Peter Rollins writes deeply philosophical books and also books of parables. He has put one of the latter to a video. It’s one of my favorites of his parables because it twists on its head (hacks) the entire concept behind the Rapture, a non-biblical belief that God will call up to heaven all the believers before God destroys the earth.
Watch it. Even though it sounds familiar, and Scripture is quoted, and it looks like a Jack Chick tract, it gets turned on its head at 3:00.
The Rapture from Peter Rollins on Vimeo.
What do you think about a God who wants to be with “those who have discovered heaven in the very act of forsaking it?” What does that mean to you?
Amazing. I’m thinking lots of Advent/Christmas thoughts right now, and I know there’s a connection in there…
Although lots of folks who profess to believe in ‘Gee-Suss’ may find this bothersome, it resonates with my take on the message of Jesus, whom we call The Anointed One: God so loved THE WORLD…Jesus forsook Heaven to work salvation and said, Whatsoever you have done to these the least of my sisters and brothers you have done to me (that is, to God). Clearly – to me, at any rate – the real mission of the church should anything like the anti-historical and anti-scriptural age ever come would be to serve those being crushed by the weight of this world…because Jesus said to, not any Rollins dude (Peter or Henry).
I would say the pivotal point is earlier than 3:00; it is when they show the church with the doors boarded up. To me, that would be the height of hypocrisy: the church is not a building in which to take refuge, but a community of those ‘called out,’ but being called out to serve the poor, the meek…and the cheese-makers(?!)