Recently in Rapture Category

I just read about Harold Camping's apology on Huffington Post.

Harold Camping predicted Christ's return would come on September 6, 1994, but also allowed that it might happen in 2011. When the 1994 date passed without event, he said that he had originally thought it would be 2011 but that a calculation error led him to believe it might be 1994.

Camping's new prediction was for Christ's return and the Rapture (where the saved - living and dead - are taken up to Heaven) on May 21, 2011, after which no more souls would be saved. The end of the world would be on October 21, 2011.

When May 2011 passed without an apparent rapture, Camping believed that Christ had come invisibly in judgment, and still waited for the end in October.

It's easy to make fun of these predictions, but that's not what I'm doing today. It's also easy to point out that there have been many predictions of the end, with a rash of them starting most recently with William Miller. We could even use this as a cautionary tale, which many no doubt will do.

But instead, I want to point out some very positive things about Harold Camping, Family Radio, and the people who listened to and believed his call.

Camping believed he knew when the end would come. Whatever we think about how he arrived at this conclusion, this is what he believed. He did not merely keep this to himself, but bravely proclaimed it on a radio network that years before he and several others had started. How many of us are courageous enough to proclaim what we really believe, even in the face of scorn and ridicule? How many of us instead keep our thoughts to ourselves, or restrict our words to what's acceptable in whatever social circle we find ourselves?

There were many jokes made about those who sold everything to proclaim the end - but what did Jesus call his disciples to do? How many of us would be ready to make a radical lifestyle change to carry the message we hear to others?

Finally, when the world did not end in October, Camping did something that is very difficult for a visible leader: he apologized and spoke of "learning to walk more humble before God". This ability to take one's ego down several notches is notably lacking in many, too often including this writer.

For me, Camping and his listeners represent a three-fold challenge:

1. To proclaim what I believe, in the face of those who ridicule me for believing in God as well as those who call me a heretic;
2. To walk in faith that a message of good news is more important than personal comfort and security; and
3. To have the humility to recognize that I see as through a reflecting glass, dimly. Part of this is to do more listening than proclaiming.

Thank you, Harold Camping, for your demonstration of how to live out one's beliefs. I pray that I may have even a portion of your courage, faith, and humility.

May God richly bless you.

Another group of believers were sincerely convinced they knew the date and time of Jesus' return and that they would all be raptured from the Earth to escape the coming tribulation. And another group was wrong.

Harold Camping of Family Radio was certain he was right. The people who listened to his radio show found his arguments convincing. And here's something to consider: if someone you trust tells you to choose between financial solvency with a future eternity in Hell and bankruptcy with a future eternity in Heaven, it's a pretty easy choice. If you're not sure which is going to come true, it gets a bit more complicated, but you're still gambling your temporary comfort against your eternal comfort.

I completely understand the kind of fear this argument instills. I grew up in the Evangelical Free church, and we were taught about the rapture. Sometimes I even worried that the rapture had happened and I was left behind.

So with one's immortal soul at stake, it makes a certain amount of sense to prove one's faith by selling everything, cashing in IRA's, pensions and 401(k) funds, and pouring all that money into billboards, vans, and RV's. These people are not crazy; they're frightened.

And now, of course, many of them are broke, unemployed, and homeless.

So first we need compassion for people who did what they thought God was calling them to do. They stepped out in faith to a degree most of us are too afraid to. Where we can, we ought to help them. They are our sisters and brothers.

Second, maybe we can start taking apart the idea of the pre-tribulation rapture so this sort of thing is less likely to occur in the future.

The modern concept of a pre-tribulation rapture came about in the nineteenth century. There have been many people who have proclaimed the date of the rapture: William Miller (see The Great Disappointment), Charles Taze Russell (whose Studies in the Scriptures were the basis of the beliefs of the Bible Students, a sect with which I was involved for a while) and others. Needless to say, none of these have come to pass.

It would be silly for a progressive theologian to say new ideas are inherently useless. There are plenty of new theological ideas, and some of them are very interesting. So I'm not going to say that a pre-tribulation rapture can't be true because it's a relatively young idea.

What I will say, however, is that I find a pre-tribulation rapture a little odd for Christianity. Here's why:

Jesus (however you understand Jesus - human, divine, both, neither?) could have avoided torturous death, but didn't. And Jesus not only suffered a sacrificial death, he lived a sacrificial life.

So I find it a little odd that people who claim to follow Jesus, the one who said "take up your cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23), should be looking for a way to escape the trouble and leave others to suffer.

One possible problem with such a theology is neglect of the environment. There have been people who argued against ecological concern because they expected an imminent rapture. To me, that's a bit like trashing the apartment when you move out.

Another problematic symptom can be smug superiority. "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned" is one bumper sticker. I've seen comments like "I'll be laughing in heaven while you suffer on Earth". Imagine Jesus taunting a prisoner this way - is that the Jesus of the Gospels?

One could also not care to help the suffering in this world, because it will all be over soon (at least for the righteous). Forget "blessed are the poor", and never mind the oppressed.

Of course, not all believers in a pre-tribulation rapture act these ways. The primary problem I have with the pre-tribulation rapture is that it suggests that some set of us with the right faith, the right knowledge, a kind of Gnosis... can escape trouble.

But we're Jesus' people,

and if we are to follow Jesus' way,

and serve like Jesus,

and take up our own crosses,

and be faithful unto death...

I don't think we get a pass on the struggles of life. Rather, I think we ought to be in the midst of them, struggling with our sisters and brothers.

However we believe our lives - and our world - will end, if we are followers of Jesus, we will love our neighbors as ourselves.

If we see how Jesus came as a servant, we will also be servants.

If we have been blessed by God, we will pour those blessings out on others.

We may not die a sacrificial death as Jesus did, but we can live a sacrificial life. Perhaps we can't do so to the degree that Jesus did, but as best as we are able, our call is to stay here to help those who struggle, to love the unloved, to care for the suffering.

Today, I will offer this prayer:

God, I pray that I will not be raptured,
and that you will help me to show my faith
not by impoverishing myself to prove my trust,
but by using the ways you have blessed me
to bless others.
Do not let me escape the trouble that comes to my neighbor
But let me be a help to her and to him
As you have been a help to me.
Amen.