Rayford lay there grieving, knowing the television would be full of scenes he didn\u2019t want to see, dedicated around the clock to the tragedy and mayhem all over the world. And then it hit him. \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I should have known better, but I read that and hoped that what \u201chit him\u201d was somehow connected to all that tragedy and mayhem \u201che didn\u2019t want to see.\u201d That Rayford\u2019s little epiphany might include the idea that all this suffering involved others who were people just like him. That his utter self-centeredness \u2014 his contemptuous dismissal of others\u2019 pain, others\u2019 significance \u2014 was the sin from which he needed to repent lest it destroy him.<\/p>\n
\u2026 had to find out how they had missed everything Irene had been trying to tell them, why it had been so hard to accept and believe. Above all, he had to study, to learn, to be prepared for whatever happened next.<\/p>\n
If the disappearances were of God, if they had been his doing, was this the end of it? The Christians, the real believers, get taken away, and the rest are left to grieve and mourn and realize their error? Maybe so. Maybe that was the price.\u00a0But what happens when we die?<\/i>\u00a0he thought.\u00a0If heaven is real, if the Rapture was a fact, what does that say about hell and judgment? Is that our fate? We go through this hell of regret and remorse, and then we literally go to hell, too?<\/i><\/p>\n
Irene had always talked of a loving God, but even God\u2019s love and mercy had to have limits. Had everyone who denied the truth pushed God to his limit? Was there no more mercy, no second chance? Maybe there wasn\u2019t, and if that was so, that was so.<\/p>\n
But if there were options, if there was still a way to find the truth and believe or accept or whatever it was Irene said one was supposed to do, Rayford was going to find it. \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
God\u2019s love is mentioned here only in the context of a possible loophole, a way of avoiding the fires of hell. Fear of hell, not love of God, is the essential point and Rayford\u2019s primary motivation for finding the secret, arcane knowledge that he must \u201cbelieve or accept or whatever it was Irene said one was supposed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contrast this attitude with the delightfully repetitive insistence in 1 John 4 that All You Need Is Love. \u201cFear has to do with punishment,\u201d John writes, simultaneously summarizing and rejecting the central theme of\u00a0Left Behind<\/i>:<\/p>\nDear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. \u2026<\/p>\n
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.<\/p>\n
We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, \u201cI love God,\u201d yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I wish I could tell you that LaHaye and Jenkins were only presenting Rayford\u2019s fear-driven response to God as an initial, immature stage of his spiritual journey. But throughout the books, this remains the essence of Rayford\u2019s, and L&J\u2019s, understanding of the meaning of our relationship with God.<\/p>\n
Salvation is never a matter of \u201cwe love because he first loved us,\u201d but is primarily seen as an escape clause from hell for those who accept or believe or do whatever it is that they do when they say the magic words. That magical utterance \u2014 not God\u2019s love or mercy \u2014 affords the only limit to, the only shelter from, God\u2019s all-consuming wrath.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no wonder that Rayford does not respond with love toward the vengeful, arbitrary \u201cGod\u201d of\u00a0LB.<\/i>\u00a0Love is something that such a God neither desires nor deserves.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n
* The obscene wordplay here is not mine. \u201cThe Great Snatch\u201d is the title of Hal Lindsay\u2019s chapter on the \u201cRapture\u201d in his 1970s bestseller\u00a0The Late Great Planet Earth.<\/i>\u00a0This is the preferred translation among premillennial dispensationalists for the Greek word \u201charpazo,\u201d which is usually translated \u201ccaught up\u201d \u2014 as in 1 Corinthians 12:2-4: \u201cI know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. \u2026 caught up to Paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.\u201d The mysterious, ecstatic quality of this being caught up is reflected in the primary meaning of the word \u201crapture\u201d \u2014 \u201cthe state of being carried away with joy, love, etc.; ecstasy.\u201d If you want to understand the meaning of \u201charpazo,\u201d you\u2019re better off turning to Anita Baker<\/a> than to LaHaye and Jenkins.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The conversion scenes in\u00a0LB,\u00a0like all pornography, require the reader to overcome an instinctive reaction to look away when stumbling across such intimate scenes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":67431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
LBCF: Explicit content<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The conversion scenes in\u00a0LB,\u00a0like all pornography, require the reader to overcome an instinctive reaction to look away when stumbling across such intimate scenes.\" \/>\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\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LBCF: Explicit content\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The conversion scenes in\u00a0LB,\u00a0like all pornography, require the reader to overcome an instinctive reaction to look away when stumbling across such intimate scenes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-10-25T20:12:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2024\/06\/WWB-1.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"258\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/\",\"name\":\"LBCF: Explicit content\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-10-25T20:12:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-25T20:12:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"The conversion scenes in\u00a0LB,\u00a0like all pornography, require the reader to overcome an instinctive reaction to look away when stumbling across such intimate scenes.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"LBCF: Explicit content\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\",\"name\":\"Fred Clark\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Fred Clark\"},\"description\":\"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"LBCF: Explicit content","description":"The conversion scenes in\u00a0LB,\u00a0like all pornography, require the reader to overcome an instinctive reaction to look away when stumbling across such intimate scenes.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"LBCF: Explicit content","og_description":"The conversion scenes in\u00a0LB,\u00a0like all pornography, require the reader to overcome an instinctive reaction to look away when stumbling across such intimate scenes.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2024-10-25T20:12:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":258,"height":385,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2024\/06\/WWB-1.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/","name":"LBCF: Explicit content","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-10-25T20:12:53+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-25T20:12:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"The conversion scenes in\u00a0LB,\u00a0like all pornography, require the reader to overcome an instinctive reaction to look away when stumbling across such intimate scenes.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2024\/10\/25\/lbcf-explicit-content\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"LBCF: Explicit content"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). 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<\/a>Religious ecstasy, like sexual ecstasy, is difficult to portray directly in a work of art. It is too intimate, sacred and transcendent \u2014 and any portrayal that fails to respect that will seem reductive and cheap. A good artist knows when to fade to black (or, as in Dante\u2019s \u201cParadiso,\u201d to fade to white), when to suggest rather than to show, when implicit metaphor will be more truthful than explicit detail. Pornographers \u2014 be they sexual or spiritual \u2014 don\u2019t care about such things. They neither acknowledge nor seek to convey anything transcendent in their subject, replacing transcendence with titillation. Their audience is never caught up in the mystery and ecstasy of rapture, only teased with the cheap thrills of a great snatch.*<\/p>\n