Left Behind?

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I was watching television recently when a commercial for what appeared to be an upcoming horror/action film came on the screen. I love going to the movies and am always curious about what is making its way to the theater. However, curiosity turned to sadness (and to be honest anger) when I saw the title … Left Behind!  I am familiar with the books and their foundation in rapture (dispensationalist) theology.  Rapture theology came about as a new teaching in the 1830’s and 40’s through a preacher named John Nelson Darby. He strung together a few passages from the Bible to develop the idea that God would come and whisk away the faithful from the earth prior to the second coming of Jesus, an event called the Rapture. The concept inspired the popular fiction book series that is the foundation for this new movie. 

I am not writing to address the specifics of the movie (I haven’t even seen it), but something deeper: What does it say about Jesus? The movie advertises itself as unashamedly “Christian”, but the promo seems to sell fear, terror and chaos. (I went to the movie website to learn more, but it was just more of the same.) The truth is Jesus never used such things to introduce people to God. In fact, in the Bible Jesus did the opposite of leaving people behind. He went to extremes to make sure people were included, even tax collectors, prostitutes, adulterers, Gentiles and so many other people the religious leaders of the day wished were “left behind”. Jesus wanted people to know God as a father who welcomed home wayward children with open arms of grace (see Luke 15:11-32), not a tyrant anxious to destroy the world and wreak chaos. 

I suppose it is easy to string together a few verses to make an argument for rapture theology, but the overwhelming evidence from the Gospels is that Jesus doesn’t want us to be afraid of God. He wants us to discover how much we are loved by God and to share that same love with other people, even people we might see as sinful or as enemies. In the end, I hope that people will look more to Jesus to understand the heart of God than a Hollywood movie or a popular fiction book series. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is about love – not fear, chaos, terror and destruction. 

Together we are the hands and the feet of Jesus,

Brett

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