THE RAPTURE is talked about in the chapter of Revelation in the Bible and refers to the “OH MY GOD THE WORLD IS ENDING!”. Ok, that's probably not real biblically accurate. So, I’ll talk in normal terminology - All the Christians suddenly disappear off the face of the earth, wreaking total havoc and chaos. (good times, good times.)
Then the anti-Christ comes and everyone is miserable and eventually people have to wear 666 on their foreheads in order to buy groceries. This is a general summary. Don’t email me to tell me what it really is…. I saw all the movies and heard all the sermons.
*Actual Picture of THE RAPTURE button located at First Baptist Church *
As a child, this caused me great fear, as well as a fair amount of total confusion. First of all, I was constantly told – “the rapture is near.”…. so, not being convinced that I would actually disappear during THE RAPTURE, I was making preparations for what would happen to me if I was left behind. For example: If I flew on an airplane, I would desperately hope that the pilot wasn’t a Christian. It would completely suck if you were on an airplane with a Christian pilot during the rapture. And, if my mom was driving me somewhere in the car, I was always braced for impact in case she disappeared before we arrived at our destination.
I had a brief scare when I was about 10 years old: My mom was in the family room vacuuming and she left the vacuum on and walked into another room for some reason. I entered the room and saw the vacuum on and NO mom attached.. my first thought was “HOLY CRAP.......I'm glad we weren’t in the car.” Second thought, “Now I guess I have to make my own dinner before the anti-Christ comes.”
But, in fact, the biggest problem caused by THE RAPTURE was that it taught me to procrastinate. Here’s the scenario that I was following:
My science teacher assigned a term-paper. It was due in 2 weeks. Then I went to church on Sunday. The pastor talked about THE RAPTURE. My 14 year old brain thought - "What if I DID disappear during the rapture?? I don't want to frickn waste my time writing a term paper if the rapture was right around the corner." Duh.
So, I would wait until the night before it was due to start writing it, because – frankly, I was a little busy waiting for the rapture. BUT NO… there was no rapture.. then my paper was due, and then I was stressed writing it, and then it would turn out crappy and I would get a bad grade.
DAMN THAT RAPTURE. Where’s the rapture when you really need it??
Moral of the story: Don’t wait for the rapture. It will just give you bad grades.
I seriously have no pithy comment. I was sort of going through the same thing at the same time, but I was about five years older than you, and in an independent, fundamental Baptist church. I still believe in the rapture, but I also realize that no man knows the hour or the day, so I'm not planning my world around it.
ReplyDeleteSame church, same anxiety Kelly! Wow.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the entire series of Left Behind books, I sat my 2 dogs down and explained to them that one day I might be caught up in the rapture and they would have to fend for themselves. This "conversation" included many tears and sobs because these dogs were pre-children pets and they were my world. My 80 something neighbor overheard me and felt compelled to comfort me the next day....although she never said whether or not she agreed with the rapture. She was Catholic. I think she could identify more with how much I loved my dogs.
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