Rapture: The End-Times Error That Leaves the Bible Behind (3 page)

Don and Rose, too, had been taught that the rapture was about to occur at any moment. So they decided to stop having children. They already had three boys whose care took a great deal of time. They reasoned that if they had any more children, it would distract them from their ministry. Wouldn’t it be better to use any extra time to try to win souls for Heaven before the rapture? After all, once that event occurred, the world would be thrown into chaos and sin by the antichrist, and for those left behind, it would already be
too late
.

Dave’s college grade-point average qualified him to enter any seminary he chose. But the older ministers whom Dave respected told him to not worry about getting a higher degree: “Jesus is coming. There is not much time before the rapture. Better to get involved in winning souls right now and take only those courses you feel are necessary for that ministry.” So Dave made the decision to enter full-time Christian service, while enrolling in a nearby seminary on a part-time basis. A degree seemed so unimportant, almost selfish, in the light of the imminent return of Christ. He certainly did not want to be the reason even one person did not hear the gospel until after the rapture, when it would be
too late
.

Ann believed that abortion was fundamentally irreconcilable with her Fundamentalist Christian convictions. She did not know whether she would be very good at it, but she wanted to get involved in the effort to reverse
Roe v. Wade
. Her Christian friends, however, counseled against it. “Why polish the brass on a sinking ship?” they asked. “Why not spend your time evangelizing your neighbors? Jesus is coming back to rapture the true believers at any moment. Abortion is wrong, but evangelizing the lost is more important. Share the gospel with unbelievers before it is
too late
.”

The year was 1950. Stephen and his wife, Beth, had always wanted to spend their lives serving God. But now they became aware of the significance of the year 1948, when Israel had been re-established as a sovereign state. Theologian friends convinced Stephen that this meant they were living in the end times. Based on the words of Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, this young couple was taught that they were in the final generation before Christ would rapture His Church. They decided to attend seminary. They built their lives around promulgating this message to anyone who would listen. It became the issue that defined them and their ministry. No sacrifice was too great when it came to getting the message out before it was
too late
.

In the late nineteenth century, William E. Blackstone wrote about the rapture in the book
Jesus Is Coming
. It became a bestseller and was one of the first books in the United States to herald this new view of Christ’s return. A successful Chicago businessman, Blackstone used his influence to lobby President Harrison in favor of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. He believed that a Jewish homeland and a rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem were necessary prerequisites for Jesus’ return after the rapture.

Blackstone put his money where his mouth was. He bought hundreds of Bibles and placed them in caves throughout Palestine. He believed that after the rapture, Jewish people would flee into the Judean hills during the persecution of the Great Tribulation and would be forced to hide in the caves to survive. Once there, Blackstone hoped they would discover his hidden Bibles. After reading them, these Jews in the middle of the Great Tribulation would come to realize the truth of Jesus’ claims. Blackstone spent enormous amounts of money to store these Bibles safely in remote caves before it was
too late
.

General Orde Wingate’s name is memorialized in Israel on street signs and historical markers. Knowledgeable Israelis know this Scottish military leader who trained much of the original Israeli guerrilla forces as the “gentle Gentile.” Some of his students, such as Moshe Dayan and Yigal Allon, would become legendary through the use of Wingate’s guerrilla tactics. It is generally agreed that Israel would not exist today without the commitment he made to share his unique abilities with those men.

But what motivated Wingate to embrace a people who were scorned as troublemakers by his fellow British officers? Many do not know that it was his Christian Fundamentalist upbringing, including a firm belief in premillennialism. He believed that an ethic Jewish nation would once again become the focus of God’s spiritual program here on earth for precisely one thousand years. But he believed that this would not—indeed could not—occur until the modern state of Israel was founded. For Christ to return for His Church in the rapture, the Jews must first win the guerrilla warfare of the 1940s and reinhabit their ancient land. Wingate knew that this window of opportunity would not last forever, so he taught what he knew best, guerrilla warfare, before it was
too late
.

Peter grew up in a devout Catholic family. In college, he encountered a group of very persuasive Protestant students, led by a dynamic young Evangelical couple. They loaned him a novel,
The Late Great Planet Earth
—destined to become the biggest religious seller of all time, excepting only the Bible. The book was interesting, but, more important to Peter, it was very scary. It predicted the coming of an antichrist, a secret rapture of born-again believers, a Great Tribulation, and a final battle between Christ and Satan.

Peter was frightened at the prospect of suffering through the Great Tribulation, because he did not know for certain that he was born again. According to these Evangelical Protestants, the Rapture could occur momentarily. Although the Temple might be rebuilt first, and the antichrist might appear on the world scene at any time, there was nothing to prevent the secret rapture from occurring without warning. Peter prayed the prayer of salvation, was rebaptized, and started to fellowship with these dynamic Evangelicals.

He eventually married one of the nice young Protestant girls he met in the group, and they started a family. For years he was thankful that he had heard about the rapture and Great Tribulation, giving him the opportunity to get saved before it was
too late
.

These are true stories about real people. I have known every one of them (except for William Blackstone and General Orde Wingate, both dead, but I have met Blackstone’s descendants and Wingate’s son, Colonel Orde Wingate). And yes, I am the little boy in the first story (I eventually did find Mom, who was at the neighbor’s house).

These stories illustrate how this popular theology is of more than just academic significance. Every one of these individuals made decisions—some drastically life-changing—based on their belief in an imminent, secret rapture. But is this rapture theology a truly biblical way of interpreting the relevant Scripture texts? Catholics should further wonder how this theology squares with Church teaching.

The stakes are high. If the rapturists are correct, then those who count themselves as Christian, but are not Evangelical or Fundamentalist, are in for a very difficult time of seven years, a tribulation that could start at any moment without any warning. But if the rapturists are wrong, then people are making decisions based on skewed priorities, and some of those decisions have the potential to ruin their lives. What we believe makes a difference in how we live.

Having grown up in the rapturist movement, I can assure you that it makes a monumental difference in the way the world is viewed. Most of the people in this movement believe that they, or at the very least their children or grandchildren, will see the end of the world. They feel certain that history will not extend so long that they might be forgotten before Christ returns. As a Catholic, I now understand that even my grandchildren’s grandchildren may easily be dead before Christ returns. I now know that there is no reason that history will not continue until the very memory of my name and my family’s name are entirely forgotten. That is a very different mindset.