Daughter Megan was home for a visit over the weekend and pulled us away from our computers for a couple of hours to watch a movie – one that we would never have picked out ourselves. She likes to do that, previously exposing us to strange, raunchy satires, such as Super Bad and Pineapple Express. And now This is the End. The latter involves several actors from the earlier two movies – Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jonah Hill, among others – playing themselves as they getting together for a party at Franco’s new house when an unexpected event occurs—the apocalypse. Hence, the title.
Turning the apocalypse into a comedy, including a reading from Revelations, might seem chancy. In fact, the studio that produced the movie was wary and cut the budget. So the actors agreed to take smaller pay than expected. We found the movie pretty hilarious, in a gross sort of way, and noted that it even maintained a moral about personal behavior – self-serving vs. self-sacrifice. The self-serving tended to fall into a sinkhole to hell in James Franco’s front yard, while those willing to sacrifice themselves were ‘rapturized’ in a blue beam of light accompanied by Whitney Houston’s, “I’ll Always Love You.” Ultimately, only two of the actors playing themselves made the trip up the beam, the others succumbed to the whims of a well-hung, red-eyed, horned beast.
After This is the End ended, I turned to Trish and smiled. “Now why don’t you write a post about that.” Little did I know that events the following day would lead me to writing the post.
When the snail-mail arrived, I found a small envelope with my name on it, written in a shaky scrawl. There was no return address, but it had been mailed from West Palm Beach, a few miles away. Inside was a photocopy of a newspaper or magazine clipping. It was a Q&A column and the question of the day was: What is the Rapture of the Church?
Of course, I immediately saw the synchronicity. Silly movie was soon followed by serious column, which I also found silly. Maybe it was the way that the question was phrased that bothered me – Rapture of the Church. I had the feeling that it wasn’t put that way to avoid confusion with say, rapture of the deep. No, the implication, of course, was that you best be a member of the Church if you’re going to make it out of this world alive.
The answer to the question was stated this way. “The Rapture of the Church is the time when Jesus Christ returns in the air to bring the Church home before the beginning of the Great Tribulation.”
The column went on to include a quote from scripture, which in part read: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven and with a shout, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the cloud to meet the Lord in the air, and thus shall we ever be with the Lord.”
The author of the column, said to be Hal Lindsey, author of The Rapture and The Late Great Planet Earth, concluded: “I believe that the Rapture could occur any moment. The signs of the times indicate it will certainly come in the lifetime of those who are reading these words.”
According to Wikipedia, Lindsey earlier had predicted the Rapture would take place by 2000. Well, timing has always been a problem with prophecies about the end times. Although maybe the Great Tribulation is already underway – ahead of the Rapture – and it’s taking place in the U.S. Congress. Certainly, there are members of Congress who deserve to be rapturized out of Washington ASAP.
I used to have a bumper sticker that said “After the Rapture comes the rest of us will FINALLY have the Earth for ourselves!”. A hopeful thought.
It seems to me the ultimate Sky God fantasy is the Rapture – only the chosen get to go, and everyone else is punished for not being good boys and girls in the right club – and not just for a while, but tortured for all of eternity. I hate to say it, but as Gods go, that’s a really, really mean God. Even Zeus had a conscience occasionally.
The tragedy in this myth is that is reflects an utter de-sacralization of the Earth while the “chosen ones” await their reward somewhere in the blue ozone. It takes away any responsibility to, or compassion (something these people profess to admire so much) from all the creatures and magnificent beauty of this beloved planet. A truly inappropriate myth for our time. And scary to think that so many people in power, who could be doing something to help, instead are caught up in such ideology.
You’re absolutely right!
I want that bumper sticker!
lauren’s statement that…only the chosen get to go, and everyone else is punished for not being good boys and girls in the right club – and not just for a while, but tortured for all of eternity…is precisely one of the top three reasons i could never buy into the whole organized [christian] religion thing – then, there’s the “great white father” thing…my list goes on…
in any event, great post and great dialogue…
Great post, Rob. In regards to where this myth, collective dream, originated, ancient cultures that predate patriarchal religions (ones that insist god is male and women aren’t up to priestly par like Judaism, Christianity and Islam), saw life as continually renewing itself through death. Death was no punishment, just part of the constant circular cycle of all that is Nature. They also held divinity to be at least equally, if not primarily, feminine, The Great Mother. It wasn’t until the linear thinking of male dominated religions produced a necessary end time that we got into this pickle of having to wrap things up with a bang. And we seem to be doing a bang up job of bringing that time about. It’s frustrating to me to see how the self-fulfilling prophecies of these near-sighted belief systems actually promote the trials and tribulations they see as their “merciful” god’s just approach to his own creation. How very Christian of the Church to espouse fire, suffering and damnation for the majority while the obedient elite get air lifted out. Such forgiveness leaves me speechless, and don’t even get me started on anyone who believes this twaddle and holds public office and has a hand in creating public policy.
>>>Ancient cultures…saw life as continually renewing itself through death.
Sa ta na ma…a Hindu chant. Birth…life…death…rebirth.
Cool, I’ll use that chant.
I was surprised to hear mention of the Rapture twice yesterday causally unrelated to the post. One was by Rachel Maddow, who I’ve never heard make such mention. Oh, but maybe she read the post and decided to throw in a mention of the airy departure of the saved. Yeah, right. I don’t think so.
I will second that wise statement!
Great insight, Adelita! It’s What’s happening in US politics is appalling.
Predictions in religions are none too accurate. The Jehovah Witnesses have got it wrong several times, so now they say the end is ‘soon’. And, of course, when you compare religions many have similarities going back to ancient times -they are rehashed stories. It would be interesting to discover where the ‘original’ version originated – surely not from those reptiles the likes of David Icke talk about.
Soon! Convenient and generic!
Many churches in Europe, South America, and elsewhere are built on the sites of the former ‘heathen’ temples. Christianity has also adopted an adapted many ancient myths and that’s probably the original source of the Rapture prophecy.
But I wonder if there is an element of truth hidden somewhere in those myths, other than them being purely man made stories.
Mike, I didn’t mean to infer myth as made-up story. That’s a jaded definition of the word. Surely, many, if not most, myths are linked in some way to a hidden reality, an ancestral record of events from before recorded history.