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Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen a commercial running regularly around dinnertime and it “demonstrates” how the Rapture will be experienced. A brief description:
The Rapture, in Christianity, the eschatological (concerned with the last things and Endtime) belief that both living and dead believers will ascend into heaven to meet Jesus Christ at the Second Coming.
Those of you who know me understand that this belief is not part of my own faith (Judaism); that’s not my issue. But I find the commercial disturbing in a few ways, and I’m curious to know what others think.
First, I can’t help thinking of children watching this commercial. Even if they are Christian, I wonder if children would be alarmed to watch people pursuing their everyday lives and suddenly disappearing. The music is dark and foreboding (in my opinion) and the people who are left behind are terrified. Wouldn’t a child find this disturbing?
Even for adults, I wonder if this premonition would be frightening rather than draw them to Christianity. I know that it is a good thing from the Christian perspective to be brought to Jesus in heaven, but I question whether people would feel encouraged to become Christian, given how David Jeremiah depicts the event.
Please know that I am not criticizing the belief itself, but rather its depiction. If you’ve seen it, whether you are Christian or not, how do you react to it? Do you think people will be drawn to Christianity by this commercial?
Most of all, is this venue helpful to the cause?
Discussion (206)
My question is, why do people vanish in their clothes, but things they may be holding just drop?
More seriously, the Rapture has been predicted for 2000 years. We will not know the time.
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But do you have a reaction to the commercial that you'd like to share?
Sorry if that was too subtle.
I think it is poorly thought out, will only have meaning to the faithful, and not help to convert anyone. The Truth of Christ's love is shown through works, not through fear. The money would have been better spent on a lot of things, but not this.
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I agree with Bryan here, but I also want to point out that not all Christians believe in "the Rapture." Having come from a Southern Baptist background and now an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I've found the the Rapture is generally a belief held by Evangelical Protestants. The Orthodox, Catholic, and more "mainstream" Protestant churches don't believe in it, and actually have an "amillennial" theology of the "End Times."
"Coming this Fall"? Well, I suppose technically it's still Fall, so it could still happen.
But then, I've lived long enough to see many of these predictions come and go. (Everyone remember "88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Happen in ’88"?
Back in the 70s when I was in middle school, I remember reading some article about how the Rapture was supposed to happen on a particular date at a particular time. That date was the next day. I went off to school kind of freaked out, wondering if this was the end. Thankfully, there was enough going on at school to distract me so that the hour came and went, and then I remembered later that evening that, oh, it didn't actually happen. Huh.
And then there was some date in 81. And then there was the famous one from 1988. When that date from 88 came and went, the author then predicted it would happen in 89 instead. And then 93. And then 94.
And there were all sorts of figures who were supposed to be the predicted AntiChrist. Khaddafi was one. Saddam Hussein, of course. Gorbachev, since he had that "wound" on his head. On and on it went as each new international bad guy became the newest AntiChrist, heralding the end.
Ronald Wilson Reagan -- each name had six letters, which of course is 666, the number of the beast.
No, I don't see these things driving anyone toward Heaven. Only driving fear. I'm sure a study of eschatology is fascinating, and even worthwhile. But scripture says "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." Which, logically, means that every time you see someone predicting it, it's wrong. Only God knows.
I tend to ignore arguments over the Beginning and the Ending. We just don't know. We can't know. They're cloaked in mystery. And as my literary girlfriend Flannery O'Connor once wrote “Whatever you do anyway, remember that these things are mysteries and that if they were such that we could understand them, they wouldn’t be worth understanding. A God you understood would be less than yourself."
Sometimes I wonder if obsession with End Times is a sort of avoidance of the present. Especially if your present is a day to day drudgery. But we're called to live in that muddy, uncomfortable present as best we can.
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