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Is Armageddon Just Around The Corner?

© Richard Kent Matthews

"Only when we realize that there is no eternal, unchanging truth, or absolute truth, can we arouse in ourselves a sense of intellectual responsibility." Hu Shih

According to "This Week in Bible Prophecy," a program that was and may still be broadcast on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), we as a species are about to be plunged into a rather uncomfortable situation. Christians who call themselves Dispensationalists (too detailed to go into here) believe that the event known as the Rapture is about to take place. What is the Rapture? As a former evangelical believer, I am very acquainted with the term. Here's how it goes:

Soon, Jesus Christ is going to return to this world to set up his millennial kingdom, that is, he will be sole monarch for 1000 years. The devil, or Satan, will be chained up and hidden from view. There will be no more sin. All will be peace, brother/sisterhood and love. Those who have rejected the One True Faith i.e. the sinners, will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth, as the Bible so glaringly states it. But before this all occurs, a series of events must take place leading up to Christ's return. First, the True Church, or those who have taken up the banner of "born again believer," will be whisked away to heaven by Jesus in order to miss the coming tribulation, which includes the rise of the so-called antichrist. This is a world figure that shall rise up, presumably out of Europe, to deceive the world into believing that peace is at hand. He will convince the people that he is in fact God Incarnate and the world will fall down and worship him (the Beast). Once he gains the support and acceptance of the people, he will lead the world into a period of peace and prosperity. All will seem well. But then, the anvil drops. He becomes an unbearable dictator. It is at the end of that period that Christ returns to earth to do battle (Armageddon) with this Leader and set up the Kingdom of God. But woe to those who have had to live during the tribulation. In order to buy or sell, each person must take what is known as The Mark of the Beast in his/her forearm or forehead. Once a person has received this mark, his/her fate in eternal hell is sealed. Those who have been "caught up" in the earlier Rapture, however, will return with Christ to rule jointly. (I have never understood whom all those Christians are going to rule over, each other? The rest will all be in hell.)