by Barbara R. Rossing. Basic Books, 2004. ISBN 0-8133-4314-3. Pb, 222 pp. $15.00
When the Left Behind series (by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins) began to come out in 1995, many of us wondered “Who would read such stuff?” Now after twelve volumes and a thirteenth, The Rising, which serves as a prequel, we know the answer. A lot more people read them than we would have guessed–enough to keep the books on the best-seller list year after year. They include a sizable percentage of every congregation I know of. The disturbing thing is that while those reading the books know they are fiction, many are nevertheless convinced that what they present is indeed the “biblical view” of God’s plan and purpose for the world. We who read Scripture quite differently cannot allow such an assumption to go unchallenged. The use of the Bible and the underlying theology found in the Left Behind series is in many ways antithetical to what many of us are convinced is a more faithful reading of Scripture.
In The Rapture Exposed, Barbara Rossing offers a clear, engaging, and theologically insightful critique of the use of Scripture in the Left Behind series and the dispensationalist theology that lies behind the story line. Rossing, who teaches at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, has written extensively on the Revelation to John and Christian eschatology. She skillfully exposes the theological fiction on which the whole concept of the Rapture is based, the ethic of despair and escapism it fosters, and the extreme political agenda espoused by its main proponents.
Rather than being a faithful reading of Scripture as a whole, the emphasis on the pre-tribulation Rapture of believers comes from the work of John Nelson Darby, a British evangelical preacher and founder of the Plymouth Brethren. Darby produced a detailed system of seven “dispensations” in which God deals with the world in distinctly different ways. Presbyterians have long recognized that a dispensational reading of Scripture denies the covenant theology at the heart of our confessions.
Rossing briefly traces the influence of Darby’s end-time prophecy system and offers a helpful critique of its misuse of biblical sources. The Rapture Exposed ends with an epilogue in which she deals with each of the main passages used to build the case for the Rapture. Preachers in particular will find this section useful, but so will all who need further convincing that dispensationalist theology is not a faithful reading of Scripture but a rigid system imposed on Scripture that distorts the basic message of Scripture and does not do justice to the richness and complexity of the biblical witness.
It should not be surprising that dispensational theology is enjoying a resurgence in these apocalyptic times. When couched in action-packed fiction, it seems to “bring the Bible to life” for many readers and offers them a way of connecting the Bible with disturbing events in the news. “The problem,” says Rossing, “is that the dispensationalist method of drawing connections relies on a dangerous and false view of God and the Bible” (p. 99). It may seem to make sense out of the chaotic events of our day, but as Rossing makes clear, what is offered in the whole theological movement represented and marketed so well by the Left Behind series is not authentic Christian hope, but a form of self-centered escapism combined with an authorization of violence that is the antithesis of Christian hope. The message of the gospel, she insists, is that “God is coming to heal the world, not to kill millions of people. God loves the world, and God will never leave the world behind” (p. vii). Christians are not called to escape the “cost of discipleship” by being raptured out of the struggles of the world. We are called to enter more deeply into the suffering of the world with a message of ultimate hope for its redemption, not by the violent Lion of Judah, but by the vulnerable, self-giving love of the slain Lamb upon the throne.
Some reviewers have faulted Rossing’s book for being “too polemical.” Not this one. One of the things I appreciate most is how clearly and forcefully she articulates her critique of the Left Behind movement. Her opening paragraph sets the tone for the whole book: “THE RAPTURE IS A RACKET. Whether prescribing a violent script for Israel or survivalism in the United States, this theology distorts God’s vision for the world. In place of healing, the Rapture proclaims escape. In place of Jesus’ blessing of peacemakers, the Rapture voyeuristically glorifies violence and war. …We are not raptured off the earth, nor is God. God has come to live in the world through Jesus Christ. God created the world, God loves the world, and God will never leave the world behind.” (pp 1-2).
Rossing is particularly helpful in exposing and challenging the valorization of violence that runs throughout the series. In offering a counter-reading of the Revelation to John, she helps readers see that its essential message is a word not of imminent destruction but of unconquerable hope. “Revelation is more a book of terror defeated than terror inflicted” (p. 119). It is an important counter-witness to Rome’s theology of conquest and empire (and our own). Evil is overcome not by the superior force and technology of a well-armed Trib Force, but by the suffering love of the risen, crucified Christ who will not leave any of his people behind.
I highly commend Rossing’s book to pastors to help form the “theological backbone” needed to take on an immensely popular movement that is theologically heretical and politically dangerous. I also recommend it to Christian education committees looking for a challenging adult church school study. (The paperback edition comes with a set of study questions and discussion guide.) For a more in-depth study of “prophecy belief in modern American culture” readers are referred to Paul Boyer’s When Time Shall Be No More. Eugene Boring’s outstanding commentary on the Revelation to John in the Interpretation series is a superb resource for preaching and teaching the Revelation. Eugene Peterson’s Reversed Thunder: The Revelation to John and the Praying Imagination is a fascinating and eloquent reflection on the Revelation that also makes for an excellent adult study.
Never have there been more helpful resources for understanding the Revelation to John and never has the need been greater for a well-informed theological critique of a well-funded movement that tempts Christians to “leave behind” an active engagement with the world God created, loves, and has promised to redeem, not by force and violence, but by cruciform love.
Allen C. McSween is pastor of Fourth Church, Greenville, S.C.
