Rapture, 70s Style

Here’s a great collection of images from Christian comic books of the 1970s and early 80s. Christian pop culture has gotten somewhat more sophisticated since then, but there’s a certain unbeatable charm to these artifacts. The super-sexy girls and the occasional, um, snatches of dialogue like this one make me wonder if the artists and writers sometimes thought the whole thing was a joke.

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Several complete issues of these comics, including one about Johnny Cash, can be found here.

12 Comments

What, no Chick comix? I’d be interested to hear your take on those.

Hail to the almighty great snatch.

Enjoying your book, Daniel. I was out at “The Call” today with Rapture Ready in hand. The report at the link below:

http://republicantreehugger.blogspot.com/2008/08/discerning-call.html

I am getting countless e-mails about this election being the rise of anti christ. Let me provide some answers from Bible prophecy that should calm the fears of alot of frightened Americans out there..”This gospel must be preached to all the world before the end can come.”Math.24:13.” This promise has not been fulfilled yet. Jesus said, let no man decieve you by any means concerning the time of my coming.”Math.24:4” Jesus warned christians about false teachers who would come in his name, “deceiving many” over an early time of his coming.. Jesus states plainly that modern christians today will be “killed for my sake,” and all must “endure to the end.” To what end should they then endure? To the end of the harvest. The harvest is here, and the workers want to run away and be raptured to escape and hide from the harvest. We must not be seeking to avoid our responsibilities, and we must work for the cause of saving many more souls. Christ promised us, that he will not return for any reason, nor for any early rapture until the world wide missionary effort is completed. America is a very critical part of the gospels success, and we therefore must remain a christian nation, no matter what happens. This means christians who have been practicing their faith through out life, will now be called upon to play the real game they have been preparing for henseforth... The harvest is ready, and the laborers are few. That means you and I. See video recorded below with Sarah Palin requesting Gods help through our prayers. In world war one and two, it was common practice for American families to pray for the troops abroad. Why do we not do so as much today? Are you and your family praying for the troops each day? Are you doing this in your church meetings? Sarah Palins son is in Iraq risking his life for our country. We prayed for both Sarah Palin and McCain to win the election. I have ran into far too many christians who were not worried about this election, expected to get raptured up to heaven anyway. I heard the same constant fatalism of believing that God had now removed himself from America and it was now too late. The reports show clearly that as many as 4 to 5 million christians did not even bother to vote this year. I believe that we lost this election because of this widespread rapture theory which has removed a critical advantage of our christian voter block. I wrote a book in order to warn christians about these false teachers who have come in the name of Jesus to decieve them about the time of his coming. Obama prevailed, and he will face an economic crisis in which he will not have the skill, nor experience to confront this crisis, nor contain it. When his policies fail, the domocrats will then have no one else to blame. The country will then seek better leadership from leaders like Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and others who have great skill in fixing the economy. That is why I need your help to reach these deluded christian voters by providing biblical warnings to those who have been sucked into this pre-trib mind set, and bring them back to reality..Sarah Palin is a winner no matter what happens because she has gained our trust and the trust of the national conservative movement. All of Palins warnings given dureing the election concerning Obama, these warnings will soon come true. This will seal Palins words into future history. Her words will become more credable dureing the Obama presidency after time moves on.. listen to Sarah as recorded below giving her explanation for obtaining Gods blessings by following her own families example. Help our troops in Iraq by sending this message to Christian voters. Here is a video that leftists are spreading across youtube in order to hurt Palins credability. Please pay close attention so you are not decieved by democrat supporters. click lion with wings, to see the Palin video and my videos about Iraq in prophecy.
I am a christian who worked many long hours within the past two years trying to gather conservative support from other christians. I would like to point out a stumbling blocks that gave me extreme difficulty while trying to gather election support from a majority of good christians. When making my requests for sharing e-mails or needing foot soldiers to spread the conservative message to other voters, I kept hearing the same fatalism as to why it would not do much good to worry about this election. Over and over I heard these words. I believe Obama is going to win because God is finished with America and we are directly headed into the tribulation period. Jesus is coming soon to rapture us up and out from under this mess, so it matters little what we can do.
I recieved many long sermons from people about concerning the anti christ or messiah being Obama, and how the mark of the beast was to be implanted into Americans through home land securety, and the world banking system. I tried to persuade these people that America still has a christian mission to perform in Iraq, and in many other places who have not heard the gospel yet. They would reply by stateing, these people must all go through the tribulation to become humbled enough to accept Jesus that way. I requested scripture many times from these christians as to how I might sight specific Bible scriptures to support this popular theory. I was only given scattered assumtions from less than clear biblical source material, always taken far from out of context. Most of the theory did not come from the Bible at all, but was obviously spun from peoples own speculations.

nice. very nice.
i, too, would like you to review some chick tracks. also ‘stories’ from the prodigal project - i have a collection i could mail you if you wanted them. i might want them back, though, since most of them are out of print.

anyways, i reviewed your book on my blog. http://584blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/book-review-rapture-ready.html

Ummm, the rapture will be faster than imagination allows. The appearance of those raptured could not be envisioned on any paper or media in this fallen world through twisted tiny joker minds.

Some of these may actually be tongue-in-cheek. I’ve actually seen a non-comic version of The Gospel Blimp (a different comic on the linked page) and it’s an attempt to criticize the use of impersonal, silly media projects to “reach” others and an attempt to advocate the sort of genuine morality and pleasantness you talk about in the last chapter of your book. The comic version has a cheesy conversion story at the end and hits the moral home with unnecessary force, but I wonder if that is supposed to be satire as well. I haven’t read the book version since high school, and I haven’t been able to get my hands on a copy to re-read it, but I remember it being a bit more understated while still heavily satirical. (The narrator still believes the gospel blimp is a good ministry tool, and is saddened to discover a former compatriot is now helping his neighbors clean tracts out of their gutters or even *gasp* going to the movies with them instead of helping with the “ministry.”)

Just finished your book today; I really appreciated it. Thanks.

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Thank you.

1 Cor. 15:51-52 says that we shall all be changed at the last trumpet, and Christians who expect to go through the Tribulation point out that seven angels blow seven trumpets during the Tribulation, and the seventh trumpet (the last trumpet) sounds at the end of the Tribulation. (See Rev. 8:2; 10:7; 11:15.)

There are wonderful Christians on both sides of this discussion, but of course, only one side can be right. We know for certain that the Rapture and resurrection will happen. The only question is when?

God bless,
James

The Rapture is an extremely interesting concept. Thessalonians assures us it will, indeed, happen – but when? Is it right around the corner? Could it happen tomorrow or even today? I, myself find that this video is more than enlightening! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52zAH8CyhF4

I’ve just started blogging about my own manic break and hospitalization. It’s about recovery and treatment, but more importantly about discovery of a new post-religion faith where there is no hell, no original sin, you are God, and heaven on earth is real, radiant and right around the corner. A wild and triumphant ride. http://graduatingfromgod.blogspot.com/

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