Blending into One: The “Left Behind” Movie, the Book of Revelation and the Rapture
Michelle Fletcher
July 25, 2020
56 Comments
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The new Left Behind movie (2014) depicts the Rapture, which is often assumed to be clearly explained in the Bible, especially the book of Revelation. It’s more complicated than that, says author Michelle Fletcher.
It’s a day like any other, and then—bam!—everything changes. Millions of people disappear in an instant and all that’s left are piles of clothes, iPods and wallets. Panic and terror break out. This is the scene that viewers are faced with in the new Left Behind movie, directed by Vic Armstrong, and it’s Nicolas Cage’s job to find out what’s happened. But the viewers already know the answer: it’s the Rapture, of course! The Biblical prophecies have come true.
Or have they?
The Rapture is now commonly understood to refer to a time when believers will be snatched up to heaven by Jesus to escape the time of tribulation about to engulf the earth during the reign of the Antichrist. This chain of events has become so integral to some Christian eschatologies (end-time theories) that it’s often assumed they’re clearly explained in the Bible, especially the book of Revelation. But in fact it’s all slightly more complicated than that.
The idea of a “pre-tribulation” Rapture, where believers disappear and everyone else is left on earth to suffer, is actually a rather new one. This type of Rapture was first made popular by the work of John Nelson Darby in the late 1800s. It then spread with the release of the Scofield Reference Bible (1909), and Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins sent it viral through their best-selling Left Behind book series. However, prior to this, “rapture” had referred to the second coming of Christ in general, rather than the supernatural escape from troubles as portrayed by Left Behind.
So how did this version of the Rapture come about?
The mention of an event where believers are “taken up” into the sky in the Bible primarily comes from Paul’s First letter to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul is dealing with the fears of believers whose loved ones have died and who are afraid of what will happen when Christ returns. After telling them that the dead shall rise, Paul offers them this:
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.
1 Thessalonians 4:17
Sky yes, but no tribulation, no Antichrist.
Other passages from the Bible are seen as supporting this idea, for example, Matthew 24:40–1 and Luke 17:34–35, which speak of one person being taken and another left behind. However, these passages discuss the second coming of Christ (the Parousia), not an escape from the world. The “blink of an eye” idea is taken from is 1 Corinthians 15:51–52. But none of this is from Revelation. And none of it lays out a clear Rapture, tribulation, Antichrist plan.
The book of Revelation does not specifically mention this pre-tribulation Rapture prior to the Antichrist’s reign, either. Revelation 3:10 is the text most cited as describing it:
Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
Revelation 3:10
However, this occurs in a letter to a specific church, Philadelphia, rather than as part of the visionary material. References to this having any connection to “the Rapture” in scholarly commentaries are few and far between. And Revelation 3:10 doesn’t mention being taken up into the sky or the Antichrist.
Actually, the book of Revelation doesn’t use the term Antichrist at all. That term comes from 1 and 2 John. The beasts of Revelation are taken by many to be the Antichrist, as thought to be predicted in Daniel 7. But none of them is called Antichrist.
Other ascents to heaven by certain figures are mentioned in Revelation (John the Seer, the two witnesses, the child of the woman clothed like the sun), but these do not describe huge groups disappearing prior to the plagues, sufferings and terror which inflict the earth.
For more on Hollywood movies, read “Excruciating Exodus Movie Exudes Errors,” “Rock Giants in Noah” and “The ‘Gods of Egypt’ Movie: A Mess of Anachronisms and Exoticization.”
By this stage it becomes clear that the Rapture is far from an obvious and widespread concept in the Biblical text. Indeed, creating the idea of the Rapture, let alone its timeline, involves harmonizing many disparate parts of the Bible and presents the Bible as a prophetic tool. It involves reading the book of Revelation in relation to other texts, rather than reading what is contained in Revelation.
John Nelson Darby first popularized the idea of a “pre-tribulation” Rapture.
Left Behind’s Rapture, then, is more a product of how texts are read than the texts themselves. Reading the Bible as having a blueprint for the future held within it was attributed to Joachim of Fiore (1132–1202), who created a complex timeline of different ages leading to the second coming of Christ. But even he didn’t have a Rapture.
Darby, Scofield, LaHaye and Jenkins were inheritors of this tradition and put it into practice to create their own Rapturous chain of events, which is now often presented as the only possible version.
However, the idea that Jesus’ sayings, Paul’s teachings, John’s Letters and John of Patmos’s Revelation, not to mention the texts of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, represent the same branch of eschatology is something few scholars would maintain. These texts were written in different locations and time periods, to different people, with different goals. A “one end-plan fits all” attitude proves more than problematic, as richly diverse ancient texts are streamlined to an ordered modern timeframe of Rapture, tribulation and Antichrist.
What’s more, the “backbone” for all of this—the book of Revelation—frustrates its readers. It offers long pauses, contradictory timeframes and undisclosed declarations, and every time the end is announced, it never actually arrives. It is more apt to describe it as spiralling around an endpoint rather than marching toward one. It is, in essence, a text that defies any framework placed onto it.
Vic Armstrong’s Left Behind movie has been lambasted by critics as over-simplistic, formulaic and lacking all intrigue, with the Rapture in the middle as the only interesting part. The reality of the Rapture in the Biblical text is somewhat different. It’s the common concept of the pre-tribulation Rapture that is an oversimplification, a blurring of the complex texts and ancient worldviews. It is a modern creation assumed to be part of the final book of the Bible. But the book of Revelation doesn’t offer its readers the Rapture. It doesn’t even offer a clear ending. Rather, it offers wonder, awe and quite often bewildering strangeness. And that is why, unlike the new movie Left Behind, it’s so very, very intriguing.1
Notes
1. For a further introduction to the book of Revelation, see Ian Boxall, Revelation: Vision and Insight: An Introduction to the Apocalypse (London: SPCK, 2002). For further information on different readings of Revelation through history, see Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001).
Michelle Fletcher is currently completing her doctoral research at King’s College London on the use of the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. She is particularly interested in the relationship between the book of Revelation and film. Her publications and conference papers cover such topics as Terminator’s use of the Apocalypse, Revelation’s females, Frankenstein films and Westerns as apocalyptic spectacle.
Learn more about the book of Revelation in Bible History Daily:
How the Serpent Became Satan by Shawna Dolansky
Can A Pre-Christian Version of the Book of Revelation Be Recovered?
Understanding Revelations in the Bible
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on October 14, 2014.
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The Revelation is a writing which is apocalyptic in nature and was intended for the church in the first century which was beginning to experience government sanctioned persecution which would be escalating in nature and severity. It encourages them to take heart, and to maintain and strengthen their faith. The main theme from Revelation which is readily applicable to us is that though evil is ever active, and at times it looks like it will triumph, Christ has already assured victory; God wins!
Exactly how everything will happen is impossible to say. But, the bible seems to say with certainty that Christ will return and that we don’t know exactly when, or exactly how, but that we need to prepare ourselves for that day.
@Wanyama: you can wait long time for the “second comming of Christ”. Let´s wait for the first comming, as “Jesus” was never the Messiah. He never brought world peace, neither re-built the temple. Additionally he was not directly member of David clan. So wait and be patient.
Thanks, Jurgen, you’ve nicely rounded out all the various possibilities with the least believed version.
Zack Hunt and Greg Boyd have been looking at this topic recently. Their conclusion…they and many others have found the rapture is a fantasy which is not biblical with verses taken out of context and being espoused by those who refuse to actually read the history of when the book was written. At best…I would describe their agenda as that of other heretical leaders throughout history…they should know the truth…but having extremely narcissistic natures…they are more than willing to take as many down their evil path as possible and rejoice doing so.
WOW, almost has her doctorate, but still doesn’t know her Bible. Pre-trib rapture is all over in Bible since Enoch. And church fathers also believed in rapture. It’s when two legs of Roman Empire: Byzantine and Catholics took over, then they started fooling people not to read Bible. But when people started reading their Bibles, they did find out, that rapture is there. There are bunch of movies about Jesus and Moses also, but it doesn’t mean, that they were not real beings or it’s not true. Enoch is type of Church and Noah type of Jews and other who would believe in tribulation. And people in glorified bodies come down to Earth with Christ after tribulation. Only born again people will be left to populate the Earth again, because left alive goats will be doomed before the millennium.
Well the Bible is clear that the righteous are never going to face the wrath of God, which is what Revelation is all about. God has always delivered the righteous out of the way of his judgement. We see it with Noah and Lot, and also in the Garden, with the promise of the coming Messiah.
Many are vehemently against the idea of the Rapture. Many say that the word rapture doesn’t appear in the bible but that is untrue. the word Rapture is from the Latin Vulgate Bible in 1st Thess 4:17 the phrase ‘taken up’ is raptura. Also, one must believe in the Book of Revelations isn’t about the Christian Persecution of the Early Church, it is about God pouring His wrath on an unbelieving world, the great Tribulation. God has stated that he would not persecute His Bride, the Church, so the Church can’t not go through the Great Tribulation. The church will be in heaven at the time of the Great Tribulation except for the 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel that believe in Jesus the Christ (Yusuha Messiah) and those that accept Christ. There will be such horror that if Christ doesn’t come back no one would survive, but when he comes back it will be as a Judge and He will not be smiling. For those Christians who think Christians get a pass on persecution there will be a great Christian persecution before the last days, and that will be Satan pouring his wrath on God’s own. In fact it has already started. Sheep or Goats?
Nonsense
Interpreting Revelation:
The book of Revelation is of great importance in that it provides spiritual strength and insight for God’s people. It highlights God’s interest in the congregations of his people and the close and loving care that Jesus Christ exercises toward them as the Fine Shepherd. Jesus knows exactly what conditions prevail and what must be done. This is especially manifest in the first three chapters of the book.
Some persons view Revelation as being so highly symbolic that it cannot be understood, or they view it as being impractical. But Jehovah God wants his people to understand, and he caused the Bible to be written to be understood and to provide guidance for them. The key to understanding Revelation is the same as the key to understanding other parts of the Bible. The apostle Paul points to that key. After explaining that God reveals the hidden wisdom through his spirit, Paul says: “These things we also speak, not with words taught by human wisdom, but with those taught by the spirit, as we combine spiritual matters with spiritual words.” (1Co 2:8-13) If we search the Scriptures (and in some cases the customs and practices of those days), we find in them many of the things used as symbolisms in Revelation. By comparing these Scripture texts, we can often understand what the Revelation symbol means. It should be noted, however, that a term or expression may refer to or symbolize different things, according to the context in which it appears.
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200274881
Hilda, you made the following comment:
“In fact, Justin Martyr (110-165 AD) went so far as to suggest that anyone with a different viewpoint was heretical.”
I agree that the Early Church was primarily Premillennialist, but I do not think Justin is referring to non-premillennialists as heretics. In response to what amounted to premillennial views, he goes on to say, “I and many others are of this opinion, and [believe] that such will take place, as you assuredly are aware; but, on the other hand, I signified to you that many who belong to the pure and pious faith, and are true Christians, think otherwise.” (Dialogue with Trypho Chapter LXXX)
He does go on to say that some people who call themselves Christian are heretics, specifically those who blaspheme God and deny resurrection from the dead. One could easily come to the conclusion that he is even calling those who deny a thousand year reign heretics. However, because of what Justin says in that quote I inserted above, I think that is unlikely that he would be calling people of the “pure and pious faith, and true Christians” heretics. For those interested, here is the source document, scroll to chapter LXXX: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-dialoguetrypho.html