Fun rapture read

[graceandglory]

Received this this morning from my X-Catholic friend.
How would you respond?

You are in your car driving home. Thoughts wander to the game you want to see or meal you want to eat, when suddenly a sound unlike any you’ve ever heard fills the air. The sound is high above you. A trumpet? A choir? A choir of trumpets? You don’t know, but you want to know… So you pull over, get out of your car, and look up. As you do, you see you aren’t the only curious one. The roadside has become a parking lot. Car doors are open, and people are

Staring at the sky. Shoppers are racing out of the grocery store. The Little League baseball game across the street has come to a halt. Players and parents are searching the clouds. And what they see, and what you see, has never before been seen.

As if the sky were a curtain, the drapes of the atmosphere part. A brilliant light spills onto the earth. There are no shadows. None.

From every hue ever seen, and a million more never seen. Riding on the flow is an endless fleet of angels. They pass through the curtains, one myriad at a time, until they occupy every square inch of the sky.

North. South. East. West.

Thousands of silvery wings rise and fall in unison, and over the sound of the trumpets, you can hear the cherubim and seraphim,chanting, Holy, holy, holy… The final flank of angels is followed by twenty-four silver-bearded elders and a multitude of souls who join the angels in worship.

Suddenly, the heavens are quiet. All is quiet. The angels turn, you turn, the entire world turns and there He is. Jesus.

Through waves of light you see the silhouetted figure of Christ the King. He is atop a great stallion, and the stallion is atop a billowing cloud. He opens his mouth, and you are surrounded by his declaration:

I am the Alpha and the Omega.

The angels bow their heads… The elders remove their crowns. And before you is a Figure so consuming that you know, instantly you know: Nothing else matters. Forget stock markets and school reports. Sales meetings and football games. Nothing is newsworthy. All that mattered, matters no more… For Christ has come.

How should I respond???

 

[bpbasilphx]

Sounds like he’s attending the Divine Liturgy–or any Eucharistic Sacrifice, for that matter–because this is what happens during it!

 

[rciadan]

So far, I would say, “Amen! maranatha!” Your friend has sent you an idea of what the Second Coming may be like. He has not described any “Rapture”. What I read so far is in keeping with what it actually may be like when Christ comes again…
Yes, this happens at Mass, in a way; though not in a way that is absolutely undeniable to the entire world as it will be when He comes again in all His glory…

 

[MDK]

Received this this morning from my X-Catholic friend.
How would you respond?

How should I respond???

Your friend is in the car being driven by Martin Luther, who throws out some of the map of the route honored for 1500 years, and starts to drive across terrain that leads nowhere… does your friend jump out or continue for the ride?

 

[Mailman]

So far, I would say, “Amen! maranatha!” Your friend has sent you an idea of what the Second Coming may be like. He has not described any “Rapture”. What I read so far is in keeping with what it actually may be like when Christ comes again…

Exactly! Only those who do not believe in the second coming of Christ will make fun of this guy.

 

[MDK]

Exactly! Only those who do not believe in the second coming of Christ will make fun of this guy.

An example that Protestant style thinking does not lead one to espouse the full truth (it was formed to take one away from truth), but distorts based on personal preferences. Your statement is not true, for instance. The truth is that we can criticize this guy for not being Catholic using similar imagery, without criticizing anything else. Anyone with a decent degree of willing discernment would recognize this. Here’s another truth for you… those who reject authentic Christianity will reject God’s one Church, the Catholic Church.

 

[cheeto1]

I would thank him or her for the beautiful story, I don’t see anything non-catholic about it. It reminds me of the time I made up a similar story for my then 8 year old son about various super-hereos and super-villians going about their business, and their
reactions when Jesus arrived much like this…nothing else mattered to them either…

We have to keep this kind of story always on our mind, even right now while we are
reading this, because Jesus didn’t save us only from punishment for our sins, He saved us from our SINS. Some do not wish to be saved from their sins, but only from
the punishment…

 

[Mailman]

An example that Protestant style thinking does not lead one to espouse the full truth (it was formed to take one away from truth), but distorts based on personal preferences. Your statement is not true, for instance. The truth is that we can criticize this guy for not being Catholic using similar imagery, without criticizing anything else. Anyone with a decent degree of willing discernment would recognize this. Here’s another truth for you… those who reject authentic Christianity will reject God’s one Church, the Catholic Church.

There can only be one truth, not many. Protestants do not have the truth because they do not speak with one voice. Protestants trace their roots to a false church, so how could they espouse the truth? Although the Reformation was a result of doctrinal disagreement, among other things, the reformists kept most of their mother church’s false doctrines and even introduced new errors of their own.

God has not left us without any means to know who belongs to Him and so possesses the Truth. Anyone can boast he embraces authentic Christianity and has the truth. Anyone can claim to belong to God’s one Church. But Christ’s followers have been forewarned: “Let no man deceive you with vain [empty] words…” God’s children can easily be distinguished from the many pretenders because they “… walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is… GOODNESS and RIGHTEOUSNESS and TRUTH” (Eph. 5:8-9).

When told to “…have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor him as Lord” (I Pet. 3:15), God’s children know that they cannot honor Christ as Lord by criticizing and/or making fun of people who do not share their view. Although instructed to, “Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you,” God’s children know that they honor Christ as Lord when they give their answer “with GENTLENESS AND RESPECT” (I Pet. 3:16).

The way we conduct ourselves – our manner of speech, our actions, how we interact with other people especially those who disagree with us – tells a lot about who we really are and where our fealties lie.

 

[MDK]

There can only be one truth, not many. Protestants do not have the truth because they do not speak with one voice. Protestants trace their roots to a false church, so how could they espouse the truth? Although the Reformation was a result of doctrinal disagreement, among other things, the reformists kept most of their mother church’s false doctrines and even introduced new errors of their own.

God has not left us without any means to know who belongs to Him and so possesses the Truth. Anyone can boast he embraces authentic Christianity and has the truth. Anyone can claim to belong to God’s one Church. But Christ’s followers have been forewarned: “Let no man deceive you with vain [empty] words…” God’s children can easily be distinguished from the many pretenders because they “… walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is… GOODNESS and RIGHTEOUSNESS and TRUTH” (Eph. 5:8-9).

When told to “…have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor him as Lord” (I Pet. 3:15), God’s children know that they cannot honor Christ as Lord by criticizing and/or making fun of people who do not share their view. Although instructed to, “Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you,” God’s children know that they honor Christ as Lord when they give their answer “with GENTLENESS AND RESPECT” (I Pet. 3:16).

The way we conduct ourselves – our manner of speech, our actions, how we interact with other people especially those who disagree with us – tells a lot about who we really are and where our fealties lie.

And… you really don’t get what I was saying. So thanks, but there was nothing in your post which I was not aware. Moving on, in simple terms one can validly criticize that person for having left the Catholic Church, which is exactly what I did. Please note that this was done without criticizing what the person had said quoted in the OP. So, for you to say that “Only those who do not believe in the second coming of Christ will make fun of this guy” is simply not true.

God gave us a way of knowing the truth, and that is through His one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, the Catholic Church. There is no ecclesial community which has the fullness of revealed truth as the found only in the Catholic Church.

Do you disagree with that? If so, we have a discussion. If you agree with that, then your post I quoted above, indicating a response to me, was in response to something that did not capture the meaning of what I wrote. Your response will certainly indicate where your sworn loyalties lie… and is that with dedication to the truth as we all should?

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Received this this morning from my X-Catholic friend.
How would you respond?

How should I respond???

Phone your wife and tell her you’ll be late.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

I’d say that is a nice description of Christs one and only second coming. There is nothing in the paragraph that would lead one to believe that this is the dispensational rapture that all the evangelicals talk about. I would tell him that Catholics very much believe in the Scriptures when they talk about the parousia-- we know we will be ‘caught in the air’ on the last day. As it stands there’s not much to say except what others have said… amen, amen, maran atha!