HomeARC ML 2913
"THE RAPTURE!" DO 2913 9/92
--A Warning by Dad About This Film!
1. PRAISE THE LORD! Hallelujah! Thank You Lord! When we heard of a film called "The Rapture," we were, of course, very interested in how the World & the dramatic movie media were going to handle this subject.--Whether it was going to be sympathetic or critical or merely a spectacular, dramatic portrayal of the event. Portraying the Rapture would make a very good movie, of course, & is one religious theme that has not yet been dealt with by the worldly film industry.--Although they have made many other great religious movies, such as "The King of Kings," "The Ten Commandments," etc. So we thought perhaps it might be something like one of those in nature, simply dealing with the Rapture according to the Biblical story, & we managed to get a video tape of this movie to see what it was all about. We had, however, heard some reports that it was not good, & that forewarned us that there was something wrong with it.
2. It starts out seeming sympathetic to Christians, & as though it might have been made by Christians. However, we were quite shocked that Christians would make a movie containing so much explicit sex!--The first scenes were extremely sexy, showing sexual orgies, almost complete nudity, & sex in action on various beds by various individuals, building up the idea of how this woman was getting fed up with sex & sin & the World, etc. But certainly if they were going to make the movie popular with the World & wanted to interest them in seeing it, this was the way to go about it. If you want to interest sinners, sex will certainly do it, & we have found that ourselves in the past. So I wasn't too averse to the usage of sex in this movie, although it was pretty coarse & crude. But I thought, well, they're trying to reach sinners, so this will certainly turn the church people off & keep them away if they're not trying to reach church people! So we tried to be understanding about that part.
3. Then it begins to show different scenes in which apparently Fundamentalist, Evangelical or even perhaps Pentecostal Christians are discussing the subject of the Rapture & witnessing, & it all seemed to be very bona fide. They seem to be sincere people, genuine Christians, witnessing genuinely about the future & the Coming of the Lord. Then it shows a few scenes of how bad the World is getting, how wicked & how terrible, & how fed up some people are getting with it. And it shows some who are seemingly gladly receiving the Word from the Bible that there is relief coming with the Coming of the Lord.
4. Of course I studied the star of the movie, Mimi Rogers, very intently, as I was very curious about what kind of woman would be playing the part of a fed-up worldling who is ripe & ready to receive the witness of the messengers & readily accepts their witness & message & is supposedly changed in a seemingly genuine born-again experience. She begins witnessing to her friends & co-workers, etc., even witnessing on her job as a telephone operator to those who call in for numbers.--Until she finally is taken into the circle of a religious fellowship of Blacks & Whites, etc., whose leaders are Black. And the principal religious star of their group is this young Black boy who seems to be a prophet foretelling the events of the End.
5. Up to this point you're still sympathising, in a way, & feeling that they're more or less leading in the right direction, until she gets a revelation, apparently on her own, that she is to go out into the desert to wait for the Coming of the Lord. This, of course, reminds you of the Scripture in which the Lord said that they're going to say He's out in the desert, or He's over here, He's over there, but you're not to believe them. Because when the Son of Man comes, He says, you'll know, "because there will the eagles be gathered together."--Mat.24:26-28. In other words, He'll rapture His people to Himself.
6. Even the young prophet warns her that her revelation might not have been of the Lord, that it might be of the Devil, but against his counsel she goes out into the desert with her young daughter, who is five or six years old by this time, & they camp out in the desert, waiting for the Coming of the Lord. They run out of food & a policeman comes by, patrolling, gets acquainted with them & wants to know what she's doing out there. He's a little doubtful about her project, but he goes away & leaves them alone. Later on he comes back & brings them a blanket & a candy bar, not realising that they're actually starving to death out there.
7. Then the movie really takes a turn for horror! She & her daughter are starving, waiting for the Lord to come, & she's beginning to blame God for His failure to come. Her husband had been shot in a previous scene of the movie that we don't have time to go into--he'd been shot very unfairly by a madman & had died--& the mother keeps telling her little girl that her daddy has gone to Heaven to be with Jesus.--Which is all very well & good, & still seems to be on the right track, except for her going out into the desert to wait for the Lord to come. Finally they get in very desperate straits--hungry, starving to death, & the little girl is begging her mother to let them die so they can go to Heaven to be with her daddy. Her mother had told the little girl that they too will go to Heaven when they die, even if the Lord doesn't come, so the little girl is literally begging to die because she wants to end their suffering & go to be with her daddy in Heaven.
8. And finally the mother apparently goes insane & becomes violent, & rather than watch her little girl die of starvation, she shoots her! She then tries to commit suicide & shoot herself, but she just can't bring herself to do it. She'd been taught that anyone who commits suicide goes to Hell, & she can't pull the trigger. So she's still praying that somehow or another she'll die or get killed, & after burying her daughter, goes racing down the highway in her car. She is soon pulled over by the friendly policeman for speeding, who asks her where her little girl is. She finally confesses that she couldn't stand to see the little girl suffer any more, so she shot her, & of course the policeman has to take her in then & put her in jail.
9. Then there are a number of rather mysterious, difficult-to-understand apparitions, like she's seeing visions of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, & she's seeing visions of people going to Heaven & her husband in Heaven. Then her little girl appears to her in her prison cell & begs her to love God so that she too can go to Heaven, but she has become so bitter & angry now at God for all that's happened that she says she can't love a God that would have done this to them, who would let her kill her little child. She blames it all on God for not coming in the Rapture.
10. This is a typical Jewish reaction, of course, blaming all your troubles on God. And when it gets to the point where she shoots her daughter & then curses God, says she hates Him & can't love Him, even on the pleas of her daughter's little ghost, etc., if you had any doubt before, you know now that this movie is certainly not of the Lord!
11. The whole first part of the movie seemed to be okay, up to the point where she began to get so desperate & began to curse God & blame God for their suffering & their starvation & even her little girl's death. And then during her arrest & imprisonment, everything was God's fault because He didn't come & rapture them, & she's becoming more bitter all the time.
12. Then while sitting in her jail cell there is the sound of a trumpet blowing & everything begins shaking, & the bars of all the cells start falling off! As all the prisoners start leaving the jail, the nice policeman comes to her & says, "I want to know what happens next! I never had any faith, but you did!" Then he says, "And if the World is coming to an end, this isn't the place to be, let's go!" And they get on his motorcycle & drive off to the desert.
13. As they ride into the desert, they see apparitions of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, & when they stop & get off their motorcycle, they suddenly begin rising up into the air through the mist, with the woman screaming, "No, I don't want to go!" They arrive in a dark, desolate place by a big river, & her little girl appears to them. The policeman asks the little girl, "Is this Hell? Where are we?" And the little girl says, "You know when we used to sing the song about the river that washes away all your sins? Well, here it is!" And the policeman says, "Why are we in Heaven?" And the little girl points to a golden glow in the distance & says, "Heaven's over there." He says he can't see it, & she replies, "If you love God, it's there--do you love God?" And he says yes, & disappears into Heaven!
14. Then the little girl tells her mother, "Gabriel's coming, you have to make up your mind, you have to love God!" But the mother says, "I can't love God, I hate God! He's the One Who caused us all this trouble, & He failed us when we were out in the desert, He didn't come." The little girl tries to persuade her mother to love God, but all in vain, & her mother gets harder & more bitter & more defiant & more challenging God & blaming Him for all her troubles, blaming Him for failing & not coming. The little girl pleads with her, "If you will just say you love God, then you'll be cleansed from all your sins in this river & you'll be able to go to Heaven!" But she continues to curse God & defy God & show extreme hatred & bitterness against God.
15. Finally the little girl asks her mother if she sees the light on the other side. She says, "That's Heaven, isn't it beautiful?"--And then the little girl also disappears across the river & the mother is left behind in this dark, lonely place, symbolic of Hell. And that's the way the movie ends!
A Movie Designed to Turn People Against God!
16. Of course we were horrified with this kind of an ending & this kind of a lesson, so to speak, or message of the picture, which had pretended in the beginning to be leading in the right direction, with the woman getting converted & joining the believers & supposedly following the teachings & the prophecies.--Until she goes astray out in the desert on her own interpretation, & then everything goes wrong. But she blames it all on God.
17. It seems to me that the whole deduction & the whole so-called "moral" of the movie is hatred & bitterness against God because of His unfairness & His lack of love in allowing all of this sin & suffering & trouble.--That she got herself into, & which she brought on herself, but she's blaming it all on God.
18. This is a typical unbelieving or anti-Christ reaction to God. It's also one of the most common objections of many unbelieving Jews I've witnessed to, when they explained why they didn't believe in God. They say, "Oh, religion is all just a fake & a fable, & there's nothing good about it or good to it. When you die, you're dead like a dog! There is no Heaven, there is no God. How can there be a God when there's all of this suffering in the World & poverty & evil & catastrophes & disasters & death & war?"--Trying to say it's all God's fault & God allows it, & therefore, if there is a God, if He does exist, He's evil!
19. The movie plays up the natural doubts of the unbeliever & works on his sympathy for this woman who turns against God, & tries to get you to feel sorry for her & sympathise with her & even agree with her attitude, that "If there is a God, He's a horrible God! He's not a God of Love, He's a God of hate & horror & war & suffering & everything that's evil!", blaming it all on Him.--One of the cleverest ways to work on the unbelief of unbelievers, & even to try to raise doubts in the minds of Christians about the goodness of God! Like Schuller's message on "Life isn't fair but God is good"--it's a little difficult to reconcile such a philosophy. It's ridiculous to say "life isn't fair but God is good," because God, of course, created life. To me, that message raised more doubts in the mind of doubters & unbelievers than it was a help. (See "Life Is Fair Because God Is Good!", ML#2773.)
20. So the whole movie ends with what they apparently hope will be your reaction in sympathising with the mother & hating God, that you should feel that way too because of all that happened to her, & what's happened to you. In other words, the whole movie starts out as a deception to make you think that they're leading you in the right direction, the path of faith. The mother gets converted & supposedly begins to follow God, & the Christians all seem to be preaching the right message about conversion & Salvation & Jesus & the Second Coming & the Endtime & the iniquity of the World. All these things seem to be leading in the right direction to the right conclusion, until this woman goes astray & as a result turns against God, hates God & defies Him, & the movie ends in her final defiance & denial & hatred for God & refusal to love Him--even though her daughter & husband & the policeman have all apparently been saved & gone to Heaven--& she is left in the darkness alone!
21. So the end is very bitter, very sceptical, very hateful, horrible, full of hatred against God, & obviously trying to inspire in the hearts of the viewers the same hatred for God. So in the long run, instead of the movie uplifting you--as it pretends in the beginning to be about believing, being saved & the Second Coming & that all this is good & right--it winds up disappointing you, like this woman, & disappointing the viewers & making them feel bitter & hateful towards such a God Who would allow such things.
22. So obviously the movie was designed to turn people against God, to make people hate God, using a typically anti-Christ ploy in the beginning, deceitfully misleading you & getting you to think they're leading you in the right direction. There's a hopeful message about the Coming of the Lord, deliberately trying to give all this hopeful picture at first, only to turn around & disappoint you & discredit the whole thing.--Discredit her faith, discredit the Coming of the Lord, discredit the goodness of God, & to try to make you hate God! So to me, the picture is an outright, very clever deceit to begin with to get you to see it, but designed to destroy your faith! Designed not to influence people to love God, but to hate God!
Propaganda Against Christians!
23. You're not sure it's totally anti-God until the very end, & then you realise how they've deceived you! (Maria: And then the viewer feels like, "All these true Christians, maybe they're sincere, but look how God repays them. He leads them on to have this faith & then slaps them in the face!")
24. That's a real piece of propaganda! The Devil's beginning to hit closer to home all the time now. He knows that he can't exactly deny the Endtime & the Second Coming so blatantly, so he's trying to undermine faith in it by showing that "these Christians are nuts, crackpots, & they'll all be disappointed in their faith when it doesn't work out that way." It was very clever how they took different types of Christians, different kinds of Evangelicals, from just normal people to Jehovah's Witnesses, the young boy prophet, etc., even showing them meeting in circles & holding hands & hugging, having Bible studies, Prophecy studies.
25. These are scary times we're living in, I'll tell you! Boy oh boy, what a film! What a clever piece of propaganda! (Maria: What they're doing very efficiently is identifying all the Fundamentalist Christians & equating them all with fanatics.) Yes. The message is, "How can you trust these fanatics with children? They get so fanatical they could even kill them!" And the World is going to know exactly who the fanatics are by the descriptions they've given here. "They seem to be good people, they seem to be really sincere & have faith, but look how crazy & how fanatical they can become, & they can even kill their own children! And then God forsakes them!--How can you love a God like that? If you join the Evangelicals, this is what'll happen to you! You'll be disappointed, disillusioned, you may go crazy! You might even kill your own child & wish you were dead!"
26. Boy, that film was a real big knock-out blow in favour of those who are supposedly fighting child abuse! "Here's the ultimate in child abuse, these crazy fanatics are even out to kill their own children!--A mother who kills her own child because she's so religiously crazy! She's a religious lunatic!" (Maria: Yes, it's designed to confirm Jonestown.)
27. The picture had several purposes: To confirm to the unbelievers, and particularly the ACs, that their hatred for God is justified, & to disillusion the believers with their "cruel monster-God," & at the same time to warn the public of the dangers of these "religious lunatics"! "They're dangerous people!--They're so crazy they have hallucinations, strange visions, & they're insane enough to even kill their own children!--And you'd better not get deceived into joining them by all this talk of love & a new life, or you'll be sorry!"
28. Talk about clever propaganda designed to destroy faith, & engender hatred against God! But it was so cleverly subtle & deceitful at first. (Maria: Yes, because they pictured true Christians in the most factual way possible so nobody would be able to misunderstand who the real Christians were.) They're doing their best to discredit the Christians. They're going to have the public all propagandised against Christians & Christianity, so that when the Antichrist outlaws Christianity & the Bible, they're going to think he's doing the right thing!
A Sample of Horrors Yet to Come!
29. And it dawned on me, "Here is the latest propaganda of the Devil now!" They're not just attacking the little cults & the gurus, not just blasting the televangelists & certain Christians that have brought a bad reflection on the ministry, & even some of the general Fundamental, Evangelical churches & Pentecostals, but now they're making movies, propaganda, to try to reach the common run of believers themselves, ordinary Christians themselves! It's a blast against faith--the faith of the individual--& against God Himself!
30. This is one of the first attempts to literally create a movie in which they try to influence & win the hearts of the viewers at first, & then turn them against God! This is one of the cleverest pieces of anti-Christ propaganda that I have seen yet! And is undoubtedly a bad, evil omen of what is yet to come--movies that are only disguised in the beginning, but certainly not disguised in the end, in a direct attack against religion, Christians & God!
31. Up to this point, movies have been worldly, foolish, devilish, wicked, sinful, everything to try to corrupt the masses & corrupt the World. It's the Devil's own industry run by his own people, the ACs, & has been designed since its infancy to divert the World from religion or Christianity, with a few exceptions. More & more unbelief & doubts have been creeping into various movies in recent years, but they have usually avoided outright attacking religion & outright trying to attack individual faith. But this picture, "The Rapture," is a direct attack on faith & God & individual faith in God, & faith in His Word & His promise to come again, faith in His goodness & Love & mercy! This is a direct, all-out attack against God & true religion. There have been other recent movies like this too--"The Last Temptation of Christ" being another blasphemous example. This is a shadow of things to come & the kind of movies you can expect to see from now on, many a direct attack on faith, on Christians, on Christian leaders, & preparing the World to receive their god, the Devil!
32. So this is my opinion of this so-called religious film, "The Rapture!" It starts off seeming to go the right direction, & seeming to say all the right things, deliberately misleading you into thinking they're going in the direction of Fundamentalist, Evangelical belief & faith, & faith in Bible Prophecy & the Bible. And then it suddenly takes this horrendous, evil, perverted twist into being completely anti-God, anti-faith, anti-religion, anti-Christian & anti-Christ!
33. It's a sample of things to come, the kind of movie that the ACs are now going to come out with--boldly, blatantly, openly anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-Church!--To prepare the World with unbelief, disappointment in God, unbelief in His Love, & to deliberately turn the World against God & religion--in preparation, of course, for their god, the Antichrist, Satan himself!--To turn people to the god who is not loving & is evil, a monster, to their so-called "good" god, the Antichrist, Satan in the flesh, & to worship him!
34. So that's my opinion of that movie, & it is horrifying to contemplate that there is more to come like it! The ACs of the movie industry have hesitated in the past to come out with a frontal, all-out, direct attack against religion & God, but here it is! And of course they're slanting it primarily against Evangelical, Pentecostal Christians, Fundamentalists, because it's trying to show how their God has failed & their faith has failed & the Word isn't true & it won't happen, & anybody who follows them will become completely disappointed, disillusioned & embittered against such faith & against such a God!
35. This movie, "The Rapture," is a horrible sample of the horrors yet to come from the movie industry! God help us! The End is not just near, it's here, according to some of the things we've seen & we are seeing & hearing of! The End is here, it's now, & we're watching it, seeing it! And there are only a few more things to be revealed & fulfilled before the final act when the Lord does come & does take His Own out of this Hell on Earth & takes them to a true Heaven & delivers us all in the genuine real Rapture of the Saints! We will then come back & destroy the wicked, & the Lord will cleanse the Earth of their wickedness & set up His wonderful Kingdom of Righteousness, the Heaven-on-Earth Millennium, the Thousand-Year Rule & Reign of Christ & His Children on Earth!
36. Believe me, this movie called "The Rapture" is anything but the Rapture, & is a diabolical, demonic, Satanic attack on God & His Word & His people!--Particularly against Fundamentalists who believe in the Rapture! So if you must see it, be prepared to be infuriated! But I don't know why you should aggravate yourself that way. I was going to give a running commentary on the movie, but I couldn't even bring myself to replay it. So I've given you this commentary without having to see it again, because I remember it only too well. So I would suggest you would only be furious & disgusted & aggravated & disturbed by seeing it. I certainly would not have it shown to our children or young people or weaker brethren, because its whole motive & purpose is to try to make you doubt God & His goodness & turn you away from the faith. Lord help the poor weak Christians that did see that movie, & unless you want to see a movie like that, I certainly would advise against it! So God help us, & may God deliver us soon!
37. Thank You Lord for Thy Truth & Thy Word & Thy Spirit that keeps us close to You & protects us from the Enemy & all of his lies & doubts & fears! Thank You, Jesus, for giving us strong faith in Thee & helping us to know Thee, Lord! We know You, Jesus! We know the Truth & we cannot be deceived by all these lies of the Devil!--In Jesus' name, amen.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
