After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.
–1 Thessalonians 4:17

Are your bags packed? Did you get an atheist friend to take your pets?

Today is the rapture! (At least, according to TikTok.)

A South African preacher, Joshua Mhlakela, had a vision: Today, on September 23rd, the rapture happens. Somehow, this prediction got picked up by social media, and now the internet is filled with serious and unserious talk about it.

The rapture is associated with Jesus’ return, and the end times. God’s righteous will be taken up to heaven, and the rest will be…left behind.

I thought it would be helpful for me to post all the scripture references to the rapture:

There ain’t one. The closest we come to is this passage from 1 Thessalonians. But these words aren’t speaking of some dramatic disappearance of the faithful. Early Christians were worried that their deceased relatives wouldn’t get to participate in the full glory of God’s return. Paul is calming the believers, assuring them that everyone will receive such a blessing.

It’s a nice idea, this painless ascension for God’s chosen. Best as I can tell, the notion came about by a man named John Nelson Darby, back in the 1800’s. It went viral in the 1930’s and again in the 90’s with the Left Behind book series.

And it’s viral again. Why? I think it’s because things are so raunchy down here that it feels like the end times. People want an escape from a broken country and planet.

The problem is, people keep pressing the “up” button, and the cosmic elevator never arrives. (I wonder if they can reclaim their pets?) There have been dozens of predictions for when it might happen, and they always seem to correlate with particularly troubling times.

Here’s the scripture that people seem to forget. I bet you already know what it is:

But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
-Mark 13:32

In my church, we don’t talk much at all about the end times, and never about the rapture. Among several other denominations, United Methodists tend to be very rooted in the here and now, helping to reveal the Kingdom of Heaven here on Earth. What comes next is a mystery.

As I write this, it’s already Wednesday in Australia. Everyone’s still there. It looks like anyone wanting to be “going up” has to spend another week here on our challenged little planet.

That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to want an escape when everything’s too much. Yes, there’s so much work to do, but you owe it to yourself to stop the mindless scrolling for a few hours, touch some grass, and remember those words “On Earth, as it is in Heaven.”

It’s important to remember, even when life’s hard, that God wants us to

keep things

down to Earth.

Have a Good week,

Mitch