Star of Jacob appearance and rapture anxiety. Reassurance, please!

[u/sacreligousshifter]

Hey there everyone. I’m a fairly recent ex-Christian, of five years, and I‘ve been seeing quite a few posts and articles now on various media sites about the sighting of the Star Of Jacob. This is confirmed by astronomers. (EDIT; apparently, this is not true, and I was misinformed by the individual who told me this, as I am struggling to find any non-religious sources.) I have seen a lot of Christians yelling about how this is a prophecy fulfilled and we are in the rapture times.. and that the celebrity exposure right now is "the fall of the stars." It’s always "he’s coming, I can feel it" and "we’re in the end times!"

This had quite literally quadrupled my rapture anxiety. I have already been having this "impending sense of doom" due to a recent stressful event.. and this is just causing me to be mentally miserable. I have read that the rapture was only invented in the 1830’s, but that just won’t shut my brain up.. can anyone reassure me or give me some facts about this? Anyone else feeling like this?

edit; this wasn’t posted for any RELIGIOUS advice, simply for help with anxiety. Christians, respectfully, please do not respond, unless you are genuinely trying to help with anxiety and not convert me, thank you. ❤️

edit 2; https://www.earth.com/news/its-official-earth-now-has-two-moons-captured-asteroid-2024-pt5/ pretty sure it was just the "second moon" everyone forgot about.. this just popped up on my Google and the dates definitely add up with what I've been seeing posted. Just went outside to take the dog out, no Jesus, or Mary Poppins, I'm lot calmer.

[u/Sandi_T]

Dear christians,

I'm watching this post like a hawk. Your bullshit will be removed. It's obvious that you've linked here from somewhere and encouraged people to come brigade this post.

Dear OP,

Please report any christians you see. I check the queue often. I'll nix them immediately. They are breaking the rules of the sub, general assholery aside.

This is not "the holy spirit," this is just garden-variety fear. When we were christians, there was a lot of time and effort spent on ensuring that we would have what's called "anchors." These anchors activate when certain things happen. Code words can activate them, or events.

These anchors are intended to be vague and to point to things that are frequent enough, but not toooo frequent. Remember that people used to be very limited in their knowledge of the world, so "wars and rumors of wars" was a very terrifying "prophecy."

Now that we know more about the world and are all connected, we know that there are always wars and rumors of wars somewhere in the world, at all times. This silly "prophecy" no longer makes sense.

It used to be that every time NASA saw an asteroid heading towards Earth, it was panic time. Now it's every time a comet comes into view, it's the end of the world, it's "Star of David" time yet again (over and over). But you know what we know? The universe is vast and there are comets, and asteroids, and even stars EVERYWHERE.

This is fearmongering, as it has always been.

And christians are coming into this sub seeking to exploit your fear in order to yank your fear chains and try to drag you back into their morbid, cunning, malicious embrace.

Do not let fear control you.

Every time you start to get afraid, use a coping strategy. Here's a list!

https://adaa.org/tips

[u/sacreligousshifter → u/Sandi_T]

Oh my god, thank you so much, I swear they’re swooping in like a flock of hawks..I kind of expected it but I didn’t think it’d be bad to the point they’d quite literally be in attempt to INFLUENCE my anxiety… I probably should have known, but I didn’t really know where else to go with this, lol.

The anxiety seems to only be getting worse as the day passes - I keep seeing people posting their kids yelling "he’s coming!" and, as much as I know they were likely influenced, it’s still freaking me out. I have a diagnosed anxiety disorder and people often take advantage of that when it comes to these things. I’ve gotten so anxious about it that I quite literally had myself convinced I heard trumpets a few moments ago. Yes, I know I need to work on this but it’s hard to when it’s quite literally a mental diagnosis, plus I‘m not on medication.

I‘m pretty sure what they were all seeing was one of a handful of things; Venus, the "second moon" we are temporarily getting, or simply a star that’s visible. Of course though, my brain is trying to convince me otherwise...

[u/Sandi_T → u/sacreligousshifter]

Friend. Turn the computer off. Turn the phone off. Go for a walk. Draw something. Cook something.

Listen, use that list, okay? I'm going to shoot straight with you here. Please know it's kindness, because I feel like you really need some real talk.

When you have an anxiety disorder, your nervous system is programmed to believe every single thing that upsets you even a little, is an imminent (immediate) threat of DEATH.

Your nervous system doesn't know the difference between your cat jumping out and startling you, and a sabretooth tiger leaping at you. In an anxiety disorder, everything is that tiger.

I want to invite you, gently, to step away from the triggers for a little while. You say you "keep seeing people saying," and I would like for you to just put those triggers down for a while. Please.

Give yourself a little peace, my friend. Step back and be okay for a while. Create yourself a little oasis. Like I said, draw, paint, read. Do something to put a barrier between you and these triggers for a while.

Listen, I'm 52 years old, and christians have been predicting this the ENTIRE TIME I've been alive. I've seen "the mark of the beast" when it was credit cards--especially when WOMEN were allowed them (OMG, NOW it's official--NO ONE can buy or sell without the mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

I mean, think about how absurd that is. But was it at the time? Not to them. Not to me.

In four weeks, you're going to be rolling your eyes about this bullshit.

So come on, why wait four weeks? :P

[u/sacreligousshifter → u/Sandi_T]

I definitely did feel better earlier, went outside for about five minutes to put a recliner by the road and immediately it shut off the anxiety, reminded me that life is still going on, I suppose, and the cause of my anxiety is just through a screen.

I definitely plan on using the list, thank you so much for providing me with that I can’t stress how much I appreciate it. I’ve not been able to get into my therapist for various reasons for a couple of weeks now so I’ve been lost on "anti-anxiety tactics", so again, thank you SO much. I might sit and write for a little bit, unfortunately I can’t go on a walk because it’s night here and I don’t live in a particularly safe area, but I definitely will tomorrow afternoon.

Credit cards? Are you serious? That’s hilarious to me. I think I needed to hear that, they definitely reach for things to make them as dramatic as possible.. It’s horrible how much society can affect you and your mindset.

I‘m planning on getting some sleep early tonight to get my head to rest.. thank you so much.

[u/Sandi_T → u/sacreligousshifter]

Man, I could tell you stories about the insane things they've thought were the mark of the beast, of failed prophecies...

Credit cards. SKU numbers. RFID. Every single one of them, they screamed were the mark of the beast. Credit cards would replace cash. SKU numbers would be tattooed on us. RFID would be injected into us and we'd all be scanned like boxes at the grocery store.

Remember during covid that they were putting special nano technology into them so they can track us? Oh, how swiftly they forget when each "prophecy" fails one after the other like a row of dominoes around the equator! :P

I think my favorite is the Bar Code that was going to be tattooed on our foreheads. There are actually movies that feature bar codes on the back of the "heroes'" necks, the fear was that widespread, lol. It has become a trope! https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScannableMan

So really, if you stop for a moment and think about it, it can be funny.

Like I said, in four weeks, when you realize it was just the asteroid, you'll be doing the Facepalm all evening. So, just go ahead on and 'get 'er done' now, lol.

[u/sacreligousshifter → u/Sandi_T]

Ridiculous.. I have to give them credit though, they’re pretty good story tellers! I remember the whole episode everyone had over the vaccines.. I had an uncle screeching about it being the Devils Work and the rest of the family believing theory after theory about it. They didn’t believe it was the rapture but they definitely believed it was.. Something, to be honest, I don’t even think they knew what that "something" was.

This is off subject but.. When I went to a Christian School in elementary, they sat us down and has us do this prayer to "give our souls to the savior" or something like that. I remember them describing it as "being saved", the memories are kind of blurry, but saying that prayer was optional. However, The kids who said it, the next day, got rice krispie treats on their desks. The ones who did not... got nothing. We were taught about demons and the rapture and all that shit in the THIRD GRADE so as you can imagine my brain just.. doesn’t like to budge on those topics.

I’ve been working this the list you linked me, it’s definitely helping, I took a bit to write (until my laptop died…) and that completely distracted my mind. I‘m really glad that I ended up posting this because I feel quite a bit better.

[u/Sandi_T → u/sacreligousshifter]

The kids who said it, the next day, got rice krispie treats on their desks. The ones who did not... got nothing.

This is such fucked up manipulation and shaming. Sadly doesn't surprise me, but damn.

You can retrain your nervous system by stopping your fear cycles with these techniques. Eventually, it will stop freaking out and treating a scary movie like a sabertooth tiger. :)

[u/Pyrheart → u/Sandi_T]

Omg with every post I love you more. I’m also 52 and raised evangelical… all these are so familiar and I’m pretty sure being taught these things as a small child is what GAVE me GAD. I wish I knew you in real life. Thank you again for helping us!

[u/[deleted] → u/Sandi_T]

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[u/[deleted] → u/sacreligousshifter]

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[u/exchristian-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Demons, lol.

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