Not the End 2 – The Rapture

Second installment in what we don’t believe about The End.

(I am discussing these ideas here to avoid using teaching time in the pulpit to discuss things that we do not believe.)

We don’t believe that The Left Behind books are Holy Scripture.

Well, maybe I am being presumptuous. Some of us do in fact believe it, that is part of why we are teaching on the The End this Advent.

But the great ancient undivided Church, which today includes those called Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and lots of others, That Church, got along just fine for 1800 odd years without teaching a rapture and we do not teach it today.

For those of you who missed the best selling Left Behind series, the premise is this:

Jesus will “rapture” or take up to heaven all the faithful and the lukewarm or worse will be “left behind” to suffer adventures.

First, check the Bible – Number of times the word “rapture” occurs = zero. Now that is true of a lot of words, and a translator can do a lot if they want to, so lets see what the text does say.

The title Left Behind comes from Luke 17:34 and others where Jesus says:

“I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left."

Looks pretty strong, doesn’t it? But let’s put a little context on it.

“26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them 30 --it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. 32 Remember Lot's wife. 33 Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. 34 I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35 There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left."  37 Then they asked him, "Where, Lord?" He said to them, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."

In the days of Noah who got left behind? Noah! He lived.

In Sodom who got left behind? Lot! He lived!

Jesus says, “one will be taken”

they ask, “Where, Lord?”

and Jesus answers, "Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." Ooo nasty!

Is it just me, or do the ones taken away seem to be the losers in this?

The rapture is not an ancient doctrine of this or any Christian Tradition. In fact, our very own Christ Episcopal Church, Matagorda, Texas is slightly older than Darby Premillennial Dispensationalism. This the novel and complicated theology (Google it if you must) developed, in part, by John Nelson Darby (18 November 1800 – 29 April 1882). Darby started out as an Anglican (Church of Ireland) Priest but left to form a new movement called the Plymouth Brethren.

Is someone who follows Darby dammed? Of course not!

Jesus is Lord and Christians believe lots of things differently from one another without courting damnation. But nobody is well served when we do not know what we believe or why.

This is where you are invited to sign up for the inquirer’s series “What we believe, and why we believe it” starting soon.

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