Either America will elect the "right" person in the upcoming election (which for most fundamentalist Christians is almost anyone other than the current president) or America, and the world, should prepare for the end, commonly referred by them as "The Rapture."
As you might know, in the worldview of many Christians, mostly fundamentalist Christians, moral relativism and political unrest are signs that the end is near. Each time there is an election, for example, or an increase in the frequency of natural disasters and/or political and social unrest, there is a noticeable increase in frequency with which these church leaders talk about the end of the world, especially in terms of the Rapture.
The Rapture is a belief system about how human history will end. At its core, its proponents believe that believers in Jesus, or the church, will be "raptured," or snatched up from the surface of the earth and gathered together in the clouds, just prior to the Great Tribulation and the rise of the Antichrist. What "Rapturist" proponents do not tell you, however, most likely because they do not know, is that the Rapture is not taught anywhere in Bible.
Nowhere. Nada.
The only vague reference to anything remotely close to the idea of Rapture is found in Saint Paul's Letter to the Thessalonians. But there Saint Paul is trying to reassure people that they were eternal, not temporal, since most of them had grown up in a world that had little or no confidence in an afterlife.
Given the preoccupation of people in the West, however, with thoughts about and a belief in an afterlife, it is impossible to imagine a world that had little or no confidence in it. But, this was the situation Saint Paul addressed. As a result, his purpose in writing these words was to reassure the Thessalonian followers of Jesus that there is life beyond this one. Apart from this purpose, however, the differences in interpretations about future events, known as eschatology among theologians, as well as the type and timing of future events, quickly morphs into an incomprehensible pattern of nonsense.
There are those, for example, who call themselves pre-millennialists, others who are post-millennialists, and still others who identify themselves as amillennialists. But, even this only scratches the surface of eschatological madness. Among the pre-millennialists, there are Historic pre-millennialists and dispensational pre-millennialists. And, if that were not confusing enough, among the dispensational pre-millennialists, there are progressive dispensational pre-millennialists as well as the pre-tribulation dispensational pre-millennialists. It's confusing. It's nonsense. And, it is insane. (From the book, The Enoch Factor).
Just as nobody knows the outcome of the upcoming election, nobody knows what will happen in the future. Jesus said as much (Matt. 24:36). What we do know is that our choices today determine our legacy tomorrow. This, in the East, is Karma, known in the West as "sowing and reaping."
In many places, the church today continues to marginalize itself with its insane preoccupation with a return to the practices of the past and its preoccupation with the events of the future. Living in the present, however, is the way and teaching of Jesus, as well as every other spiritual master throughout history. It is unfortunate, as Erik Reece has pointedly observed in An American Gospel, "The relevance of Christianity to most Americans...has far more to do with the promise of eternal salvation from this world than with any desire to practice the teachings of Jesus while we are here."
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What is the Rapture of the church?
Rapture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
That Protestant.
Well dressed persons going door to door to discus the Bible were common. Persons leaving flyers about the End Days were also common. Imagine my surprise when one Saturday, while pretending to care what our neighbors thought of our Bohemian lawn by putting out a sprinkler, two well dressed ladies of uncertain vintage, (It's hard to tell how old women are when they all dress like it's 1957) buttonholed me on my porch and handed me some slick pamphlets advertising a guest speaker at their church that evening.
They didn't stay to talk, they just smiled and said that they hoped I could make it. I could tell from the way they looked at my lawn, and my five day growth of beard and my bottle of Budweiser, (It was MY porch, dag-nabbit!) they hoped nothing of the sort.
The guest speaker was going to guest speak on the subject of The Rapture being utter nonsense.
SHAZAM! Another cherished prejudice bit the dust. I thought ALL self-proclaimed Evangelicals bought into that. Nope.
But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Maybe if churches stuck with what the Bible actually says and encouraged their congregations to read it carefully (and entirely) they might not have such trouble finding thoughtful adherents.
As an atheist, the only proper response to this acknowledgment of the obvious is: Amen.
You make some very good observations - especially about "fundamental Christians" and their obsession with salvation and the end of times. The problem is, that RARELY in the media do we have articles or features about what "Other Christians" like myself, believe. That the true aspect of Christianity is to follow the life teachings and examples of Jesus. We look to The Gospels for our direction.
I don't think we are the minority as much as we're just not "in your face controversial" as the fundamentalists, so we don't get in the press. Also, we're all busy trying to live a life beyond consumption and waste so we haven't the time or inclination to get in someone's face.
Too bad the media is hyper focused on the radicals and disinterested in everyone else - otherwise, Christianity wouldn't get such a bad rap in our mainstream culture!
Thanks for the article. Just wish HP would "report" more on the Christians who know that "walking the walk" is far more like Jesus, then "talking the talk!"
I'm sorry for your interpretation of Christ. Jesus said the two MOST IMPORTANT things were to: 1) Love God with all your heart and soul and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself.
The first one I do as do most Christians who are looking at Christ as their Holy "example." The second one requires "action" my friend. JUST loving God/Christ is NOT all we are here to do. Otherwise, Jesus would have never set all of the examples he did for us or taught the truths of The Sermon on The Mount.
Christ referred to "Man's Good Works" in the context that if all we do is just to be praised or glorified then we've missed the boat. THAT said, Christ taught BY EXAMPLE to show us how to live while we are here on the Earth. Sooooo, you think that as long as you just "love and believe in Christ" and ignore an injured person you pass, that you've "done your job as a Christian?"
Read Matthew 25:31-46 and then tell me that Christ ONLY intended for us to "believe in him" but to not hold his Love and Mercy in our hearts and in our actions...
God's Peace.
Paul, go through His Word with a fine tooth comb, read what HE had to say about the righteous...and the self-righteous. I'm not pointing any fingers in saying that you are having a very difficult time distinguishing between the two.