Seeds Will Grow

Hey Christian friends, if you’re thinking the Iran War is leading to Armageddon and a very bloody return of a warrior-King Jesus, maybe, like me, you read the Left Behind books.

I discovered that series back in 2001, right around the time of 9/11, when I was in the US for one year of high school. Man… I devoured those books. I was so into them that I stayed awake reading them through the night. They were thrilling, and especially in light of everything scary going on in the world, they made me want to watch the “signs of the times.”

While I was binge reading them, Dad wanted me to take the test to get my driver’s permit. I was so tuned into those books that I had no interest in trivial things like learning how to drive. So, Dad took my books away and said I had to get my driver’s permit before I could keep reading. I begrudgingly handed over my books, read through the driver’s manual that afternoon, went to the DMV before they closed, passed the test, got my driver’s permit- and then, when Dad proudly asked me to drive him home, I got in the passenger’s seat and asked for my books back. In addition to being so addictive, that series (and a lot of reinforcement from Christian broadcast media at the time, like TBN and the 700 Club, which my Grandma always had turned on) shaped the way I interpreted Revelation, biblical prophecy, and the “end times.” They painted in my mind a terribly dark and violent understanding of the world, the future, and the mission of God.

Despite the books starting with the rapture (did anyone else ever get scared the rapture had come and left them behind?), I could never quite reconcile the Jesus I knew and other scriptures I read with the idea that God would rapture up all the believers before life got difficult on earth. What kind of God would remove his people – the salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16) – from a world that he loved so much that he gave his own son’s life for them (John 3:16-17)? Why did Jesus tell us to take up OUR crosses and follow Him(Luke 9:23-24) if we’re all going to get beamed up to Scotty? And what did Paul mean anyway about filling up in his body “what was left in the suffering of Jesus” (Colossians 1:24)? Pre-tribulation rapture sounded too escapist. Too entitled. Too easy. (Kinda nice, too, though…)

So, I thought, maybe we are supposed to live through the suffering. Maybe if we all have to live through it, we’ll be like Ray, Buck, Chloe, Tsion, and Chaim… When the antichrist and his prophet come, will I recognize them? Or will I be seduced by their lies? Can I somehow innocently get caught in a gray area, like Chang – and end up as a mole on the inside? How sad would it be to just, like, to just KNOW that everyone is beyond redemption except you and the 144,000…? And, are we all going to really be fighting irredeemable, evil people in the flesh one day? I thought our battle was not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12)? Will there be a real tribulation force? Do I need to be prepared to kill people in a great, bloody battle before the Glorious Appearing? But – does war even line up with Jesus’ teachings (Matthew 5-7)? Is Jesus actually playing a bait-and-switch on the Jews – like, they expected a political Messiah to overpower the Romans when he first came, and he let them down like, “No kingdom and power yet! Wait till next time when I’m coming like a LIOOOOOON!!!!” Or… maybe…? Could we be misreading that again and be surprised by Jesus at the second coming? Maybe Jesus doesn’t return differently… maybe the lamb was the whole thing? Ultimately, does the Gospel transform our world through the death and resurrection of Jesus, or through a sea of our blood and a conquering King and army from on high?

After reading through Revelations over and over and over and over again (I literally read through it daily, 21 days in a row once), I began to get an imagination that could understand it differently. I stopped trying to find clues for the end-times and started listening more deeply to certain themes in the text: recognizing the Lamb-that-had-been-slain being exalted in worship, at the center of it all, over and over and over. I started getting the message that the churches to whom Revelation was written were being encouraged in the way of that Lamb. I started seeing Revelation less as a road map (definitely not a screenplay for a film) and more as a message to the churches to be faithful in the way of Jesus, no matter the cost. I started hearing the Spirit call the church to untether herself from the Babylon system (Revelation 18:4)- worldly empires, economic exploitation, oppression and abuse of our human siblings for material gain… etc, etc, etc. Years after wrestling through Revelation in my own personal reading and devotion, I was finally exposed to a different theological understanding of Revelation, which I learned had been the mainstream historical Christian understanding of Revelation long before the theology of Left Behind.

If you read Left Behind, are reading the news like prophetic signs, or are curious about another way the Church historically understood Revelation – you may find the following videos from the Bible Project pretty interesting – and I’d love to hear what stands out to you from them:

Video 1 on Rev 1-11: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nvVVcYD-0w

Video 2 on Rev 12-21: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpnIrbq2bKo

[Photo credit to Jared Murray on Unsplash]

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