{"id":36898,"date":"2019-11-17T00:11:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T04:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36898"},"modified":"2019-11-17T00:11:01","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T04:11:01","slug":"review-of-the-rapture-exposed-by-barbara-r-rossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=36898","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Rapture Exposed, by Barbara R. Rossing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Rapture Exposed<\/p>\n

The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation<\/em><\/p>\n

by Barbara R. Rossing<\/p>\n

Westview Press, 2004. 212 pages.
\nStarred Review
\nReviewed November 16, 2019, from a library book<\/p>\n

When I was only in elementary school and junior high, I was already an expert on the End Times. That is, the End Times as defined by dispensationalists. (Dispensationalists believe that God deals with humans in different ways during different time periods or dispensations.) The church my family attended had a chart on the wall in the library where my Sunday School class met showing all the dispensations of human history, including the Church Age (when we are now), the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, the Millennium, the Second Coming, and the New Heaven and New Earth. It was all charted out in that order. Many books were being published about biblical prophecy, including Hal Lindsey\u2019s The Late Great Planet Earth<\/em>. My family purchased many of them, and I read them, fascinated. Our church held some conferences on biblical prophecy where some of the authors spoke. I read Tim LaHaye\u2019s books on the End Times a couple decades before he ever became a best-selling author with the Left Behind<\/em> novel series.<\/p>\n

When I got to college, I attended a Christian university. As it happened, I took a class on \u201cThe Church and Last Things\u201d at the same time I was memorizing the Book of Revelation. I couldn\u2019t help but notice that the Book of Revelation has no chart. And that the things I\u2019d been taught might be something of a stretch to actually find in the Bible.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d already noticed that when Jesus came the first time, he did not meet the expectations of religious leaders. I have a feeling that prophecy isn\u2019t usually given so we\u2019ll be able to predict the future, but more so that we\u2019ll be able to recognize God\u2019s hand when He moves. I also noticed that Revelation is about telling us who\u2019s going to win. Almost every chapter has a significant section of praise to God.<\/p>\n

Things certainly don\u2019t seem to be strictly chronological in Revelation. And a lot of the imagery to me doesn\u2019t seem to quite fit what I was told it represented. When I did read the first several Left Behind<\/a><\/em> books, I thought it was silly how they took some things literally \u2013 like locusts with human faces \u2013 and others figuratively. <\/p>\n

I also clearly disagreed with some theology in the books<\/a>, but I still had pretty ingrained in me that Revelation would happen basically the way they predicted. I am thankful to this book for showing me another way to look at Revelation, and a way that makes more sense and to me seems to follow more easily from what you read.<\/p>\n

Now, I did know from my class at Biola University that not all Christians believe in a \u201cpre-tribulation rapture.\u201d But almost everything I\u2019d read about end times \u2013 except the Bible itself \u2013 was from that perspective. Barbara Rossing begins her book this way:<\/p>\n

The rapture is a racket. Whether prescribing a violent script for Israel or survivalism in the United States, this theology distorts God\u2019s vision for the world. In place of healing, the Rapture proclaims escape. In place of Jesus\u2019 blessing of peacemakers, the Rapture voyeuristically glorifies violence and war. In place of Revelation\u2019s vision of the Lamb\u2019s vulnerable self-giving love, the Rapture celebrates the lion-like wrath of the Lamb. This theology is not biblical. We are not Raptured off the earth, nor is God. No, God has come to live in the world through Jesus. God created the world, God loves the world, and God will never leave the world behind!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most of this book is about going through the book of Revelation and looking at the things it actually tells us, but the author begins by giving us the history of the idea of the \u201cRapture.\u201d She explains that it began about two hundred years ago when a girl in Scotland had a vision that the second coming of Jesus Christ would happen in two stages. The word \u201cRapture\u201d does not occur in Scripture, but comes from the Latin word raptio<\/em>, a translation of the Greek word for \u201ccaught up\u201d from I Thessalonians 4:17 about what will happen when Jesus returns. But the two-stage return idea was new, and the idea of dispensations was developed to make it fit.<\/p>\n

Dispensationalists admit that they pull things together from different parts of the Bible to make their teachings and their charts. Even the idea of seven years of tribulation has to be pieced together within the book of Revelation. <\/p>\n

So you can read all this \u2013 where the Rapture came from and how the whole theory is pieced together, and it\u2019s all very interesting, sounding much less coherent than when I read the theories from the authors themselves when I was a child.<\/p>\n

But what I especially love about this book is the way she looks at Revelation and helps me to look at it with new eyes. She talks about how Revelation fit with other apocalyptic writings of the time and followed a similar format. Here\u2019s an overarching view of the message of the book:<\/p>\n

In the first of his apocalyptic journeys (Rev 4-5) John travels up to heaven. There he sees a beautiful vision of God\u2019s throne, revealed to be the true power behind the universe. Angels and animals are worshiping God and singing songs of praise to Jesus, the Lamb. Revelation\u2019s subsequent visions pull back the curtain to \u201cunveil\u201d the Roman empire for what it really is: Rome is not the great eternal power it claims to be, but a demonic beast that oppresses the world. God\u2019s people must undertake a spiritual exodus out of the empire, led by the Lamb. God threatens evil Babylon\/Rome with plagues like the plagues of the Exodus story. We must not put our trust in Roman security or power, nor that of any other empire. We are to give allegiance to God alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She reminds us of how the book came across to its original recipients:<\/p>\n

Revelation was originally written for those whom South African theologian Allan Boesak calls \u201cGod\u2019s little people\u201d \u2013 communities of people who struggled under oppression \u2013 not for people with access to airplanes or money or the latest technology. The best way to understand Revelation\u2019s message for today is to put ourselves in the place of the audience for whom it was originally written. Imagine Revelation as a message from the underside, written to comfort beleaguered churches struggling under Roman imperial violence and power. Revelation has spoken powerfully to oppressed people throughout history. Its voice of protest is heard in spirituals as well as gospel songs and hymns.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I do love that she points out something that struck me hard when I memorized the book of Revelation: the book is packed with praise.<\/p>\n

Revelation is full of songs \u2013 heavenly choruses praising God and encouraging us to sing in the midst of tribulation. Just when the book begins to sound hopeless or despairing, a host of witnesses in heaven break into song. Even animals join the Lamb\u2019s chorus, singing along with a cacophony of \u201cevery creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea.\u201d No other book of the Bible has shaped Christian hymns and music as much as Revelation, from Handel\u2019s \u201cHallelujah Chorus\u201d to \u201cWhen the Saints Go Marching In,\u201d to the \u201cBattle Hymn of the Republic,\u201d African American spirituals, and even reggae (\u201cLet\u2019s get together to fight this Holy Armageddon,\u201d from Bob Marley\u2019s \u201cOne Love\u201d). Revelation\u2019s songs are not intended to be literalistic. Indeed, the metaphorical dimension is precisely what gives Revelation\u2019s songs their power. Songs connect us to something deeper: they evoke our capacity for solidarity and resistance, they give us hope.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or as she puts it later: <\/p>\n

Singing and worship are central to Revelation, a fact often overlooked by people who see the book only as a system of end-times predictions and timetables. In Revelation we sing our way into God\u2019s new vision for our world, more than in any other book of the Bible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The author urges us to relish the metaphors of Revelation:<\/p>\n

Revelation\u2019s world of vision is like that of a Magic Eye picture. It is an \u201cAha\u201d kind of vision that draws us in to see the deeper picture. God invites us to let go of the flat page, to stop trying to figure out each literal detail of Revelation, and instead to enter further into the larger picture. As we read and meditate on the images of Revelation, we find whole new levels of God\u2019s vision for our world unveiled to us: We taste water that is not just water \u2013 it is living water, the river of life. We follow Jesus, the shepherding Lamb, who invites us to drink from springs of that living water. We hear God\u2019s lament for our world that is oppressed, and we witness the trial and judgment of oppressors in a suspense-filled courtroom. Finally, most wonderfully, we see God coming to earth to live with us in a beloved city \u2013 to wipe away all the world\u2019s tears.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But I especially love the chapter called \u201cLamb Power,\u201d where Barbara Rossing explains the subversive heart of the book of Revelation. She points out that just when you expect Rome\u2019s images of power and victory is when the Lamb comes out. <\/p>\n

Seated on the throne in heaven, God holds a scroll sealed shut with seven seals that must be opened. But who is worthy to open this scroll? God\u2019s voice from the throne tells John in chapter 5, \u201cDo not weep, for the lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.\u201d Two words in this admonition \u2013 \u201clion\u201d and \u201cconquer\u201d (nike<\/em> in Greek) \u2013 lead us to expect that a fierce animal will appear to open the scroll with its claws, like the conquering lions in gladiatorial spectacles. A lion would be typical for an apocalypse; such fierce animals are often introduced to advance the plot. In Second Esdras, for example, the Messiah is portrayed as a roaring lion prophesying judgment against the Roman eagle and its violence.<\/p>\n

But Revelation pulls an amazing surprise. In place of the lion that we expect, comes a Lamb: \u201cThen I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered\u201d (Rev 5:6). It is a complete reversal. Actually the Greek word John uses is not just \u201clamb,\u201d but the diminutive form, a word like \u201clambkin,\u201d \u201clamby,\u201d or \u201clittle lamb\u201d (arnion<\/em> in Greek) \u2013 \u201cFluffy,\u201d as Pastor Daniel Erlander calls it. The only other place this word arnion<\/em> is used in the New Testament is where Jesus says he is sending his disciples out into the world \u201cas lambs among wolves\u201d (Luke 10:3). No other apocalypse ever pictures the divine hero as a Lamb \u2013 Revelation is unique among apocalyptic writings in this image. The depiction of Jesus as a Lamb shows him in the most vulnerable way possible, as a victim who is slaughtered by standing \u2013 that is, crucified but risen to life.<\/p>\n

Reminiscent of the servant-lamb of Isaiah 53, who \u201cis led to the slaughter, and like a sheep to the shearer is silent,\u201d the Lamb of Revelation became the victor not by militaristic power and slaughter but rather by being slaughtered<\/em>. From beginning to end, Revelation\u2019s vision of the Lamb teaches a \u201ctheology of the cross,\u201d of God’s power made manifest in weakness, similar to Paul’s theology of the cross in First Corinthians. Lamb theology is the whole message of Revelation. Evil is defeated not by overwhelming force or violence but by the Lamb’s suffering love on the cross. The victim becomes the victor.<\/p>\n

Lamb theology is what true victory or true nike<\/em> is. For we, too, are “victors” or followers of the Lamb on whom the term nike<\/em> or conquering is bestowed. This is one of the amazing features of the book. Much of Revelation can sound so violent, but we have to look at the subversive heart of the book — the redefinition of victory and “conquering” — to understand how Revelation subverts violence itself<\/em>. Just like the Lamb, God’s people are called to conquer not by fighting but by remaining faithful, by testifying to God’s victory in self-giving love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another point that I love comes when the author talks about the centrality of the final two chapters of Revelation \u2013 chapters that dispensationalists gloss over as for a far distant day.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the dispensationalist view, there is no rapture in the story of Revelation, no snatching of people off the earth up to heaven. Look at it this way: it is God who is raptured down to earth to take up residence and dwell with us \u2013 a rapture in reverse\u2026.<\/p>\n

The word \u201cdwell\u201d in Revelation [21] is the same word as used to describe Jesus\u2019 coming to earth in the Gospel of John, \u201cthe Word became flesh and dwelt among us.\u201d The whole message of the Bible is that God loves the world so much that God comes to earth to dwell with us. The Gospel of Matthew calls Jesus \u201cEmmanuel,\u201d which means in Hebrew \u201cGod is with us.\u201d Revelation proclaims that same message of God\u2019s dwelling in our world. It is the message that God\u2019s home is no longer up in heaven, but here in our midst, incarnate on earth. In Revelation 21-22 God\u2019s throne moves down out of heaven, where it was in chapter 4, and is now located in the midst of the city \u2013 in the city descended down out of<\/em> heaven, down to earth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s lots more in this book. I highly recommend it. I admit that I am still will freak out if someone suggests everyone get a chip embedded in their right hand or on their forehead in order to buy and sell. But for the most part, this has enabled me to look at revelation with eyes of hope instead of fear and terror.<\/p>\n

The hope of Revelation centers around the slain-yet-standing Lamb who has conquered \u2013 and around everything that that Lamb represents in God\u2019s vision for us and for the world. The Lamb who replaces the expected lion in Revelation\u2019s storyline continues to dwell with us and to overturn all the structures of war and injustice. In the face of empire, Revelation teaches us a way of life that is \u201cLamb power\u201d \u2013 the power of nonviolent love to change the world. The hope of Revleation is simply this: that the Lamb has conquered the beast and that a wondrous river of life now flows out from the Lamb\u2019s throne to bring healing water to every corner of our wounded world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I also appreciate how she leaves us in the Epilogue:<\/p>\n

To read the Bible’s hardest passages is like wrestling with God, much like Jacob who wrestled through the night at the river Jabbok. You grapple to make sense of the words, you hold on, you struggle for clarity, you seek to wrest answers for all your questions. What God gives you instead of a system of answers is a blessing, a new name — a living relationship. You are forever changed by the encounter. You have seen the face of God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

westviewpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Nonfiction\/rapture_exposed.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a>