{"id":1219,"date":"2019-04-14T14:58:13","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T21:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2019-04-14T19:34:34","modified_gmt":"2019-04-15T02:34:34","slug":"lord-of-the-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2019\/04\/14\/lord-of-the-left-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Lord of the Left-Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Growing up in the fundamentalist-evangelical world, along with the fear of a girl\u2019s rejection, test taking, and the general anxiety and guilt of enjoying \u201cworldly\u201d music, movies, and television, I also worried about being, \u201cleft-behind.\u201d\u00a0 In the late 70\u2019s, sermons, songs, Bible studies, and best-selling books were rife with the eschatological belief in a \u201crapture\u201d of \u201ctrue\u201d Christians, while the unfortunate rest, the doomed, are, \u201cleft-behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been many books<\/a> and scholarly works over the years debunking the eschatology underlying the belief in a \u201crapture,\u201d and it may be at its most weakened state, since its inception.\u00a0 Only about 43% of evangelical<\/a> pastors hold to a belief in a rapture.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure it was much higher back in the 60\u2019s, 70\u2019s, and 80\u2019s.\u00a0 For this decline, we can be thankful.\u00a0 That one belief, along with its supporting theology, is a significant reason why so many evangelicals dismiss environmental concerns, support Israel no matter what, and display other destructive sensibilities.<\/p>\n

Putting aside the Bible passages used to support a rapture and the theology that underlies it, what we often miss is the privilege it seeks to legitimize.\u00a0 It is a theology of glory and certainly not one of the cross.\u00a0 All such theologies are about, ultimately, privilege.\u00a0 Which is to say they are about believing one is chosen, over and above, others.\u00a0 These \u201cothers\u201d become the \u201cleft-behind.\u201d\u00a0 We might even see the term, \u201cleft-behind,\u201d as a metaphor for our times.<\/p>\n

Many don\u2019t have to wait for a future \u201crapture,\u201d to tell us they have been left-behind.\u00a0 We live among them.\u00a0 Perhaps we are one of them.\u00a0 And this is nothing new.\u00a0 The \u201cleft-behind,\u201d have always been with us.\u00a0 Still, at certain times in history, it becomes stark and sobering.\u00a0 And theologies of glory give us reason to believe it is okay if the \u201cleft-behind\u201d suffer.\u00a0 After all, they were not chosen.\u00a0 They brought this on themselves.\u00a0 We tried to make them like us, and they refused.\u00a0 Who are the left-behind?<\/p>\n

The poor<\/em>.\u00a0 The income gap<\/a> continues to widen in the United States, meaning a middle-class continues to disappear.\u00a0 With automation, AI, and cheap labor in the rest of the world, we will probably see this gap grow even worse.\u00a0 Our economies have left the poor behind even as they prey upon them for their labor and consumption.<\/p>\n

The immigrant<\/em>.\u00a0 Those who have left their nation of birth due to violence, poverty, war, or to seek better lives most certainly feel left-behind.\u00a0 In exile they wait.\u00a0 Unable to return home, and not welcomed abroad, these have already been left-behind.<\/p>\n

People of color<\/em>.\u00a0 Many of us thought we were well past the racism, even, let\u2019s say, of the 1960\u2019s.\u00a0 We are not.\u00a0 Racism is alive and well.\u00a0 People of color wake up every day to face a world that seems bent, structured even, to make sure they remember their, \u201cplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women<\/em>.\u00a0 Like racism, many of us also thought we were well past the sexism we grew up with.\u00a0 Even with gains in many areas, we still live in a world that does not see or treat women the same way it does men.<\/p>\n

LGBT People<\/em>: Again, even after making great strides, many still see these people and treat these people in a way that confirms we will tolerate them, but never accept them.\u00a0 In other parts of the world, they are not even tolerated but persecuted and jailed.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve missed some who also feel left-behind.\u00a0 My own privilege, my own blindness, I\u2019m sure makes it easy for me to miss others, so forgive me.\u00a0 What I would hope fundamentalists-evangelicals could see, is that these people already feel left-behind.\u00a0 They are not worried about missing a future rapture; they are worried about today.<\/p>\n

It would be impossible to speak of those left-behind without noting the \u201celection\u201d of Trump and the rapture-believing evangelicals who supported him.\u00a0 We might say his entire life, administration, and purpose has been to cement a \u201csaved\u201d and a \u201cleft-behind\u201d mentality into American life.\u00a0 What was already latent, he and his supporters have brought to the surface, to perhaps bring to life the apocalyptic vision of fear and privilege they so clearly believe.<\/p>\n

However, from Genesis to Revelation, there is a plumb-line laid down which is clearer and more powerful than any of the proof-texts grabbed here and there to support a dispensational and rapture theology.\u00a0 And that line, that marker, that directional beacon is that the God of the Christian narrative, if nothing else, is the Lord of the left-behind<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Peter Rollins tells illustrative stories to make his points.\u00a0 From his book, Insurrection<\/a>, he tells the following:<\/p>\n

Just as it was written by those prophets of old, the last days of the Earth overflowed with suffering and pain.\u00a0 In those dark days a huge pale horse rode through the Earth with Death upon its back and Hell in its wake.\u00a0 During this great tribulation, the Earth was scorched with the fires of war, rivers ran red with blood, the soil withheld its fruit, and disease descended like a mist.\u00a0 One by one, all the nations of the Earth were brought to their knees.\u00a0 Far from all the suffering, high up in the heavenly realm, God watched the events unfold with a heavy heart.\u00a0 An ominous silence descended upon Heaven as the angels witnessed the Earth being plunged into darkness and despair.\u00a0 But as this could only continue for so long, at the designated time, God stood upright, breathed deeply, and addressed the angels.\u00a0 \u201cThe time has now come for me to separate the sheep from the goats, the healthy wheat from the inedible chaff.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Having spoken these words, God turned to face the world and called forth to the Church with a booming voice, \u201cRise up and ascend to Heaven, all of you who have sought to escape the horrors of this world by sheltering beneath my wing.\u00a0 Come to me, all who have turned from the suffering world by calling out, \u2018Lord, Lord,\u2019\u201d In an instant, millions were caught up in the clouds and ascended into the heavenly realm, leaving the suffering world behind them.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Once this great rapture had taken place, God paused for a moment and then addressed the angels, saying, \u201cIt is done, I have separated the people born of my spirit from those who have turned from me.\u00a0 It is time now for us to leave this place and take up residence on the Earth, for it is there that we shall find our people, the ones who would forsake Heaven in order to embrace the Earth, the few who would turn away from eternity itself to serve at the feet of a fragile, broken life that passes from existence in but an instant.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And so it was that God and the heavenly host left that place to dwell among those who had rooted themselves upon the Earth, the ones who had forsaken God for the world and thus who bore the mark of God, the few who had discovered Heaven in the act of forsaking it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Remember, the Gospel narratives, indeed the entire Christian narrative is one of grand reversals.\u00a0 Thus the \u201craptured\u201d arrive to find heaven empty.\u00a0 Heaven becomes a purgatory, and the prayer, \u201cYour kingdom come<\/em>, your will be done, on earth<\/em> as it is in heaven\u2026,\u201d has been fulfilled.<\/p>\n

I have a Patreon<\/a> Page\u2014please consider supporting my writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in the fundamentalist-evangelical world, along with the fear of a girl\u2019s rejection, test taking, and the general anxiety and guilt of enjoying \u201cworldly\u201d music, movies, and television, I also worried about being, \u201cleft-behind.\u201d\u00a0 In the late 70\u2019s, sermons, songs, Bible studies, and best-selling books were rife with the eschatological belief in a \u201crapture\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":1225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104,137,344,371],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dispensationalism","tag-eschatology","tag-political","tag-rapture"],"yoast_head":"\nLord of the Left-Behind<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Growing up in the fundamentalist-evangelical world, along with the fear of a girl\u2019s rejection, test taking, and the general anxiety and guilt of enjoying\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2019\/04\/14\/lord-of-the-left-behind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lord of the Left-Behind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Growing up in the fundamentalist-evangelical world, along with the fear of a girl\u2019s rejection, test taking, and the general anxiety and guilt of enjoying\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2019\/04\/14\/lord-of-the-left-behind\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Divergence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-04-14T21:58:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-04-15T02:34:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1004\/2019\/04\/fire-2842647_640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@darrelllackey1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2019\/04\/14\/lord-of-the-left-behind\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2019\/04\/14\/lord-of-the-left-behind\/\",\"name\":\"Lord of the Left-Behind\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-04-14T21:58:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-04-15T02:34:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#\/schema\/person\/d88a32b8d4b5f40fbd6ccbfce4e0f813\"},\"description\":\"Growing up in the fundamentalist-evangelical world, along with the fear of a girl\u2019s rejection, test taking, and the general anxiety and guilt of enjoying\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2019\/04\/14\/lord-of-the-left-behind\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2019\/04\/14\/lord-of-the-left-behind\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2019\/04\/14\/lord-of-the-left-behind\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lord of the Left-Behind\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\",\"name\":\"Divergence\",\"description\":\"Commentary Regarding Fundamentalism - 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