Yesterday I jumped in on the Luke 17 & Matthew 24 passages that I believe are read out of context and often misused. The general evangelical reading that you hear is that….
1) The one taken is the “believer” who is raptured (leaning on & created by another non-contextual reading…this time 1 Thess. 4v17)
2) The one who is left behind is a wicked unrighteous “lost” person who is no left on planet earth for the tribulation.
Yesterday in the first of these posts, I commented on why I believe this reading is actually backwards.
Today…Why it matters.
1) Reading the scriptures out of context has created a shallow self-serving theology in America and we need to do better as students of our story. (Check out How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth or The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible)
2) Solomon once said that as a man thinks, so he is. I don’t think it’s to big a stretch to say as well that as a group of people think, so they are. If we raise up generations of people…believers, who believe that they are going to be taken out of here at some point, then here doesn’t matter. It’s like hanging out in that awkward waiting area at an IHOP or a Denny’s. You’re in but do you really want to be here?
Or say that you know next weekend you are headed to a VIP tour with all the stops at Disney World followed by 7 days of luxury cruising with all the perks and the whole trip was given to you + an envelope of $25,000 cash. It’s free. You just go and have a good time. Everything that you do between now & boarding time are things that you “have to do”. They are tasks/chores; your mind will be somewhere else – on what is coming.
As people who are gifted and sent by God on mission we need to be totally here so that we are on task to bring healing to God’s creation. If we are all the time thinking that we’re getting out…then here will become less & less important. The focused remnant has & can re-invent the kingdom of God and manifest it’s hope and healing. If our heads & hearts are somewhere else, that will never happen.
3) It gives Christians the idea that judgement is really not for us or that suffering is really for others. This is really easy in America as we don’t suffer the way 2/3 of the world does. Judgement that is coming is real and suffering will/does happen. We are never promised a pass but we are promised his presence. Our story is filled with suffering servants and it is in these moments that the Kingdom often spreads like wildfire.
I think on Monday I’ll come back with a part 3 on the 1 Thessalonians passage referenced above. It is an instance of Paul using thick rich symbolic language that we just often run through without digging into what those people would have heard.
May we be a focused righteous remnant as we display the kingdom & manifest its gifts and power.
Peace ~
William
