Citizen Columns

Citizen Columns >> Answer (September 23rd, 2006)

Question

What does your faith believe about the end of the world and what will happen to the faithful? What is the Rapture?

Answer

The Bible does speak about the end of the world, but the general tone of Christian tradition is one of reticence on this point. In fact, the book of Revelation, which speaks in poetic detail of these mysteries, had a hard time making into the New Testament precisely because it fueled too much speculation. We have our hands full just being faithful believers, loving God and doing his commandments.

But faith in an eternal spiritual kingdom where there is no sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing keeps us going. Every Sunday we use the words of the Nicene Creed (381 AD) and recommit ourselves to the belief that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead and that His kingdom will have no end. We say that we "look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."

The Eastern Church has avoided going beyond this, including the so-called "Rapture", a late-19th century notion about how and when believers will be whisked away to be with Christ. Various permutations of the doctrine are popular among some evangelical Protestants, but the gist of it is that Christian believers will be saved and everyone else will be left behind.

We have our share of exclusivists too, but far more characteristic is the view of St Silouan of Mount Athos (1866-1938). "There are people who desire the destruction, the torment in Hell-fire of their enemies, or the enemies of the Church. They think like this because they have not learned divine love from the Holy Spirit, for he who has learned the love of God will shed tears for the whole world..Do you have a heart of steel? But there is no place for steel in paradise. Paradise has need of humility and the love of Christ, which has compassion for all human beings."

Father John Jillions