The 'Post-Rapture Post Office'

Now Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from Religious News Service May 10, 2007, the following are excerpts:Neither snow nor rain nor fire and brimstone will keep Joshua Widder from the swift completion of his appointed rounds come the end of the world.Widder, a 24-year old, self described atheist living in Orlando is the creator of the Post Rapture Post, which builds itself as the postal service of the saved.For as little as $4.99, Widder offers to deliver your letters to friends and loved ones left behind after the Rapture when some Christians believe they will be whisked up to heaven while everyone else, the “left behind” of the popular book series suffers a series of tribulations.As Witter sees it, it will fall to the unsaved to serve as the postmen of the Apocalypse.Do you want to take the chance that your loved ones will have to suffer through your ascension into heaven without knowing how you really feel in your heart, the site asks.Sign up with the Post Rapture Post today to guarantee that while you are gone you will remain in the thoughts of those left behind.As an atheist one of the things Widder doesn’t believe in is any sort of damnation or the Rapture, or God, for that matter.Even if there is a Rapture, he said, it’s best to prepare because Widder is pretty sure he’ll be one of the many left behind.The Bible says that only those who repent of their sins and accept Jesus as the true Son of God will be saved, the site reads.We do neither.He created the website in 2004 after graduating from SyracuseUniversity.My friends think it’s hilarious, he said, we all like it.I get about 80% hate mail, Widder acknowledged, the other 20% fall roughly into two categories, people who appreciate the satire and fellow atheists, offering their services as postal workers after the Rapture.

Tom:

Dave, you know this is sad, but it’s somewhat prophetic isn’t it?Didn’t it talk about in the last days there will be mockers, there would be those, even we find in the church, those who certainly are not atheists, at least according to what they say.Yet they mock the Rapture, not quite like this but it’s a sad deal because we believe that it is true, it’s going to take place.There are many, many scriptures, we’ve spent weeks talking about this doctrine in the church, and how it has lost its influence on many evangelical Christians.But now you have a young guy—okay, he’s trying to be funny, he’s taking a popular series like he’s probably influenced by the “Left Behind” or maybe there were some Christians who actually witnessed to him and this is his reaction to it.Well, he may think it’s hilarious, his friends may think it’s hilarious, but there is going to come a sad time in history if the Lord doesn’t tarry.This young guy is 24-years old, he may have to live through this.

Dave:

Well Tom, I’ll give him credit, it’s a clever idea.It’s a money making scheme or scam. I don’t know how many people are signing up for this.

Tom:

Well, he’s only had 11 people signed up, so it’s not big time.

Dave:

Business isn’t very good.

Tom:

People have their yuks, but what about these 11 that signed up?

Dave:

Well, now we have a few logical problems again, he doesn’t believe in the Rapture.Now he’s guaranteeing to deliver this.

Tom:

He’s taking money at least from 11 customers.

Dave:

We could prosecute him for false advertising, because the very foundation of his belief is that it’s never going to happen.Now that’s not nice to take money for something you know you are never going to do, it’s never going to happen.That may be why only 11 people signed up.How long is he going to have to live?A thousand years from now when the Rapture hasn’t happened, does he have some successors?Does he have a corporation, and are they still guaranteeing, still getting sign ups you know that they are going to deliver this mail?Tom, it’s a fraud on the face of it, on the other hand it was a clever idea, but it certainly didn’t bring in the income that he thought it might.

Tom:

Yeah, but it probably was a joke, but Dave, one sad aspect of this is that whether it’s true or not, this is what he claims, I get about 80% hate mail.That is bad!You know we’ve seen it happen.Somebody doesn’t like your theology or something like that.You know it’s happened to us, we get some very vicious letters.Not often but from time to time somebody just hanging in for their view to the point of rejecting, although claiming to profess to be a Christian and claiming to believe in the Bible, everything they said was so contrary.Not their doctrine that’s different, but the way they go about it, hate mail, that’s not Christian, folks.

Dave:

But now, Tom, we have to take his word for it.How does he define hate mail?There again, I don’t know, but it’s true, he probably gets a lot of very unpleasant mail from people who call themselves born again Christians.That’s a bad testimony, they shouldn’t do that, they ought to pity this guy and try to give him the gospel, but why would you have to send nasty letters to someone, to this man about that?I don’t think you need to do that, but you ought to pity him and pray for him and try to give him the truth, show a little love.

Tom:

Dave, not too long ago my youngest son’s high school—somebody put an editorial in the school newspaper and the young man was an atheist, and he was saying things about religion, how bad it was and what it brought about and how many people professing to be religious were hypocrites, and so on.You know what happened?Some, who professed to be Christians proved him right.They went out, they mocked him, they did something to his car, they almost physically attacked him and so on.

Dave:

What?

Tom:

Yeah, because they hated his perspective on these things.So, in a sense they proved him right, that they were hypocrites, that they didn’t go by what Christianity really, truly professes.

Dave:

What is it?Jesus Christ from the cross, from those who crucified Him, He said, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.John:3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
See All...:God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son.Now, you’ve got to love a lot to give your son to be mocked and crucified.That’s the kind of reaction Christians should exhibit towards someone like this.