The Rapture Trap

I became a serious Christian at the age of twenty-two. I had been baptized at the age of ten and always considered myself a Christian, even if in name only. But once I was married and started a family the importance of my own personal faith became critically important to me.

My pastor, during these early formative years of my adult Christian experience, had a significant impact and influence on my life. I still hold a warm spot in my heart for this man (now deceased) and for all the support he provided for me when I first entered the pastoral ministry. 

The congregation that also supported, nurtured, and ordained me during this time in my life was steeped in ultra-conservative Evangelical theology that bordered along the lines of a soft Fundamentalism. 

More importantly, both the pastor and the congregation were deeply committed to a theological system known as Dispensationalism. Dispensationalism focuses on the so-called “End Times” with the Rapture being the next anticipated event in eschatological history. The Rapture is believed to be a secret snatching away from this world of all true believers, leaving all others to fend for themselves (especially those who are Christian in name only). 

Following the Rapture, there will be a dark and destructive period of time lasting for seven years, known as the Tribulation. During this awful time, the world will be brought to the very brink of total destruction (nuclear holocaust?) at which time  Jesus will return visibly and bring a halt to all this madness. He will then usher in a literal one thousand year kingdom here on earth, a kingdom in which God’s people will live in perfect harmony with nature and with one another (known as millennialism).

Following this literal one thousand year kingdom Christ will deliver the world up to the Father in heaven, at which time eternity will begin in earnest (e.g., eternal life in heaven).

What I have just described is a brief and inadequate summary of eschatology (the study of the end times) that seems to be contributing to much of the Evangelical fear today. I have long since abandoned Dispensationalism and its variations and am now able to see some of the inherent traps well-meaning Christians can fall into with this particular view of the world. 

It’s a system of belief that is very difficult to walk away from without feeling one is betraying one’s Christian faith altogether. I know, I’ve walked that path and struggled with the crisis of faith that accompanies such a journey.

So allow me to share with you three of the most common traps and why it is important to recognize them, especially if you favor such a Christian worldview as Dispensationalism.

First, it is tempting to view the world as a dark and gloomy place from which Jesus will someday secretly and personally rescue you. In other words, I have observed that Christians who hold to a Dispensational view of the Bible often exhibit a dark and dystopian view of life in general. Not all mind you, but enough to cause some concern. When one’s focus is on the End Times (eschatology), then what transpires in this life (present time) is of minimal importance. For example, concern for the health and well-being of the earth and the environment takes a backseat to one’s anticipation of the so-called Rapture into heaven. 

This form of escapism is perhaps why so many Evangelicals today have accepted the political Far Right’s disavowal of climate and environmental concerns. Dispensationalism, because of it focus on the End Times, seems to have a very weak theology of Creation and forgets that God declared his creation “good” in spite of all its inherent problems.

Second, the modern State of Israel plays a critical role in the Dispensational scheme of the End Times. In fact, it has been my observation (and personal past experience as well) that as one embraces the Dispensational worldview one also embraces uncritical support of modern-day Israel (which is not the same as Biblical Israel). It’s one thing to be an ally of another nation and quite another to lend that ally uncritical and unquestioning support, especially a support based on a theological view of the End Times—a view, mind you, that is not shared by all Christian, myself included. 

This is a dangerous position to take, regardless of one’s theology, considering the powder keg the Middle East seems to be today. To give Israel a free pass when she acts badly based on one’s theological worldview is highly inadvisable. To privilege Israel over all other nations in that region, based on one’s eschatology, can be very dangerous in the long term.  This is indeed a dangerous trap.

Additionally, being a friend to Israel does not necessarily correlate to being an enemy to the Palestinians or to the rest of the Muslim world. The treatment of the Palestinians by the modern State of Israel is atrocious at best and Christians must call out such unjust treatment.

Third, such a theological worldview of the End Times may lead one into the trap of fear and paranoia. Look, I am well aware of the dangers of making unfounded correlations between certain causes and effects. But when a Christian embraces such a dystopian view of the world based on one’s eschatology, then the lens through which they look at the world is already tinted with a dark hue.

Therefore, when a politician paints a dark and threatening picture of our world it becomes too easy to fall into the trap of fear and paranoia. I don’t believe this assumption is too farfetched if one is predisposed to fear and paranoia created by a particular theological worldview, such as Dispensationalism. In other words, it is quite possible that such a theological system as Dispensationalism conditions its proponents to be more susceptible to threats, both imagined and real. This is indeed a dangerous trap.

It would be unwise for me to lump all Evangelical Dispensationalists into one camp. There are some who embrace such an End Times theology while avoiding the inherent traps we have been discussing. But the traps are real and recognizing them is becoming more and more important for Christians of all stripes today. 

Perhaps the Christianity of the 21st Century will learn to hold in tension the already with the not yet! This present life indeed matters. God’s ultimate purpose matters as well. We can live without fear and paranoia because we know to Whom we belong. We can honor this present life as if we were honoring God’s good creation even as we strain forward towards God’s ultimate purpose for his creation.  

A Christmas Eve Story

We all have important stories we love to tell about our lives and there are certain details we would never leave out—the power of such stories is in the details.

For example, Marise and I once were foster parents of two little girls who were about the same age as our two sons. It was the 4th of July weekend and we got word that one of Marise’s uncles in Canada had passed away.

So we packed up the Ford Station Wagon with all four kids and headed to Canada. Have you ever taken an unexpected trip on a holiday weekend? This trip began on the 4th of July!

Well, we drove all the way from central North Carolina to Pennsylvania in the Pocono Mountains before we saw a “Vacancy” sign on a hotel. It was about 1 am in the morning. I pulled in and made my way to the registration desk, which by the way, was located in the bar. I told the man behind the bar that I wanted a room and he replied: “For how many?”

When I told him it was for my wife and me and four children he replied with a smirk on his face: “Sorry, the only thing left is the honeymoon suite and I can’t rent that to you.” Was he being truthful are just sarcastic. Regardless we plowed on towards Canada in desperate need of some rest. 

Well, Joseph and Mary had to make an unexpected trip south from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to register in a government census. Obviously, they didn’t have online services back then so they had to appear in person.

Well, wouldn’t you know it: The unexpected always seems to happen when you are traveling. Mary was going into labor so Joseph needed a room at the inn right now! But there was no room—or at least this is what they were told:

“No room for you!”

What happens next in this story we are all quite familiar with: Jesus is born, placed in a manger, is visited by shepherds and wise men under the illumination of a guiding star. God becomes human in Jesus and makes his entrance into our world in order to bring salvation, peace, and joy into our lives.

What a nice compact and neat story. Well, the Bible has a different version.

But let’s not forget that good stories, even our Christmas story, have details we cannot leave out or the story loses its power. It’s like the small detail I emphasized in my opening story of traveling on the 4th of July weekend and being refused a room. 

So Jesus was born nonetheless and was placed in a “manger.” Now a manger is a feeding trough out of which animals ate. You can bet that this manger was not a comfortable baby crib with a mobile hanging overhead with dangling little birds to occupy the newborn child.

Oh, such humble beginnings into which God’s only Son was born—into which God entered into our life experience. 

But there is one little detail in this story that is crying out for our attention. It is the one detail that gives this story power even now, even two-thousand years later.

“There was no room at the Inn!”

Have you ever wondered if the Innkeeper was being truthful with Mary and Joseph? I’ve often wondered if the man in the hotel whose name I cannot remember was being truthful with me when we were unceremoniously turned away on that 4th of July night!

Maybe there was room for Joseph and Mary but when the Innkeeper saw this wayward couple he didn’t like what he saw and reckoned it would be best to send them on their way.

He didn’t like what he saw!

If this were the case, then the nameless Innkeeper of the nameless Inn (was it the Holiday Inn of Bethlehem or the Comfort Suites of Judea?) just unknowingly turned away God in the flesh! 

Perhaps the Innkeeper really had no way of knowing who he was turning away and this is probably closer to the truth than we think.

But when God in Christ comes knocking at the door of our Inn (heart) are we going to turn him away because we may not like what we see? When he comes knocking asking for our hearts are we going to be willing to invite him in so he may abide with us? Are we going to look past what we see and get over our apprehension, even our fear, and say: “Yes Lord, come on in!”

In this little detail, we discover the real power of the Christmas story. 

God wants a room in your Inn tonight—in your heart that is. He wants to reside within you at the very core of your being in order to become the Ground of your being.

Will you let him in? Will you give him residence in your heat?

Mary's Advent Song of Dissent!

And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,

    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful 
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors” (Luke 1:46-55).
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“The arch of a moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Voices of dissent have never pleased the dominant powers. Mary's was no exception. 

Yet, the Gospel has always been a voice of dissent in an unjust world.

Now the examples that follow were all movements created originally by dissenting voices against the dominant status quo. It should be clear, however, that we are not obliged to give our full-throated support to any one or all of these movements since no one movement is perfect. But we should at least try to recognize the original dissenting voices behinds the movements.

—When the Black Lives Matter movement found its voice the reaction of the status quo was quick and severe, labeling those who spoke up as the voices of black rabble-rousers.

—When the Me Too movement found its voice and was launched the male status quo set out to discredit the voices within this movement as simply angry females. 

—When black athletes found their voice and began taking a knee in protest of police brutality against young black men, their voices were met with the counter-narrative of their being unpatriotic and disrespectful to the American flag, which actually had nothing to do with the original protests.

—When young Parkland school children here in Florida found their voices and spoke up against gun violence the response of the powerful gun lobbying status quo was immediate and unrelenting, even accusing these children of being paid protestors of the liberal establishment. 

—When minority political candidates of late found their voices and spoke up against voter suppression the status quo immediately discredited them as being left-wingers and Socialist liberals.

—When compassionate folks find their voices and protest the incarceration of hundreds, if not thousands, of immigrant children and teenagers as the result of misguided immigration policy, the powers immediately responded by instilling fear into the hearts of the American people of caravan invasions coming from the south. 

Yes, there is also a long history of ordinary folks finding their voices in America and being met with angry and sometimes violent status quo resistance. For example:

—When minority voices of Blacks spoke up against unjust segregational policies in the 1960s they were met with fire hoses and police billy clubs. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others like him were labeled as troublemakers and often jailed simply because he found his voice.

—When American females finally found their voices in the 1970s and spoke up against unjust male domination they were immediately attacked and labeled as malcontents and man-haters whose objective was to ruin the American family. 

Remember the Helen Reddy song, “I Am Woman”?

Look, Mary found her voice and it pushed the arc of history towards a more just world. It is a voice I suggest that we the church must find in the midst of our present day silence. 

Mary’s voice was so disturbing, so radical, so subversive that it has been banned by governments of injustice from being spoken in public places and even in churches.

In fact, in British ruled India Mary’s words were forbidden to be sung in churches and in Argentina during the “Dirty War” the military junta banned it from all public readings—banned because it instilled hope in the people.  Yes, too much hope can lead to people finding their own dissenting voices.

I love the way the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes the Advent Song of Mary:

"It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings. . . This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic, or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols. It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.”

Mary’s Advent Song reminds us that God has acted once and for all in the birth of his only Son and his lowly birth contains the potential to create a world that is more loving, more just, and more peaceful. 

Why is it that a Middle Eastern teenager, pregnant and unmarried, had the insight to perceive God’s movement within her own womb when so many today have yet to recognize that movement?  

Why is it that in all our modern sophistication we continue to miss the point of Christmas by turning it into a once-a-year overly commercialized consumer binge that has absolutely nothing to do with God establishing his reign on earth?

If there is such a thing as a “War on Christmas” this is it!

Why is it, in a world being torn apart by dangerous and toxic political agendas, that we humans have such difficulty hearing this young teenager’s dissenting voice from the past?

Why is the church silent today I ask?

It seems that Jesus had good genes, inheriting his mother’s propensity (DNA) for finding his own voice at just the right time:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

I call upon the church in America to find her unified voice in these troubling days. I call upon her to sing the words of both Mary and Jesus to a world order that seems disinterested in the moral arc of justice that Jesus inaugurated at his birth. 

I call upon the church to speak prophetically to both the political Right and the political Left, to those who would implement unjust policies driven by the need for power, greed, and self-interests.

I call upon the church to stand apart from such injustices and speak truth to power!

I call upon the church to find her voice and sing loudly that God has acted once and for all in the birth of his Son Jesus to push the arc of history towards a more just world. 

I pray that Advent this year might be the tipping point for members of all of my fellow Christians to find their voices, as did both Mary and Jesus, and thus courageously speak out against the injustices of our world. 

But a word of warning: 

Jesus inherited his mother’s voice and those in power murdered him—as is often the case when voices dissent from the dominant status quo. Speaking truth to power, as did Jesus, can be hazardous to your health, if not your reputation. Let’s not forget that Mary and her young family became undocumented refugees in Egypt because Jesus posed a threat to the ruling authority of his day.

I pray for courage, for myself and for all those who claim to follow the Lord of lords and the King of kings. I pray for courage for those who have thrown their hat in the Jesus ring for better or for worse. 

Speak up church! Speak out! Proclaim boldly the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the true Son of God, the one and only Savior whose own life and death ensured that the moral arc of the universe will bend towards justice for everyone.

Remember, the Gospel has always been a voice of dissent in an unjust world!

The Christmas Story Remixed

In a recent New York Times article, entitled “The Hypocrisy of Hanukkah” (Dec 1, 2018) Michael David Lucas uncomfortably confronts the original meaning behind the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. Lucas begins his article recounting a conversation he had with his 3-year-old daughter. Here is his opening account verbatim:

It’s the question that Jewish parents instinctively dread.

A few months ago, I was sitting on the couch with my 3-year-old daughter, watching YouTube videos about animals in space, when out of nowhere she looked up at me and asked:

“Dada, can we celebrate Christmas?”

“We don’t celebrate Christmas,” I told her, putting on my serious voice. “We celebrate Hanukkah.”

Like generations of Jewish parents before me, I did my best to sell her on the relative merits of Hanukkah. True, Christmas might have those sparkly trees, ornaments and fruitcake. But we have latkes, jelly doughnuts and eight nights of presents.

“Do we have Santa?” she asked, hopefully.

“No,” I said, and her face dropped. “They do.”

I tried to reiterate the part about the jelly doughnuts and the eight nights of presents. But she wasn’t having any of it.

Okay, allow me to briefly summarize what I think is the point of Lucas’s article about the modern-day American version of Hanukkah: Hanukkah for many American Jews has become (pardon the analogy) the Jewish version of the American Christmas—at least culturally speaking that is. 

But Lucas later admits how uncomfortably surprised he was to learn the actual historical background behind this minor annual Jewish holiday. Lucas learned that Hanukkah has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas (not that it ever did) but was instead an 8-day long celebration of the victory of religious fundamentalism and violence. 

Writes Lucas:

"More recently, as Jews have become assimilated into American society, the holiday has evolved into a kind of Semitic sidekick for Christmas, a minor festival pumped up into something it was never meant to be so that Jewish kids won’t feel bad about not having a tree."

Indeed the rediscovery of Hanukkah’s original meaning has the potential to shed new light on this minor Jewish holiday.

But what if we Christians, like Lucas, took a deeper look into our own foundational Christmas story, particularly the birth stories found in Matthew and Luke. What if we were to challenge the modern -day perception that these stories were all about humble beginnings and strained hospitality portrayed on glossy Hallmark cards; stories acted out in children’s plays in church. 

This is exactly what author Tricia Gates Brown has done in her excellent *essay (“The Subversive, Confrontational, & Emboldening Stories of Christmas”) on the original meaning of the Christmas stories, as found in Matthew and Luke. Brown’s discovery is shocking to most modern-day American Christians—shocking because most of us have never heard this version of the Christmas story before (I had not until my mid-fifties). 

Matthew and Luke are the only two Gospel writers that begin with a birth narrative of Jesus. This is not a coincidence nor is it an accident. They were designed, each in their own way, to let the first century Christians know that God has acted in Jesus’s birth to establish his eternal reign (Empire) on earth. 

A new government has been established. A new Ruler has been installed. A new King has been coronated. A new way of life has appeared that stands in stark contrast to the ways of Empire (Rome or the United States).

In other words, both Matthew and Luke use the birth story of Jesus (as a prelude) to set up their Gospels in order to critique and challenge the pagan Empire of Rome (or any Empire for that matter). It was their way of subverting the prideful claims of both the Empire and Cesar. 

As Tricia Gates Brown reminds us: “These [birth] narratives offer a scathing critique of imperial methods of controlling people, holding onto power, conquering territory, and advancing/protecting the empire’s survival.” In other words, the non-violent kingdom of Christ stands opposed to the violent nature of worldly Empires—including our own nation.

The stories of Jesus’s birth demonstrate to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear that lasting peace is brought about by the non-violent ways of Christ as opposed to the violent ways of the Empire. It is with great intent that the Gospel writers refer to Jesus as "The Prince of Peace" and not Cesar.

Read in such a manner, these birth stories of Jesus, the stories that have been overly sentimentalized by the Hallmark industry, remind us all of who our true Lord is. Read in this way we are reminded of the real significance of our baptismal confession: 

“Jesus is Lord!”

And because Jesus is Lord it only stands to reason that Cesar isn’t—nor any other worldly ruler who desires to lay claim on Christian lives.

It is time for American Christians, as well as American Jews for that matter, to hear our annual holiday stories as they were told in their original context. I believe if we make such an effort we will experience a deeper and richer Christmas and Hanukkah and the annual mantra will take on new meaning:

“Peace on earth and goodwill to all!”

*https://triciagatesbrown.net/2018/11/15/the-subversive-confrontational-emboldening-stories-of-christmas-2/