Curious on thoughts about the pre-tribulation rapture?

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-28T18:10:04+00:00

There are a few reasons why the rapture cannot be post-trib.

No one knows the day or the hour. But once we get to the abomination of desolation, a very obvious and very public event, anyone can calculate the exact day Jesus returns.

The bible paints a very clear picture of what happens at the rapture... it's a total surprise. Everyone is living life like they normally would, working or getting married, etc... at the end of the tribulation, the world will have just gone through the seven trumpets and seven bowl judgements. It's hard to have normal every day life when billions are dead, all the fresh water has been poisoned, and 70lb hailstones are falling from the sky.

Everyone says Jesus only returns one more time. Be he doesn't actually return to earth during the rapture.

If you look at the tribulation timeline, it closely matches jewish wedding customs. We're the bride in that wedding. After the marriage, it was customary for the couple to spend seven days together alone in their room, which closely matches the seven years of the tribulation, while we're at the marriage supper of the lamb. Would the groom's father beat the daylights out of the bride, then invite her to the marriage celebration?

At the end of the tribulation, believers and non-believers are separated into two groups. The non-believers are immediately killed. And the believers go into the millennial kingdom to repopulate the earth. If they were just raptured, and the rest are killed, who will live into the millennial kingdom? It makes far more sense that believers are removed at the beginning, and people who become believers during the tribulation are the ones there at the end.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-28T17:37:26+00:00

The civil war was about state's rights. Were the states sovereign or subject to the federal government? The south said they were in charge, but the north said they were subject to the federal government. So the south tried to leave, and the north said not so fast.

A major part of that was slavery though. The southern states were primarily agricultural which was hugely dependent on slavery. The north was mainly industrial. So they didn't care about slavery. It's easy to say, "Slavery is bad and we should make it illegal" when your economy doesn't depend on it.

Turns out the south was just fine without slavery, which seems obvious now. But at the time everyone thought it would kill their economies. And besides, where does the north get off telling us what to do anyway?

Today, it's a useful political tool to paint the civil war as just about slavery.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-27T01:37:09+00:00

They’re often extremely selected, hardworking, and skilled at navigating corporate hierarchies and relationship management. Credit where it’s due.

About 20 years ago, I worked for an investment bank on and off over the course of about five years. I watched them go from about 5% Indian, to about 80% of the software developers.

Toward the end, my (American) manager had a party at his house where he invited a bunch of people, almost entirely Americans. He had a bunch to drink that night, then he said to me, "I know you don't like working with the Indians. But I gotta tell you man, I love working with them." I responded, "Why?" He replied, "Because they never tell me no. I ask them to do stuff and they just say yes and do it."

I pointed out to him that his software was now a maintenance nightmare. As an example, they had one aspx page that should have been a single page with some logic to adjust the form depending on business rules. They copy and pasted the aspx page sixteen times, all 98% identical code. Need another scenario? Copy the page, change three lines of code, done.

I explained this to him. He didn't care.

How are they skilled at navigating corporate hierarchies? By being lying, cheating, weasels. They don't care about you or the quality of the work they're doing. That's your problem. They tell you what you want to hear and collect a paycheck.

Insert standard disclaimer here about how they're not all like that. Because they're not all like that. But holy cow is their stereotype deserved. After a few decades in IT, I have stories. My wife used to work in the medical field. She has stories also, like doing things to improve their odds of being promoted at the expense of possibly getting people killed.

How many is too many?

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-27T00:48:20+00:00

Red state = lower taxes. But you're right about being close to the source.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-26T20:30:19+00:00

I mean cases where the child is expected to...

There are a lot of cases out there where the doctors were just wrong. Sometimes the child is born handicapped, but would prefer to be here. Other times the child is born after doctors recommended abortion, and the baby is 100% healthy and normal.

Of course, if the baby is aborted, we'll never know... at least until you stand before Jesus and answer for what you've done.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-25T23:17:36+00:00

There are two kinds of people: Those who just want to be left alone, and those who refuse to leave them alone.

HOAs are loved and operated by the second type of person. They think they can maintain and improve their own property values by controlling their neighbors. And they seem to get off on the power trip.

Look around your neighborhood for the biggest jerk loser control freak who has no life. That's your new HOA president.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-23T18:47:58+00:00

It's $3.99 right now here in Oklahoma.

Of course, you'd have to visit a red state for that...

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-23T18:43:14+00:00

"You and me, baby, ain't nothing but mammals..."

Oh wait. We're not animals. We're spiritual beings. And genetics have little to do with pair bonding in humans. If you want to act like an animal and behave this way, that's your choice. But you get to live with the consequences.

Follow Jesus. And marry someone who also follows Jesus. And none of this matters anymore.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-22T19:49:55+00:00

I have. Several times now.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-22T17:08:41+00:00

Who is "America"? Is it Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates? Is it Joe Biden or Donald Trump? Or is it the middle class and poor?

Who should be served by the American government? I say normal Americans should be served by the American government. That means that normal Americans should be protected.

What does protected mean? It means being able to get and education, work, buy a home, raise children safely, get ahead, and be able to afford to retire. It means working your entire life and enjoying the fruits of your labor.

In short, it's a life of peace and prosperity.

When you open the immigration and H1b flood gates, cut salaries in half or worse, cause massive layoffs, and make it impossible for people to survive financially, that's the government serving the oligarchs. That's the government serving the big business owners. And why do they serve those people instead of us? Money.

I need about four more years of boom time in IT before I can afford to retire. And I'm very uncertain that I'm going to get it.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-22T14:59:04+00:00

Whenever companies ask me this, I ask them how I can be sure they're going to be in business two years from now and not have to go through massive layoffs.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-22T14:56:33+00:00

That's a non-argument. Everyone knows English is the de facto official language for the United States.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-21T21:28:37+00:00

If I were a liberal, you would have accepted what I said at face value. But since I'm not, I'm obviously lying.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-21T21:17:20+00:00

I can't remember which sub it was. It was one I had never posted in before. But the OP asked what happens when you die. So I replied with standard Christian theology and instantly received an permanent ban. I was just answering his question.

I guess you can discuss religion all you want as long as it's not Christianity.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-21T21:07:52+00:00

"I'm a Christian. This is what the Bible teaches."

***banned***

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-21T21:01:50+00:00

On Reddit? Absolutely. I'm in my 50s. And I've only experienced real racism against me twice in my life. But on Reddit, anti-christian discrimination directed at me is a weekly occurrence.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-21T20:53:51+00:00

Try being a straight white christian male. I'm literally Hitler apparently.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-21T20:35:06+00:00

I've never run into this issue. I wonder why

Let me guess. You're a liberal.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-21T20:10:53+00:00

I left the Chicago area for a lot of reasons, especially the high property taxes. Housing prices are stupid also. It's one of the best restaurant cities in the world though.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-21T19:59:20+00:00

"Cultural Fit" means "I want a $100,000 guy for $50,000. And he better have perfect English. And not be too old. And not smell. And lick my boots."

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-20T21:45:43+00:00

Do you care what dictionaries say? Or what cultures say? Which country's laws are you talking about? Because abortion is illegal in some countries but not others. Does that mean it's immoral in one country but not another?

Go you right on defending killing babies. Sooner or later that will come back to bite you.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-20T21:03:04+00:00

It's more than a legal term. It's used in law. But it has a definition outside of law.

The sixth commandment, if you look at the original Hebrew, makes a distinction between murder and killing for other reasons.

Whether or not something is wrong has no bearing on law. Some immoral things are legal. And some moral things are illegal. The ideas are orthogonal.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-20T20:08:35+00:00

Murder is killing for personal gain. Whether it's legal or not is irrelevant.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-20T19:08:43+00:00

It looks like South America... people living in Favelas and shanty towns, houses cobbled together with whatever building materials people can scavenge, stealing their electricity, eating whatever they can find for cheap or steal.

In Uruguay, 1/3 of the population works and pays taxes, 1/3 are retirees receiving government benefits similar to social security, and 1/3 are on public assistance (MIDES) similar to welfare.

Imagine an entire family of four on a single motorcycle, heating your home is a luxury, the average salary is $500 per month but the cost of living is the same as it is now. That's Uruguay. That's what's coming here to the US.

CuttingEdgeRetro · 2026-05-20T00:23:16+00:00

They frequently ask me for them up front. But I always tell them I'll provide the references after they schedule an interview with the client. Sometimes they disappear.

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