Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Afraid You’ll be Left Behind? The Rapture Trap.
The National Review ^ | November 18, 2002 | Rod Dreher

Posted on 11/18/2002 8:04:41 AM PST by american colleen

Afraid You’ll be Left Behind? The Rapture Trap.

In 1980, I was 13 years old, and someone had given me a copy of Hal Lindsey's mega-selling The Late Great Planet Earth to read. The Soviets were in Afghanistan, the American hostages were in Tehran, I had become fixated on the fear of nuclear war and — suddenly, thanks to Late Great, the chaos all made sense. There was no need to be afraid. This was all part of God's plan. Accept Jesus as your personal savior, and you wouldn't have to suffer through the worst of what was to come, for you would be spirited away in the Rapture. And if you didn't — well, too bad for you when the Antichrist comes knocking.

The premillenial Rapture is the belief, held by many Protestant Christians, that believers will, "in the twinkling of an eye," be taken body and soul into heaven to meet Jesus Christ — this, just as the world is on the brink of seven years of unprecedented suffering and strife, preceding the Second Coming and the end of history. If you think the end of the world is upon us, it's easy to see why believing you won't have to suffer the worst of it would be calming. On the other hand, you might exchange one set of fears for another. When I was in Late Great's grip, I would wake up every morning in a mild state of panic, wondering if the Rapture had happened while you were sleeping, and I'd been … left behind!

I don't believe in the premillenial Rapture anymore, but it's easy to see why so many people want to. For Christians and others whose religious beliefs predict an apocalyptic final act (even Islam and the New Age have their own versions), these days are unusually anxious. It isn't difficult to find in today's headlines — wars, rumors of wars, natural disasters, plagues, religious strife and technology run amok — evidence for the belief that history is quickening toward some sort of climax.

No wonder, then, that the same sensational theological teachings that excited believers in the 1970s and earlier are more popular than ever. The Left Behind fiction series, whose title refers to those who weren't raptured before the Apocalypse, may well be the best-selling Christian books of all time, not counting the Bible.

Given the amount of popular publicity given to the Rapture and its attendant doctrines, it may surprise (and disappoint) many Christians to learn that this set of beliefs, generally called "dispensationalism," is not explicitly taught by the Bible, nor has ever been widely held by Christians.

In fact, neither Roman Catholicism nor Eastern Orthodoxy, which together include most of the world's Christians who live now and who have ever lived, profess dispensationalist eschatology (which means the study of the End Times). The Rapture is also alien to the historical Protestant confessions (as this story from a Baptist newspaper makes clear). Martin Luther had never heard of such a thing, nor had John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, or any other Protestant divine until a pair of 19th-century British small-sect pastors developed the notion apparently independent of each other. One of the men, John Nelson Darby, traveled widely in North America between 1859 and 1874, where his dispensationalist teachings spread like wildfire. (For a more detailed explanation of this theology from a dispensationalist viewpoint, go here and here)

Given world events, particularly in the Middle East and Europe, the dispensationalist fire continues to roar among Christians, who understandably want to know if today's headlines can be explained and tomorrow's headlines can be predicted from ancient Scripture. Unfortunately, many Christians are under the impression that dispensationalist teaching — on Christianity's theological fringe, historically speaking — is the first and last word on the matter. Most Catholic priests, as well as their mainline Protestant counterparts, downplay or ignore their congregations' natural — and sociologically predictable — interest in the End Times, leaving lay believers open to instruction by those who, however misguided, take it seriously. That's why Paul Thigpen, a Yale-trained religious historian and Catholic convert, wrote The Rapture Trap.

"I began to see so many Catholics taken in by this Left Behind stuff, because they've had no religious instruction in eschatology," Thigpen tells NRO. "In so many parishes the homilies are like, 'Love your neighbor, be nice.' If priests never get around to talking about who Jesus is, there's no way they're ever going to get around to talking about the Second Coming."

Though he writes from a Catholic perspective, Thigpen, an ex-Pentecostal and former editor of Charisma magazine, takes care to demonstrate in the book how none of the leaders of the Reformation believed in the Rapture. He says the "historical myopia" of American culture leaves people vulnerable to those who can exploit ignorance of the past with convincing presentations of vivid theologies. Besides, America has always been fertile ground for apocalyptic religion.

"In the early days, the Puritans thought the Kingdom of God would start in North America, in their colony," Thigpen says. "We have several large denominations in America, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, who owe their existence to millennial fervor."

Eschatalogically-focused expressions of faith have swelled in popularity during times of social distress and dislocation, such as after the Civil War, and during the period of rapid industrialization and immigration. There was another great surge of it following World War II, says Thigpen, and again in the 1970s, as a reaction to countercultural upheaval. The dispensationalist apologetic The Late Great Planet Earth was the best-selling nonfiction book of the decade, and though he has never apologized for his erroneous predictions in that book, author Hal Lindsey continues to be considered by many an authority on Biblical prophecy. Being a dispensationalist evangelist means never having to say you're sorry.

Why should any of this matter? As I wrote this past summer, apocalyptic beliefs dictate the behavior of many true believers. American dispensationalists were early non-Jewish supporters of Zionism, believing that the ingathering of diaspora Jews to their Biblical homeland was a necessary precursor for the return of Christ. Though many Evangelicals and other Christians support Israel today for other reasons, no small number of them do so because their end-times belief mandates it. Thigpen is not so much worried that Rapture-expecting Christians will blow up Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock to hasten Armageddon as he is concerned about the spiritual harm that may result from acceptance of dispensationalist beliefs.

"When times look tough and threatening, perhaps people find a comfort in believing in the Rapture, that God will help them escape events before they become too bad," Thigpen says. "Ideas have consequences. One, the Rapture doctrine ignores the redemptive power of suffering, which is a powerful Christian theme. Two, the Bible also shows that God chastises His people as well as their enemies; believers share in suffering as well. Three, if people wrongly believe Christians won't be around for the persecution that Scripture tells us will precede the Second Coming, they won't prepare themselves spiritually or otherwise."

Just because Catholicism doesn't teach the Rapture or focus on end-times prophecy doesn't mean the Catholic world has escaped popular apocalypticism. The particularly Catholic version comes as a mania for apocalypse-centered apparitions and private revelations claimed by contemporary visionaries. The Rapture Trap writes of the spiritual danger of uncritically accepting such claims, and offers discernment guidelines drawn from Catholicism's conservative tradition.

"What we're dealing with are people who are scared and confused by what's going on in the world today, and who aren't getting the information they need to separate what's real from what's vain and even harmful speculation," Thigpen says. "As Christians, we believe Jesus is coming back, and we have to be ready for that to happen at any moment. But this game of 'plug the headline into the Scripture verse,' or into the latest message from a supposed apparition, is a losing proposition."


TOPICS: Current Events; General Discusssion; History; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture; Theology
KEYWORDS: catholiclist; rapturetrap
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 421-426 next last
To: patent
<> I knew you I was right to be suspicious of you. Here you are giving away way too much inside information. You are caught red-handed. I have notified my handler and you can kiss your 87% savings account interest at the Vatican Bank good-bye.

I would like to let the "others" know - and they know who they are - that information will be forthcoming re a new password and handshake.<>

61 posted on 11/18/2002 11:29:43 AM PST by Catholicguy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: ksen; Polycarp
I don't think she was banned, just driven off by her own.

polycarp: By the way, Irisshlass was wrong. We're not trying to get anyone banned. She was a disruptor who did a fine job driving a wedge not only between Catholics but also between Catholic and non-Catholic friends.

BigMack

62 posted on 11/18/2002 11:31:30 AM PST by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 48 | View Replies]

To: patent; PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
Come on I discuss doctrine..that is historical as the church itself..Ya want to ping the monitor on me now or later?
63 posted on 11/18/2002 11:31:51 AM PST by RnMomof7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
Some folks make their own beds but complain when they lie in it that it was others who put the lumps in there.
64 posted on 11/18/2002 11:33:10 AM PST by Polycarp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
I don't believe you're a part of the underground Catholic kabal on FR,
Oh what, and there aren’t various “underground non-Catholic kabals” as well, whatever that means? Give me a break.

patent  +AMDG

65 posted on 11/18/2002 11:36:48 AM PST by patent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: Polycarp
I discern very well Poly ...vey well..
My point to you was that there are saving gospels and there are daming gospels..

Gal 1:7   Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
  
  Gal 1:8   But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
  
  Gal 1:9   As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
  
  Gal 1:10   For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
  
  Gal 1:11   But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
  
  Gal 1:12   For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught [it], but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
66 posted on 11/18/2002 11:36:59 AM PST by RnMomof7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
I left the Neverending thread for exactly what you state about baiting. I didn't complain about it, I just left the thread.

There is no underground "Catholic kabal on FR" just like there is no "Calvinist Coterie" or "Fundamentalist Federation" or "Lutheran Lair." (I could go on, this is fun)

I posted the thread, not Polycarp. And he didn't ask me to post it, either.

67 posted on 11/18/2002 11:38:08 AM PST by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
I thought you quit FR?
68 posted on 11/18/2002 11:39:04 AM PST by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
I do have a problem with others bating others for the intention of getting them banned. And if you think that is not going on here, ya haven't been paying attention.

Yeah, right. The only baithing that is going on is not to get anyone banned but to get them to post their stereotypical hogwash so all know what they are about here.

The anger is that certain FReepers are so easily manipulated and predictable and that we have told you so.

The intention of getting them banned exists only in your paranoid minds, admittedly fanned into fantasmagoria by one of our own.

69 posted on 11/18/2002 11:40:06 AM PST by Polycarp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: Polycarp
fantasmagoria

Can I borrow your thesaurus?
70 posted on 11/18/2002 11:42:04 AM PST by Desdemona
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: RnMomof7
Sure ya are, and if one of us slips up and says something bad enough about catholics, you will start pinging the mods.
You mean like RNMom does?
Come on I discuss doctrine..that is historical as the church itself..
BS. You know full well what you do, you admitted pushing the abuse button, not once, but twice on Polycarp. That isn’t even counting all the times you won’t admit it.

You cry about others pushing the abuse button, but then you do the very same thing.

Ya want to ping the monitor on me now or later?
You are as dishonest as they come. You know I don’t push the abuse button, and you have admitted that several times. Yet every time the discussion comes up you find another way to infer that I do. I’m more for open discussion than you are. You seem to have a problem with allowing open discussion when we actually quote other Calvinists and their hateful bigoted little screeds.

patent  +AMDG

71 posted on 11/18/2002 11:43:24 AM PST by patent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Desdemona
And I need his spell checker. Mine's busted again.
72 posted on 11/18/2002 11:43:31 AM PST by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Polycarp
The intention of getting them banned exists only in your paranoid minds, admittedly fanned into fantasmagoria by one of our own.

Huh? Did I miss something over the weekend?

73 posted on 11/18/2002 11:43:52 AM PST by malakhi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: american colleen
No, I just backed way off from posting, went back to work. :) I'm on a late lunch break.

BigMack

74 posted on 11/18/2002 11:45:23 AM PST by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: angelo
>>>Huh? Did I miss something over the weekend?

Fantasia is playing at the Westview 12 theater again.

75 posted on 11/18/2002 11:45:28 AM PST by patent
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: Polycarp
The intention of getting them banned exists only in your paranoid minds, admittedly fanned into fantasmagoria by one of our own.

LOL...the only people who believe this is your band of merry followers. ROFLOL

BigMack

76 posted on 11/18/2002 11:48:28 AM PST by PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain
I'm on a late lunch break.

Oh, um, ya, right... me too... ;-)

77 posted on 11/18/2002 11:48:51 AM PST by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: patent

78 posted on 11/18/2002 11:50:19 AM PST by malakhi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

We're caught in a trap
I can't walk out
Because I love you too much baby
Why can't you see
What you're doing to me
When you don't believe a word I say?
We can't go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can't build our dreams
On suspicious minds
So, if an old friend I know
Drops by to say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes?
Here we go again
Asking where I've been
You can't see these tears are real
I'm crying
We can't go on together
With suspicious minds
And be can't build our dreams
On suspicious minds
Oh let our love survive
Or dry the tears from your eyes
Let's don't let a good thing die
When honey, you know
I've never lied to you
Mmm yeah, yeah
79 posted on 11/18/2002 11:50:19 AM PST by american colleen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: angelo
SO, is like a chandelier going to fall anytime soon?

"Masquerade...faces on parade"

(I never did manage to memorize this)
80 posted on 11/18/2002 11:51:47 AM PST by Desdemona
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 421-426 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson