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Who Will Take Care of Your Beloved Pets after the Rapture?
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I’m sure this has been a great concern to my readers, so having you, my dear friends in mind, I am passing along this helpful information. ~ja
Here is a brief excerpt from After the Rapture Pet Care, the great folks who will look after your pets after you have gone on.
I agreed – it’s a real concern, and a legitimate concern. Our pets are given to us by God for us to care for. We are stewards of their lives. Should we simply forget them at the Rapture, allow them to starve or worse?
While planning our system, we thought about the stories of pet rescues in New Orleans after Katrina. Imagine how many more pets would have been saved if there had been a database of pets and volunteers activated immediately. This is something we could do for Christian owned pets.
Carol began recruiting other non-Christian animal lovers nationwide to volunteer to take care of left-behind pets if the Rapture occurs. As a Christian, my role has been to put together a program that is Biblically appropriate and provides true value to Christians. I believe we’ve come up with a plan that is affordable, unique, Biblical and practical.
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For more information, click here.
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Spiritual Sounding Board 
Wow, we’re still going on here about dispensationalism? Maybe I can chime in a bit later on Monday with some other things to say.
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It’s Monday, Steve 😉
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Disciplines can change, such as the whole fish on Friday thing. Did you know that if one chooses to eat meat on Fridays outside of Lent, that they are supposed to substitute something else in its place? This can range from time reading the Bible, or extra time in prayer, or volunteering one’s time in service to the needy. It’s easier just to avoid meat, isn’t it? But the Church wants us to engage God and engage the world in which we live. Also, celibacy is also a discipline in the Latin Rite, but not the Eastern Rites in union with Rome. Priests can marry in the Byzantine & other such Eastern churches, although I believe Bishops are not free to marry in those churches.
Anyway, I am astounded that you never consult the dead. Does that mean you don’t ever read documents from former U.S. Presidents now dead, or other nonfiction works by those who have passed on? Ideas live on long after we die, and those ideas are often written down. I just don’t get your refusal to read anything outside of the Bible. What about Christian writers who are still alive? Do you read their works until they pass away?
What in the world do you read? I’ve never met anyone like you. You are fascinating.
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Well, Ed, you’re replying to my comment to Tia. Not sure if you followed that thread. We were commenting on “what has to happen” prior to the Rapture. Some believe that the Temple will be rebuilt.
Also, I believe that Adam & Eve, Job, Noah’s Ark, and Jonah are allegories, and didn’t really take place. I don’t believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible. But I really don’t want to further the clutter in the comments section, which was a lighthearted look at the animals who will be “left behind”.
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My anger stems from feeling betrayed that I was taught dispensationalism as the absolute and only teaching of the Word of God that is correct. As I said before, I never shared that initial shock for many years. I merely started to pay attention to what others were saying about those cut and paste texts.
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I don’t believe in The Rapture/Left Behind. I believe the parousia in I Thessalonians is the real Second Coming, in which we all will be caught up to Jesus to face our judgment. I believe in a particular judgment when we die, and a final judgment at the end of time as we know it. You’ll say that St Paul doesn’t mention nonbelievers in I Thessalonians. That’s because the believers are the ones who were worried about what happened to their loved ones who died already, since Jesus hadn’t come back, yet. He was speaking only to that issue.
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I keep trying to end the convo with Ed, but then he asks me a question and, well, I feel obliged to answer. Sorry. I dearly want to stop talking about the whole thing, myself, but I don’t want to be rude to Ed. He’s pretty interesting.
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“My anger stems from feeling betrayed that I was taught dispensationalism as the absolute and only teaching of the Word of God that is correct”
Were you taught that belief in dispensationalism was a salvic issue? I hope not! when I was growing up, most of the pastors I knew presented all the differing views and encouraged people to study on their own.
In any event, what you are saying makes a good argument for teaching our children to be Bereans and seek the Holy Spirit for guidance. What that does is help these issues not to be so black and white so we might miss there are some truths in other positions instead of turning totally against one position and going totally in the opposite direction thinking it is completely right. I see so many young people doing this with YRR teaching…becoming atheists after having it shoved down their throats growing up as the correct picture of God. .
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Not salvific in and of itself, but to not believe was considered “not rightly dividing the Word of truth”, and being susceptible to being deceived by the devil. Great pressure was put on us to follow what the pastor preached, lest we fall into heresy and leave the church. We were actively discouraged from listening to any other viewpoint. I’m still a Christian. It’s Jesus that is my focus, and not some all consuming adherence to the Bible, which is almost worshiped in my old church. I think the physical Bible was almost an idol to some.
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“It’s Jesus that is my focus, and not some all consuming adherence to the Bible, which is almost worshiped in my old church. I think the physical Bible was almost an idol to some.”
It is strange, Isn’t it Sheila? Think of believers for centuries up until the scriptures were allowed to be read by the laity (there is no such thing as laity in the NT but you know what I mean) . How on earth were they to view the scriptures? After all, there were only “special people” vetted by the political leaders to tell them what it said. To interpret it for them.
It is much more dangerous today where most people can read them for themselves. That is why we have so many interpretation wars, denominations and translations.
Then we have this ridiculous notion of inerrancy as if all translators over time were inerrant and inspired by the Holy Spirit for all their word choices. Of course we know this cannot be true because so many movements have their favorite translation that is “inerrant”. The Reformed YRR say it is the ESV. The Fundy IFB types say it is the KJV. So, which is it? (wink)
(Most translations have a political historical reason for existing)
Scripture can be a history book or a club to beat folks with. Or, it can be an Inspired grand narrative of how God works with, through and around people over time culminating in coming to earth as a mere lowly nobody —- our Savior.
Yep, we do not worship a book. We worship a LIVING Savior.
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Actually, the term “laity” derives from a word that means “people of God”. In truth, all Christians in the NT time were laity. There was no “clergy” per se, if that is the “professional” Christian leader-type. That was a later development. Elders were elders because they had survived longer than others in the faith, and supposedly would have more wisdom than the newbies. And a bishop was really an elder elected to provide guidance and leadership to the churches of his city as long as he lived, which usually wasn’t very.
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Anon by choice, I have understand it to be totally opposite. Clergy as in the “priesthood” of which all true believers are a part of.
Laity— you will find in words like Nicolaitans which refers to conquerors of the people.
There is no clergy/laity divide in the NT priesthood. All true followers of Christ are “priests” now. Which is another reason the whole comp/pat doctrinal stance is so ridiculous.
So, all believers are actually “clergy” as understood being a part of the Holy Priesthood of believer. Of course there are various functions within the Priesthood such as Deacon, elder, pastor, etc. All serving functions. The body is full of priests! Or clergy if you will.
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So all of us are laity (the people of God) and all of us are priests by virtue of the priesthood of each and every believer. Which, I believe makes all of us directly able to access God through the Holy Spirit, without the intervention of another human, and makes each and every one of us “ordained” by God to serve others as a fellow priest. I see nothing in the Bible about that priesthood that suggests that any are second class priests due to gender, race, or whatever.
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“So all of us are laity (the people of God) and all of us are priests by virtue of the priesthood of each and every believer. Which, I believe makes all of us directly able to access God through the Holy Spirit, without the intervention of another human, and makes each and every one of us “ordained” by God to serve others as a fellow priest. I see nothing in the Bible about that priesthood that suggests that any are second class priests due to gender, race, or whatever.”
I don’t either. Guess I am confused with your response.. My original point was that laity was not a term describing the Body of Christ. But Priesthood is. Laity has become a word typically used to describe a laity/clergy divide that is not there. Historically used by those who want a divide,
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I’ve held to maybe six different views on eschatology. Each of the ones taught by a church or circle of theology I’ve determined was a teaching of man, then I moved on to the next only to discover the same thing. First was a year in high school youth group with dispensational pre-mil. Rapture, anti-christ, the movie where the housewife wakes up to find her husband’s razor buzzing in the sink, all that. People were rabid in their rapture facts, watching the evening news for clues on end times starting, playing pin-the-tail-on-the-antichrist. Many were sure the clues meant the rapture would happen in 1981. Dispensationalists ans dispsensationalists.
Years later, I converted to Christianity through the radio ministry of Harold Camping. He had his own twisted version of Reformed a-millennialism. His end of the world predictions failed miserably. Next, I stumbled across traditional Reformed a-millennialism. Then a progressive dispy church that held to historic pre-millennialism (thousand year reign of Christ on earth but without all the rapture/antichrist stuff). I also read some stuff on partial preterism. Then I stumbled across post-millennialism from some reconstructionist writings. Then I attended a MacArthur clone church that went back to my beginnings of pre-mil rapture stuff. I successfully engaged the pastor on his views (he didn’t know I was successful but reverted to the master plan with inconsistencies, not answering some of my questions).
Each of these systems I believed at the time because they were what I was taught at the time. They each had believable refutations of each of my previous systems (they all do). One thing most of these systems had in common was an extreme adherance with untold hours of time people put into working the systems out. Many people were end times junkies with no time left over for things like loving people and stuff like that.
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Hi Sheila, and others.
I took today to sort of take a step back, and I was surprised to see the conversation still happening…without me.
Sheila, I am glad you find me interesting. I do love to talk about God, to anyone, anytime. I’ve had roommates that were Wiccans, and atheists, and we get along really good. One thing that I have learned from them, is that it is IMPOSSIBLE for me to offend them, because they are comfortable in their non-belief positions. It seems that the ones that I piss off are the believers. Kinda strange, but true. My beliefs are in line with the two (Count them, two) different churches that I attend on Sundays. And what I mean by that, is that I’ve heard each pastor say that he doesn’t care what eschatology belief that we have…they present each, unbiased, and leaves it up to us to decide. We even had a study on each. Why? Because by the time that we find out who is right, or who is wrong, we will be long dead and gone, so it doesn’t really matter. The only ones it’s gonna matter to are those who will be going thru it. It’s not a salvation issue.
I find it difficult to grasp the concept of you believing that the stories in the OT are allegory. To me, that makes it a fiction book (Not a true document). If that were my view, I would not be a Christian. What I believe is that the stories are real, and factual, but have a spiritual interpretation to them…i.e. the Promised Land. I cannot deny that the promise to the land are for only Jews, which means that no Gentile inherits the land at all. But, there is a spiritual interpretation that the promised land is heaven itself. I also believe that ALL stories in the law and the prophets are factual, but ALSO have a spiritual interpretation. Case in point, Jonah. He was a prophet about Jesus. But his story is real and factual.
I plan on addressing your questions and comments in regards to me not wanting to consult dead people, etc….and the fish on Friday thing, but, in short, Christian conduct has nothing to do with food. Rituals isn’t what pleases God. What pleases God is a contrite heart, a humble heart, and faith.
Ed
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Steve Scott: “Many people were end times junkies with no time left over for things like loving people and stuff like that.”
Steve S.,
I love the way you chronicled your story, and yet it hurts, only because I ran through the mill of many system.
I searched to serve with all of my heart, to love & serve Jesus.
Now I am back in the saddle of loving people & stuff like that. Kinda boring &
mundane.
Some-days I wonder if I am missing the mark, others I trust that that I am called to
the ordinary, the least, the lost. The likes of me.
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You have heard of Google.com, no? That is about as far as I will help you.
My only source document is the Bible alone, which I wish that you would consult as your only source document. Why do you want to know what others believe, anyway? Why not form your own opinion based on what YOU and you alone find ON YOUR OWN from the pages of the Rock of Ages? That is what I do. It just so happens that Darby believed what I believe…not the other way around.
Ed
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Here is my take, based on Scripture alone, on matters of eschatology. I am certain of only three things:
Jesus will return.
There will be a bodily resurrection of the dead.
We will come to a full understanding of end time events only after they have occurred.
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Well, sheila0405,
I can say with absolute confidence that your interpretation is off base. And I’ve read the Bible several times. I know what happened to the temple. And I know that the temple will be rebuilt.
So, we have an impasse. Care to take this conversation privately?
Ed
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I agree with the three things Gary W said a couple of comments above. I would add something else. The Great Commission (Matt 28). Jesus told us to disciple all the nations. Will the Great Commission be a success or a failure? If it will be a success, then all the nations of the earth will be completely Christianized by the time of Christ’s return. If it is a failure, then we all might be raptured next Tuesday. Or in 1981. Why would the Great Commission ever be a failure?
It is interesting in the great judgement passage in Matthew 25 that there are no heathen mentioned on earth when Christ returns. All the goats are professing Christians who did not provide for the least of Christ’s people.
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JA,
No, I’ve been going thru one by one from the oldest first. I still haven’t read them all. I get these comments via my email, so I don’t look at the latest comment first, and I respond to comments from my email, mostly, without actually going to your blog website. Just out of curiosity I read yours. I will read the remaining before making another comment. Thanks.
Ed
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Yea, my comment was way out of line. Sorry about that.
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This is a general announcement. I am no longer following this thread. It got too far away from its humerous intent, and I’m contributing to the clutter anymore, which means that I no longer will reply to any comments here. One less voice in the crowd. The whole dispensational conversation is one that is going nowhere. If you wish to message me privately, I’m on facebook and my name on there is daisyvondoodle.
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I’ve “left behind” the discussion on eschatology here (no, really), but I do feel the following comment needs a response.
Ed wrote:
“My only source document is the Bible alone, which I wish that you would consult as your only source document. Why do you want to know what others believe, anyway? Why not form your own opinion based on what YOU and you alone find ON YOUR OWN from the pages of the Rock of Ages? That is what I do.”
Ed, that is not what you do. You are here at SSB interacting with other people. You’ve said you go to two churches every Sunday and talked with the pastors. Do you plug your ears when they are preaching? Obviously you do take input from other people, not simply forming “your own opinion based on what YOU and you alone find ON YOUR OWN from the pages of the Rock of Ages.” You may come to your own conclusions, but the idea that you come to them completely independently is patently false. You wouldn’t even have the Bible apart from other people. And you mentioned earlier that you use Strong’s concordance. But that contradicts what you’re now saying about the Bible as “your only source document.” Don’t get me wrong. You should consult other people and references. My point is that you don’t believe or live up to the standards you are putting forth in your comment quoted above. No man is an island. We are a body. See Eph. 4:11-16 and 1 Cor. 12.
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Catholics know that the bestselling “Left Behind” books and movies have grossly perverted Catholicism’s biblical “rapture” doctrine – the only “rapture” view before 1830.
The 2000-year-old Catholic “rapture” occurs AFTER the final “tribulation” (post-tribulation) while the 185-year-old evangelical Protestant “rapture” supposedly occurs BEFORE it (pre-tribulation) and is said to be “imminent.”
All Catholics should read journalist Dave MacPherson’s “The Rapture Plot” (available by calling 800.643.4645) – the most accurate documentation on the history of the pretrib rapture which began in British cultic circles in 1830. By twisting Scripture, this new doctrine gave folks the (false) hope of being evacuated from earth before the chaos found in the book of Revelation.
“The Rapture Plot” reveals, for the first time, how a Plymouth Brethren historian, after John Darby’s death, secretly and dishonestly changed the earliest “rapture” writings of the Irvingites (the first group publicly teaching a pretrib rapture) so that he could wrongfully credit P.B. leader Darby with “dispensationalism” as well as with that rapture view! (Some still view Darby as the “father of dispensationalism” even though MacPherson’s book amply proves that Darby wasn’t first or original with any crucial aspect of that system but subtly plagiarized others!)
The leading pretrib rapture merchandisers (Scofield, Lindsey, LaHaye etc.) are openly anti-Catholic and believe that the Antichrist during the coming tribulation will be headquartered in Rome (and you can guess where!).
For more shocks Google “Catholics Did NOT Invent the Rapture,” “The Real Manuel Lacunza,” “Pseudo-Ephraem Taught Pretrib – NOT!,” “John Darby Did NOT Invent the Rapture,” “Margaret Macdonald’s Rapture Chart” (she originated the pretrib rapture!), “Edward Irving is Unnerving,” “Famous Rapture Watchers,” “Evangelicals Use Occult Deception,” “Pretrib Hypocrisy,” and “Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty.”
/ I spotted the above on the net. Any reaction to it? /
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