Not so rapt in the Rapture

Not so rapt in the Rapture? You are not alone - neither am I, and nor is Tom Wright. The whole Premillenial dispensationalist position which spawned the 'Left Behind ' series of novels is an anathema to me. Its God is a scary bastard that you wouldn't want to call Abba and Jesus a chip of the old block.

This End Times stuff is like one of those 'join the dots' pictures except the dots aren't numbered so you choose a dot, join it to another, and another, and when you have joined all the dots you have a picture of what the End will look like. And Pastor Joe Bloggs from the Calathumpian Sainted Chosen to be Blessed church down the street will start from a different dot and get another picture entirely. And it's rumoured, though it may be a lie, that choose a particular starting dot and go a particular way around the rest and the picture reveals that God is the Antichrist. Don't laugh, I'm serious! And Lucifer turns out to be the uncle you never had.

It looks like Jenkins and La Haye are milking their Left Behind series for all they are worth. Or they are milking their readership with the story so thin it's required 9 titles to get any plot development happening. I wonder how they spend the money?

I like Tom Wright's questions:

What view of the world is sustained, even legitimized by, the Left Behind ideology? How might it be confronted and subverted by genuine biblical thinking? For a start, is not the Left Behind mentality in thrall to a dualistic view of reality that allows people to pollute God's world on the grounds that it is all going to be destroyed soon? Wouldn't this be overturned if we recaptured Paul's wholistic vision of Gods whole creation?
(see http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_BR_Farewell_Rapture.htm)

If you want fantasy read Tolkien. Or Harry Potter. That series can't be any more evil that the twisted view of reality that Jenkins and La Haye propose. What was it Jesus said about even the very elect being deceived? Does that include those who have merely elected themselves?

Oo, you are awful, Richard!

Bon Nuit, mes amis!