End Times and Left Behind

Dear Friends,

I grew up in the height of “Left Behind” where churches split over whether you were pre-tribulation or post-tribulation and what you believed about the rapture. As a child, I would lay awake in bed at night *terrified* that maybe the formula-prayer that I prayed wasn’t genuine enough and I could be “left behind.” After all, Jesus Christ’s imminent return would happen like a thief-in-the-night, and the only thief I had heard about was the man who stole Polly Klaas from her house during a sleepover.

Jesus returning was something I hoped to avoid.

Maybe the “left behind” understanding of the future is still rampant in many churches, but I’ve been removed from it these last couple decades. I still believe Christ will return, but honestly I hope that it happens to some other generation, namely because Jesus is still drawing people into a relationship with Divine Love. 

Lately I’ve been reading more posts on social media from folk pleading for people to get right with the Lord because Christ’s return is on the horizon. In these posts, folk cite Jesus talking about the last days where wars and rumors of wars, famines, great earthquakes, and the like will become common. Oftentimes this thinking comes with escapism or avoidance—avoid the world and government and non-Christian peoples, and wait it out until Christ comes to rescue the faithful while the rest of those no-good-sinners face judgement. 

Throughout history - from before Jesus to after Jesus - life has felt impossible. There have always been wars and rumors of wars and horrific things too evil to mention. For centuries, faithful Christians have cried out to God in their longing for and begging for things to be made right. They’ve prayed and pleaded for Christ’s return from the moment he was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven. And yet, these prayers are met with a certain silence. 

It seems like assuming Christ’s imminent return gives confidence in what to expect, like a person can predict what’s to come even in the silence.

I wonder if we’ve had the wrong perspective. 

I wonder if we’ve been praying for the wrong things.

Instead of confidently assuming what’s to come, I believe we’re invited to curiously wonder at what is now—what is Jesus up to now in this current difficult time? Because, while we long for Christ’s return someday soon, there’s a current invitation to walk in faithfulness with strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow with the perspective that he’s already returned. Friends, the Spirit of Christ lives within those who have said “yes” to Divine Love. 

The thief-in-the-night includes an invitation into faithful reliance on God during the most impossible and difficult times. And Christ knew how life only gets harder for every individual human and what people need is not some focus on an arbitrary horizon to escape suffering but on the truth that Christ is with us IN our suffering. 

With a prayerfully curious spirit, I desire to live in the paradox of “now and not-yet” and leave behind the fear of being left behind.  

With (love),
Bethany