Sometimes I Make Jesus Memes pt. 2

Many are probably familiar with the "Raptor Jesus" meme. It is especially pertinent here on Sophias Logo this week because rapture and raptor are from the same root word meaning to "snatch up" or to get "caught up."

Submit your own Raptor Jesus meme in the comments and for the list of "Rapture! Week" events go here.

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.

Sometimes I Make Jesus Memes

Can We Just All Agree To Ignore Pat Robertson?

It was only a matter of time before televangelist Pat Robertson would make controversial remarks regarding the events during the Boston Marathon yesterday. Wait no more:



While Robertson does not make a direct reference to Islam, it is pretty clear this is the "religion of peace" he means. It wouldn't be out of character as his Islamophobia is well documented here, here and here.

The reality, though, is that Robertson may not be entirely in command of his full faculties anymore. Whether he has called chronic illnesses "psychosomatic" or rebuking demons out of used clothing, Robertson has progressively moved into stranger and stranger territories.

At this point, it is not even worth arguing against his theology, LGBT bashing, Islamophobia and other craziness as it just calls further attention to him. It is a similar tactic that has been proposed for the publicity loving Westboro Baptist Church - ignore them, and wait for them to go away.

Theology Rap?

Rapper Shai Linne raps about "False Teachers" who preach Prosperity Gospel and rhymes Bible verses to back up his point:

From Christianity Today's Gleanings Blog via Matthew Paul Turner.
Shai Linne's blog Lyrical Theology

An Evening With David Hogan, A Critique of Signs and Wonders

Recently, I attended an event at a "church" that brought in faith healer and traveling evangelist David Hogan. Hogan has spent a couple decades as a missionary in Mexico with his Freedom Ministries, where he has claimed divine healings and other signs, wonders and miracles. The crescendo of his claims, though, is that the ministry has seen over 200 people raised from the dead, and he himself has been apart of 30 or more resurrections.

I will give my personal observations, but first: For the best critique of Hogan's ministry, Personal Freedom Outreach has a well researched and referenced article at http://www.pfo.org/exploits.htm. Also, because of Hogan's involvement with the revival at Brownsville in Pensacola, PFO's article includes some critique of that movement as well. Another good resource is this video about "glory of God clouds," and other revival events: 

(These links are not tacit endorsements of the rest of the content either PFO or "Wretched" produces, but these singular links, I do endorse.)

Now for what I observed:

I found it interesting that the staff at the event were vigilant in making sure that no one took any pictures or video of the event. They actually had spotters looking for people with their cell phones held up and would ask them to not take pictures or video. This is probably because they were themselves taping it to be sold later and didn't want any of it "leaked" before they got the chance to profit from it. This is the old "Prophet for Profit" cliche. It is hard to imagine Elijah or John the Baptist asking people to pay for their message.

In fact, the "pastor" of the church where it was held heavily promoted Prosperity Gospel. I have always had a hard time with this message, mostly because Jesus was pretty direct when it came to wealth - specifically that it made it harder to be a person of faith, and that one should "store up their treasures in heaven."

Anti-intellectualism was in full effect as well, with Hogan joining the likes of Pat Robertson condemning the Ivy League. This too is a larger topic for further consideration, but, put simply, why would God give man the capacity for intelligence, then be anti-intelligence? 

My final personal observation, was that Hogan claimed a certain apostolic anointing like Paul. In fact, he used a story about Paul from Acts to begin the evening. Hogan quoted Acts 19:11-12 to justify people bringing up articles of clothing to be blessed, so these clothes could be taken back to the sick and heal them. Hogan asked the technical crew to display the verses on the projection screens and said it didn't matter what version, so I will use the NET Bible (http://bible.org/netbible/):

19:11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by Paul’s hands, 19:12 so that when even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his body were brought to the sick, their diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

People were bringing up scarves, shirts, hats, ties - any clothing they could spare based on Hogan's claim that he would touch them and they would heal people. This verse doesn't say that God will give others the authority or the ability to do this - but the Signs and Wonders movement, tied to New Apostolicism and Latter Rain movement, relies on the gospel writer who says in John 14:

the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these

The problem I have with Hogan using Acts 19, is that after verse 12 it goes on to say:

19:13 But some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were possessed by evil spirits, saying, “I sternly warn you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” 19:14 (Now seven sons of a man named Sceva, a Jewish high priest, were doing this.) 19:15 But the evil spirit replied to them, “I know about Jesus and I am acquainted with Paul, but who are you?” 

I love irony like this.

UPDATED:
I will leave you with this - the human mind, power of persuasion and the placebo effect are very powerful. "Carpet time," (http://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/carpet-time/) seems awfully similar to the "No Touch Knockout," challenged on National Geographic's "Is It Real?":