Posts tagged Christianity

Last week, the social networking world was all a-buzz with talk of the rapture. For those who don’t know, the rapture refers to a time when we Christians believe that Jesus will return and take his followers to heaven. The Bible certainly has some things to say about the end times. Here’s what Jesus said in Matthew 24:30-31:

30 “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.

31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. 

The rapture has been introduced to popular culture before, for example in the “Left Behind” series of books and movies, but what got people talking about it last week were the predictions of a man named Harold Camping. I’ll let Wikipedia take it from here:

Camping gained notoriety owing to his prediction that the Rapture would take place on May 21, 2011, and that the end of the world would subsequently take place five months later on October 21, 2011. Followers of Camping claimed that around 200 million people (approximately 3% of the world’s population) would be raptured.

I’m really not sure why this became such a big topic of discussion. I could be wrong, but I don’t get the sense that people who believed Camping’s rapture time table were a large group. I think I saw someone suggest that the rise of social networking has helped spread what might normally be minor stories far and wide.

Non-Christians of course were having a field day making fun of the notion of a rapture. I understand that it sounds silly to them. What really bothered me though was the way in which many Christians reacted to the rapture story.

I didn’t really think that Camping had really worked it out to the degree that he could accurately predict the date on which the rapture would occur. After all, Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 24:36-41:

36 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.

41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

I didn’t understand why Christians seemed to be joining in with the non-Christians in relentlessly mocking the event. I may have even joked about it a time or two. I think we need to be careful not to seem like we think the entire notion of the rapture is silly. While I think most Christians probably doubted that Camping had any special insight into the timing of Christ’s return, Jesus is clear that as Christians we need to be ready. Matthew 24:42 says:

42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

One of my all-time favorite books is The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas. It takes place before, during, and just after the time of Christ’s death and resurrection. One of the Christian characters is described as constantly looking up as if he expects to see someone (Christ) coming up the road. I think likewise as Christians, we ought to always be expecting our Lord to return at any moment, though of course it’s so easy to get caught up in our daily lives.

I remember sitting in my car on the morning of May 21 looking up at the clouds and thinking to myself something along the lines of, “If today be the day, then Lord come.” My hope would be that everyday I would think that.

When President Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed, the reactions of many of the Christians I follow on Twitter were interesting. I saw a retweet of a person calling attention to Ezekiel 18:23:

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?

Ezekiel is not a book I’ve spent much time reading in a long time, but I was struck by how relevant this verse seemed to the situation at hand. I tweeted it out myself, as did others.

Among those who did seemed to be celebrating the death of bin Laden, this seemed to have struck a cord. Some of them tweeted verses that at first glance seem to contradict Ezekiel. I don’t remember if this one was one of the specific ones I saw, but I think it captures what they were trying to express. Proverbs 11:10 says,

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.

Looking back on that night I have mixed feelings about the whole conversation. On the one hand, how wonderful that an event could draw believers into the Word! On the other hand though I fear that to a non-Christian, we appeared divided and in some cases perhaps unkind to one another. After all, John 13:35 says,

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

But what do we do with Ezekiel and Proverbs? Are they in conflict? I don’t think so. Proverbs 11:10 is just stating what a natural human response is to the death of a wicked person. To the extent that any of us felt any joy at the news of bin Laden’s death, I say that’s understandable and natural. But is it the right way to respond? To me Ezekiel suggests that it’s not. It seems pretty clear from that verse that God is not pleased at the death of wicked men. And if God isn’t pleased, I shouldn’t be either.

What are your thoughts on this subject? I’d love to hear what other Christians have to say!