Thoughts on the Failed Rapture

Last Saturday morning I looked out the window and noticed all the varied greens in our backyard. There was the wise, aged dark green of the evergreen, the lighter green of the new leaves on the ash tree, the green whispering off the willow tree and the glowing green of the fresh-cut bluegrass lawn.

I noticed how beautiful the setting was and remembered how God had looked at the world in all of its newness and called it “good.” Then I remembered that this day was Saturday May 21, the day that someone had predicted either the world to end or a rapture to occur. This type of thinking was promoted by John Nelson Darby in the 19th century and is called “dispensationalism.” It is often related to “premillenialism” and promotes a pretribulation rapture. More recent interpreters have been Scofield and Ryrie.

Though this type of thinking may be popular, and it may have sold a lot of books (i.e. the Left Behind series), it is not what most Christians (especially Presbyterians) believe about God, the world, or about humans. In fact, rapture theology is in direct opposition to covenant theology found in the Bible and in most of Christian thinking.

Solid biblical teaching reminds us that the world is a good world and that God loves it and us. The Bible tells us so, from Genesis to Revelation. John 3:16 begins: “For God so loved the world.” And the Gloria Patri (praise to the Father) that many churches sing weekly ends with the strong claim: “world without end, amen, amen.”

So God would not lead us to escape from this world. God would not draw some out of the world so that the rest could be left behind, miserable for a 1000 year period of tribulation. This would mean God would break covenant with us--something God, we trust, God will never do. (It is we who break covenant while God remains faithful, patient and gracious to us).

Several points from our Reformed Presbyterian heritage are helpful. God is too large for us to comprehend, so we frankly have no business speaking on God’s behalf. We just don’t know and don’t need to know.

Our task? Tend our gardens, care for the earth, participate with God to bring healing and wholeness to this world and to others.

We trust in God who is working in the world to redeem the world and us. Now that is news—good news.

Staying behind, David