RAPTURE: THE END-TIMES ERROR THAT LEAVES THE BIBLE BEHIND

by David B. Currie

Sophia Press, 2003

512 pages, $19.95

To order: (800) 888-9344 www.sophiainstitute.com

Former Protestant pastor David Currie is well qualified to critique “the rapture” and take a hard look at fundamentalist beliefs about the end of the world. Currie's parents both taught at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, one of the oldest and most influential fundamentalist schools in North America and a bastion of the most popular form of rapture theology: premillennial dispensationalism.

Since entering the Catholic Church with his family in 1995, Currie has spoken and written regularly about the dangers of the “left behind” movement, including a chapter on the topic in his bestselling Born Fundamentalist, Born Again Catholic (Ignatius, 1996).

More than a critique of faulty end-times beliefs, Rapture is a detailed excursion through the difficult and controversial passages of the Bible used by certain Protestants to produce belief systems that are not only quite modern but also incompatible with Catholic teaching. Those beliefs are also, Currie emphasizes, quite unbiblical.

To that end, his book dives into the deep waters of Daniel, Revelation, the Olivet Discourse and passages from the writings of St. Paul.

“I want primarily to examine the Bible's teachings regarding the last things,” Currie writes.

“I have written specifically for the lay reader acquainted with the Bible and its overall message, whether Catholic or Protestant. My goal is to help the average interested Christian understand the issues [regarding the end times] as presented in Scripture and make a reasonable, informed decision.”

Rapture opens with several anecdotes, some drawn from Currie's experiences as a child, and then provides a history of rapture theories and the arguments made by their proponents. Then a number of “biblical ground rules” are provided, all of them acceptable to “Bible alone” Christians.

Currie also points out that, while he will always stay within the doctrinal parameters of the Catholic Church, readers should be “mindful that there can be a multitude of valid Catholic opinions about most passages.”

The heart of the book, nearly half of its total length, is spent examining the scriptural evidence — or lack of it — for belief in a rapture event and other distinctive fundamentalist beliefs as well as providing compelling interpretations compatible with Church teaching.

One of the best chapters, “Why the Rapture is Appealing,” offers a number of valuable insights. Currie notes that “the belief system of rapturists allows them to take a certain comfort in the face of evil.

For when things really deteriorate into chaos, they expect to be safely tucked away in Heaven.

There is a problem with this approach to life, however.

It may comfort the person witnessing suffering, but it does absolutely nothing positive for the person experiencing the suffering. This theology is appealing only as long as the pain is someone else's.”

He summarizes this criticism with the strong but warranted assertion: “Quite simply, the rapturist system contains no cross.”

He also points out that rapturists largely (if not completely) ignore the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., an event so significant that to ignore it is to guarantee incorrect interpretations of vital Scripture passages:

“These rapturists refuse to even consider the events of 70 A.D. as a key to understanding any prophecies of the Bible because the events themselves are not enumerated in Scripture. It is almost as though these events did not even occur. Therefore, they are left grasping for a still-future fulfillment.”

This exhaustive work does have some minor flaws. The section on the history of rapture theories is uneven; more information about Joachim of Fiore, Edward Irving and Cyrus I.

‘This theology is appealing. The pain is someone else's.’

Scofield would have helped readers. Hal Lindsey's mega-selling The Late Great Planet Earth is described as a novel; it is not.

But these minor gaffes are made up for in the breadth and depth of Currie's analysis of Sacred Scripture, along with his keen insight into the rapturist worldview and — importantly — his consistently charitable tone, the mark of a scholar and of a Christian.

Carl Olson is editor of Envoy magazine and author of Will Catholics Be “Left Behind”?