A distinctive feature of the latter part of the twentieth century, especially in the United States, was the rise of a new type of Christian fundamentalism. It was no longer considered enough to join a denomination. To be a true believer, you had to be “born again” in Christ. Hand-in-hand with this insistence came healing services, the casting out of devils, TV evangelists, the elaborate theory of Dispensationalism, and a concept called rapture, which suggested that with the end of the world looming, Christians would be beamed up to heaven like characters in the popular TV series Star Trek.
The phrase “born again” comes from John’s gospel, in which Jesus says that those who are born again will see heaven. It began to be used widely in the 1960s, particularly in the United States, as part of a wider Evangelical revival, and referred specifically to a spiritual rebirth, a fresh or renewed acceptance of Jesus Christ into individual lives. Many born-again Christians belong to independent or semi-independent churches, including the “house-church” movement, which has loose connections with the Baptists; and indeed, members of this movement often undergo baptism by total immersion.
“I just want to lobby for God.”
Billy Graham, 1918–
Charismatic spirit This new breed of free-standing churches favors an uninhibited style of worship, drawing on Pentecostalism and the charismatic movement, another 1960s revival, which places great emphasis on being open to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Other features of born-again services include hell-fire oratory, exorcisms and healing.
In the twentieth century, Christianity grew adept at using modern means of communication to get its message over to large congregations, as once it had used the pulpits of churches or the soapboxes of traveling preachers. It adapted first to radio, and then, in the 1950s, to television. The American Catholic bishop Fulton Sheen drew TV audiences of 30 million (and Emmy awards) for his homespun onscreen theological chats. However, it was mainly Protestant preachers who thrived thereafter in the medium, the most notable of these being the Southern Baptist Billy Graham. In the 1980s, televangelism descended into scandal over financial and sexual irregularities that saw popular hosts such as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart exposed and exiled from the airwaves.
Rapture grew out of a very particular reading, by some of these Evangelicals and fundamentalists, of St. Paul’s prediction, in his first letter to the Thessalonians in the New Testament, that when God descends on the earth in judgment at the end of the world, “those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.” This was interpreted as a promise that while the rest of the world is engulfed in a time of “Tribulation,” the Armageddon predicted in the Book of Revelation, the chosen few, or “born again,” will be spared by being “raptured” out of the conflict zone and up to heaven. This rescue will last for a set period of time, sometimes estimated at seven years, before a return to a cleaned-up earth, which will be ruled by Jesus from Jerusalem for a thousand years.
This theory contradicts every other Christian tenet, but has proved disarmingly popular. One key exponent of rapture is the former Mississippi tub-boat captain turned leading Christian fundamentalist, Hal Lindsey. His book The Late, Great Planet Earth has sold 35 million copies worldwide since it was first published in 1970.
“Without benefit of science, space suits, or interplanetary rockets, there will be those who will be transported into a glorious place more beautiful, more awesome, than we can possibly comprehend.”
Hal Lindsey
Rapture was also enthusiastically preached by the Reverend Jerry Falwell (1933–2007). Falwell, a prominent Christian fundamentalist attached to the Southern Baptist Convention, established the Moral Majority political lobbying organization, which is linked with Republican Party policies. “You’ll be riding along in an automobile,” he predicted, “and when the trumpet sounds you and other born-again believers in that automobile will be instantly caught away—you will disappear, leaving behind only your clothes … unsaved person or persons in the automobile will be suddenly startled to find the car moving along without a driver.”
The Church of Scientology
There is, some critics have suggested, a science-fiction element to the concept of rapture. That same element is even more marked in the Church of Scientology, an eight-million-strong organization—some would say a cult—founded in 1953 by the sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard. It stands outside the Christian family, and its beliefs are based on Hubbard’s own self-help system, known as Dianetics. It teaches that humans are immortal spirit beings—or thetans—who have lost their connection to God and to the wider cosmos. Scientology aims to reestablish this connection. The group is notable for its high-profile members, who include the actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
Dispensationalism Rapture is more broadly linked with an Evangelical school of thought called Dispensationalism, which dates back to the nineteenth century and the writings of the Anglo-Irish Evangelical John Nelson Darby (1800–82). Darby was one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren, though later he split off to found the Exclusive Brethren.
Dispensationalists divide the history of humankind—as told in the Bible—into a series of “dispensations” or periods, each of which is characterized by God acting toward humanity in a particular way. The theory relies on a very particular and narrow reading of scripture—rejected by the vast majority of Christians and denominations—which is often called literalist, but which in fact requires a great deal of imagination. The seven dispensations are: (1) Innocence (prior to Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden); (2) Conscience (from Adam to Noah); (3) Government (from Noah to Abraham); (4) Promise (from Abraham to Moses); (5) Law (from Moses to Christ); (6) Church or Grace (currently); and (7) Kingdom (the end times that are soon to begin).
Darby’s original speculation has been revived and promoted most notably by the Dispensationalists’ current spiritual home, the Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas. Among more contemporary readings of the theory is the suggestion that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was the first stage in the build-up to the end of the world, as predicted by Revelation. Indeed, the Dispensationalists maintain that the whole recent history of the Middle East is contained in Revelation, and that the world is moving slowly but inexorably toward a third and final world war, which will start in that region.
the condensed idea
The second coming is nigh
| timeline | |
|---|---|
| 1820s | J.N. Darby plots dispensations |
| 1950s | First TV evangelists |
| 1960s | Born-again revival |
| 1970 | Hal Lindsey publishes The Late, Great Planet Earth |