As it happens, a couple of days ago I e-mailed WHKeith asking him what the appeal of Rapture theology was after I saw something on a different message board. His reply was good and thorough enough I asked him why he hadn't posted it here and got his permission to do so (he's a bit swamped at the moment). Here's his reply (personal stuff omitted):
CJ
As for rapture theology, I think the appeal lies in some pretty basic psychology. If This Is It, the Big Guy is gonna come back ANY MOMENT now and settle scores, give out rewards, cast unbelievers into the lake of fire, and all that, and if, as the rapturists like to say, this is the Last Generation, it does several key things for the believers.
1. No matter how crazy their personal beliefs and practices might seem to the world, it doesn't matter. God's gonna come any second now, and then you'll see we were right and you were wrong! Be a fool for Christ; it's okay, 'cause he'll be here any second now to say "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
2. It reinforces the "them" against "us" motif. "We've got a secret, and we're not gonna tell you until you come join us to find out what it is!" Okay, so it's not exactly secret with authors like Lindsey and LaHaye out there, but the way fundies see it, they're actively working and waiting for The Day, while people around them are just going about their business, dallying, sinning, fornicating, and so on, utterly unaware of the impending flood. It makes them feel wonderfully smug. Think of the fable of the ant and the grasshopper.
3. Salvation by fear. Like the dogma of hell, the idea of the rapture does catch a few unbelievers thinking, "Gee, what if they're right? Maybe I'd better clean up my act. . . ." I don't think it's the best way to win converts, but it has won a number of them.
4. Witnessing topic. This is related to #3. If I'm a Christian who believes this stuff, it's just possible someone's going to come up to me in a parking lot and ask me about my bumper sticker, the one that says "In case of rapture, the driver of this car will disappear." He's not going to ask about the one that says "Ask me about John 3:16," because that's boring scripture stuff. He'll have heard the word "rapture" and wonder what it's all about. It gives me a chance to talk about what I believe in the context of something that is happening RIGHT NOW--i.e. how everything happening in the Middle East or in Iraq or in Paducah, Kentucky was accurately predicted thousands of years ago, and those prophecies therefore must be right when they say Now is the Time. Maybe the guy will be intrigued enough that I can give him a Chick tract.
5. Assurance that we're on the right track. Related to #4 and to #2. Rapture theology is wonderful sermon ammunition. A preacher can stand up there and talk confidently about all the stuff we see happening in the world, and how this PROVES that the Bible is 100% right, that Jesus is coming back any moment now, and how, therefore, we are all RIGHT in having made this decision and in sitting in this church. We're right, they’re wrong. So there.
6. Comfort in the assurance of salvation. This comes out of #5. The world just seems to be getting uglier and uglier. Families falling apart. Crime on the increase. Government repression. Wars and rumors of wars. Each generation feels that THIS generation has it worse than ever before in history, even though there's plenty of proof to the contrary. When someone points out that the Bible predicted all of this, right down to the identity of Saddam Hussein as the Beast of the Revelation (or Hitler, or Napoleon, or the Pope, or Martin Luther, or the Emperor Nero, depending on when you're living) it kind of makes all the chaos and ugliness and death and despair seem worthwhile, somehow. It's All God's Plan Coming Together At Last. (I have even seen meticulously worked-out "proofs" that JFK, Kissinger, and Reagan each was the one and only Antichrist.)
7. Aren't I clever? Most rapture theology involves piecing together many, many verses from allover, especially Daniel, Revelations, and numerous isolated verses from the Gospels, from Paul, and from 1st and 2nd John. It all sounds so plausible when strung together, "proving" that "false prophets and deceivers = antichrists = the Beast = "many will come in my name." For example, the beast referred to in Daniel, which probably refers to Alexander's Empire which broke up to eventually become the persecutor of the Macabbees, can be cobbled together with the Beast of Revelations . . . OBVIOUSLY the same beast! If you can glibly rattle all of this stuff off, it sounds damned impressive. Geeze, I MUST be an expert on Bible prophecy! This ties in with #2; WE'RE clever, and know what the Bible REALLY says. If you want in on the secret, believe what we do.
8. Live the moment. This, to my way of thinking, is the only valuable aspect of rapture theology. We should live every moment as if it were our last, that Christ could come back and find us at any moment. "No man knows the day or the hour" keeps us all on our toes, keeps us in line, keeps us on the alert for His appearance.
It's very important to keep in mind that even in the 1st century, rapture theology had a hold on people. Jesus Himself is recorded as saying "no man knows the day, etc.," but he's ALSO recorded as having said to the Apostles (sorry, I'm paraphrasing from memory here) "I tell you that you shall not have gone through every city of Israel before you see the Son of Man return in glory." He's also on record as having told the chief priests and scribes that they, personally, would see His return. These verses were written considerably after the fact, of course, and probably reflected the theologies of the writers decades after the crucifixion. A very great deal was wrapped up in the idea that the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed, and then the Son of Man would return in glory. It's not certain whether that was written before the Temple was destroyed in 70, or after. Whoever wrote them and whenever they were written, it's fairly obvious the writers were convinced that THEY were the last generation.
Although I've studied many different ideas on the subject, to my way of thinking, Revelations can be best explained by equating Nero with the Beast (neronius = 666 in gematria), Rome with the Whore of Babylon (seven heads = seven hills, drunken with the blood of saints and martyrs, she rides the Beast, 10 horns = 10 emperors*), and the woman clothed with the sun who gave birth to a child with Israel giving birth to the Christ (12 stars = 12 tribes). Of course, the fundie argument to this is that God layers his messages so that they are meaningful to everyone. Nero DOES = 666 (and there was a popular urban legend going about at the time that he hadn't really killed himself, that he would soon be back, bigger and badder than ever, i.e. the wound unto death that was miraculously healed, and in 96 there was an urban legend that claimed that Domitian was Nero returned from the dead) but you can also get 666 out of Roma, the Pope, Luther, and quite a few other names, depending on which alphabet and which form of gematria you use. Of course, this begs the question as to why THIS generation isn't just another in a long list of not-quites, and that the REAL Beast is due to show up sometime in the 34th century.
* Footnote: Depending on whether or not you count Julius Caesar, Nero was only emperor #5 or #6. (Julius was not an emperor, but he was seen as divine throughout the empire.) I think #10 was Trajan, who took the throne in 114. There were lots of emperor = antichrist movements among the Christians under the persecutions of Domitian in 96, Nerva in the early 100s, and Trajan. Also, note a certain amount of confusion here. The Antichrist is NOT the Beast; the Antichrist is usually equated with the SECOND beast, or False Prophet, who makes the world follow the first beast. So Nero could be the beast ridden by the Great Whore, or the Great Whore could be either the Roman Empire or the Catholic Church riding on Rome, with the second beast--the Antichrist--as Nero or the Pope. Later rapturists point out that ten horns = 10 nations arising from the Roman Empire, and there was a LOT of expectation when NATO got its 9th and 10th members in the '70s.
Rapturists believe different things about all of these historical bits, depending on their particular flavor. Note, though, also, that the word "Antichrist" never appears in Revelations. It comes, I believe, from 1st and 2nd John, which speak of multiple antichrists . . . and which almost certainly historically refers to the Gnostics, who refuted that Christ ever had a material body or that He actually suffered. (Read 2 John:7 in this light to see what I mean.) It's fascinating to realize that a very great deal of the fire and brimstone preachings of Paul and other presumed writers of the New Testament were actually aimed at other Christians! (Paul against the Jewish Christians who held that Christians needed to follow the Law of Moses, later writers against the Gnostic Christians who believed Jesus was spirit only and not flesh and blood, and the Arian Christians who believed Jesus was the greatest of the prophets, but human. The Nicene Creed itself, from 325 or so, was specifically written to nail down once and for all the trinitarian, Jesus = God concept by emphasizing the importance, literally, of the Greek letter iota, "i." Homouiouson = "of one substance." Homououson = "of like substance." In other words, was Jesus the one and only Son of God, and, in fact, God himself, of one substance with the Father? Or was he of "like substance," created in the Father's image . . . and therefore ANY Joe can become "like God," a son of God.
As you know well, you can manipulate history and numbers to say ANYTHING you wish, and people WILL believe you.
Don't know if this helps, but it sums up my take on the topic.
