Rapture
Harold Camping, a minister in the USA, has declared that this coming Saturday will be the Rapture: the day that Christian believers will be mystically drawn up into heaven, leaving everyone else condemned to live in a world that will rapidly degenerate and eventually be swallowed in fire – possibly sometime around October.
This kind of prediction is nothing new. For centuries people have been reading the mystical and opaque passages of the Bible and trying to calculate a predicted day for the end of the world. There’s the famous story of the Millerites, followers of WIlliam Miller who, like Camping, compared dates and years in Biblical stories with the apocalyptic prophecies to predict a date for Judgement day. Miller believed it would be – at the latest – in 1844, and so convinced were his followers that they sold their possessions to be ready for lift-off. When the date came and went, they found themselves somewhat lost in life, and the whole event became known as the Great Disappointment.
And then there was the Catholic Apostolic Church in the 19th Century, of which Edward Irving was the most famous teacher: they did not predict a precise date but built their entire ecclesiology around the imminent return of Christ. Someone once told me that their Church in Tottenham Court Road was built with shallow foundations in order that the Church itself could be lifted up when the Lord returned, but although I’ve done some ferreting about in engineers records in London, I can’t find any evidence to prove that – and the Church hasn’t fallen down yet. (If anyone knows more on this I’d be glad to hear it….)
And of course there was another big surge of enthusiasm for the rapture in the 1970s: premillennial dispensationalists such as Hal Lindsey were all the rage, and Don’t get left behind was the haunting last line of blonde rock star Larry Norman’s song, I wish we’d all been ready. I met Larry Norman backstage once; we had a long conversation about what it meant to “be ready”. He admitted he didn’t really know what it was all about. It was a good pop song, though. And “Left behind” later became the title of a series of books by Tim LaHaye in the 1990’s which “explained” the book of Revelation with a suspicious clarity. (HT to John Duncan in the comments for correcting me on dates)
What makes someone predict the rapture, judgement day, or the end of the world? I imagine you first need a psychological disposition that makes you believe the end of the world would be a good thing. Is the person predicting the rapture angry with the world, depressed, disconnected, or running out of hope? Probably one of the above. But the prediction itself usually comes from reading the Bible without reading everything else. If you only read the Bible you get a very strange view, both of the Bible and of the world. But if you also read some literature, philosophy, history, sociology and psychology you get a better grip on how to make sense of the apocalyptic passages in the Bible. It seems that this is where the prophet of Saturday’s doom has got into trouble. He – reportedly – reads the Bible somewhat in isolation, believing that the Bible is somehow in a separate compartment from the rest of the world. That’s a big mistake, which S T Coleridge wrote about in 1824 (shame poor old William Miller didn’t read Coleridge). For the Bible to speak, says Coleridge, you have to read it “like any other book” – by which he did not mean to downgrade the Bible, but to point out that to read it with the view that it’s a mystical or magical text, far from elevating its capacity to speak the truth, actually ossifies its meaning.
Me? I don’t want the world to end. If there’s a heaven I’d be glad to go there one day – but I’m seriously not in a hurry. I like my life, thanks very much. And I don’t think the Bible suggests that Jesus is coming back in that literal, world-dividing way, floating down on a cloud to scare everyone witless. If you do struggle through the book of Revelation you need to do so with a good background in first century politics, and even then the central message is more about “heaven” – or the new era of god’s goodness and love – beginning right here on earth. We don’t need to sell our possessions or preach “left behind” messages; we need to get on with bringing about peace and justice here and now. That’s our calling. It’s interesting to me that in the same week that Harold Camping is banging on about the rapture, ordinary people all over the country are collecting for Christian Aid – a development organisation that makes a massive impact transforming lives and whole communities. That’s the kingdom of God.
What to do about Harold Camping, though? Denounce him? Pray for him? Refute his teachings? If you want biblical advice on what to do, remember that both Peter (2 Peter 2:1) and Paul (Romans 16:17) took it for granted that there would be false teachers, and Paul’s advice was direct and simple: “Avoid them.”
And when it comes to contemplating the end of everything, well I prefer Jesus’ words to those of Camping. Jesus said “you will not know the hour or the day” – and that’s a better way to live. None of us knows how long we’ve got: there’s a lot to be said for remembering that now and then and making the most of the days we have. Life is God’s gift. Smell the flowers. Love your kids, and your friends. Live your life. It’s the only one you’ve got.
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
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Raptural science – raptureology – will never get off the ground….
That’s my little joke.
I am one of those however, who experiences a little pang of disappointment when someone says: ‘Don’t worry it’s not the end of the world’.
Bugger. I’ll miss it. I’m washing my hair.
I saw Thief in the Night(the film for which I wish we’d all been ready) when I was about 17 and it gave me nightmares for weeks afterwards.
I can’t say that I’m in a hurry to go anywhere but what strikes me most is the triumphalism and clubbiness of those who believe in this sort of thing. The I’m-in-you’re-not-ishness is so full of hate and so on it gives the lie to the whole thing.
thanks for the article, nice and balanced.
Maggi, this is an excellent article. Thank you.
Where is the Coleridge quotation from?
Social media has an amplifying effect on the furthest edges of the public conversation. There has been such widespread reporting of this – probably 90% of it ridiculing Camping’s sincerely-held belief. Lots of it has been from Christians, who love an in-joke – which is fine. Except that the cause of truth has been damaged; stereotypes of Christianity as irrational have been confirmed; and Mr Camping – who is a real human being with feelings and dignity – has become a figure of fun on a world scale.
“What to do about Harold Camping?” Love him if you are close enough to do so meaningfully. Pray for him if you are minded to. If not, I suggest ignore him.
The Left Behind series is much more recent than you suggest – the first one was published in 1995 and the final book of the series of twelve published in 2004 – the whole series sold 65 million copies! I think it is hard for us to comprehend how firmly belief in the rapture is planted in current popular American evangelical culture, even if specific date-setting is only a minority pursuit.
My question would have been: Why do people radically change their lifes when coming to believe that the end of the world is at the doorstep?
What would change for me if I believed that? Nothing much, tbh. But if that belief would lead someone to turn their life upside down – maybe they had better get on with that anyway then. (well, preferably in a more constructive way then selling all their possessions and then sit around and wait…)
I couldn’t find the word “rapture” in my Bible concordance.
Most Christians I know seem to be taking a humorous take on the whole thing. Jokes about making sure you have clean underwear, that kind of thing.
It’s probably slightly cruel of me, but I do look forward to seeing the look on Camping’s face (or hearing what he has to say) in the likely event that we’re all still here come May 22nd…
I like this reference to the rapture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmX-lZOYcVA&feature=share
. . . as well as your post, Maggi, of course.
But just in case – we’ve all still got 24 hours to make sure our pets are looked after http://eternal-earthbound-pets.com/
Picking up on John’s comment -
“I think it is hard for us to comprehend how firmly belief in the rapture is planted in current popular American evangelical culture, even if specific date-setting is only a minority pursuit.”
I sometimes wonder if this is part of the reason it is difficult to get some sections of American society to take global justice and ecological issues seriously. They want the world to go to hell on a handcart so they can go to heaven.
What they fail to get is that God’s kingdom of justice, mercy and peace is furthered not by picking out obscure bits of scripture but by feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. (Matthew 25)
The trouble with the Left Behind books, surely, is that they have been read as something which they quite blatantly are not. They are works of fiction influenced by a highly specific and selective reading of a very few parts of the Bible. What they are not is theology! Or, at the very least, they are extremely bad theology.
And yet large parts of American Christianity treats these books as just that – Jerry Falwell can describe the book Left Behind as probably having a greater impact on Christianity than any other book in modern times other than the Bible. Truly astonishing!
Maggi – I’m sure you told me of an idea to do a “Bad Theology” blog a la Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science. Left Behind would make a great first post…
thanks maggi – good to read as always. looks like i DO need to still prepare those 2 sermons for Sunday, after all
Gabriel, the Coleridge quote, and the drift of his argument I allude to here, is in Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit. Published in 1840 but written probably in 1824, and certainly before 1825. If you read it, you may want to know that the last two paragraphs were added by an editor – it changes the sense of the argument.
If there’s a heaven! How sad you don’t believe.
I do believe, Colin, but not in pie-in-the-sky. It depends what you mean by heaven. Many people, when they speak of, or hear about “heaven” are talking about a kind of fairy story world in the sky. That I do not believe in. I do, however, believe that there is another – what? dimension? – which you might describe as the space God occupies – although language is difficult here, because it isn’t really a “space”.
The difficulties of talking about heaven in a world where we’ve sent people into space were neatly outlined by JAT Robinson in the 1960s. When I say “if there is a heaven” it’s not to indicate that I don’t believe in eternal life, but that I don’t believe in the glib, sub-theological concepts of heaven that get bandied about and do no good service to Christian theology.
There are also those for whom the main indicator of the coming end is to be seen in how things are working out in the land and nation of Israel – and how this relates to the prophecies of the bible. – And this may well play back into their political views and sympathies.
I’m with David Brider…… and this site is great. Have a listen to the song on the ‘How it works’ tab
http://www.rapturefail.org/
Maggi this is good stuff. Great Advice. My parents are out planting Tomatoes at the moment… following Luthers advice when asked what he would do if he knew Jesus was coming back today: “I would go out and plant some bushes….” or something like that.
As per Rob Bell, we need to build heaven on earth primarily. Focussing on being taken away from this world to eternal bliss is misguided escapism. And why should people who prove that they don’t give a toss about this world be given another one to look after?
Where is Camping now? I have been looking for some new updates regarding his failed predictions.
If you listen to Camping’s radio broadcasts on the short wave, you start to hear other things which more than suggest that he has an unhinged ecclesiology; he’s been busy advising his faithful acolytes to come out of the apostate churches (all denominations), and sit by their radios instead, hanging on his sage advice and teachings. In view of his advanced age, I wonder who will be the Elisha to take up his mantle when his delusional work is finished?
dtal I heard he has said he got his dates wrong, it will be October. I’m told Saturday was the day the volcano began to erupt in Iceland, though I haven’t checked that.