Waiting For The Rapture

I must confess that I know almost nothing about the rapture. Oh, I have heard some of my evangelical friends talking about it quietly in small groups. I could also be forced to admit that I actually read one of those books about the rapture by Tim La Haye, by accident. I started it not knowing what it was and got far enough into it that I felt I should finish it. My point, howvver, is that the rapture has not been part of my Christian tradition or culture.

I of course know about the second coming. As small children we talked about how the end of the world could come at any moment or not for thousands of years. But the rapture was not a concept I was familirar with. How did we Catholics miss this? Clearly the idea comes from the biblical book of Revelation. It's a book of the bible that we spent little time exploring even in my seminary years. I have actually never read it completely through. I am not proud of this fact, but I am somewhat proud of the fact that Catholics usually call this book the Apocalypse rather than Revelation. It is one of the few scriptural differences between Catholics and Protestants where I believe Catholics may have the better perspective. More about this later.

Nonetheless, it is quite true that many Protestants especially evangelicals have spent an extraordinary amount of time working to decipher the book of Revelation, hoping to identify and relate the meaning of each word and line to contemporary events. If you are reading this blog it likely means that the rapture did not occur and the world did not end on May 21st even though we were given it on good authority that this was to be the case. Interestingly this particular authority, Harold Camping of the Family Radio Network, made this same pronouncement back in 1994 as well and was wrong. His Math was better this time and unassailable. It is easy to ridicule these purveyors of Biblical prophecy and many have done just that. Ridicule, of course plays into the hands of the righteous for they know they will be vindicated when proven right just as those who laughed at Noah were left to be washed away by the flood while Noah's Ark sailed away. Unfortunately for the righteous this time they were not proven right. Many have prophesied the end of the world over the years and we are still waiting.

What is going on? It is actually quite interesting. We are talking about those who favor a fundamentalist or literal interpretation of the Bible. The world was created in 6 days for example, and the world is less than 10,000 years old. What bothers me is the selective use of fundamentalism and the focus on particular issues of their choosing. Make no mistake, this fundamentalism does not apply to everything in the Bible. Prophesying the end of the world is a good example. Why wouldn't it be fundamental to focus on the five foolish and five wise virgins of Matthew 25, who were not ready when the wedding feast was about to begin? We are told to be watchful for you know not the day or the hour. It is not given to you to know the day or the hour, but be ready because at a time that you know not the master will come. Why are these passages not taken in a fundamental sense so that we avoid trying to determine some secret revelation in the Bible that presumably we are not supposed to know? Is it not the height of arrogance to presume to be able to determine the exact time of the end of the world when Jesus tells us that it is unknowable? Once again we have this gnostic notion of possessing a knowledge that eludes the rest of men. To make it worse the notion that others must embrace this pseudo knowledge or face condemnation is most unfortunate.

We ahould have learned from the early Christians not to continue to pursue this line of inquiry. We see that in First Thessalonians the early Christians around 50 AD believed the end of the world could come any day. In fact they gathered every Sunday morning, remembering the ressurection, waiting for Jesus to return. Years went by and nothing happened. Many of them were not working or providing for their families as they waited. They were certain that it would happen before the last of the Apostles died. Finally Paul had to tell them to stop waiting for Christ's return and go back to work. Jesus would return on his own terms and in his own good time. In the meantime their lives had to go on and they were obligated to address the ordinary needs of daily living. We would do well to heed the admonitions of Paul.

Back to the Apocaplypse. The Book of Revelation is an exampLe of what is known as Apocalyptic literature. There is a lot of it in the bible, including in the Old Testament, Daniel for example. Jesus' descriptions of the end of the world are also couched in traditional appocalyptic literature. In the case of Revelation we are told that these are the dreams or visions of a very old apostle, John, who is ready to die and meet his Lord once again. They are not meant to tell us when the end of the world will come. They are meant to reassure and encourage us in time of trouble. The final victory will be won. The power of God will prevail and no matter the challenges we face we will overcome them through the power of God who will not desert his people. The beautiful signs and symbols of the heavenly Jerusalem indicate that the triumph will indeed be a glorious one. Just as the Old Testament prophets were not prophets in the sense of fortune tellers, but were calling people back to faith and righteousness, there is no secret gnosis or knowledge that the clever person who studies scripture will be able to discern. We must be careful about trying to understand the unknowable. Paul tells us that now we see through a glass darkly but then we will see face to face. I for one will be happy to wait for God to reveal to us what eye has not seen nor ear heard of the wonders that God has prepared for us.