Oh, joy! Oh, Rapture unforeseen!

[vovat]

So, the popular conception of the Rapture involves people leaving behind their clothes when ascending into Heaven, right? So does that mean they're all going to be naked up there? I'm not sure how that would go over with some of the more prudish premillennialists (which might well be all of them). Maybe they'll all immediately be dressed in clean, conservative, non-revealing white robes. And is it just clothes that will remain on Earth, or will other things that are unnecessary in Heaven stay behind? What about glasses? Hearing aids? Prosthetic limbs? Breast implants? And will there be any bad blood between the people who ascend to Heaven bodily and the disembodied souls that are apparently already there?

Okay, I should probably go to bed, but stay tuned to this journal for more hard-hitting theological questions! :P

Comments

[celeste-sm.livejournal.com]

According to the Babysitters Club Left Behind book series I read, pacemakers were left behind, but not clothing. I'm sure Tim Lehaye knows.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

So I guess there won't be any heart problems in Heaven? Or maybe there will be, and then a lot of people will be pissed off that their pacemakers didn't get raptured.

I've never read any of the Left Behind books, but I've heard that they're terrible. Like, after a whole bunch of people disappear from the face of the Earth, everyone remaining is more concerned about the Romanian presidential elections. I haven't read any Babysitters' Club books either, but I'm inclined to think they make more sense.

[majellen.livejournal.com]

Wait, I read those, and I thought that was the only clue as to what happened, the neatly folded pile of clothes on the airplane seats, the main hero's wife and son's pjs in their beds, etc...

[revme.livejournal.com]

Heh, now I'm picturing a bunch of people dying-and-ending-up-in-heaven over and over for eternity because of their lack of pacemakers.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Now that's what I would call a Great Tribulation! {g}

[dragonxbait.livejournal.com]

The version of the story I was told as a child was that all the currently dead people are not in heaven yet (except maybe the ones who god "raptured" in the Old Testament, I forget which prophets that was). They're all just dead and will also be raptured to heaven (if they are deserving) at the second coming. I'm not sure how this fits with the hell mythos, though.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

except maybe the ones who god "raptured" in the Old Testament, I forget which prophets that was

Elijah ascended bodily into Heaven, and a lot of people take the statement that God "took" Enoch as an indication that he (Enoch, that is) did as well.

The impression given in Daniel and some Old Testament books is that there will be a bodily resurrection of all people at the end of the world, and then they'll be judged. But there were also apocryphal tales in which everyone was in Hell until the death of Jesus, at which point he went down there and brought out the good ones. I think about the only constant is that the people devising these theories always figure that they'll be among the ones going to Heaven.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Eh, we Catholics don't get much schooling in the whole Rapture concept, but I would figure ANYTHING Of This World becomes pointless and would therefore not come with you because you DON'T NEED IT IN HEAVEN. Yes, including clothes, though the prudish might want to skim over that fact when drawing illustrations. It's simplistic thinking to think that ANYTHING about this world carries over, especially things that are only physical needs. Not saying that specifically YOU are thinking simplisticly, but that thoughts on the afterlife can get simplistic across the board, from the whole what is it 72 Virgins thing to people who think heaven is sitting on clouds playing the harp...

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Or the mansions in Heaven that Jack Chick is always talking about.