The Rapture refuted - Preterist movement denies end-of-days prophecies
GARY WARTH
Staff Writer 7/19/01At the dawn of a new century, at a time of international uncertainties and environmental crises, some Biblical scholars are making a daring prediction.
The world, they say, is not about to end.
That in itself may not sound very controversial, but for people who believe that the Bible says we are in the "end times," it is near-heresy.
"Most of my friends, I've lost," Michael Rankin said about the price he has paid for his beliefs. "Most of my Christian brothers, my pastor friends, they've kind of written me off as being a heretic. They really don't want to deal with what we have found to be truth."
Rankin is pastor of the Word of Life Fellowship in Bonita in south San Diego County. He describes himself as a preterist, or one who believes that all of the prophecies in the Bible already have been fulfilled. That includes many portions of the Bible that some read as prophecies foretelling the Rapture, or the return of Christ.
Oceanside resident Steven Shine is also a preterist. He said his beliefs have not cost him any friends, but he acknowledges that it can be a sensitive subject when he challenges people with opposing views. He directs the Open Eyes Ministry, which focuses on pro-life activities.
"What's frustrating is, a lot of times I can't talk about it because it upsets people," he said.
According to those who believe we are in the end times, many world events point to the impending Rapture, the time when good Christians will be whisked off to heaven in an instance, leaving sinners behind to endure a seven-year period when the anti-Christ will reign. "In case of Rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned," is a popular bumper sticker that refers to the Rapture and its effects.
Believers are divided even on this point, with some saying the "tribulation" period of the Antichrist will happen before the Rapture, and others believing it will be after.
That division aside, belief in the Rapture is strong and profitable, as evident by the catalog of books and videos carried by publishers such as Armageddon Books. Armageddon specializes in Biblical prophecies about the end of the world and sells movies with such titles as "Judgment," "Tribulation" and "Revelation."
Its Web site boasts of having "550 prophecy offerings covering the full range of prophetic thought" and has 245 links to prophecy Web sites. One site tracks Rapture-foretelling worldwide events such as natural disasters, political unrest, wars, famine and liberalism.
The most popular novels in the doomsday genre comes from best-selling writers Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, who plan an October release of their ninth "Left Behind" book. A movie version was released to theaters earlier this year, and the last in the 12-book series is scheduled for release in June 2004.
Understandably, there are no action-packed films or thrilling novels based on the world not coming to an end. But there are conferences, radio shows and books about preterism, and followers say the number of believers is growing as doomsday deadlines have come and gone uneventfully during the past few years.
One of the most visible may be "Shattering the 'Left Behind' Delusion," by Biblical scholar John Noe of Indianapolis, a response to LaHaye's and Jenkins' popular apocalyptic series.
Noe said he met LaHaye once, at a National Religious Broadcasters convention in Dallas.
"He said I was rude," Noe recalled.
Noe and Rankin, like many preterists, used to believe in the Rapture and say their views changed after their own research.
"When I started searching in the '80s, all I was hearing was, 'We're living in the last days,'" Noe said. "When I asked how, they all said, 'All you've got to do is look around.' They also said, 'Go read the Bible,' and I did."
To delve into the Biblical interpretations from both sides is to enter a seemingly never-ending debate, but much of the discussion centers on the Book of Revelation and whether certain passages about Jesus should be taken literally.
"You don't study the Bible literally," Shine said. "The Bible is a spiritual book."
According to a spiritual interpretation of the Bible, Christ did come back in the year 70 A.D., when Rome invaded Jerusalem ---- leading to the rise of Christianity.
"It wasn't a literal coming," Shine said. "That's the problem that we have."
Cryptic passages in the Book of Revelation about the Beast do not refer to a coming reign of the Anti-Christ, preterists believe, but rather are about the Holy Roman Empire.
"A lot of people, when they come to the book of Revelation, they say they're reading it literally," said Ken Davies of San Diego, a preterist who hosts a weekly radio show that airs at 4 p.m. Saturdays on KBRT AM 740. "Like the beast."
Davies, who spoke at a preterist conference March 31 in La Mirada, calls the disagreement about the Rapture an "in-house debate," because the differing views still come from Christians who share the same core beliefs.
"It's not to say we're not in agreement with many, many things," he said. "We're in agreement with many points of Christianity."
But Davies admits it does create some division.
"It does make enemies, because people have very strongly held beliefs when it comes to Bible prophecy. A lot of people have been told that certain viewpoints are essential to their salvation."
Shine said there are no North County chapters of organized preterists, but he believes churches will form within the next few years.
"There are preterist churches popping up around the nation," he said. "We know the preterist movement is growing."
The Web site www.raptureready.com, operated by Todd Strandberg of Iowa, is mostly devoted to the Bible, the Rapture and its relation to current events, but recently it reluctantly acknowledged preterism with a critical essay after stating that the belief appears to be spreading.
"It's growing like wildfire," said Ed Stevens, president of International Preterist Association in Bradford, Pa. "Especially, the younger generation is sick and tired of all the Chicken-Little stuff they've heard. They're ready for a view that's optimistic and believes in a long-term future.
"Back in the early '90s, I had like 3,000 in my mailing list," Stevens said. "Now I've got 10,000, and it's growing rapidly. I expect to be up to 11,000 by the end of the year. There's just a tremendous hunger for truth out there."
Most people who believe the end of the world is coming soon do not predict any specific time, but many have. Most recently, some believed the Rapture would come in 2001, the official start of the new century. Even more people suspected the end would come at the start of 2000.
Before then, numerous other predictions were made about the end of the world, including some with tragic circumstances.
In the 1840s, more than a quarter-million Americans followed farmer William Miller, who studied the Bible and believed he had deduced the date when Christ would return. Interpreting passages from the Book of Daniel and Revelation, Miller calculated an apocalyptic countdown leading to Oct. 22, 1844.
Many Millerites, as they came to be called, left their crops unharvested and sold their possessions. A large crowd gathered on Miller's farm, but left in disappointment when Oct. 22 came and went.
Picking up where Miller left off, British minister John Nelson Darby in the 1840s came up with a new theory about Christ's return. Darby was the first to refer to it as the Rapture, but unlike Miller, he did not name a specific date.
"There's a number of people who say, 'We've been duped too many times and we're just not going to accept it,'" Stevens said.
As long as people aren't giving away their belongings like the Millerites did, is there harm in believing in an impending Rapture?
Yes, according to the preterists. Waiting passively for Christ to come takes away the initiative to become active in society, they say.
Preterists believe in "protecting the environment and building great institutions for our children and grandchildren and many generations to come," Stevens said.
Stevens and Noe also see the end-times view as harmful because, they say, it discourages Christians from taking active stands on causes such as prayer in school and abortion.
"It stresses the futility of social and political action," Noe said. "In our country, since this became the dominant view, Christians have given away almost all the institutions our forefathers came to found. We've given away the government, the schools. We didn't get beat. We didn't get pushed out. We withdrew."
Davies also said that believing the world is going to end soon can cause people to lose their involvement with society.
"A lot of people who do believe in the Rapture are convinced that no matter what they do in society, it's not going to matter at all," he said. "They don't get involved in protesting abortion or in voting. They've been told this figure called the Anti-Christ is going to come take over."
Davies also believes that Biblical prophecies will be the area of the next great Biblical debate, just as the nature of Christ had been the center of church debate in the past. In the end, he believes more people will choose preterism.
"I personally think it's the area that's going to be the next Reformation," Davies said.
Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.
7/19/01
