Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Rapture

The Rapture is a belief of a minority of Christians, mostly from the 19th Century forward, predominantly but not exclusively American. As one web site describes it:

The rapture is belief that is almost exclusively confined to conservative Protestants. It involves Jesus Christ returning from Heaven towards earth. In violation of the law of gravity, saved individuals -- both dead and alive -- are expected by believers in the rapture to rise up in the air and join Jesus in the sky...

The word "Rapture" comes from the Latin word "Rapare" which means to take away or to snatch out. This would be a remarkable event. As it is described in Evangelical literature, pilots would disappear from planes, truck drivers from their trucks; people from automobiles, etc. Some born-again Christians believe that a family will be eating dinner, when some of the members will float upwards from their seats, pass through the roof and keep rising through the air towards Jesus.


Could it be that there are already signs of this in St. Louis?

TOMORROW: Thursday Arch series



3 comments:

ananda.tashie said...

I dare say that your photographs offer proof. ;) (And a nice morning laugh.)

I was raised with these beliefs. I'm pretty far from them now. Though, reading them again, it sure does sound like the non-physical experiences that transcend labels and mix with many belief systems, including out-of-body experiences (which I actually have had many times, and they're quite pleasant once I determined that I wasn't crazy or nearly dead, ha). Fundamentalists just tend to take things very literally and exclusively. Hm. :)

Anyway, fun photos today!

iBlowfish said...

Picture more reminded me to one of LeBron James jump in Nike advertising in some of those sport magazine. I think that is one of cool nike sneakers.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful how you've captured the body in "rapture" and the angle of the shadow deconstructed into a frog-like afterimage left flattened on the street. If only all humans could realize and sustain a rapturous state of consciousness and shed themselves of the shadows of materialism... Hmmm, where are the Jewish mystics of today?