Re: May 21 rapture and judgment. It boggles my mind how a whole community of Christians who claim they study the Bible earnestly and sincerely can come away with such twisted and distorted views of the end times. I would really like your opinion on how people can be so deceived?
People can be deceived because they believe what their leaders tell them the Bible says instead of studying for themselves. And many of those who do read the Bible accept their leaders interpretation of it instead of thinking things through and coming to their own conclusions. God had the Bible written in such a way that anyone could understand it, but many people are too focused on other things to take the time to do so.
And it’s not just fringe groups who are guilty of this. In the main line denominations, the majority view is that there will be no rapture, Great Tribulation, 2nd Coming or Millennium, even though the Bible clearly describes them all. If the members of these churches have been told anything at all about these events, it’s that they won’t actually happen, but are to be understood allegorically.
In short, I think it’s fair to say that there are many more Christians who don’t understand the end times they way they’re described in the Bible than there are who do.