January 22, AD 2010
Frankly Speaking

Current Events Commentaries from a Biblical Perspective
by Frank Allnutt

Rapture and Ridicule

The following quote is from an article by progressive Minuteman Media columnist Donald Kaul that appeared in the January 21 edition of the Mountain Mail newspaper in Salida, Colorado:

Many conservative evangelicals entertain the bizarre notion that there will come a moment—called “The Rapture”—when the Lord calls all true Christians to His home, leaving the rest of us behind to writhe in misery. This will happen only after all Jews go to Israel, clearing the way for the Second Coming, Armageddon, and the election of Sarah Palin. These cuckoos think Israel’s settlement policy is great.

In response to Mr. Kaul’s column, I penned this letter to the Mountain Mail’s editor:

I always read Donald Kaul’s columns in the Mountain Mail, though I neither share his progressive predisposition nor endorse his anti-Christian diatribes, but because he challenges me to more fervently endeavor to better understand and more deeply embrace what I do believe and cherish.

Up till now I have dismissed any notion to comment to the Mail on Mr. Kaul’s rantings for the fundamental reason that an intellectual vs. spiritual debate over God and Christianity between an apparently unregenerate non-believer such as Mr. Kaul and a regenerate Christian such as myself would be, most likely, fruitless for both parties.

However, Mr. Kaul’s column in today’s Mail (January 21) does reveal a point on which Mr. Kaul and I might engage in at least an intellectual exchange that does not place him at a disadvantage because he lacks spiritual discernment.

I will qualify what I am about to disclose about Mr. Kaul by acknowledging that we Christians, like everyone else, don’t know everything about everything—and that includes God, the Bible, the rapture, and the regathering of the children of Israel. Consequently, among believers there are a variety of perceptions of truth and reality—some correct and some faulty, and many simply but part of complete pictures.

Mr. Kaul has no reservations about mocking Christians, our various beliefs, and the object of our faith, because he knows we are real, that we exist. But he would look silly to directly mock God, whom he professes to know does not exist!

Now, here is what I want to disclose about Donald Kaul—and ask him, as well as readers of the Mail, to consider:

If Mr. Kaul knows there is no God then he must necessarily know everything about everything.

This raises two questions:

First, Mr. Kaul, do you actually believe you know everything about everything? Unless you are a lunatic or a liar, you must admit that you are not omniscient.

Therefore, Mr. Kaul, my second question is this: Since I suspect you will concede that you do not know everything about everything, is it not possible that God exists outside of your finite realm of perception?

Sadly, Mr. Kaul, you reveal yourself to be a person who not only lacks spiritual discernment, but also as a person of questionable intellectual integrity.