With God on our side: mythe van grote opname
henk - 27.10.2004 18:41
De mythe van de grote opname
 http://www.antenna.nl/~anaisnin/rapture.htm
Hopelijk besteedt de VPRO hier ook aandacht aan. Met "God on our side" wachten veel christenen nog steeds tot ze opgebeamd worden naar de hemel. De waarheid steekt veel genuanceerder in elkaar.
There is possibly no higher point of biblical revelation within the gospels than the 17th chapter of John which records Jesus out-pouring of heart as He faces the inevitablility of the cross. Knowing what His Father will accomplish by His death and resurrection, among other prayer-agreements during those agonizing hours, the following provides us with the kind of underlying principle that ought to save us from fruitless searching through the garbage of contemporary rapture teaching, trying to find something of worth:
"I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one." (vs.15 from the NAS). The whole spirit, emphasis, energy and focus of rapture teaching, be it pre, mid, or post, not only ignores the eonian purpose of God as expressed in these words of our Lord, but is filled with a spirit that is antagonistic and adversarial in regard to the heaven-to-earth thrust of the gospel. So I find all the positioning and linking of supposed biblical proof-texts for the theory of the rapture in general to be profoundly boring and ludicrous. Nothing more obviously represents the observation of Jesus that "you search the scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal [eonian] life, and you will not come to me that you may
have life." There are few popular teachings that so effectively distract the believer from the imperative of realizing the living presence of Christ within and among the believing community and the world as does rapture teaching.
What comes to me are the words of Jesus about the blind leading the blind and all ending up in a ditch.
RSV, KJV, Weymouth, Phillips, Rothchild, and in BBE it is found in connection with rapturous joy, not being snatched away.
Before the middle of the 18th century, the rapture was unheard of, but a young peasant girl thought she saw a vision of the Virgin Mary who told her to spread the word that believers would be snatched away. From there, it has become big business, as the "Left Behind" series describes in horrific detail what will happen to those who do not profess Christ. It's more religion from the carnal mind of man. Our Father does not operate that way. To me, when you think of the life of Jesus on earth, rapture is completely the opposite of how He behaved. He ate and drank with publicans and sinners, rather than running away from them the way the Pharisees did.
Evangelicals (modern day Pharisees) think we'll be snatched out of here before Armageddon when God pours out His wrath on the earth. That is just not supportable in scripture, and so unlike our loving Father who loves us all unconditionally as to be blasphemous. Just my opinion, and that of a great many of us who have been released from religion (law) into life in the Spirit.
I am frequently "raptured" up to the throne of God (as in Rev. 12), when He transports me out of myself and into the realm of Spirit. All my writings and poems come that way.
|
