Tentpegs

Here are two quick ones that came in last week. I have been in 5 states in the last nine days so I am running behind, especially over at my Hidden History series. Sorry! I’ll get on it as soon as I can. I am being interviewed this evening via podcast. A cluster of female theobloggers has some questions for me. I don’t see what could possibly go wrong…

Question #1. I think I heard you say in one of your online sermons that you do not believe in the “rapture.”
What do you understand to be the next event after I Thess 4:17? Do you see I Thess 4:17 as a real event that is going to happen?

Yes, I think the events in First Thessalonians 4:16,17 will happen but I reject the doctrine of the Rapture. First, let me say that the Bible is just not very clear on how the world will end and what will happen as it ends and right after it ends. It could be that describing those events would make no sense since we live in a world bound up by physics. Or, it could be that God just doesn’t want to talk about some things, yet. Remember, there are several places in Scripture where an apostle or prophet saw something that God told him not to pass on to the general public. Okay… I can live with that. In this passage, Paul is just saying that the dead will be raised and then those who were faithful will rise up followed by those of us who are faithful and remain. He wasn’t trying to give a detailed account of everything that was going to happen; this was just a snapshot to show the church that those who were faithful until death would rise and be honored.

There are SO many books out there on prophecy and it is rare to go a month or so without some church in a metro area as large as this one offering a “prophecy seminar” of some sort. These traveling prophecy experts change their material as the things they predict fail to occur and the people keep buying the new stuff. There is absolutely nothing in scripture to indicate that we are living in the Last Days if, by that, you mean the world is coming to an end. Everything these experts find and apply out of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel, Zechariah, and Revelation could just as easily have applied to the year 800, 1000, 1400, or any other historical period. The Bible is NOT a textbook on the end of the world. The best way to understand the prophecies in the Old Testament is to apply them to the physical, metaphysical, and political struggles of the Jews up to the time of Christ. The best way to understand the book of Revelation is to see it as a recurring story (told several different ways, but the same story nonetheless) of the battle between darkness and light, good and evil, in every age with the assurance that those who are righteous will be, at last, redeemed.

The word “rapture” does not even appear in the Bible, yet many build a huge doctrine around this idea that, one day, God will reach down and snatch away all the good people, leaving the rest to fend for themselves in a terrible series of wars and plagues. Those who preach the Rapture cannot agree among themselves about if it happens before or after a Tribulation… or about much of anything else. It has spawned a huge series of badly written books and a couple poorly acted movies, but it isn’t biblical. I know my friend, Laymond (and I do consider him my friend, though we rarely agree about anything), might want to remind me that the word Trinity is also not found in the Bible and I DO believe in it! Inconsistent? No. I don’t reject the doctrine of the Rapture because that word is missing — I reject it because the doctrine is missing. While the Trinity is certainly not writ large in scripture, I find enough tantalizing clues and oblique statements out there to believe the Trinity is the best way to harmonize and solve our dilemma concerning how to view the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I could be wrong… but it isn’t a salvation issue as far as I can see. And neither is the Rapture. Should there be a Rapture, I believe I am among the redeemed who God would snatch away. I don’t think there is a Rapture but, right or wrong, I am assured of salvation through my faith and through the promise of God and the grace He has given us in Christ.

Question #2. At what point do you believe Jesus fully understood what his work on earth required of him. I don’t think he understood at age 12 when he said he had to be about his Father’s work. Like wise, do you think Mary knew all that would happen to her son?

Your first question is unanswerable using scripture. We can assume that God didn’t let a three year old know he had all the power of God. That would be, shall we say, unwise in the extreme. So when did Jesus know? Did it come on him all at once when he was 12? No… that would be reading far too much into the events of the temple visit. It seemed that he knew something, but how much is open to debate… and it HAS been debated through the centuries. Some just couldn’t see how God’s Son could not know who he was and so we have quite a few forged “gospels” that have Jesus striking his playmates dead, making birds out of dirt, etc. Some believe God came to him when he was about to turn 30 and filled him in. All of these ideas are fun to play with but, really, there isn’t much of spiritual value in that pursuit.

As for what Mary knew, the Magnificat reveals a great deal of knowledge about her future son. Her approach to him at the wedding feast in Cana indicates a great amount of inside knowledge as well. She knew her son could do something to keep the wedding off the rocks, even when he was reluctant to do so. All in all, Mary seems like a much tougher, wiser, and fierce individual than the paintings and portrayals of her through the centuries would indicate. She truly was a hero.