Five Favorites

I thought I would change up how I link to other blogs and articles at the end of the week - I read so many that to link to all that I found interesting would just be too many. Instead, I have decided to give you my five favorite of the week.

As always, just because I link to a blog (or retweet) does not mean I necessarily agree with it - just that I found it interesting. So, in no particular order -

1. "Who Are You Sleeping With? (Sex at Evangelical Colleges)" from the Save OBU (Oklahoma Baptist University) blog. Jacob Lupfer writes about the sexual pressures of being a Christian, young adult - including a aspect of that topic that I am very interested in, when Evangelicals get married very young in order to have church approved sexual relationships.

2. Rachel Held Evans wrote "Why Progressive Christians Should Care About Abortion." For so many on both sides of the debate it is a black and white issue. Held Evans does a good job, as usual, of combing her personal experience and well-sourced arguments to encourage the reader to fully consider what their position means.

3. One of the main problems I have with Evangelical Christianity is that believers of this brand of faith often believe things with little to no understanding of why they believe them. Often, either a sermon or teaching has a certain emotional appeal that they buy into, or enough repetition and the teaching is implanted. This is not unique to Evangelicalism, but certainly one of its pitfalls. Since most people do not have the vocabulary to have a "theological" discussion in the academic sense, a post like, "You Don't Have a One-Track Mind; Why Would God?" by blogger "MMCKINNISS," does a good job of challenging a belief of how God perceives time. By foregoing the bulky language of academic theology in favor of an analogy, "MMCKINNIS" makes his ideas accessible to all.

4. It is no surprise that I really like Zack Hunt's "The American Jesus" blog. One post this week addresses how to treat people who don't profess a Christian faith, but has all of the characteristics of what a Christian person is expected to have. "What Do We Do With Non-Christians Who Act Like Christians?" is a little longer but worth the read.

5. I'll end this week's Five Favorites with a lighter post from Tony Jones at Theoblogy. He posted a picture of a fourth grade science exam from a Christian school in South Carolina and used it to start a discussion about how to talk to children about science and faith. Plus, if you saw last week, I have an affinity for pictures of Jesus with dinosaurs and he ends his post with one.

Did I miss a blog or article that you found particularly interesting? Leave it in the comments.

History of "The Rapture"

4:16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 4:17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be suddenly caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17   (NET Bible)

No matter what your thoughts are regarding the topic - premillenialism, mid-Trib, skeptical, etc., the idea of the rapture does not have a long history. As John R. Coats - a former Episcopalian priest - wrote in his article "What's Real About the Rapture?": "In fact, before 1830, no one had heard that, '[i]n one cataclysmic moment, millions around the globe disappear.'" He continues, "It was around 1830 that [John Nelson] Darby, having selected scripture passages from Daniel, Revelation, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and elsewhere, pasted them together, called them a whole, and invented the Rapture, a word not found in the Bible."

This is technically true, in verse 17, as quoted above, "caught up" is translated from the Greek:

ἁρπάζω, which means, among other things, "to snatch away, or carry off." To be fair, this same verb does appear in other verses - specifically Acts 8:39, 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 and Revelation 12:5. The word in Acts and 2 Corinthians are referring to specific people who have already been "carried off." Acts relates the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian Eunuch where after converting and baptizing the eunuch, Phillip is miraculously transported by God to another city. In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes about someone he knows who was "caught up" to the third heaven - either bodily or spiritually, Paul does not know - and given a revelation of paradise. Neither of these references relate to the belief in a rapture of the church in the end times.

The reference from Revelation is a bit more tricky. The first part of Revelation 12, where this verse comes from, is the story of The Woman, The Child and The Dragon - a story that is indirect and open to interpretation. (This verse will be more fully unpacked on Wednesday, "A Differing View: In Defense of the Rapture.")

As Coats pointed out, the first inclination of this idea comes from Darby in the nineteenth century. Catholic scholar Dr. Paul Thigpen, in his book, "The Rapture Trap," details the history, or lack-thereof, of the belief in a rapture event.

For Dr. Thigpen, the main distinction is in the difference between an event he calls "The Second Advent" and the "secret rapture." Briefly, the Second Advent is the return to Earth of Jesus to judge all of humankind - both living and dead. Dr. Thigpen goes into detail demonstrating that Christian leaders throughout history, when writing about end times events, refer to the return of Christ in the manner of a Second Advent and not a Rapture. He writes, "Neither ancient Christians, nor medieval Christians, nor even the founders of the major Protestant movements ever heard of the secret rapture doctrine," (130).

He gives a history of great Christian thinkers and leaders throughout history whose writings support this idea of a Second Advent, and remain silent on "secret rapture." Men like Justin Martyr, Irenaues, Hippolytus, Jerome, Augustine, John Chrysotom and others from the early church. According to Thigpen, "When we find the Fathers speaking on a particular doctrinal issue in consensus, or near consensus, Christians should pay close attention," (130). He also points out that the doctrine was left out of the Nicene Creed - the foundational creed of orthodoxy. 

This matters because if we trusted the early church fathers to determine the canon, as well as orthodox belief and practices, their silence on this matter must be respected as much as their words on other doctrinal matters.

Unlike Coats, Thigpen acknowledges others, before Darby, who have preached the rapture, but agrees that, "The doctrine as it is currently taught in fundamentalist circles seems to have evolved in the nineteenth century," (143). 

According to Thigpen, as well as many others, it was Darby's idea of dispensationalism that began the very modern idea of a rapture. Further, it was the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909, drawing from Darby and dispensationalism, that popularized the rapture idea. Thigpen wrote that Scofield was, "an enthusiastic convert to Darby's dispensational beliefs. Scofield was a Kansas City lawyer with no theological training. But his legal background compensated in persuasiveness for what his background lacked as a biblical scholar," (145).

For the uninitiated, dispensationalism, specifically, is the belief that history has been divided into seven ages; and that through these seven ages God's revelations are different for each church of that age. This idea of ages became especially relevant with the progress of technology and media, twentieth century wars and the post-World War II establishment of Israel.

"After the reestablishment of Israel as an independent nation in 1948 - an event many fundamentalists saw as a sign of the end times - interest in biblical prophecy intensified," (Thigpen, 147).

Another popularizing aspect of the idea, according to Thigpen, is what he calls a bias of dispensationalism against the structure and hierarchy of the denominational churches. He writes that this "appealed to isolated Protestant congregations in America that were unaffiliated with any denomination," (147).

Finally, the publication of Hal Lindsey's "Late Great Planet Earth" capitalized on growing fears of war, communism, the atomic age and changing social norms to promote an end times world view centered around the idea of a secret rapture. His book was fear mongering and opportunistic, released in 1970, with chapter titles like, "The Future Fuehrer" and "World War III." Critical of Lindsey, Thigpen writes that his "sensationalist style presented a heady mix of highly selective Bible quotes; news clips of world events that he claimed were 'fulfilling biblical prophecy'; frightening 'scientific' predictions of natural and man-made catastrophes; and a print version of the old revivalist 'altar call,' an appeal to readers to get 'saved' so they would not be left behind at the rapture," (148).

It is very clear that the rapture is a relatively new phenomenon in church history and not traditionally part of orthodox belief. So, either Thigpen's explanation of a Second Advent - the Catholic orthodox belief - must be taken at face value, that the original meaning and teachings of the church did not include the rapture; or, Darby's view of a later divine revelation supersedes the Bible, the Apostles and the teachings of the early church fathers. In my opinion, letting one man rewrite or reinterpret Scripture 1800+ years later is dangerous - especially in light of the consequences such a belief elicits (as we will see Thursday).

Tomorrow: The Rapture in Pop Culture

Refrences
John R. Coats, "What's Real About the Rapture" http://www.thechristianleftblog.org/1/post/2013/04/whats-real-about-the-rapture.html

Paul Thigpen, "The Rapture Trap" http://www.amazon.com/Rapture-Trap-Catholic-Response-Times/dp/0965922820

Rapture! Week

Last week I had planned on writing about the rapture - the belief that Jesus will return to instantly take Christians, living and dead, to heaven. Then, the attack at the Boston Marathon happened and I was drawn into the coverage. As I watched the news, my notes for this blog grew and grew until I had about a week's worth of material. So, this week will be Rapture! Week.

Here's the schedule:

Monday (Today): History of The Rapture
Tuesday: Rapture in Pop Culture
Wednesday: In Defense of The Rapture
Thursday: Consequences of Believing in the Rapture
Friday: Making it Personal
Bonus Material: Sometimes I Make Jesus Memes: Rapture Edition

On Friday I will be talking about my own personal thoughts, especially as I was growing up, impacted me. I would love to hear from you too - email sophiaslogo@gmail.com with your own story about how a belief in the Rapture affected you.

"History of The Rapture" will be up soon - stay tuned.