Posted on 09/30/2014 2:22:14 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
And on the eighth day, God created decent lighting and production values.
After years of releasing shoddy products featuring has-beens like Kirk Cameron, the Christian film industry is upping its game in an attempt to win a crossover audience. Is faith-based cinema about to go truly mainstream?
The year certainly has been good to believers. “Heaven Is for Real” with Greg Kinnear, a story about a boy who said he experienced the afterlife during surgery, raked in more than $100 million worldwide. “God’s Not Dead,” about a college student who debates his professor on the existence of a higher power, brought in $62 million on a budget of less than $5 Million. The Jesus biopic “Son of God” made $67 million.
Those three films are among the top Christian earners in history, trailing only 2004’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which made a whopping $611 million.
Rick Santorum, former Republican presidential candidate and now head of Christian film studio EchoLight, tells The Post the success of 2014’s crop of godly films is due to better writing, production and marketing. “Faith-based movies traditionally haven’t been very well done,” he says.
Friday’s “Left Behind” just might be the most mainstream Christian flick yet. It’s based on a popular book series about the rapture, but you might not guess that at first glance.
The film stars marquee talent Nicolas Cage and was directed by Vic Armstrong, a legendary stunt man best known for the “Indiana Jones” series. Cage was persuaded to take the role by his brother, Marc — a DJ on New York City’s Q104.3 FM and, according to Cage, a pastor. Cage plays an airline pilot who must calm his passengers and land his plane after the world is thrown into chaos following the sudden disappearance of millions of people.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
See post #32.
Pre-trib rapture is a 19th century novelty.
Matthew 24 teaches what has been taught and believed, namely the Church goes through tribulation ( v29 ) and then the end of the world occurs when Jesus Christ appears on judgement day. This is when the “rapture” happens ( v 40-41 )
Jesus will only return once, the day of The Lord, and it will be the last day, the end of the world. 1 Corinthians 15:23-24 and 2 Peter 3:10.
Is Cage a Christian? I sure hope he is.
“Pre-trib rapture is a 19th century novelty.”
Demonstrate to be a false statement several times on FR.
So you DO believe in the Rapture...You just don't know what to do with it...
1 Thessalonians 4:17 — “Then we which are alive and remain shall be *caught up* together with them in the clouds it meet The Lord in the air, and so shall we be ever with The Lord.” THE RAPTURE. Rapture is a Latin equivalent of Greek [harpago].
This happens “after the tribulation of those days” (persecution by the antichrsit) when Jesus returns. Matthew 24:29ff. *And then ALL the tribes of the earth shall mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.*
His return will be quite an event! not a secret rapture where empty sets of clothing will suddenly appear. He will send his angels to gather the elect (Matthew 24:30). Angels as escorts — they aren’t depicted in the movie. AND WHERE IS JESUS? Since, all shall see him and attempt to hide themselves from the wrath of the Lamb (Jesus Christ) (Revelation 6:16)
Left Behind, both the Kirk Cameron and the Nick Cage versions, are unscriptural lies.
Please give me one person who taught and believed the pre-trib rapture before 19th century. Just one.
Matthew 24
“There has even been speculation that Cage is a Roman Catholic, but he has not confirmed or denied his religious beliefs.
Nicholas Cage’s faith was even questioned by his fans after the release of the Left Behind 2014 trailer during a question and answer session which involved the film’s producer and writer Paul Lalonde on Facebook. One fan in particular mentioned that Cage should not have been cast in the movie because he “was not a believer.” Lalonde replied by saying that there are many Christian actors who choose to maintain their personal faith private and that declaring who is a believer and who is not is between them and God.”
“Cage has starred in many movies that have a similar faith-driven theme, making many of his fans wonder what his true motives are for choosing these roles. For example, Cage co-starred in City of Angels with Meg Ryan, and portrayed an angel who falls in love and asks God to make him mortal so that he could understand what it feels like to love and be loved as a human.
Left BehindIn Knowing, Nicholas Cage portrays an M.I.T. professor who links a mysterious list of numbers from a time capsule to past and future disasters from around the globe. The numbers eventually point out the end of the world, and Cage sacrifices himself so that his son and his son’s female friend can help God restart the human race after the old one is destroyed. Cage also plays Johnny Blaze in Marvel Comic’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and is called upon to stop the devil who is trying to take human form. The Left Behind trailer foreshadows similar apocalyptic calamities as in Knowing, and Nicholas Cage ponders religion once again in this pre-tribulation rapture remake.”
religion-once-again-in-remake/#pa3JpDuVphWe311X.99
You can go back to the Church Fathers and to see a number of significant ones taught the imminent return of Christ before allegory in Biblical interpretation reared its head. However, you asked for one person who "taught or believed the pre-trib rapture before the 19th century."
Ephraem of Nisibis (306-373)His sermon, On the Last Times, the Antichrist and the End of the World,” (ca. 373) is preserved in four Latin manuscripts and is ascribed to St.Ephraem or to St. Isidore. If not written by Ephraem, it is written by one greatly influenced by him. “All the saints and elect of God are gathered together before the tribulation, which is to come, and are taken to the Lord, in order that they may not see at any time the confusion which overwhelms the world because of our sins.”
Alexander offers an insightful comment on these words when he says, “This author, however, mentions another measure taken by God in order to alleviate the period of tribulation for his saints and for the Elect.” "In this sermon, Pseudo-Ephraem develops an elaborate biblical eschatology, including a distinction between the rapture and the second coming of Christ. It describes the imminent rapture, followed by 3½ years of great tribulation under the rule of Antichrist, followed by the coming of Christ, the defeat of Antichrist, and the eternal state. His view includes a parenthesis between the fulfillment of Daniel’s sixty-nine weeks and his seventieth week in Daniel 9:24-27.46 Pseudo-Ephraem describes the rapture that precedes the tribulation as “imminent or overhanging.”
BTW, I forgot to ascribe the formulation of the words in that quote to by JF Stitzinger.
i don’t think there will be empty clothing, I think our bodies won’t be needed anymore.
Can the corruptible put on incorruptibility?
Link doesn’t work.
This thread like the others has brought out discussions about when the belief in the rapture first occurred.
Some believe it was not until the 19th century, others believe it was believed in the 3rd or 4th century.
We need to realize if people back in the 3rd century or even the 19th century believed they were going to be taken up in a rapture they were either very much misled or we missed it.
There is only one short scripture which could refer to a rapture.
1 Thessalonians 4:17
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Paul included himself in the rapture if that is what it was so we missed it by almost two thousand years unless you believe in reincarnation, we can not have every thing just the way we want it to be.
Conclusion is it does not matter what some one else believed, if the Bible is the word of God that is what we are to believe and live based on the things we can understand, not on the things we do not understand.
Rev Morgan Edwards ... Bristol Baptist College, Bristol, England, circa 1744 ... "Two Academical Exercises on Subjects Bearing The Following Titles: Millennium, Last-Novelties"
There are more ... but you should really do your own work.
“...and his views on __________have been taught as doctrine ever since.”
Fill in the blank. And “ever since” believers have been blown and tossed by every wind of doctrine and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
To the law and to the testimony, Bereans! Let’s check them ALL out against Scripture. It’s our privilege.
Cinematography in that era was in a whole other realm. If I understand correctly GWTW was shot in 35mm and blown up to 70mm. There is a list of films from the 60s-70s that were actually shot in 70mm. Transferred well to Blu-Ray they are stunning. Jacques Tati’s PLAYTIME (Criterion Collection) is a good example. So is 2001: A Space Odyssey (visual art, if tedious).
I am not wrong on the “catching away” or “rapture”. Paul wrote the first letter to the Thessaloians because they thought they had missed that catching away that Paul told them about when he was with them as he states in his letters to them and at the end of the first letter to the Corinthians.
As far as the millenium, that was taught by the Jewish believers based on OT scripture that does teach that Jesus will rule on this earth in Jerusalem (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah to name a few). It is also explicidly stated in Revelation that Jesus will rule for 1000 yrs here on the earth, this earth. Amillennialism was greatly advanced by Augustin in the late 4th to early 5th century and became the accepted eschatological view by the roman catholic church and has been taught ever since.
I have not confused the subjects, as both go hand in hand. A literal reading of the bible clearly states these two events, as to when the catching away or rapture will occur, no one knows, but it will occur as will the millennial reign of Jesus here on earth.
Again, the eschatological views of Augustin have been taught as doctrine for 17-18 centuries, that does not make them correct. It was forced on people who could not read the bible for themselves and had to rely on the clergy to tell them what things meant.
Folks who believe the way I do were hunted down and martyred by the Roman church. That is an historical fact.
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