by Barbara R. Rossing

A popular bumper sticker among some fundamentalist Christians proclaims, "When the Rapture comes this car will be driverless." Soon a humorous response appeared on aging, dented cars such as my own: "Come the Rapture, may I have your car?"

Underneath the bumper-sticker debates, though, are real disagreements about Jesus’ return. Rapture questions and the chronology of Jesus’ second coming have taken on new urgency with the recent popularity of the Left Behind novels, a fictional series set during the supposed seven year period between Jesus’ coming in the so–called Rapture and his coming again for what they call the Glorious Appearing.

Two years ago I received a sabbatical leave from the Lutheran School of Theology to study Rapture theology and to write a response (The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation). What I discovered was that the entire Rapture notion is foreign to traditional orthodox Christian theology. While proponents claim that the Rapture is based on a literal interpretation of the book of Revelation and other Bible prophecy, they employ a highly selective pick–and–choose literalism in stringing together Bible passages. Beyond mere bumper–sticker deliberations, Rapture theology raises questions for Christians about violence, the Bible’s view of prophecy, and even Middle East policy. In my view, this theology needs to be challenged and replaced with a more biblical understanding of Jesus’ second coming.

The same yet very different
Jesus will come again. We agree on that. The return of Jesus is a central teaching in the New Testament and is foundational for Lutherans and other Christians — but this is not the same as the Rapture, a word that does not appear in the Bible. We declare in our creeds that Jesus "will come again to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end." But nowhere do the creeds or the Bible describe Jesus as returning twice, or in "two distinct stages" separated by a period of seven years, as proponents of the Rapture claim.

The notion of the Rapture — or a sudden snatching of Christians up into the air — was invented in the 1830s by a British preacher, John Nelson Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren. Darby took the traditional understanding of Jesus’ second coming and divided it into two parts. First, the so–called Rapture when Jesus would hover over the earth and snatch born-again Christians up to heaven, leaving the world to suffer tribulations for seven years. And next, at the end of that seven–year period of death and destruction when three quarters of the world ’s population has been killed, Rapture proponents believe that Jesus will return to earth again for the third time to fight the battle of Armageddon and set up an earthly kingdom. Proponents come up with their Rapture chronology by cobbling together a reference in the Latin translation of Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians with three verses in Daniel and a verse from Revelation.

Interesting? Perhaps. Biblical? Hardly.
Such pieced together timelines are not biblical. The New Testament is full of references to Jesus’ second coming — some focusing on heaven, some on earth, some on judgment, and others on salvation. Some verses depict a banquet with the Old Testament prophets or a marriage feast; others illustrate a paradise or garden or fields of green pastures. The New Testament is rich in its descriptions, but it talks of only one second coming of Christ, not two.

What will Jesus’ second coming be like, and when will it happen? We cannot know. Indeed, Jesus warns us against trying to figure out the details of an end–times chronology that even he himself does not know. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his followers, "About that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven nor the Son, but only the Father" (Matthew 24:36). Jesus does not intend for us to piece together Bible verses to construct a detailed timetable. We are, however, counseled to be urgent in mission, urgent in our waiting, urgent in living as Jesus taught us — and that urgency is foundational for our lives.

Prophecy Means Urgent Warning, Not Prediction
The sense of urgency in living for Jesus’ second coming is highlighted by the vivid sequence of parables that Jesus tells to illustrate his end-times message in Matthew 24–25. The parable of the ten bridesmaids, this month’s Bible study, is an example. Other parables in this speech include the flood that sweeps people away, a steward left in charge of the household while the master is away, and a master who entrusts large sums of money to his slaves. These parables all underscore the importance of readiness and staying awake. In the parable of the flood (Matthew 24:36–42), Left Behind’s favorite image is of the two women grinding meal together, where one is taken, and another is left. Yet, we cannot know whether being "taken" or being "left" is the desired fate. Rapture proponents make the assumption that the person "taken" in this passage is a born–again Christian who is taken up to heaven, while the person "left" is an unbeliever left behind for judgment. But for people in Jesus’ day living under Roman occupation, the word "taken" would have had connotations of being carried off by secret police or death squad — whereas being "left" may have been a more desirable fate. Jesus seems deliberately ambiguous — perhaps because our focus is not supposed to be on worrying about being taken or left, but rather on urgency and readiness. We must live our lives at every moment as Jesus taught us, being urgent in loving our neighbor, urgent in caring for the world that God created, urgent in feeding the hungry and visiting prisoners, urgent in living faithfully.

Scripture Coming to Life
The immense popularity of the Left Behind series reveals a deep-seated hunger to feel that the Bible is coming to life in our lifetime. Prophecy buffs’ claims that the events of September 11, 2001, or acts of senseless violence in Iraq or Israel fulfill a pattern that is somehow pre-determined in the Bible may speak to people’s longings to see connections between the Bible and their lives. But the problem is that the events in which they identify the Bible’s cosmic plan "coming to life" are world wars, bloody crashes, earthquakes, diseases, and other cataclysmic events. We must challenge this view that death and violence are where we see God most present and active in the world.

I believe that scripture does come to life in our world and in our lives — but not in a series of scripted disasters and wars. The Bible comes to life most of all in life–giving experiences of hope, healing, and transformation. We find the message of the Bible and Jesus’ second coming for today not by drawing detailed correlations between wars in the Middle East and biblical prophecies in Daniel or Revelation, but by opening our eyes to see God’s love in the daily events of our lives. We need to learn to see and describe our experiences of God with greater urgency — our "Aha" moments of seeing God’s passionate love for the world, seeing the Bible coming to life in day-to-day experiences.

Ethics for the End Times
So how do Christians live if they know they may be living in the end times? Fortunately, the New Testament itself deals with that very question — indeed, that is the central question addressed in most New Testament writings. Early Christians definitely thought they were living at the brink of the end times.

Love of neighbor and hospitality to strangers was the early Christians’ surest response to life on the brink of the end times. They gathered together and worshiped God. Early Christians ministered to the poor. They visited prisoners. They broke bread together; they sang hymns to God and the Lamb. Early Christians nurtured community. They were an all–embracing and joyous fellowship as citizens of God’s new community, open to the world. By their patient and subversive lifestyle of love and welcome in community, the early Christians resisted the claims of empire. People around them marveled at their joy and boldness.

Early Christians did not fight. They engaged in spiritual warfare only by using the weapons of love — loving their enemies and praying for those who persecuted them. Seeing this amazing, self-giving love, and not displays of Christians’ superior warfare or power, was what persuaded many pagans to convert to Christ. Martyrdom was also a powerful testimony.

We can learn from these early Christians as well as from their followers about how to live for the end times today. I keep coming back to Martin Luther’s oft–quoted remark that "If I knew the world were going to end tomorrow, I would plant a tree." Luther is saying he would continue to live even more deeply rooted in the confidence of God’ s love for the world. "Thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven," is what Jesus taught us to pray. It is not a prayer to take us away from earth, or a prayer for escape, but a prayer that God’s reign will come to earth — and that it will even come "through us," as Luther explains.

Terrorism and events in the world have generated new urgency for the coming reign of God. We need to remember that to look for the coming of Christ and to live in urgency means to share God’s love for the world. The river of life and the healing leaves of the tree of life in Revelation 22 are my favorite biblical end–times images. The book of Revelation —perhaps the most urgent biblical vision for the end times — calls us to dwell along the river even now, sharing the healing and peace of the tree of life, and inviting the whole world into the blessings of abundant life eternal.

Rev. Barbara R. Rossing teaches New Testament at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She holds a doctorate from Harvard University Divinity School and a Masters of Divinity degree from Yale University Divinity School.