Barbara R. Rossing: The Rapture Exposed

[bibliogramma]

We live in millennial times - at least those of us who follow the Gregorian calendar - and it's not that much of a stretch to think that this, and the general state of instability in global politics and society have had something to do with the growth industry that is the Christian myth of The Rapture. Books, movies, ranting television evangelists, and even American politicians with the power to start wars have been part of this strange cultural phenomenon.

Barbara R. Rossing’s The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation, takes on The Rapture mythology from two perspectives: first she traces the history of the idea that the chosen of God will be taken up alive and in the flesh into heaven while everyone else suffers through tribulations of immense proportion and scope; and second, she delivers a thorough and scholarly critique of the theology of the Rapture from the standpoint of a mainstream Christian with a sound understanding of the Biblical texts and their place in the historical and religious context of their times.

As one reviewer notes,

The strength, one of many, of Rossing’s text is that she takes what has become known as premillenial dispensationalism and surgically dismantles it due to its lack of any significant scriptural foundation. Rossing takes a longer view of Scripture than rapture proponents…that is, she seems to be looking at how God has worked throughout Scripture rather than simply piecing together a handful of verses, many out of context, to create a much-anticipated time-line of rapture, destruction, and death. Along the way, she highlights criticisms of this theological worldview form all camps, liberal and conservative, evangelical and mainline, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, and the list of opponents goes on and on. (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/poptheology/2009/12/the-rapture-exposed/)

Finally, Rossing looks at the potential for violence and war in the kind of mindset that reads current events as milestones on the road to the Second Coming, and believes that the world must suffer in flames before that event can occur.