I can't find reference to alternate view of rapture ("left behind")
February 19, 2016 8:30 PM   Subscribe

Unless my mind is playing tricks, I seem to recall reading in the last week or two a reference to an alternate view of the rapture and/or "left behind", where God calls the "good" folks to heaven, and then takes the angels and saints to earth to finish the job the "good" folks never did.

I just skimmed it and thought I bookmarked it to read later, but apparently did not. Of course Googling for "rapture" is pointless (though I tried adding "alternate view"). And I know AskMeFi is great at challenges like this. Thanks in advance!
posted by forthright to Religion & Philosophy (5 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I think it was in my Askme... here :http://peterrollins.net/2011/05/left-behind/
posted by The otter lady at 11:36 PM on February 19, 2016


Best answer: Assuming the parable The otter lady points to is the text you're thinking of, you should probably know that the author, Peter Rollins, is being kind of tongue-in-cheek with that story. Rollins is basically saying that Rapture theology, which is all about bugging out to heaven while Earth burns*, is not compatible with his view of a God who is actually concerned with the state of the world and who is at work to, well, fix shit.

*Incidentally, while this view gets a lot of press as its proponents, typically conservative American Protestants, are quite loud about it, most Christians don't really believe in anything like a "Rapture". I think it's worthwhile to consider that this view is quite congruent to the settler state ideology that took root in the US and (to some extent) Canada, Australia and South Africa, and has primarily taken root among those very people whose ancestors left a corrupt / oppressive / un-holy Old World to build a new society in "pristine" wilderness.
posted by tivalasvegas at 5:33 AM on February 20, 2016


Response by poster: Absolutely, otter lady! Thanks!

And, tivalasvegas, since my intent to bookmark it was to check if it was serious or flippant and to see how it fit in with my Christian views, I thank you for the additional background on the rapture!

Actually, I was particularly interested because one of my favorite Christian authors is Joseph F. Girzone, and his view of God's exquisite concern for us seems congruent with this parable.

Once again AskMeFi comes to the rescue, even though I fell asleep.
posted by forthright at 5:58 AM on February 20, 2016


Best answer: Beaten to it, dang. Yes, it's important to note that the parable is not Rollins setting out what he thinks will actually happen at the rapture - I very much doubt he even thinks anything like the rapture would even happen, but I don't wish to speak for him. It is, after all, a parable.

Peter Rollins is a really, really interesting theologian and thinker; I've seen him speak a number of times and it's always been fascinating and challenging - he tends to come from the exact opposite position to where you'd expect from a Christian theologian, and very deliberately so. He's one of the few Christian thinkers I've seen take the Death of God movement seriously and engage with it rather than flippantly dismiss or ignore it. The Left Behind parable is somewhat dated now but is fairly typical of his approach. Wikipedia covers the broad themes of his thinking and project pretty well.
posted by parm at 9:40 AM on February 20, 2016


Response by poster: Thanks parm for pointing me to the article on Rollins. Yeah, further down the rabbit hole I go, who knows where this will all lead in my spiritual life. Looks like good stuff!
posted by forthright at 10:47 AM on February 20, 2016


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