Many people, myself included, grew up in fear of the Rapture. The modern book series Left Behind have fueled this fear, and the theology behind them is dangerous indeed. For starters, the word “rapture” is not even biblical, and the interpretation of the Bible on which these books are based is fiction. As Barbara R. Rossing (author of the excellent book The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation) put it, “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.”
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Tags: Rapture, Left Behind, Historical Interpretation, Metaphorical Interpretation

Revelation is a book many people would rather ignore. With its violent imagery and a sword-wielding, warrior Jesus who seems straight out of a Hollywood movie, it hardly seems to emulate the “Love thine enemies” Jesus of the gospels. So, why should we read the book of Revelation?
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Tags: Apocalyptic literature, Craig Koester, Rapture