In Case of Rapture, Read this Post

This is it. This is the post you have been waiting for. This post will change your life.

There are an especially holy and righteous group of Christians who have finally created a service that we have all been longing for. Every since as teenagers we were crammed into the the church basement to watch the horror of all films, A Thief in the Night, and been terrified that the rapture was around the corner and we weren’t going to be ready.

Of course being ready for the rapture, in our teenage minds, meant being married (having sex), going to college (having lots of fun without parents around), and becoming sports legends (some of these things were never going to happen). But now, you can really be ready for the rapture and make sure that your heathen friends and family won’t be forgotten.

This site called You’ve Been Left Behind, is intended as a bit of rapture insurance for the unrighteous. For a small $40 registration fee you can store emails, documents, and contact information that will be sent to all those whom you leave behind at the rapture. So now all the witnessing you never did can be done even after you are gone.

Here is a description of their services: “We have set up a system to send documents by the email, to the addresses you provide, 6 days after the “Rapture” of the Church. This occurs when 3 of our 5 team members scattered around the U.S fail to log in over a 3 day period. Another 3 days are given to fail safe any false triggering of the system.

We give you 150mb of encrypted storage that can be sent to 12 possible email addresses, in Box #1. You up load any documents and choose which documents go to who. You can edit these documents at any time and change the addresses they will be sent to as needed. Box #1 is for your personal private letters to your closest lost friends and relatives.

We give you another 100mb. of unencrypted storage that can be sent to up to 50 email addresses, in Box #2. You can edit the documents and the addresses any time. Box #2 is for more generic documents to lost family & friends.

The cost is $40 for the first year. Re-subscription will be reduced as the number of subscribers increases. Tell your friends about You’ve Been left behind.

I am not sure what to think of this except for amusement. I am hopeful that the people behind this are just being as faithful as they can in their own way and trying to use technology for the good of the kingdom. The cynical side of me (let’s call him Gregori and use a strong Russian accent as we hear his voice) thinks that this smells fishier than discount caviar. Why do I have a sinking feeling that three guys who were in the same youth group did this almost as a prank and then found that people would give them money so they turned it into a business.

So you can get yourself a little rapture insurance now for your loved ones. Maybe we can work with blogger to create a post for the blog that goes up in case of rapture. I am torn between a strong I told you so and a hey can you believe it actually happened tone. Maybe you can add some input into what our “in case of the rapture read this post” post should sound like.

What in the World is Holiness?

Called unto holiness. What does that mean? I want to wrestle with that question, but first here is my understanding and story.

In the past we have largely framed the narrative of sanctification/holiness within the confines of the personal piety of a Christian's character and conduct; as a work of grace that transforms the orientation of the heart from a sin-bound nature to one that unites our heart and desire with that of the Holy Spirit. This re-orientation of the heart has been ascribed by many to fall into the realm of a singular moment of transformation, and many I believe truthfully and with all sincerity testify to that 'Damascus Road' moment. I however have never had a moment of sudden conversion. Perhaps I am a hard headed man, and God has chosen to bless me with the hard heart of a contrary skeptic; but as I stand before you today holiness as some form of instantaneous transformation is about as real to my Christian experience as is my likelihood to become an astronaut.

Given a choice between the conversion narratives of Paul and the longer road of Peter I would choose the latter every time as the metaphor for my story. I am not saying I do not believe in a reorientation of heart and desire, but I am saying that the 'how, when, where' questions that I would face if I ever decided to pursue a district license are framed in such a way that I will never receive a license; or I will have to lie or bend the truth in such a way as to accommodate an unnecessarily linear, and I would argue condescending to some, spiritual growth model.

So then.... What is holiness, and what are we called unto? I would argue that at the least it is both instantaneous and progressive. As well, I have asked the question before: is holiness the Kingdom of Heaven being made manifest? Does not the atonement, out of which this re-orientation occurs, provide a means by which all of creation is to be reclaimed to the mission of God here on this earth? If holiness is about re-orienting all of creation towards God's Mission then is holiness also a synonym for missional?

Hermeneutical Golfing

If you have read Scot McKnight’s A Community Called Atonement he asserts that it is both okay and realistic to use a wide array of atonement theories depending on context and application; whether ransom, substitutionary, Christus Victor, etc.

I have been mulling these last days and weeks about the implications of this approach to hermeneutics. I think as a church we have tended to limit our approaches metaphorically when it comes to hermeneutic approach. We tend to favor certain 'clubs' or 'a club' to the aversion and even derision of other approaches. I am calling into question the un-wavering authority and long-lived relevance of some of our current approaches. I think it is important that we also begin to develop and explore new and challenging metaphors that speak to us today and to future generations. As a bit of background on the evolution of hermeneutics I wanted to lay out some of those methods by which past generations have sought to interpret and understand scripture.

The church has progressed through the years and we have travelled through various hermeneutical ages: (the following is gleaned from Wikipedia)

• Apostolic and Sub-apostolic hermeneutics: Focuses on Messianic prophecy fulfillment.

• Alexandrian: Focuses on Allegorical meaning.

• Antiochine: Focuses on Literal and Historical meaning.

• Medieval: A Four-fold approach that allowed for multi-layered study.
  
  
  
  • Literal: What the text states or reports directly.
  
  
  • Allegorical: Exploring the symbolic meaning as it relates to doctrine.
  
  
  • Sensus Moralis: The moral application of the text to the reader/hearer.
  
  
  • Sensus Anagogicus: The secret or metaphysical and eschatological knowledge.

• Renaissance & Enlightenment: Secular and humanist in tone, also historical and critical in approach. This era also sought to interpret the bible as a response to broader historical and social forces.

• Modern Approaches:
  
  
  
  • Lexical-syntactical: A grammatical approach to understanding the meaning of a passage.
  
  
  • Historical/cultural: Understanding the history and the culture of the authors.
  
  
  • Contextual: Using a verse within it’s broader passage.
  
  
  • Theological: Using all of the contexts in which a topic is spoken about for a broader understanding.
  
  
  • Special Literary: Each genre of Scripture has a different set of rules that apply to it.
  
  
  
  


• Roman Catholic:
  
  
  
  • Historico-grammatical: Understanding scripture through knowledge of the language, customs, culture, and context of the passage.
  
  
  • Catholic: The Catholic church is the supreme guide of interpretation. No teaching can be in variance with official catholic doctrine.
  
  
  • Inerrancy: Scripture can contain no error, no self-contradiction, nothing contrary to science or history.
  
  
  • Patristics: The Holy Fathers are of supreme authority when they all interpret scripture in unanimity.
  
  
  
  


• Trajectory: Parts of the Bible can have progressive, different meanings as a culture unfolds, advances, and matures.

You might think I am cursing, but I believe trajectory hermeneutics can be beneficial in some interpretations, specifically as it relates to our current understanding about the treatment of minorities, and women. But I think maybe we could all agree it’s not the best ‘club’ for all situations.

However thinking even beyond trajectory hermeneutics what are the other contexts and metaphors that will be developed as our cultures and societies change and morph in this age of transition? What golf-clubs are we not playing with from the past we should reconsider? What golf-clubs haven’t been invented yet, or are hidden deep in a research and development facility? Will our understanding and skills for Biblical interpretation stagnate or evolve?