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“The Rapture Exposed”A study on the practical use of the Book of Revelation

and its dangers using Dr. Barbara Rossing’s Book, The Rapture Exposed

Mt. Joy - St. Paul’s Lutheran ParishPastor Matt Day

M. A. Day! 1Mt. Joy - St. Paul’s Lutheran Parish

Session 1: The Destructive Racket of Rapture and the Invention of the Rapture! First off, why are we studying the book of Revelation (and other prophetic books)? Mainly because there are a lot of interpretations about this book and other, but few are very good. Many are mis-informed and lack a necessary message of hope. The entire Bible is about hope - how God has worked through the people. It makes no sense that God would change this strategy in the last book. ! In the preface of the book, The Rapture Exposed, Barbara Rossing explains why she wrote this book and why she is so passionate about presenting Revelation as message of hope:

! The Rapture Exposed was released the same day as the twel"h Le" Behind novel, The Glorious Appearing. That evening, on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, I was asked to say in seven seconds why I consider Le" Behind theology so dangerous: “God is coming to heal the world, not to ki$ mi$ions of people,” I said. God loves the world, and God wi$ never leave the world behind...! In every appearance in the media, I have tried to emphasize the message of hope that is at the heart of the Bible. In a CBS Sixty Minutes II segment ca$ed “The Greatest Story Ever Sold,” Morley Safer invited me to respond to the claims of authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins that Jesus will return to earth as an avenging warrior to attack his enemies so that their “eyes melt in their heads, their tongues disintegrate, their flesh drops off.” In contrast to these graphica$y violent descriptions of Jesus ki$ing a$ nonbelievers, I have underscored the central image of Jesus as the nonviolent Lamb, who triumphs not by ki$ing people but by giving his life in love. When I lecture at churches or co$eges people te$ me how grateful they are for this interpretation.# Love and healing—not Armageddon and war—are the messages people of faith must keep lifting up as God’s vision for our world. The message of the biblical book of Revelation is not of despair or war, but of transformation and justice. Its tree of life and river of life give hope for each one of us and for our whole world. Revelation’s urgent message to us is one of ethics, not escape. We must re-claim the heart of the Bible as a story of God’s love for the world—a world that will not be left behind.1

There is a danger in viewing the world simply with the lenses of destruction. Most recently as of 2005, LaHaye and Jenkins put out a new series where they took the events of the day to support their theology, rather than using Biblical theology (and they are profiting off of creating fear among God’s people:

What was publicized as the final Le" Behind novel was not so final a"er a$. A new, prequel trilogy has been launched—beginning with The Rising—that tells the story of the Antichrist’s conception. The authors continue to update their prophecies


1 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation . Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

in light of geopolitical events. On the Left Behind web page, for $19.95, you can read an action-packed summary of how the Iraq War and the tsunami-causing earthquake offered “compelling signs of the end-times in 2004.” LaHaye stopped just short of telling MSNBC that the tsunami that killed some 200,000 people on December 26, 2004, was God’s will. He makes little secret of the fact that he views earthquakes, floods, and global environmental deterioration as signs of the fulfi$ment of Bible prophecy. Floods and environmental calamities should be a cause for Christian concern, but not prophetic excitement.2

I think theology and the church cheapens itself when instead of using sound doctrine and theology, the church must resort to the use of fear to gain members. Whenever fear is used instead of hope, we do an incredible disservice to work of Jesus. The cross is the greatest symbol of hope - for it was on a symbol of death and torture, God gave us new life and a place to focus on when we feel like we are all alone, hanging on our own cross. When we take away the hope of Jesus’s salvific act, we completely lose sight of the gospel. ! When I was in college, the Le" Behind series was very popular. It was because of these books that this Rapture theology gained momentum. I remember my friend Autumn talking about her childhood of going to school with those who believed in the rapture and she would come home terrified that she was go to hell because she was Lutheran. This is the case for many in our community and world, and something I think is what might be leading so many away from the church. Rossing writes:

The personal dimension of Rapture fear has also become more real to me through people who have told me their stories since the book was published. A caller on WBUR’s On Point told his own story of growing up in fear of the Rapture, a story I have heard again and again. Even adults who long ago cut their ties with fundamentalism continue to be haunted by this fear. A Lutheran from Montana has worried for thirty years that her fundamentalist relatives might still be right that she would go to hell. “Now I see how the Bible doesn’t say what they have been claiming,” she told me. “Your book has been a blessing.”3

So what the point then to the book of Revelation? I think it this:A river of life flows through the Bible and the book of Revelation, a river flowing %om the throne of God to bring healing to our world. Revelation offers its wondrous water of life as a gi" to a$ who are thirsty for God’s presence. This book is written to help people see and fo$ow that biblical river in their lives.4

*****! So now that you have all heard my opening speech, I think we should begin by talking about the theology of the traditional church to this theology of fear and terror. Supposedly, Martin Luther once said, “If I knew the world were going to end tomorrow I would plant a tree.” Meaning, Luther believed the end of the world was not a destructive


2 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation . Basic Books. Kindle Edition.3 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation . Basic Books. Kindle Edition.4 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation . Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

force, but rather a renewing of creation - hence why he would plant an apple tree. The Le' Behind books, however have a different idea they like to promote:

• I need a new car. Something tells me it’s going to be our only chance to survive. • We need a shelter . . . I’m talking about getting an earthmover in here and digging

out a place we can escape to. That is very different language and not very helpful when talking about the end of time (in my humble opinion anyways...). Rapture theology focuses on individualism, rather than on the on the community. Rapture theology also focuses on just one part of the story found in Revelation - the devastation and destruction.

In place of Revelation’s vision of the Lamb’s vulnerable self-giving love, the Rapture celebrates the lion-like wrath of the Lamb. This theology is not biblical. We are not Raptured off the earth, nor is God. No, God has come to live in the world through Jesus. God created the world, God loves the world, and God will never leave the world behind!5

The only thing biblical about this Left Behind language is...6

! Rapture theology is constantly using imagery from today to give itself relevancy, credence, and authority. How many remember that atomic clock developed in 1947 by nuclear scientists as a way of warning the world of the threat of a nuclear attack. As the hands more closer to midnight the threat grew and as the threat retreated, so did the hands on the clock. John Hagee used this message in one of his books. “God has a similar clock, my friend, and its hands never move backward,” but Hagee misuses this clock reference.


5 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (pp. 1-2). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.6 ☺

Rossing explains, “The nuclear scientists developed their clock to alert the world to our perilous situation so that the hands will never reach midnight. The scientists are trying to keep us from destroying the world.”7

! And that something we must remember that is so dangerous with Rapture Theology. If all you do is wish and hope for destruction, it will happen eventually, because you won’t seek other alternatives. There is a quote from Star Trek: Next Generation from Guinan. Captain Picard has been capture by the Borg and Commander Riker is the acting-Captain. Guinan comes into his office after she heard many of the crew talking about how they fear they will be dead tomorrow. She said to Riker, “When a man is convinced he's going to die tomorrow, he'll probably find a way to make it happen.”8

*****! Before we continue on, I think we need to give a basic definition of what is Rapture Theology. Rossing gives us a simple definition:

Proponents of the Rapture are confident that Jesus wi$ come to snatch or “Rapture” them up to heaven before unleashing a seven-year period of global tribulation and terrible destruction on the earth. Lindsey interprets Revelation’s reference to “those who dwe$ in heaven” in chapter 12 of Revelation as proof that he and other Christians wi$ not be found on earth during the woes and tribulation but rather wi$ be part of “another special group ca$ed ‘those who dwe$ in heaven.’” Only non-Christians wi$ suffer the fate of being “le" behind” on earth.9

*****! What I really find interesting is how misconstrued Rapture theology has become in areas we take for granted. On page 4, Rossing says the Lord’s prayer is never mentioned in any of the Le" Behind books. The Lord’s prayer was something that Jesus gave to his disciples to use when they were in these situations of fear and terror - to pray when words were fleeting. The scenarios described in the Le" Behind books would be the perfect time to pray the Lord’s prayer, especially the petition - Thy kingdom come. Our urgency is more about God’s reign. Rapture theology’s urgency is for the destruction of the world so that the kingdom of God can come about. ! Rapture theology speaks about the destruction of the earth and teaches that once the earth is destroyed, we will get a new earth. Where in the world did they get such an idea?

# Left Behind author Tim LaHaye also engages in planetary speculation regarding earth’s destruction and the creation of the “new earth” of Revelation 21. He explains how God’s future timetable “does away with this planet as we know it” in two events of destruction. Earth’s first destruction wi$ be by fire while the second destruction wi$ be more severe, and wi$ include even the atmosphere. Here LaHaye fabricates a distinction between three different heavens in the Bible—the atmospheric heaven around the earth, which he says is the “abode of Satan”; a second, ste$ar heaven that contains the stars; and the third heaven, the heaven of the throne of God in the visions of Revelation 4 and 5, which wi$ not be destroyed. The atmospheric heaven is what God plans to destroy in Revelation 21:1, according to LaHaye. “God will destroy this earth that is so marred and cursed


7 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 2). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.8 "Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Best of Both Worlds: Part 2 (#4.1)" (1990)9 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 3). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708786/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708786/

by Satan’s evil. He will include the atmospheric heaven to guarantee that all semblance of evil has been cleared away.”! Only a"er those two destructions wi$ God create a new heaven and a new earth, says LaHaye. He fantasizes that the new earth may not be “limited to the twenty-five thousand miles in circumference and eight thousand miles in diameter of the present earth. It may be much larger; the Bible does not say.” In addition to a larger-size earth, LaHaye speculates about how the new planet won’t waste any space with oceans or mountains or deserts, since such landscapes are uninhabitable for humans and are therefore “worthless.” 10

Here is the problem with this theology. Rossing says, “God created the earth’s mountains and deserts and called them “good”—they are not worthless to their Creator. Earth’s atmosphere, too, was created by God, and God laments over it when we destroy it.”11 Rossing goes onto write in more detail:

To be sure, Revelation proclaims a “new heaven and a new earth,” but that does not mean that God gives us a replacement for this current earth when we damage it beyond recovery. A new earth is not something we go out and get as born-again hero Buck Wi$iams gets a new car in the Le" Behind novels. Rather the earth becomes “new” in the sense of resurrection or renewal—just as our bodies will be resurrected, brought to new life, but they are still our bodies. The whole creation is longing for redemption, the apostle Paul writes—this is the sense in which there wi$ be a new creation. It, too, wi$ be redeemed, made new. The Greek word used for the “new” earth in Revelation 21:1 can mean either “renewed” or “new”—but it certainly does not mean a “different” earth. There is no justification for using up the earth on the grounds that we get to trade this one in for a new and bigger one in seven years.12

We also have to deal with this destruction language used in Rapture Theology. In the story of the flood and Noah, God specifically promises to never again will destroy the earth...“I will never again curse the ground because of humankind.” Does Revelation somehow negate God’s promise and covenant to Abraham? Well, maybe, but remember this - if God is will to break a covenant with his people, can God also break his covenant with us as well? What if God decides to send another savior and we do not believe him, what would happen to us then? We set ourselves up for a dangerous precedent when we use this kind of logic and it really have no Biblical merit to support this way of thinking. Rossing writes, “There is no indication that God will suspend the promise of caring for the earth for what Lindsey, Hagee, and LaHaye claim will be seven years of end-times tribulation. The Bible is clear: God so loved the world, and God continues to love it. Sadly, what gets “left behind” by the Rapture plotline is the Bible itself.”13

*****


10 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (pp. 5-6). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.11 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (pp. 6). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.12 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 7). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.13 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 9). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

! The gospel of John begins by describing how God has been with this world since the dawn of time and at the one of the bleakest time in human history, the Word of God became flesh and lived amongst us. Rossing writes, “God does not come to take us away from this earth, but rather comes to dwell with us in every joy and every sorrow, in every blazing display of nature’s beauty that is never spent.”14 If in the end, all God wants to do is snatch away those faithful people, why did God go through all the trouble of being born in a manger; living among the poor, sick, outcast, etc; be humiliated in a public death; be raised from the dead; and deal with a group of guys who never understand what is going on? Why go through all the trouble?! Rapture theology is really not dependent on Jesus being present (and if that doesn’t send up red flags, I don’t know what will). Rossing writes:

The Bible would never a$ow the claim that the world “belongs” to the Antichrist! According to Revelation 1:5, Jesus—not Antichrist—is the “ruler of the kings of the earth.” When Jesus said in the Gospel of John that “the ruler of this world is cast out” he confirmed that evil powers once ruled the world—but that they were cast out once and for a$. Satan no longer rules. In Christ’s death and resurrection “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (Rev 11:15).15

I think a theology that is not Christ-dependent is a theology doomed to set people up for failure. If Jesus is the point, why he is not front and center in the rapture theology? Rapture theology’s goal is “not to make the world a better place, but to save people out of the world. You don’t need Jesus to do that, just a really good bunker (and you might as well throw in some kool-aid for good measure ☺).! The early church lived in this state of the second coming more so than we do today. They believed that it was coming soon - within their life time. The apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in his first letter about their belief. Rapture theologians love to quote parts of 1 Thessalonians, but they never want to talk about the whole story. While the people believed Jesus would come in their lifetime, they did not go out and clear cut forests or bunker-down in isolated areas. Rossing writes:

They cared for one another and for their neighbors in a very public and open way. Love of neighbor and hospitality to strangers was Christians’ surest response to life on the brink of the end times. They gathered together and worshiped God, convinced that “Jesus has set up here on earth a community that is an alternative to empire,” as Chilean scholar Pablo Richard describes early Christian ethics in his powerful commentary on Revelation. Early Christians ministered to the poor. They visited prisoners. They broke bread together, they sang hymns to God and the Lamb. As a second-century opponent of Christianity, Governor Pliny, described Christians’ conduct in a letter to the emperor Trajan, early Christians would “pledge themselves by an oath not to engage in any crime, but to abstain %om a$ thievery, assault and


14 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 11). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.15 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 12). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

adultery, not to break their word once they had given it, and not to refuse to pay their legal debts.”16

The early church did not live in fear of this day, but they expected this day to come and bring life to the community. The community they shared would be expanded in the day of Christ’s return - not destruction but life. Rossing writes, “Early Christians did not fight. They engaged in spiritual warfare only by using the weapons of love—loving their enemies and praying for those who persecuted them. Seeing this amazing self-giving love—not displays of Christians’ superior technology or miraculous powers—was what persuaded many pagans to convert to christianity.”17

*****! Okay, so the Rapture theology is all about destruction - we understand this. But where did this word “Rapture” come from? First, where did this theology originate?

! The Rapture has its origins in the nineteenth century—beginning, according to one critic, with a young girl’s vision.2 In 1830, in Port Glasgow, Scotland, fi"een-year-old Margaret MacDonald attended a healing service. There, she was said to have seen a vision of a two-stage return of Jesus Christ.3 The story of her vision was adopted and amplified by John Nelson Darby, a British evangelical preacher and founder of the Plymouth Brethren. ! At the time, the belief that Jesus wi$ come again was not new. Christians have always taught that Jesus wi$ return to earth and that believers should live in the urgent and hopeful anticipation of his second coming. This teaching is central to ancient Christian creeds and is taught by a$ churches. But Darby’s new teaching was the claim that Christ would return twice. The first return would be in secret, to “Rapture” his church out of the world and up to heaven. Christ would return a second time a"er seven years of global tribulation to establish a Jerusalem-based kingdom on earth (which they ca$ the “Glorious Appearing,” a phrase %om Titus 2:13). For Darby and his sympathizers, the search was on for Bible verses to support this two-stage version of Christ’s return.18

He lies the problem. Darby had to go to the Bible to find a basis for his theology. He did not read the Bible, as was the case for Martin Luther when he promoted the idea of Justification by grace through faith. There is no specific passage in the bible that mentions or uses the word Rapture. Rossing explains, “Although the word “Rapture” does not occur in the Bible, believers explain that it comes from the Latin word raptio, a translation of the original Greek for the word “caught up” as it is used in Paul’s First Epistle to the Thessalonians: “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thess 4:17).”19

! Darby was able to appeal to many people because his system was so science-like. It was rational and comprehensive. But there is a danger in creating a biblical system like this.


16 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 17). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.17 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (pp. 17-18). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.18 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 22). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.19 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 22). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

The bible, in essence, is a collection of books written by different people. The editors of the Bible thought these stories best illustrated God and God’s actions so they were put together. But when you read them as a whole, as if one writer was behind them, you miss the fact as to why these books were written down in the first place. Not every author shared the same theology as the other nor is their view of God the same. As Rossing says, “When the goal is to put scripture on the level of science there can be no loose ends, no allegory, and certainly no contradictions.”20

*****! With that said, Darby’s dispensationism framework is built upon just three verses of Daniel 9. Rossing explains:

! In the view of most scholars, the desolation and abomination that Daniel described in the final verse happened long ago, when the tyrannical emperor Antiochus Epiphanes desecrated the Jewish temple and set up a statue of the Greek god Zeus in 168 B.C. (see also Dan 11:31). Daniel was using apocalyptic imagery to cha$enge the political oppression that people were suffering in his own time. ! But for Darby and proponents of his system, Daniel’s final seventieth week with the desecration of the Jewish temple has not yet happened. It remains “unfulfi$ed prophecy,” awaiting fulfi$ment in some not-too-distant future time. According to Darby and the dispensationalists, the first 483 years of the Daniel prophecy were fulfilled in ancient Israel’s history only up through week number sixty-nine. # But something happened! With the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, “God obviously stopped ‘the prophetic stopwatch’” one week short of the end. “The clock could not have continued ticking consecutively,” asserts Lindsey, since Rome’s destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70 A.D. did not follow the chronology of Daniel in the literalist way dispensationalists require. ! God paused the prophetic stopwatch for two thousand years because the Jews, who should have crowned Jesus as their Messiah and king, rejected him. God was forced to stop the clock and turn to a different plan, starting yet another dispensation of human history. With language like “God was forced,” dispensationalists put God in a corner in a way that traditional theology would never permit—but a sense of prophetic inevitability is necessary for their system. ! According to dispensationalists, Israel’s prophetic stopwatch has been stopped now for the past two thousand years. We are currently living in a “parenthesis” or “gap” on the divine stopwatch, between Daniel’s sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks. This is an astounding claim, based on three obscure verses in Daniel. A$ of church history is just a “time-out”—what dispensationalists ca$ the “church dispensation” or church age, or “God’s great parenthesis in history.” Any minute now, God will remove true Christian believers from the earth in the Rapture, keeping the church completely separate from Israel—a key element in the system—and then the prophetic stopwatch can


20 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 25). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

resume for the final “week” or seven years of Israel’s history. It’s a$ prophesied in Daniel 9:27, they say.21

Dispensationists also like to point out how some prophecies are yet unfulfilled and will only be fulfilled after the Armagedden and literally sits on the throne of David in Jerusalem. Rossing writes about this example:

For example, San Antonio-based pastor and author John Hagee claims that the first part of the familiar prophecy of Isaiah 9:6—“For unto us a child is born, Unto us a Son is given”—was fulfi$ed in Jesus’ birth. But the second part was not fulfi$ed, he says, the part that says “the government sha$ be upon his shoulders, and his name sha$ be ca$ed ‘Wonderful, Counselor.’ The second part wi$ only be fulfi$ed thousands of years a"er Jesus’ birth, in Jesus’ future mi$ennial kingdom. So a single verse %om Isaiah 9:6 actua$y refers to “two widely separated events in history.”9 Needless to say, most scholars view the insertion of thousand-year gaps into Isaiah or Daniel as a complete fabrication on the part of dispensationalists.22

There is also this one (my favorite actually...):! Other gaps are necessitated by dispensationalists’ insistence that every detail of a biblical verse must be litera$y fulfi$ed in history. Unless this criterion is met they assign verses to their category of “unfulfi$ed prophecy”—even when the Bible itself states that a prophecy has already been fulfi$ed! In Acts 2, for example, the apostle Peter clearly states that the birth of the church at Pentecost fulfilled the Old Testament prophet Joel’s prophecy of “these last days”: ! This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: “In the last days it wi$ be, God declares, that I wi$ pour out my Spirit upon a$ flesh, and your sons and your daughters sha$ prophesy . . . And I wi$ show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun sha$ be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who ca$s on the name of the Lord sha$ be saved.” (Acts 2:16–21) # But LaHaye denies that Joel 2 was “fully” fulfilled on Pentecost, contrary to the apostle Peter himself, since the sun was not literally turned to darkness nor the moon literally turned to blood. LaHaye has the audacity to argue that “What Joel said next did not happen on that Pentecost, so long ago . . . This whole passage in Joel awaits consummation at the end of the Tribulation.”10 LaHaye’s assertion is a direct contradiction to Peter’s words of scripture in Acts 2. Such rigid literalism violates even the Bible itself.23

Here they take a matter of Biblical fact, according to St. Peter himself, and say it is not fulfilled because it doesn’t meet their guidelines for prophecy. Rossing writes, “The dispensationalist system is a fabrication of Darby—as Lutheran historian Martin Marty warns, a system “invented less than 200 years ago in the British Isles, shipped to America,


21 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (pp. 26-27). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.22 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 28). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.23 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (pp. 28-29). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

exported to the world,” that must be challenged today both because of its false theology and also because of its growing influence on public policy.”24

*****! So is it rapture or resurrection? Clearly to dispensationalists, it is rapture. Rossing explains how they take 1 Corinthians 15 and do such that:

! A favorite proof-text for Rapture proponents is First Corinthians chapter 15. In Le' Behind, a pastor had the foresight to record a video in advance for people who would be le' behind. “Let me show you %om the Bible exactly what has happened,” the fictional pastor te$s unraptured viewers. “As this tape was made beforehand and I am confident that I wi$ be gone, ask yourself, how did he know? Here’s how, %om 1 Corinthians 15:51–57.”16 The pastor then reads to his video audience %om St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: ! Behold, I te$ you a mystery: We sha$ not a$ sleep, but we sha$ a$ be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet wi$ sound, and the dead wi$ be raised. (1 Cor 15:51) ! The pastor proceeds to interpret this verse %om First Corinthians 15 as if it were describing Rapture—based on Paul’s words “changed” and “raised.” # But take a closer look at this verse from First Corinthians and you see that what St. Paul was writing about is not Rapture but the resurrection from the dead—as can be seen from the phrase “the dead will be raised.” Apparently some Christians in first-century Corinth did not believe in resurrection from the dead and Paul wrote to them to correct their theology—“How can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?” Paul challenges the Corinthians. Even though Paul uses the term “raised from the dead” and clearly states that his subject is resurrection, dispensationalists nonetheless use 1 Corinthians 15 to argue for the Rapture: “When these things have happened, when the Christians who have already died and those that are still living receive their immortal bodies, the Rapture of the church will have taken place,” the fictional video argues.! In his nonfiction books, Le" Behind author LaHaye makes explicit his interpretation of Rapture as equivalent to resurrection. “Christ is coming to resurrect and translate His church. We ca$ that the Rapture.” Ca$ it what you want, such wholesale appropriation of resurrection texts for Rapture—including Jesus’ teaching that “I am the resurrection and the life” and Jesus’ raising of Lazarus in the 11th chapter of John’s Gospel—raises questions about the strength of LaHaye’s Rapture argument. Rapture is not the same as resurrection in Christian theology.


24 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 30). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

Even First Thessalonians 4, another favorite proof-text for the Rapture, proclaims resurrection, not Rapture, when Christ returns again to earth (see Epilogue).25 26

They also search through Revelation to try to justify their belief. Using passages such as Revelation 3:10, they miss appropriate the word trial with tribulation. Rossing says:

LaHaye and Lindsey argue that the Rapture is also taught in Revelation 3:10, where Jesus te$s the church in Philadelphia: “I wi$ save you %om out of the hour of trial.” Most scholars think the “hour of trial” refers to a political trial or even the possibility of persecution for Christians at the time when Revelation was written. LaHaye, however, emphasizes the Greek preposition “out of ” and argues that this means Christians wi$ have been snatched out of the earth before the seven-year tribulation begins, although the word in the text is “trial,” not “tribulation.”27

But even so, they miss use the word tribulation as a future event and not a current situation - ultimately denying that the Christians of the first century ever faced tribulation.

God’s people continue to turn to Revelation’s liberating visions for comfort and solidarity in tribulation. We insult such saints and their brave witness if we say that tribulation is only in the future end-times and that Christians wi$ be Raptured up off the earth before it begins. # Christians are not dealt a get-out-of-tribulation-free card to play in the face of the world’s suffering and trials. Such escapism underscores one of the biggest problems with dispensationalist theology. Jesus never asked of God to “Beam me up” from the earth, nor can we. It is a temptation we must resist—as Jesus did. Tribulation is something that has happened and is still happening today for many of God’s people in the world. God saves us not by snatching us out of the world, but by coming into the world to be with us.28

*****What is important to remember in all of this is that the Bible was never intended to be piece together in order to find some secret code. Martin Luther was willing to take on the church and challenge his authorities because of the big story of the Bible. He didn’t piece together passages from one source to another to come up with his theology on justification. He read the Bible and saw that common thread.! Gary DeMar, a conservative evangelical critic, lists in his End Times Fiction: A Biblical Consideration of the Le" Behind Theology a number of unsupported assertions in the dispensationalist script, especia$y concerning the Middle East:

• There is no mention of a rebuilt Jerusalem temple anywhere in the New Testament, including Revelation;


25 Footnote taken from Rapture Exposed #19 - The Thessalonians apparently feared that some family members who had died would be left behind in their graves when Christ returns. Paul writes to reassure them that those who have died will also be raised to meet Christ, “and so we shall always be with the Lord.” The image of meeting the Lord in the air underscores that all will be resurrected to greet Jesus’ return to earth. Since the passage first of all proclaims that Christ “descends” (1 Thess 4:16), there is no reason to assume that Jesus will change directions and turn around to go back to heaven once Christians meet him in the air. (See Epilogue) (p. 200). 26 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (pp. 31-32). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.27 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (pp. 33-34). Basic Books. Kindle Edition28 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 35). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

• Neither Daniel nor Revelation uses the word Antichrist;• There is no record in Revelation or Daniel of the Antichrist making a covenant with Israel; • There is no record in Daniel or Revelation of the Antichrist breaking the covenant with Israel;• There is no mention that Jesus wi$ set up an earthly throne in Jerusalem.29

You can’t piece together the Bible or think of the Bible as a puzzle. The bible is a book of stories of how we came to faith in God. ! Another danger in this is the fact that dispensationalism can be controlled by our actions and not God. If we simply move people into conflict who are “supposed” to be in conflict, we could essentially usher in the new age, i.e. the Rapture. Rossing writes:

The influence of dispensationalism can be seen also in fundamentalist Christians’ opposition to the U.S.-backed “Road Map” for peace in Israel and Palestine. “The Bible is my Road Map,” declares an Internet petition circulated by Robertson, Falwe$, and LaHaye in opposition to a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Peace and peace plans in the Middle East are a bad thing, in the view of fundamentalist Christians, because they delay the countdown to Christ’s return. Israel must not compromise by giving back any occupied territory to the Palestinians. New Israeli settlements and a rebuilt third temple are God’s will for Israel, no matter how violent the consequences.30

Theology so naive to think that humanity can force the hand of God is not founded in reality or in Biblical theology. God does what God wants in God’s time.


29 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 41). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.30 Rossing, Barbara R. (2007-03-30). The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (p. 46). Basic Books. Kindle Edition.

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