Unraptured: How End Times Theology Gets It Wrong

American Christianity has come to be defined by who and what it’s against, by legalism and dogmatism that draws lines in the sand and turns unbelievers into enemies.

Biblical faith is not defined by rules, rituals, or ideas; it’s about faithfulness to a calling from God.

We’re called to love people more than we love being right, but being right theologically rather than being in right relationship with our neighbor has become the defining identity of the church.

faith is found in doubt. Without doubt, faith wouldn’t be faith. It would simply be knowledge.

What Paul is describing in 1 Thessalonians is the completely opposite type of encounter. In Paul’s twinkling of an eye, Jesus returns for good. He never turns around and goes back to heaven.

If any of us struggle to stand up in the chaotic waters of faith and life, the rest of us carry them until they can stand on their own again.

Jesus can also be considered a prophet, as well as folks like John the Baptist and even the John who wrote the book of Revelation. Biblical prophets weren’t fortune- tellers. They were prophetic because they called on the people of God to repent and demanded justice for the oppressed.

humanity is God-breathed. And yet . . . we’re not perfect. If we were, we would simply be God or, at the very least, a bunch of little gods. But we’re not perfect; we’re God-breathed, not God-incarnated. God-breathed doesn’t mean perfection, because God doesn’t take over our lives and control us like puppets.

Here lies the ultimate problem with end-times theology: it values prophecy more than people.