The idea of "The Rapture" -- the return of Christ to rescue and deliver Christians off the earth -- is an extremely popular interpretation of the Bible's Book of Revelation and a jumping-off point for the best-selling "Left Behind" series of books. This interpretation, based on a psychology of fear and destruction, guides the daily acts of thousands if not millions of people worldwide. In The Rapture Exposed, Barbara Rossing argues that this script for the world's future is nothing more than a disingenuous distortion of the Bible. The truth, Rossing argues, is that Revelation offers a vision of God's healing love for the world. The Rapture Exposed reclaims Christianity from fundamentalists' destructive reading of the biblical story and back into God's beloved community.

As early as the first century, the church believed there was a living church rapture. Let us note the language of Paul to the Corinthian church in 15:36: Thou fool, that which thou sowest [Greek word means to strengthen] is not quickened [Greek word means to reanimate conjointly with], except it die. Paul tells the Corinthians that the living church is strengthened by Holy Spirit [we shall be changed]. The dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible. This is one of many verses that prove the rapture theory is false theology. This is why I named this book The Big Lie, Exposed. This book exposes the false teaching of the Christian churches for the past two thousand years. I do this as instructed by Isaiah by putting precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.

A clear and fun guide to the Book of Revelation, the most hyped, hoaxed, and mystified book in the Bible.

The Book of Revelation presents the fascinating and terrifying story of what John reports happening to him while on the Mediterranean island of Patmos. It is a far more interesting story than the tired predictions of other would-be prophets whose many forecasts of the future have always failed to materialize. Tales of the End invites readers to hear John s story anew. Rather than forcing John s story into our time, it takes the reader back to the time of its original telling, exploring both what is told and how it is told examining its plot, characters, point of view, temporal perspective, narrator, listener, author and audience. Only then can we ask how this story bears on the modern world and how it addresses enduring human concerns. David Barr s narrative analysis uncovers a complex and compelling story addressed to the communities of Jesus followers in first-century Asia Minor, a story told vividly so that the audience can participate in John s extraordinary experience and so be transformed, adopting new values, new perspectives; indeed, a new understanding of what the world is really like.

Jesus Christ is coming again! That is the Blessed Hope which has since the earliest days of the Church energized Biblical Christians looking for the full revelation of God's redemption. The author sketches the history of interpretations of Christ's second coming and then carefully and lucidly examines the Biblical passages on which this doctrine is based. His conclusion is that the Blessed Hope is the second coming of Jesus Christ, not a pretribulation rapture that believers in a secret coming of Jesus. Yet he concludes that there should be liberty and charity within the Christian community for all who hold to the expectation of "the blessed hope and appearing in glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ."

"The editors have performed a great service in making widely available a documentary history of the interpretation of the Eve and Adam story." —Publishers Weekly "This fascinating volume examines Genesis 1-3 and the different ways that Jewish, Christian, and Muslim interpreters have used these passages to define and enforce gender roles. . . . a 'must' . . . " —Choice "Wonderful! A marvelous introduction to the ways in which the three major Western religious traditions are both like, and unlike one another." —Ellen Umansky, Fairfield University No other text has affected women in the western world as much as the story of Eve and Adam. This remarkable anthology surveys more than 2,000 years of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim commentary and debate on the biblical story that continues to raise fundamental questions about what it means to be a man or to be a woman. The selections range widely from early postbiblical interpretations in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha to the Qur'an, from Thomas Aquinas to medieval Jewish commentaries, from Christian texts to 19th-century antebellum slavery writings, and on to pieces written especially for this volume.

Are you rapture ready? As a teenager in the buckle of the Bible Belt, Zack Hunt was convinced the rapture would happen at any moment. Being ready meant never missing church, never sinning, and always listening to Christian radio. But when the rapture didn’t happen, Hunt’s tightly wound faith began to fray. If he had been wrong about the rapture, what else about his faith might not hold water? Part memoir, part tour of the apocalypse, and part call to action, Unraptured traces how the church’s focus on escaping to heaven has it mired in decay. Teetering on the brink of irrelevancy in a world rocked by refugee crises, climate change, war and rumors of war, the church cannot afford to focus on the end times instead of following Jesus in the here and now. Unraptured uses these signs of the times to help readers reorient their understanding of the gospel around loving and caring for the least of these.