapture Ready Web site are Terry James of Benton, Ark., > and Todd Strandberg of Bellevue, Neb., two biblical prophecy devotees > who have been polishing their concept since 1987. > > James and Strandberg have come up with a list of 45 categories, from > false Christs to inflation, famine and floods. Every few days, they > assign each category a number from 1 to 6 to reflect its "intensity," > according to recent news stories. They tally the numbers to come up > with > the rapture index, a number James calls "a speedometer that says how > fast we're heading toward the tribulation." > > On Monday, the rapture index was at 159, well over what James and > Strandberg call the "fasten your seat belt" mark of 145. > "It's been up around 159 for some time now," says James, who has > written > 15 books on biblical prophecy and fully expects the rapture to occur in > his lifetime. So far, he's waited 63 years. > > James knows that not all Christians see scripture and the signs the > same > way he and Strandberg and the whole Left Behind crowd do. The Web site > gets a lot of critical mail, and some of it is posted online. > > "Some people get really hostile over anything on the site," James says. > "To me, that shows the truth of what we're doing. . . . We don't > condemn > anybody; we only point out what God says about sin in general." > > Not ALL Christians have jumped on the rapture bandwagon. Many see it as > a modern twisting of what they believe biblical prophecy really is -- > not so much predictive, as in telling what will happen in the future, > as > prescriptive, describing what happened in the past. > > Barbara Rossing, a New Testament professor at the Lutheran School of > Theology in Chicago, is familiar with the Web site but doesn't think it > holds much appeal for Christians like her who have condemned the Left > Behind series and argue that the rapture is not a biblical concept. > > > She wrote "The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in The Book of > Revelation" (Westview Press, $15, 222 pages). > > "World events should be a wakeup call to us," Rossing says. "We should > be thinking about what our calling is, as people of faith in the world > today. We need to be thinking about how to connect the dots -- not in > an > antichrist-end-times kind of way -- but in terms of how God is at work > in the world for healing, for justice and for love." > > James is familiar with the criticism and it doesn't shake his > confidence > in the rapture. > > "I'm of the opinion that every Christian will go (in the rapture), > regardless of the state of their walk with Jesus," he says. "We're all > in God's family." > ------------------------------------------ > RELATED LINKS: > > A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE APOCALYPSE: > > > 'LEFT BEHIND' MOVIE TO BE RELEASED VIA CHURCHES (10/14/2005): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/10140 > > 666 IS NOT THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST (IT'S 616) (5/4/2005): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/9116 > > DOOMSAYERS SAY BENEDICT FITS WORLD END PROPHECY (4/30/2005): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/9092 > > BILL MOYERS: BATTLEFIELD EARTH (12/13/2004): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/8529 > > SECT TOOK OUT LOANS AHEAD OF 'DOOMSDAY' (12/7/2004): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/ > message/8465 > > PERSPECTIVE: APOCALYPSE (ALMOST) NOW (11/24/2004): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/8367 > > HOW & WHY THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT THREATENS THE ENVIRONMENT (10/28/2004): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/8165 > > THE CHRISTIAN DOOMSDAY PUBLISHING EMPIRE (4/2/2004): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/7014 > > SOOTHSAYERS SEE DOOM, GLOOM IN CLOSENESS OF MARS (8/27/2003): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/5844 > > FUNDAMENTALISTS BELIEVE THE END IS NEAR (3/13/2003): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/4727 > > GOD, SATAN & THE MEDIA (3/4/2003): > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/4606 > > SIR ISAAC NEWTON PREDICTED 2060 APOCALYPSE (2/23/2003): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/4527 > > JAPAN'S APOCALYPTIC RELIGIONS & CULTS (7/10/2002): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/3390 > > THE APOCALYPSE GOES MAINSTREAM (6/23/2002): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/3301 > > MANY BELIEVE HOLY LAND CONFLICT SIGN OF END TIMES (4/19/2002): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/3028 > > APOCALYPTIC WORRIES, PREDICTIONS & MOVIES (10/14/2001): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/2117 > > IRISH SAINT 'PREDICTS NEW POPE & END OF WORLD' (1/3/2001): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/975 > > AS JAN. 1 DRAWS NEAR, DOOMSAYERS RECONSIDER (12/27/1999): > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/43 > > SPECIAL REPORTS ON EARTH CHANGES: > > SPECIAL REPORT: FRONTLINE'S "APOCALYPSE!" (12/27/1999): > > http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srapocalypse.html > > SPECIAL REPORT: EARTH CHANGES & MILLENNIUM FEVER (10/10/1997): > > http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srmillenniumfever.html > > THE EARTH CHANGES COMPOSITE MAP (January, 1997): > > http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srnhneearthchangemap.html > > A REVIEW OF SCALLION'S PREDICTIONS FOR 1995 (2/20/1996): > > http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/srscallion95review.html > > POLE SHIFT TORPEDOED BY AUTHOR (11/15/1996): > > http://www.nhne.com/articles/sapoleshift.html > > http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/12/international/europe/12pope.html? > pagewanted=print
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