Thursday, August 23, 2007

Rapture

I saw this bumper sticker today: "Caution: In case of the rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned."

I think that this is mighty presumptuous of the driver. Now, I am not one who knows God personally, or pretends to have any sort of relationship with him, but does God like this kind of arrogance? The driver is basically saying, yes I am perfect, or if not perfect, I understand God well enough to know what he will deem acceptable behavior to be accepted into heaven for the afterlife. Shit, I have never been that confident about anything, let alone knowing with certainty that I will not spend eternity burning in the hell-fire.

My understanding of the Bible is sketchy at best, but I am fairly certain that only one man ever lived a sinless life, and it sure as hell was not the driver of that truck. Granted, from what I have been told, you can be the most philanthropic man on the planet, but the gates do not open unless you believe in God and that his son Jeebus died for your sins.

But what is belief? Does one moment of doubt in the existence of God disqualify you? Does cursing God once on your worst day disqualify you? Are aboriginal tribes that stick their historical beliefs denied in the face of their rejection of Christian missionaries?

I am not attempting to debate religion, I already know what the answers are to those questions. I was just surprised that anyone would presume to anticipate what God would or would not do. Sure you can hope, but do you ever really know?

Besides, the rapture occurred in 1983, right after Lotus 1-2-3 was released.

(oh, and I have never read the "Left Behind" series, but I did read a book called 666 about 10 years ago. Very fascinating and filled with untoward hilarity.)

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