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."

I may have to read this one. Don't see too many Pentacostals who convert to Catholicism :-)

(Though I was at a nephew's baptism and it turned out it was performed by a Southern Methodist who converted to Catholicism..interesting guy, much more of a animated hell-raisin' style than your average Catholic Priest.)

Second only to the "Nuke Mecca!" idiots and their dumb little jpegs of mushroom clouds, the abundance of apocalyptic End-times nonsense around here is probably one of the more embarassing aspects of FR.

I'd go a bit further and describe a lot of Rapture crap as "Religious Porn"...people fantasize that when THEY are taken in the Rapture, that rich couple across the street with a nicer car and a bigger house, but who doesn't go to church, will be shocked and depressed. It's basically fantasy. Same as with Y2K when the people that bought a ton of beans and built a shelter fantasized that their unprepared neighbors would be knocking on their door begging for food.

Isn't it great that you live in a country that allows you to believe this without getting your head lopped off for believing it and speaking out about it?

Besides, you can believe what you want (it's called "free will").
I love it that Almighty God doesn't "make us" believe anything.
God gives you the free choice to be saved or lost for eternity. He isn't going to make you live with Him is you don't want...However, if you want to live with God and Jesus for eternity, you have to get there and play by His rules.

As Froest Gump says: "that's all I got to say 'bout that"

The Rapture Trap is an interesting book. I used to be of a Pentecostal persuasion and took a lot of the teachings as Gospel. But, as wit the rapture, some of this stuff was not beleived by Christians until the the late 19th or early 20th centuries.

I heartily recommend the book.

I guess it depends on the point someone is trying to make. Most of it can be, but Matthew 24 lays it out pretty well, the parable of the fig tree gives you the timing and since part of the Temple wall still exists to this day, these events did NOT happen in AD 70, so a correct interpretation would put it sometime in the future.

My wife is Catholic, but I am not, though in the services I have attended these subjects are not talked about. If Christ said to learn the parable of the fig tree, we should probably try to get the message He was teaching.

Some Talmudic saying goes, 'If you're planting a tree when you hear the messiah has come, first finish planting it, then go to greet him.'

I think it was Martin Luther that, when asked what he would do if he absolutely knew the world would end tomorrow, answered somthing like "I think I would plant a tree".

"in the twinkling of an eye,"

This is the sum total of Scripture that this guy quotes in his l'il screed.

VERRRRRY impressive and persuasive.

Catholics apologists behave like are they like Dracula, and Scripture is Daylight.

I'll never understand why people consider the 'snatching away' of the Church to be a 'fantasy' or an escape from tribulation. I suppose it's the same logic that leads people to question why the Christ had to die on a cross, or why He came to earth the first time. Bottom line is God's plans are better than our plans....His ways are higher than our ways....His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. If he plans a cross or a rapture, that's His business. He's God and we aren't.

Pre Trib, Mid Trib, Post Trib. I know many people who base their whole lives on these beliefs. They never seem to fully live today's life today.

I try to be a bit more practical. I would note that there were many, many Christians who were "in the twinkling of an eye", removed body and soul from the earth on Sept 11, 2001. No one knows how long they have, so use it fully while it is here. And be ready if it should end now.

Does that sound anything like Matt. 24:40?

"Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left."

When will we ever learn that it's not about us, or what we will do? It's all about Him and what He will do.

Great point. The pre/post/mid debate becomes an end in itself. So many Christians get caught up in this and not in living a radical Christian life as Jesus preached. Living for today as really that is all we have.

The only fruit of this debate is the further splintering of Christinity. That is why Islam is making such headway in Africa. Its more or less unified theology.

after studying church history, he too abadoned this belief.

HUH???????????????????

How could studying "church history" POSSIBLY help someone understand Biblical Doctrines??????

Do you have any idea how insane that sounds?

I'll never understand why people consider the 'snatching away' of the Church to be a 'fantasy' or an escape from tribulation.

Probably because like the article mentions, the origins of this dubious teaching spring from the efforts of just 2 pastors from the 19th century. I put the same burden of proof on the rapture as I do the book of mormon, either align with God's word I or spit it out. I spit this one out.

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