{"id":2252,"date":"2007-11-25T05:34:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-25T09:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=2252"},"modified":"2015-10-18T20:10:47","modified_gmt":"2015-10-19T00:10:47","slug":"christian-escapis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=2252","title":{"rendered":"Christian escapism"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/em>\"\"<\/a> I have Hap<\/a> to thank for pointing me to ASBO Jesus,<\/a> Jon Birch’s strange, often fascinating, and frequently very funny comic blog. (I have Birch to thank <\/a>for the following explanation: “btw. for the non british among you\u2026 an \u2018asbo\u2019 is an \u2018anti-social behaviour order\u2019\u2026 the courts here award them to people who are deemed to be constant trouble in their neighbourhoods\u2026 presumably according to their neighbours!”) I’ve appreciated any number of his comics, but I especially like this one, because I too have a problem with the whole idea of the “Rapture.” I agree with Birch that it’s bad theology, though we can argue that at another time; more than that, it’s bad exegesis.<\/p>\n

I imagine that statement will surprise some people, who are no doubt already flipping to 1 Thessalonians 4<\/a> to prove me wrong. I can hear them now: “See, it says, ‘The Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.’ See, there’s the Rapture right there!” Fine, except . . . it isn’t. Does that text say the Lord will return? Yes. Does it say we’ll all meet him in the air? Yes. But look closely and notice what it doesn’t say: which direction we’ll go from there. The assumption behind the idea of the Rapture is that Jesus will go back to heaven for a while and we’ll go with him\u2014but the Scripture doesn’t actually say that. It’s only an assumption.<\/p>\n

Now, I can predict the most likely rejoinder here: “It’s obvious!” Except, once you get outside the assumptions of our culture, it isn’t. To understand what’s really going on in 1 Thessalonians, remember the parallels between this passage and the wedding parables of Jesus. In several places, Jesus compares those waiting for his return to people waiting for the bridegroom. Thus for instance we have the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids, in Matthew 25<\/a>. In that parable, the crisis comes for the foolish bridesmaids when the cry comes, “Here comes the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!” Here’s the parallel to 1 Thessalonians 4: the Lord, the Bridegroom, returns, and we go out to meet him and escort him to the house<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In other words, the coming of Christ Paul talks about isn’t a halfway coming to pick us up and leave the rest of the world to rot; it’s his final return to earth, and we will go out as the wedding party to escort him in. There’s no Rapture in this passage, no “Get Out of Trouble Free” card; only our wishful thinking makes it so.<\/p>\n

Update: OK, this follow-on of Birch’s really cracked me up.<\/em>
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have Hap to thank for pointing me to ASBO Jesus, Jon Birch’s strange, often fascinating, and frequently very funny comic blog. (I have Birch to thank for the following explanation: “btw. for the non british among you\u2026 an \u2018asbo\u2019 is an \u2018anti-social behaviour order\u2019\u2026 the courts here award them to people who are deemed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[65,76,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religion-and-theology","category-scripture","category-uncategorized","post-with-thumbnail","post-with-thumbnail-large"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6R3Ax-Ak","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1912,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=1912","url_meta":{"origin":2252,"position":0},"title":"What “your best life now” looks like in practice","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"10 August 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"John Stackhouse noted the other day that a lot of Christians don't care about theology because they think it's a dull, dry subject which has nothing to do with their lives. 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I will note that #1 really does not make one feel like a good pastor\u2014nor, in some cases, does #2, especially when it comes in combination with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Church and ministry"","block_context":{"text":"Church and ministry","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=86"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":918,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=918","url_meta":{"origin":2252,"position":3},"title":"Doing what comes naturally","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"1 February 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It is the most natural thing in the world to falsify God. All we have to do is follow our intuitions and good intentions. But whenever our uncrucified selves take over, bad things start happening. Worshiping Christ alone is an adjustment. It is unnatural\u2014and freeing. We pay a price to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quotes"","block_context":{"text":"Quotes","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=73"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1580,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=1580","url_meta":{"origin":2252,"position":4},"title":"The God of bad mornings","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"5 January 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning did not go well at all; in fact, it went badly on a number of levels, and I'm already feeling frazzled. \u00a0I'm hanging on hard to the truth that God is in charge, command, and control at every point and in every circumstance, and that even in my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=68"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6282,"url":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?p=6282","url_meta":{"origin":2252,"position":5},"title":"A theology for suffering","author":"Rob Harrison","date":"19 April 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"All whom the Lord has chosen and received into the society of his saints ought to prepare themselves for a life that is hard, difficult, laborious and full of countless griefs. \u2014John Calvin Calvin knew the truth of this in his bones.\u00a0 As Peter Sanlon writes in his essay \"Calvinism:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/?cat=79"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/john_calvin.jpg?fit=1036%2C582&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/john_calvin.jpg?fit=1036%2C582&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/john_calvin.jpg?fit=1036%2C582&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/john_calvin.jpg?fit=1036%2C582&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rjaharrison.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/escape.jpg?fit=600%2C240&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3929,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions\/3929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rjaharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}