The Rapture to a Child: The Ignored Terror of the Church By:Mae Hochstetler When I was about ten years old, I remember my father insisting that I and my eight year old brother listen to "A Thief in the Night" Radio Broadcast on a Christian Radio station. By broadcasting the sound bytes that would follow the rapture, it depicted the tragic discovery of those who were mysteriously missing from the face of the earth and the onset of Armageddon. The fictitious radio broadcast for a ten-year-old was very real, and my father's warning that it would happen one day, plagued me with night terrors for weeks to come. I remember getting up in the middle of the night and checking each bedroom and making sure my parents and brother were still in their beds, frightened that the rapture had come and I had been left all alone. Although the word "rapture" is no where found in scripture, this so-called prophetic event is proof-texted through ambiguous scriptures which have become the basis for a great legend and plot for many movies and popular books such as the Left Behind Series. Those who propagate the rapture do not fully understand the ramifications that it has upon children when the rapture is used as a scare and fear tactic of abandonment. According to Edwin Lint, the author of Gone, a novel about the rapture, those "taken into the rapture will be the children below the age of acceptability and persons with mental disabilities." Since no clear definition of the age of acceptability exists, there can be great ambiguity in this area in the mind of a child. Utilized by the church or parents as a means to keep the children compliant, the fear of abandonment is paramount to those who already question their validity or worth as children of God. In the sense that in one moment they are love bombed by church and family: "oh we love you, we love you, just make Jesus the Lord of your life and we'll always love you." Only in the next breath to be warned that they could lose their salvation because their lack of works has not proved them righteous enough to keep it. For me, the rapture encouraged my fear of abandonment and for years thereafter, I had nightmares of its occurrence and my being left behind to fend for myself without my family or God. In the private Christian Junior High School that I attended, end times videos were shown on a bi-yearly basis. For weeks following those films, the nightmares would resurface, and I'd be walking the halls once again, making certain that my family was still there in their beds while my nightmares terrorized me. For if God left me here to endure the suffering of the earth and its inhabitants during Armageddon, then God must have abandoned me altogether. So why didn't you just say the "Sinner's prayer" and know that all would be well, that you would be taken into the heavens with all the other believers? I did this many times, sometimes nightly, but I questioned not only my salvation but also if anything I had to say to God was actually heard. Since I never had that "wonderful feeling" that was supposed to come over one upon accepting Christ as Savior of your life, I was certain that I was one of the lost. That feeling wouldn't descend upon me until years later, when affirming my baptism in a liturgical church, did I realize that I am God's child, that I didn't need to do anything to climb the ladder to heaven, that the greatest work of all was done for me by Christ upon the Cross. That costly grace is what solidified me as a child of God. I couldn't lose my salvation nor need I fear that God would abandon me. After all that, do I still believe in the rapture? Let's just say that whatever God has planned for the end times, I've decided to leave that up to God after spending too many nights being terrorized by a legend as contrived as the boogeyman. With Love and }}{{'s, Mae Hochstetler ©2001 Mae Hochstetler. All ideas outlined are that of Mae Hochstetler and any unauthorized usage thereof would be subject to prosecution. 2001 GOLDEN PENS Scales of Justice Award: the MW who balances writing, DH, & kids without killing anyone! The Momwriter with four under four and under her feet who still has three in diapers and continues to write and get published! If I can do it, anyone can! RETURN TO: October's Issue Home