Dearly Beloved Evangelicals

Now my dearly beloved Evangelical friends. Time for a bit of a response from you to this Rapture business. I see lots of people all over the internet going on an on about the prediction from the delightfully named Mr Camping in the USA that today is the day of the Rapture. He’s expecting all the true believers to be snatched away heavenwards and he’s predicting that based on calculations that he has made based on the Bible.

I’m betting my wellbeing today and my place in all eternity on the premise that Mr Camping is nuts.

But what do you say?

What is the Evangelical opinion on Mr Camping? Oh, I know the theology. I’ve been there. You can’t fool me. I’m not jumping on the bandwagon like all these naughty atheists and jonny-come-lately wishy-washy liberals. I know what Mr Camping is on about and so do you. Even though the defining doctrine of Evangelicals has become the extent to which one thinks that gay people’s private lives are unacceptable to the almighty, you and I both know that the Rapture matters.

So does heaven.

So does hell.

When you are not banging on about other people’s sex lives, you all know that this life is not about Graham Kendrick songs but really about salvation and that means you’ve got an opinon on this one and I’ve not heard it yet.

So, what’s your view?

• Heck, Mr Camping might be right. Hope we’re all ready. Put on that Larry Norman track one more time.
• What a charletan Mr Camping is, the Bible teaches us that no-one can know the date and time but it is coming one day, ready or not.
• Oh, Mr Camping, you just can’t add up, can you, I know the date and time and it isnae today. But watch out people, it’s coming soon anyway.
• Mr Camping and all that rapture theology is nuts, whoever believed it in the past and whoever might have believed it in the Bible.

I don’t think there are a huge number of other options are there? Correct me if I’m wrong.

Dearly beloved Evangelical friends, when you see the #rapture and #rapturefail hashtags flying by on twitter, when you see the snarky comments about the rapture on facebook, when you read about it in blogs and newspapers and hear about it on the Today programme, you know that people are taking the micky don’t you? And it’s not Mr Camping they are mocking, it’s you.

You’ll not mind that of course. You can always blame the devil or mutter to one another that a bit of persecution is not going to do the true faith any harm and that Jesus’s friends have always been made fun of and he went to cross so the least we can do is put up with a bit of banter. Oh yes, you can say that all day long today if you like.

However, that doesn’t get you out of making a judgement about Mr Camping and what he’s talking about, does it? You know that and though you may not like it, I know it too.

Now, what do you say?