![\"poster\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/941\/2014\/05\/poster.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019m sorry Left Behind<\/a> But, there is no such thing as the rapture.<\/p>\n Of course, you couldn\u2019t tell me this when I was in high school because I was head over heels in love with biblical prophecy. Nothing else mattered<\/em>. I was utterly convinced that the book of Revelation was a road map to the future and Jack Van Impe<\/a> was the prophet who could unlock the apocalyptic\u00a0map for me. I even had the Jack Van Impe Prophecy Bible<\/a><\/em> I was genuinely shocked every morning when I would wake up to find myself still in my bed and not standing at the pearly gates.<\/p>\n Was my math wrong? <\/em><\/p>\n Had I missed a color coded clue in my prophecy bible? <\/em><\/p>\n Surely Jack Van Impe hadn\u2019t misread a sign in the news. So why hadn\u2019t I been raptured already??<\/em><\/p>\n This went on for years, until finally\u00a0I entered college.<\/p>\n A christian college, of course. Where else would an end times\u00a0expert go to school?<\/p>\n I was\u00a0a religion major. So, I decided I would clear this rapture matter up once and for all with one of my religion professors as soon as\u00a0possible and finally get a precise\u00a0date for the rapture.<\/p>\n After all, isn\u2019t that the whole point of being a New Testament scholar? To be able to predict the rapture?<\/p>\n Not long after I arrived at college I had a meeting with my advisor, a professor in New Testament theology. I thought surely, if anyone understands the signs of the times as well as Jack Van Impe, it would be him. So, I confidently marched into his office, instantly recognized that his efforts to work through my class schedule were a not so subtle invitation to discuss the apocalypse, and spent the next\u00a020 minutes or so explaining to him why I knew that the end was nigh and why I was so frustrated that this fact wasn\u2019t the only thing we talked about in class or the only thing my pastor preached about every Sunday morning.<\/p>\n Fortunately for me, he was a patient man.<\/p>\n It was almost as if he had heard this speech before from some other young end times expert. While I hated his response at the time, his words forever changed my perspective on biblical prophecy and the rapture.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cHere\u2019s my problem with Jack Van Impe and guys like him: They are trying to pinpoint places on prophetic map that simply doesn\u2019t exist<\/em>. Are we living in the last days? Absolutely, but we have been ever since Jesus walked out of the tomb on Easter morning.\u201d<\/p>\n He said more, but to be honest I don\u2019t remember it because I was floored. How dare he say there is no prophetic roadmap?! Had he not read any of the\u00a0Left Behind<\/em>\u00a0books?? It was all there in black and white!!<\/p>\n When I finally calmed down about a week later, I decided to investigate his nonsensical claim further and attempt to do so with as open a mind as I possible could. It wasn\u2019t an easy process. Or a short one. But once I reached the end of my prophetic investigative journey I reached one clear and indisputable conclusion.<\/p>\n I was wrong.<\/em><\/p>\n It hurt to admit it and to be honest it kinda still does. But there was no way around it \u2013 the rapture was never, ever going to happen.<\/p>\n You see, I had made the same mistake that Jack Van Impe makes. He shouts (or at least passionately pleas)\u00a0the loudest and only hears others like him shouting\u00a0that the end is nigh. So, over time he becomes convinced that the rapture\u00a0is imminent, that he has it all (or at least a lot of it) figured out, and that everyone who\u00a0disagrees will be left behind.<\/p>\n Like my prophetic hero, I was screaming the loudest that the rapture was imminent and I only surrounded myself with voices that agreed with me. Because of this, I was never able to hear a crucial piece of information: no one in\u00a0<\/strong>the church has ever even believed in the rapture until the last 200\u00a0years or so<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n The truth is most of us in the church are bad at church history.<\/p>\n This deficiency may seem inconsequential, but it\u2019s actually a huge problem in an always connected\u00a0world where a single viewpoint can quickly go viral and come to dominate the view of Christians everywhere regardless of whether or not it has any foundation in the historical faith of the church. All too often we get swept over by a\u00a0tsunami\u00a0of theology that stems from little more than a passing meme, an impassioned Facebook status, a viral blog post, or even a catchy bumper sticker. Everywhere we look people seem to be\u00a0saying the same thing. So, eventually we just give up thinking for ourselves, assume that that many people can\u2019t be wrong, and conform to the mob for fear of drowning in the sea of disagreement.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, just because you read it on the internet, that doesn\u2019t make it true.<\/p>\n And just because they make a movie about it starring an Oscar winning actor, well, that doesn\u2019t make it true either.<\/p>\n But if you do decide to shell out your hard earned money to go see Left Behind<\/em> this weekend (though I can\u2019t blame you; it\u2019s all but impossible to look away from a train wreck), here are a few things to keep in mind.<\/p>\n First,\u00a0as I said\u00a0before,\u00a0the idea of a rapture never even appears on the church\u2019s radar until the late 18th and early 19th centuries.<\/em>\u00a0<\/b>You would think that such a pivotal moment in the life of the church would get a least a brief mention by someone like Luther or Calvin or Aquinas or maybe Augustine. But there is only silence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Well, the first reason is fairly straightforward.<\/p>\n The term \u201crapture\u201d appears\u00a0no where\u00a0in the Bible<\/strong><\/em>. Of course, neither does the word \u201ctrinity.\u201d But the concept of a triune God does appear throughout the New Testament.\u00a0While the idea of believers being \u201ccaught up in the air\u201d is mentioned, it is metaphorically\u00a0describing\u00a0the Second Coming. Paul is not claiming, nor even implying that Christians will disappear before all hell breaks loose on earth.<\/p>\n In fact, (and this is probably the second biggest reason the great thinkers of the church don\u2019t talk about the rapture)\u00a0the very idea of the rapture is antithetical to the narrative of scripture.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Because\u00a0the Bible is a story about a God who journeys\u00a0with\u00a0His people through hard times even when it is God who has unleashed the judgment. He doesn\u2019t pluck them out of danger<\/em><\/strong>. Whether that danger is\u00a0slavery in Egypt, wandering in the wilderness, exile in Babylon, the travails of Job, oppression under the Romans, or the persecution of the early church, God walks with God\u2019s people through the valley of the shadow of death. He doesn\u2019t snatch them out of it.<\/p>\n If that is true, then\u00a0our love for the rapture reveals a lack of love for the very world Jesus came to save<\/em><\/strong>. The very\u00a0idea\u00a0of the church abandoning the world in its time of need is endemic of an American Christianity\u00a0that is more focused on the self than the needs of the other, more gnostic (concerned with right ideas) than actually Christian, and\u00a0hyper-focused on the hereafter to the detriment of the here and now. Yes, the Second Coming is important \u2013 but so is everything that happens before.<\/p>\n But perhaps the most important thing to remember is the book of Revelation is not a road map to the future<\/strong><\/em>. It is the declaration that Jesus will return, justice will be granted to the oppressed, and all things will be made new. But it is not<\/em> attempting to give precise details on how that will happen.<\/p>\n Rather than an apocalyptic road map, Revelation is a book of worship. It exists to declare the glory, power, and grace of God. It is not a guidebook to the\u00a0apocalypse<\/em>.<\/p>\n Now, I\u00a0absolutely\u00a0believe that Jesus will return one day to wipe away every tear from our eyes and make all things new.<\/p>\n But that is the Second Coming, not the rapture. Those are two very, very<\/em> different things. One allows us to neglect the present world and let it crumble away while we focus on our own eternal glory. The other beckons us to participate in God\u2019s restoration of creation by loving His people and showing them how to live the life God intended until He does return to bring that work of redemption to final completion.<\/p>\n We are absolutely living in the last days, but as my professor said so long ago, we have been ever since Jesus walked about of the tomb on Easter morning.<\/p>\n So, let us live as if these\u00a0truly\u00a0are the last days, not by running around telling the world \u201cGood luck, we\u2019ll see you later!\u201d But by incarnating the love of God to a world desperately in need of His grace.<\/p>\n By doing that,\u00a0we affirm the truth and hope of the resurrection while showing the world that the return of our Lord is not something to be feared.<\/p>\n It\u2019s\u00a0something to celebrate.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n As I\u2019m always welcoming new people to the blog I sometimes like to revisit an old post or two that sparked a good conversation, but may have been missed by those who weren\u2019t around when it was originally posted. A slightly different version of this post first appeared in May, 2011.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m sorry Left Behind fans. But, there is no such thing as the rapture. Of course, you couldn\u2019t tell me this when I was in high school because I was head over heels in love with biblical prophecy. Nothing else mattered. I was utterly convinced that the book of Revelation was a road map to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":12300,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nscare<\/del>\u00a0let everyone around me know that the end was nigh so they would not be left behind.<\/p>\n