Walking away from the Rapture

The Rapture is one of those things I find myself less inclined to believe in than I once did.

The Rapture is what some call the blessed hope of the church. A popular teaching among evangelical and fundamentalist believers, it's an event in which Christians worldwide are removed from the earth in an instant and transported to heaven. This either takes place pre-Tribulation, before the rise of the Antichrist; mid-Tribulation, halfway trough his seven-year reign; or post-Tribulation, immediately prior to the Second Coming and Day of Judgment.

A former Pentecostal, I've been very indoctrinated to believe in the notion of a pre-Trib Rapture followed by the seven years of Tribulation and the millennial reign of Christ. A few years ago, the thought of the third Temple being built would have heralded to me a sure sign of the End being upon us. I admit I do wonder.

But all that aside, I've found that as I've grown further along in my faith, I find myself less inclined to believe in the Rapture, though not in the Tribulation. The Wittenburg Door  had had a pretty interesting piece in its last issue about the origins of the doctrines of the Rapture, and interviewed a fellow who traces it to 19th-century Scotland in the midst of massive revival preaching, including sermons by a woman who claimed to have had a vision that Cyrus Scofield later legitimized in his study Bible.

Those who favor a post-Millennial return of Christ -- i.e., one where the church ushers in a thousand-year reign of peace, and then Christ returns -- have never made much sense to me from a biblical doctrine of man's sin and the space the Bible gives to a coming time of wrath. Historically, that movement can be traced to the late 19th century here in America and the sense of the Great Century and America's "manifest destiny."

Overall, though, I find that I don't think about eschatology much any more and try not to worry about it too much. It's more important to focus on the people around us and what we can do to reach them with Christ's love, by volunteering at the food kitchen or giving a cup of water to someone who is thirsty.