The Hardening of Hearts

torture, god, egyptian, isrealite, bible, heart, hardening, exodus, christian, atheism, atheist, rapture,
This comment is from a discussion of whether or not the Left Behind series is theologically sound. (As if premillenial dispensationalism is theologically sound, which assumes the bible is more relevant than any other book.)

Chicken5516 (don't ask me) said:

I think God uses the books to get the unsaved thinking. Many of those that read this books will never pick up a Bible. It's written in a way to captivate the audience. I'm not a big fan of the LB books BECAUSE I know true End Times Prophecy. However; God uses lots of things to draw people near Him. If people are being Saved because of these books, then Praise God for them!!

The thing that bothers me tho, is my SIL has read every single book in the series. I got so excited and thought that she would want to discuss what she read and then, I could teach her what the Bible REALLY states.

Well, she is not ready for the Rapture, thinks I'm cruel for wanting the World as we know it to end and the Lord to return, "Don't you want to see your grandchildren?", she asked? She also said she will be one of the good ones from the LB series after the Rapture, and THEN she'll follow Jesus. I tried to tell her she might not get the chance and about the deception that is coming by God......but, she has HER way of thinking and HER way of 'putting God in a box' (my words, not her's, but that is what she is doing), and she only read the books for entertainment purposes.

I hope and pray that maybe she will remember some of the teachings in the books that talk about how horrible it will be after the Rapture. If she doesn't get Saved before the Rapture, I hope she remembers everything I have tried to tell her AND what she read from those books. That we all didn't get sucked into some mother-ship by aliens, but it was Jesus Christ who took us!!

ADDING ON: I tried to tell her that she might not make it through tomorrow, let alone the things that could happen immediately following or because of the Rapture. The times I have tried to reach out to her about Jesus might have been her only chances. God might harden her heart and she might have missed her opportunities. I don't know. But I told her that if she can't commit to Jesus now, what on earth makes her think she will be able to when the AC and his minons are going to kill Christians? How will she feed her family without taking the Mark of the Beast? What if God sends such a delusion that she will NEVER even remember she read those books or heard my words?

Ignoring the extremely disturbing overuse of exclamation points (I'm calling for a rationing system), the grammar errors, and the spelling errors, stop and think about that for a second. "Worship god before he makes it impossible for you to worship him and then sends you to hell, for all eternity, for it what he did to you."

Who's supposed to be the bad guy in this story, Yhwh or Satan? It's a little hard to tell.

By the way, the heart hardening thing is theologically sound. Yhwh has done that before.

Exodus 7:1-5

1 So the LORD said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.

2 You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land.

3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

4 But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”

Yhwh forced Pharaoh to refuse the Israelites passage out of Egypt. He tormented and killed the Egyptians, their children and their animals, purely to prove his own power. He killed all the first born boys of Egypt, including newborn infants, just to prove a point.

This is supposed to be my lord and savior, my loving god? Exactly how does one reconcile devoting one's life to this psychopath? Other than a fear of hell, why bother?

This does help explain why fundamentalist christians are far more in favor of torture than anyone else: they worship a god knowing full well, almost expecting, that he may choose to torture their family members and loved ones.

I have to say, though, this heart hardening is a nice excuse. The next time some fundy asks me why I don't believe, I can just end the discussion with "god hardened my heart, I guess. he's like that."