Jeff K. Clarke On Twitter: My Guest Post For Mac
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In view of the soon to be released movie starring Nicolas Cage (Oct. 2014), I thought it important to showcase two exceptional videos from Tom Wright. In these short clips, Tom lays out his interpretation of the key text, that many have used to support the rapture of the church. In the second, he provides us not only with more information about this doctrine, but also briefly reports on the hope of heaven and what that means. Long story short, I believe he’s right.
(Here is a link to a recent post by on the same subject. While his explanation is different in tone, his message is the same) For a number of years, I too held to a rapture theology for reasons that, at the time, made sense to me.
Yet, I believe that I held this view primarily because of my theological influences at the time and the theological interpretations inherent to the institution I attended during my undergraduate studies. When I moved away from this environment, while a good place overall, I began to discover new, and yet in many ways old, views where the rapture was seen as an error and a misinterpretation of the biblical story.
Without going on and on, let me say that the better I understand the key theme in Jesus’ ministry, the inauguration of the kingdom of God which came in and through Jesus, the more I also begin to see that the rapture idea doesn’t make sense. This has lead me to study the kingdom theme more (I wrote a few posts on the theme, and ), which eventually lead me to embrace a non-rapture theology that I believe does better justice to the kingdom that Jesus brought and will consummate at his return. A return that does not include a removal of people, but a renewal of all things (check out this excellent guest post from entitled, ). We’re not on earth to one day escape it, but to live and reign with Christ forever on it (check out my on escapism at Mac Dumcum’s blog) Only in this light does the Lord’s prayer, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” begin to make sense. Whatever Paul meant exactly in the 1 Thessalonian passage, which I believe Tom helps to clarify, it certainly wasn’t anything to do with a rapture in the sense that has been embraced over the past 100 years or so.
In the end, all I ask is that you take time to read and reflect on the story the scripture outlines and combine it with well-informed teaching, such as from Tom Wright and others like Brandon and, and see where it leads. If, after all is said and done, you arrive at the rapture position again, so be it. However, if you have come to embrace a rapture theology in an a priori sense, that is, you’ve embraced it without studying the passages and theology in question first, then maybe it’s time to reconsider your decision.
Jeff K. Clarke On Twitter: My Guest Post For Mac 2017
Take a few moments to watch these two clips from Tom Wright and let it be the beginning of further study and reflection.