"I have seen in the media a lot more people have died this year than in previous years. Plus the Persecution of Christians and Conservatives in the USA in 2003 has been really bad."
Tell that to the people of Europe, especially my country, the UK, re. WWII. The Six Million (and more) in the Holocaust. Later on, Stalin's 60 Million murdered. How many Luftwaffe planes flew over the US, and dropped bombs on your cities & industrial complexes? How many American civilians died by Nazi bombs? And the only V-1s & V-2s that landed in your country were those reverse-engineered from those the US forces captured in the latter months of the War in Europe; and even then, in their test-launches, they fell on uninhabited areas of the US, in military test ranges.
9/11? Even though we in the UK had 7/7 in London, we had to endure the 30 years of terrorism by the IRA. Which, if memory serves correct, was a terrorist group that was mainly funded by Americans.
'Persecution of Christians and Conservatives in the USA'? Are you Tweeting this from inside a FEMA camp, with a gateway bearing the words 'Work Makes You Free' above it? Have you previously lived in a ghetto, where all of your property & assets were taken away from you; where you were strictly segregated; shops, restaurants, even public toilets etc, with signs saying 'Fundies/Right-wingers only' (which were of a lower quality than those saying 'Atheists/Non-Fundies' only. Just ask those in your country from pre-early 1960s; also those in South Africa, pre-1990s - the signs 'Niet Blankes' being predominant then). Were you threatened constantly by a reverse-KKK, consisting of ultra-left wing hyper-Atheists, who went round 'Fundie-Bashing', burning Baptist churches, posting Bibles through your letterboxes, which have skidmarks on their pages; also leaving on your doorsteps jars with little crucifixes inside & filled with urine (a la the 'artwork' 'Piss Christ')...?
...and are you Tweeting this from inside a sweatshop factory, where you're worked till you drop, then worked some more? Or from outside, where you're waiting to see if you're going to be the one chosen at random for the daily beating? Or outside a 'hospital'-esque facility, where - although you don't know it yet - you're about to be subjected to all manner of hideous tortures, purely for the sake of 'experiments'? Or are you - within a long queue of other 'unfortunates' - naked & shivering, about to be given a 'shower', then a nice hot 'sauna'...?
What's that, you say, little fundie? You're not?! You're still living in your own home, where you're still free to go where you want, and worship where and how you want? Only that you're no longer allowed to say/do nasty things... oh, I mean exercise your religious 'freedom' to Homosexuals, Liberals, Atheists, Women choosing what they do with their own bodies, Democrat voters and generally anyone not exactly like you? Well, I'm sorry, but not being allowed to 'Persecute' others not exactly like you is not in itself Persecution. So you're no longer legally allowed to say/do what you want to non-fundies (especially LGBT people, due to Equal Rights legislation)? Well, excuuuuuse me, Princess! So Reality no longer bends itself to your will, little miss 'I'm Special! And The World Revolves Around ME!'; it's time to put on your big girl knickers and get over yourself - and grow up.
And in the process of growing up, you must acknowledge that your 'beliefs' & 'faith' is a fairytale for adults who refuse to grow up (even kids grow up, and acknowledge that it's their family & friends who supplied them with those toys etc on Xmas, and not a fat bearded man wearing red & white). And ask yourself this: In 1900, there were people aged 50 who believed in the (C)Rapture. In 1910, did they tell 10-year old kids that if they 'believed' as they did, they'd be involved in a 'Whooshfest'? How many members of Ruptured Retards today who are in their 50s-60s - mayhaps told by those of that past generation - continue to say the same to the newbie members of RR in 2012? Consider this: In the lifetimes of those newbies, how many of the older generation of Raptards are going to live to see said 'Whooshfest'? And what about the previous generation, and more like them, then & in the past - right up to that day in 1844? Therefore, the nub of my gist: I'd say without fear of contradiction that the percentage of those who'll never live to be (C)Raptured - today, just like said previous generations who 'believed' they would experience their J-man blowing his horn, going down and sucking them off (but only on their deathbeds did they realise that the [C]Rapture, along with the rest of their so-called 'beliefs' & 'faith', was the ultimate lie, and all too late) - is this:
100%
If the 'Truth' hurts, then facts destroy. Fact: your precious '(C)Rapture' will never happen. Prove. Me. Wrong.
Oh, you can resort to falling back on that part of Thessalonians' being 'taken up', but a question: does that part of Scripture actually mention the word 'Rapture'? Fact: the only times the word appears in your Bible:
Song of Solomon 2:3: 'As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons:
In his shadow have I rapture and sit down; And his fruit is sweet to my taste'
Proverbs 5:19: 'As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture;
let your passion at all times be moved by her love'
Luke 1:67: 'And Zechariah his father was filled with the Holy
Spirit, and spoke in a rapture of praise'
Psalm 28:7: 'The Lord is my strength and my breastplate, my heart had faith in him and I am helped;
for this cause my heart is full of rapture, and I will give him praise'
Psalm 51:8: 'Make me full of joy and rapture; so that the bones which have been broken may be glad'
I'm afraid the only 'Persecution' upon the likes of you is by you yourselves, as you continue with this insane delusion, nay, self-induced lie that is your own unjustifiable 'belief' & 'faith'. Maybe that's one reason ex-long-time Christian Jonathan Edwards became an EX-Christian. And no faith-annihilating debate with an Atheist required; merely via dint of his own self-questioning and critical thinking faculties did he rend the veil of [i]real[/i] lies. Becoming an Atheist hasn't done him any harm. He's still here.
As are you lot on Ruptured Retards. And - from your point of view - that's the problem.
'I have seen in the media a lot more people have died this year than in previous years' eh, billiefartOVER9000? Someone else thought as you did very recently:
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...but at least shitehouse got verbally bitchslapped by one of RR's mods:
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(source: http://rr-bb.com/showthread.php?181555-Election-Returns/page25)
For the crime of Lying for Jebus. Only there's one problem: the post quoted by shitehouse was that of the exact same mod, who - in their post said (quote; emphasis added):
'If* it's not true, we have something more important to worry about.'
So who's the biggest liar? shitehouse, iPong6:3, or their 'God'? And who exactly is incorrect?
2 Thessalonians 2:11: 'And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie'
Isiah 45:7: 'I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.'
Amos 3:6: 'Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn't done it?'
So it's actually God, and not Satan who is the Great Deceiver. Satan - i.e. Lucifer - is the one who gave knowledge to man, after all. Lucifer = 'Bringer of Light'. As in Illumination; and not just of the visual kind, neither.
'Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.'
-Bertrand Russell
Who are the 'deluded'? Who are the real lie-believers?
*- 'If.' [/Spartan Laconic Wit]