Strange title for a post on the blog of a preterist-sympathizer, but "the end times" has been on my mind lately, particularly the 'rapture', the Bible's missing word. It's come to my thoughts because a certain person I know was trying to convince another certain person I know on Christianity, and they hit a wall on this rapture theology. It reminded me of my disbelief.Particularly bothersome to me is the depiction of the event in the likes of "Left Behind", where the non-believers run around silly looking for loved ones and all they can seem to find are piles of clothes, or of the chaos that erupts when Christians in vital physical positions (such as flying a plane) are suddenly evacuated. Planes fall to the earth killing hundreds, cars crash, etc. It boggles my mind that this display of theology is acceptable... yet it is. The loaded authors have now sold more than 63 million copies of books from their endless end-time saga. Enough about that.
A doctrine not taught by the fathers of our faith, the great escape wasn't popularized until the 1830s, and now more so than ever. I don't want to get in to all the reasons not to believe in "the rapture" or at least a pre-suffering one; all I want to say is that, whether it's right or wrong, is it more responsible to promote a faith that's dependent on a sudden escape, or one that is dependent on a faith in Christ that guides through suffering? Because it is uncertain whether this rapture will happen, or when it will happen, isn't it wisdom to prepare for it not happening? That's my take.
You can't just hold up one theory and ignore other passages referring to the same event or time period, namely the prophecy of Jesus: "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Mt 24:9-14)
How are both the highly-speculative rapture and the prophecy of Jesus true? Shouldn't the leaders of the church build up their followers in their faith so that as few as possible defect, rather than preach the hell out of the rapture, and MOST defect as soon as the smallest amount of persecution falls in their lap? Strangely enough, this prophecy seems to fit in very well with this rapture promotion of the "end times" (hey, I'm allowed to speculate too!).
After all, what makes the Christians of 2007 different than those of 70 AD? Than the Christians who were used as light torches along the road into Rome [lips sewn shut so they didn’t scream as they were burnt alive and disturb those walking the road]? Than those used as lion food? Than those in Iran right now? The rapture comes out of western thought - western privileged thought. We're rights-focused, and I think we may have created a doctrine that demands our rights, whether or not they will be given to us.
I was irked by the insistence on this theology, especially as it created a stumbling block for another person - I'm sure one of millions out there. Anyway, I'm not trying to make any bold statements... just to provoke thought.
Any ideas?
Did I really just say I'm not trying to make any bold statements?! Ha!
3 comments:
I thought you weren't going to post about church stuff anymore, Matt? ;)
As someone who has not researched or thought much about 'the end times' because I have more pressing spiritual matters to attend to (to me, the 'end times' are going to happen however they happen, whether they line up with my doctrine or not, so I prefer to wrestle with doctrines that affect my daily life), I lean towards your train of thought. I agree with your anti-rapture -- or at least your anti-presuffering rapture -- stance, and though I'm not sure what exactly I DO believe, I think it's important for things to be discussed.
Wow, this comment was a whole lot of nothing. Sorry, Matt, I tried ;)
To be clear (as, upon rereading my comment, i found that it was somewhat nonsensical), I think it's important for these things to be discussed because of the issues that are being caused, the people it's turning away, and the amount of people who are blindly following and preaching a doctrine they know nothing about. I do NOT believe we have to figure out exactly how things are going to happen, or what it's going to look like, but I do think that it's important to dialogue about these things, and be able to recognize flaws in Christian pop-culture doctrine.
In short, I agree. Geez, I hope this one made more sense than the last one.
I agree with Denise about doctrines which have an effect on my daily life - thats why I haven't thought too much about escatology, except in so far as to pray fervently that Christendom doesn't take their end times doctrine from the likes of Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye.
I agree that light needs to be shed on the matter, as you indicate it has caused others to stumble in their discovery of Christ. But I'm afraid I'm not the one to do it - I'll stick to trying to figure out if time exists or not. heh
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