Rapture Claptrap
Over the past fifteen years or so Catholic apologetics has undergone a remarkable resurgence and growth. Books, articles, and tapes about the false beliefs of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, New Agers, and assorted anti-Catholic groups abound. Yet, as far as I know, Dr. Paul Thigpen’s book The Rapture Trap is the first Catholic book dedicated to refuting the end-times theology known as dispensationalism, better known to the general public as the belief in the so-called “Rapture.” This is surprising, given that the biggest-selling book of the 1970s was Hal Lindsey’s dispensationalist potboiler The Late Great Planet Earth, and the all-time best-selling works of Christian fiction are the Left Behind books, co-authored by Fundamentalists Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The impact of the dispensationalist movement—with its flawed but intriguing beliefs about the end of the world—on Catholics can hardly be overestimated, making publication of The Rapture Trap a welcome event.
Written for the ordinary reader, The Rapture Trap avoids technical language while emphasizing the big picture of salvation history. Thigpen, a former Evangelical Protestant, understands that the details, while important, must be seen within the grand scheme of God’s work in time and space: “This world has been broken. But the Son of God came to the world, remains present in the world, and will come again to the world so that ‘the world might be saved through Him’ (John 3:17).”
A Catholic can easily be drawn into an argument about a passage supposedly supporting the Rapture without being fully aware of how Catholic doctrine differs from dispensationalist teaching on major issues. Those issues include the Church, the interpretation of Scripture, the meaning of suffering, the nature of the Kingdom, and the purpose of the present age.
These are addressed in a series of foundational chapters about the past, present, and future reality of Christ’s salvific work: “The Word Became Flesh,” “I Am With You Always,” and “Our Blessed Hope.” These are followed by an examination of what the Bible teaches about the Second Coming. Here Thigpen discusses the Olivet Discourse, Daniel’s prophecies, the pertinent passages from the Pauline epistles, and the Apocalypse.
He demonstrates that “the Second Advent is not a secret or invisible event. On the contrary, in various accounts it is described as unmistakably public, universally visible, glorious, full of splendor.” The next two chapters deal with the origins of the “late great secret Rapture doctrine” and its dangers. Thigpen brings to light the lack of historical basis for the secret Rapture. Not only did the Protestant Reformers never consider the idea, it is rejected by most Protestants today, including Lutherans, Anglicans, and most Calvinists.
Although some Church Fathers, such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, apparently believed in a future millennium reign on earth—a central belief of dispensationalists—none of the Fathers believed in a secret Rapture. It was a nineteenth-century ex-Anglican priest, John Nelson Darby, who assembled the dispensational system, one that “sharply divides between two divine plans for history, one for an ‘earthly people’ (the Jews) and one for a ‘heavenly people’ (the Church).” This flowed from Darby’s flawed and pessimistic ecclesiology and his hatred of both the Catholic Church and mainline Protestant denominations.
The Rapture Trap provides solid apologetical points that will serve Catholics well in discussing the secret Rapture and the popular Left Behind books. Thigpen examines the misuse of biblical passages, including key texts such at 1 Thessalonians 4 and Matthew 24. The dispensationalist appeal to the “plain sense” of Scripture is exposed for its lack of consistency and common sense.
A solid case is made for the need of the Church’s magisterium to keep subjective and heterodox ideas in check. The author addresses many of LaHaye’s anti-Catholic attacks, exposing him as a Fundamentalist who is sloppy in his scholarship and contemptuous of facts. The secret Rapture’s promise of escape from suffering is shown to be both appealing and dangerous, and Catholic teaching about suffering is presented as an antidote.
The two final chapters (besides a short concluding summary) focus on what the Church does and doesn’t teach about the end of the world and what Catholics should consider when studying private revelations. Although the chapter on the “Dilemma of Private Revelations” doesn’t seem to quite fit with the other material, it is a helpful and balanced treatment of a controversial topic.
I do wish that the book contained more quotes from other dispensationalists, and I am surprised that no mention is made of Joachim of Fiore, the twelfth-century biblical scholar whose views influenced dispensationalism and other millenarian movements. Even without these, The Rapture Trap is a well written, balanced, and much needed critique of the “left behind” delusion.
— Carl E. Olson
The Rapture Trap: A Catholic Response to “End Times” Fever
By By Paul Thigpen
Ascension Press (2001)
261pages
$11.99 softcover
ISBN: 0-9659228-2-0
Burning Obedience
The Swiss priest, spiritual director, and scholar Hans Ur von Balthasar (1905–1988) was one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century. The author of over a thousand books and articles, von Balthasar was described by his good friend Henri de Lubac as “perhaps the most cultured man of our time,” a deeply spiritual man whose breadth of knowledge in the fields of theology, philosophy, patristics, literature, music, and spirituality was unparalleled.
In addition to his writings, Balthasar founded a secular community, the Community of St. John, and the theological journal Communio. The intention of his lifelong work, according to Aidan Nichols, was to “combine the mind of St. Thomas with the heart of St. Augustine, all in the spirit of St. Ignatius Loyola, that burning obedience––at once interior and missionary––to the Word of God.” Von Balthasar described his theology as a “kneeling theology” which was rooted as much in an obvious humility as it was in powerful intellect.
Fortunately for English readers, Ignatius Press has been translating and publishing von Balthasar’s work for many years now. Many of von Balthasar’s thick volumes are intimidating to the average reader, filled with daunting terms and phrases and references to authors and books beyond the scope of non-specialists. But in Credo a series of meditations on the twelve “articles” of the Apostles’ Creed, the reader will enjoy both access to von Balthasar’s thought and an introduction to the major themes of his theological vision. There is little doubt that this slim volume contains the last writings of von Balthasar and, because of its focus on the “symbol of faith,” it forms a fitting conclusion to his life work.
In these meditations, von Balthasar draws almost exclusively from Scripture. Like the Church Fathers whose works he knows so well, von Balthasar uses Scripture in an organic manner, citing biblical words and phrases freely throughout the text, forming a contemplative tapestry of commentary. He begins by emphasizing that the Apostles’ Creed, while traditionally divided in twelve, is more importantly divided into three parts of a single question: “Do you believe in the God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit?”
One of the major themes of this book and his larger corpus is the centrality of the Trinity, as doctrine and reality: “Only with a constant view to this ground of unity, which discloses itself to us, too, is there any sense in unraveling the Christian creed.” The Mystery of God is not a static dogma, but a “flowing wellspring” and “the pure act of self-pouring-forth.” Unless we recognize that the three Persons of the Trinity are continually surrendering themselves one to the other in perfect love, we cannot properly approach the Incarnation or live the Christian life.
This basic truth is sadly ignored in homilies, in catechesis, and perhaps especially in apologetics and evangelization. How often are Catholics accused of practicing a repetitive and lifeless religion when in actuality the Catholic faith is intensely personal and life-giving? As von Balthasar writes, “[Jesus] wants something more: that we receive his forgiveness through confession and that we nourish ourselves on him eucharistically. . . . He wants us, the problematical creatures, to gain entry, having become in him ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ into the inward life of divine love.”
One of the many pleasures in reading von Balthasar is that he enjoys the art of apologetics and never considers himself above the fray. His short section on the phrase “born of the Virgin Mary” is a masterpiece of apologetic incisiveness. Addressing the contention that Mary was a virgin only until the birth of Christ, he writes, “And how typical of our age of minimalistic faith is the conceding of a virginal conception while dispensing the believer from having to accept a virginal birth. As if the second would not be as easy for God to bring about as the first.”
Later, he takes on the popular liberal belief that Jesus knew nothing of his approaching death, again weaving together Scripture and logic. The entire mission of the Son, von Balthasar stresses, was oriented towards the cross, where perfect love and self-gift were realized.
At the end of his life von Balthasar was to be made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, but he died two days prior. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger later wrote that “what the pope wanted to express by this gesture of recognition and even of respect remains justified: not in some isolated and private fashion but in virtue of her ministerial responsibility the Church tells us that he is an exact master of the faith, a guide towards the sources of living waters––a witness of the Word from whom we learn Christ, from whom we can learn life.” In Credo we find a sublime expression of faith given by this great witness of the Word.
— Carl E. Olson
Credo: Meditations on the Apostles’ Creed
By Hans Ur von Balthasar
Ignatius Press (San Francisco, 2000)
105pages
$11.95
ISBN: 0-89870-803-6