Preacher Dies In Mid-Sentence of Sermon - "When I die and go to heaven..."

[matcom]

<snip>

OVIEDO, Fla. (AP) - A Presbyterian minister collapsed and died in mid-sentence of a sermon after saying "And when I go to heaven ...," his colleague said Monday.
The Rev. Jack Arnold, 69, was nearing the end of his sermon Sunday at Covenant Presbyterian Church in this Orlando suburb when he grabbed the podium before falling to the floor, said the Rev. Michael S. Beates, associate pastor at Covenant Presbyterian.

Before collapsing, Arnold quoted the 18th century Bible scholar, John Wesley, who said, "Until my work on this earth is done, I am immortal. But when my work for Christ is done ... I go to be with Jesus," Beates said in a telephone interview.

Several members of the congregation with medical backgrounds tried to revive the minister and paramedics were called, but Arnold appeared to die instantly, Beates said.

Arnold had been the senior minister at the church until the late 1990s when he began traveling to Africa and the Middle East to teach pastors. The cause of death was believed to be cardiac arrest. He had bypass surgery five years earlier.

Beates also recounted Arnold's death in an e-mail he sent to members of the Central Florida Presbytery.

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/florida/MGBCZERCT3E.html

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. If you've gotta go...

My doctor says that when his time comes, he hopes he drops dead in an examining room, because he loves practicing medicine so much that he wants to do so until the day he dies.

[tanyev]

9. OK, but not if he's

a surgeon in the middle of an operation.

[DIKB]

2. Adds weight when

the next preacher says "When YOU die . . ."

[Thtwudbeme]

3. Rapture is real!

Now all the atheists here will try to disprove the clear evidence....

waiting......

[DIKB]

5. Rapture real ?

does that mean we were all the "Left behind" ?

If so then . . . SHIT !!!! I was hoping for more places to loot.

[Thtwudbeme]

6. Oh! You are one of those, eh.

Well you can't have my Subaru.

It's promised to NSMA who claims to have never made out in a Subie-

Tacky nonbelievers.

Edited for grammar---I was so overwhelmed by the tackiness of what is going to happen to my Outback that I couldn't think straight.

[DIKB]

7. I'm not atheist.

Apathetic Agnostic, don't know and don't care. It's impossible to say for sure there isn't something greater, just as it's impossible to be certain there is. Till we die, this is all we know.

[Acryliccalico]

11. Another rapture Idiot.

[Thtwudbeme]

12. another idiot who can't recognize

sarcasm.

[tanyev]

15. Here's a Christian to disprove the "clear evidence"

The Rapture Exposed:
The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation

By Barbara R. Rossing
Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 2004, Hardback, 212pp., $24.00

Review by G. Richard Wheatcroft

During the 19 th century a new theology was conceived called “premillinarian dispensationalism.” John Nelson Darby, a British evangelical preacher, made a number of visits to the United States to promote what he called “dispensations,” that is, “intervals of time ordering God’s grand timetable for world events.”According to Darby, the Bible contains a schedule of events which will precede the end of history. The first event, coming before a millennium, will be the return of Jesus to ‘Rapture’ all true believers “out of the world into heaven.” Then, after seven years of global tribulation, Jesus will return a second time as a warrior to defeat the forces of evil at Armageddon and establish a reconstructed kingdom of Israel over which he will reign for a thousand years until the end of the world. Darby claimed that the foundation of the “dispensations” is Daniel 9:25-27, the Book of Revelation and other texts from the Hebrew and Christian Testaments.

Barbara Rossing, who teaches New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, calls the ‘Rapture’ phenomenon a “destructive racket.” She writes that her book is for those who are concerned about the “simplistic” misinterpretation of the Biblical script by the “whole prophecy industry of Tim Le Haye, Hal Lindsey and others.” It is her conviction that dispensationalism must be challenged today “both because of its false theology and also because of its growing influence on public policy.” To counter this distortion and manipulation of Christian faith, she provides an interpretation of the Book of Revelation which provides “a vision of hope for God’s healing of the world.”
http://www.tcpc.org/resources/reviews/rapture_exposed.h ...

I've mentioned this book so many times on DU, I feel obliged to state that I have never met Ms. Rossing and I have no personal stake in the book. It's fairly easy reading, it's not terribly long, and it concisely explains the difference between mainstream Christianity and the Rapture Racketeers.

[SOteric]

4. Aren't you supposed to be

strapping a thong to your nekkid yellow ass and lounging on a beach in Mexico?

[matcom]

8. leaving this afternoon

AFTER the MatcomNews cycle

[intheflow]

10. Reminds me of another story I read in a paper many years ago

about an actress who died on stage. She was playing an alcoholic, who drunkenly sang, "Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," and then had to pass out. She passed out and died on stage! The perfect death for an actress, imo.

[Karenina]

14. 3rd on my top 10 list of

"Preferred Ways to Die."

Redd Fox, JohnnyguitarWatson, Kef

We ALL leave this realm. I find it somehow ELEGANT when folks leave while engaged in the earthly activity they most loved... it gives some meaning to it for me...

[DS1]

13. If the rapture was real, and he was the ONLY ONE taken, I'd laugh my ass

off.

Sucks to be dead, though.

[Dedalus]

16. I thought...

...Jack Arnold already died, about 12 years ago, during the voice over in the closing minutes of the last episode of "The Wonder Years," and that Wayne subsequently took over the family business.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Wonder if he was a liberal Christian? Many Presbyterians are

-------------------------------------
Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/