Dear Left Behind Rapture,

For almost thirty years, I waited for you to arrive. I believed in your escape promise. Seventy-five percent of my life thus far on this planet was spent walking around every day believing that at any minute I could disappear. At any moment I would leave the world behind to suffer in disasters I couldn’t even comprehend. How I found hope in you is a mystery to me now. How could I have been excited about something that would cause so much destruction and suffering? How did I think I’d be happy looking back at the world on fire?

I have no answers. Perhaps I was so seduced by your illusion that all I thought about was my personal comfort and paradise. Maybe my heart had grown cold in my arrogant superiority believing I was so much better than those God would leave behind. Honestly, my heart must have grown cold. When I was a child I thought about the others. The thought of you made me sad and afraid.

When did I change from a loving child caring for humanity into a young woman who wanted out? Why did I become a person that gave no thought to those in the “them” category?

Luckily, this apathetic, cold version of me didn’t last. I found my way back to the caring child I used to be and I wish that child never heard anything about you. I don’t teach my children about you and never have. How could I teach my children your lies? I know what it did to my life, my expectations, my empathy. I want better for them. I want them to have hope for the world and its future.

I wish no one had ever heard of you. The entire world would be better off if you didn’t exist. I often think about how different my life would’ve looked if you were never placed inside my brain.

Lost Childhood: The Long-Term Impacts of Rapture Indoctrination on Children

I had my first anxiety/panic attack before I could tie my shoes. I was six years old. That day was just a normal day like any other. I got off the bus and walked half a country block home only to discover no one was home. Immediately I thought you happened and God took my family and left me behind. I had this terrifying thought and panic even though I was “saved”. I scrambled through the house, crying, and freaking out. “Where was my family? Oh my God, I am left behind. I’ll starve. I’m destined to get kidnapped by atheists (which at that time, I thought were evil). I’ll experience fire, torture, starvation, and destruction.”

It seems silly, but these were real feelings at six years old. Feelings no child should feel. However, the fear and expectation of you were more real to me than actual physical reality. After half an hour of panic and terror, I called my grandparents. I thought, “Surely, my grandpa and grandma would be taken in the rapture. If they are home, all is well. I don’t need to worry.” But I didn’t know their phone number…but then another solution came into my head. The church bulletin. Their phone number was listed in the church bulletin!

So I reached for my white leather bible with my name engraved in gold at the bottom right corner (it was a gift from the church after my recent baptism) and I pulled out a church bulletin, out of several stuffed in there, and I called them.

My grandma answered, and I was relieved. “I’m not going to die,” I thought.

I don’t remember exactly what happened after that other than everyone said it was so funny and cute. My mother thought I was smart for looking at the bulletin. I didn’t think it was funny then and I still don’t.

What could I possibly have done at six years old to deserve to be left behind to suffer for seven years all alone? The answer is nothing. However, that little girl believed that her heavenly father was so cruel and monstrous that he was capable of abandoning her. If God could leave my unsaved friends behind, or all the people on the planet behind to suffer at his hands, he was a cruel monster, not a loving father.

The Perils of Rapture Theology: Why We Must Break Free

Now that I know you are a liar, I’m angry at how you’ve manipulated humans into hastening disaster. Your believers vote for and support policies they believe will bring the end times closer. I don’t blame them. If people believe that the world is ending, why would they care to create a more equitable and just society?

Why support legislation to combat the climate crisis? Because of you, they don’t even believe the climate crisis evidence.They take catastrophic storms as happy bits of breadcrumbs of the coming end.

Why work to reduce gun violence? Of course, your followers need guns. What if they’re left behind to suffer in the tribulation? They might need their guns to protect themselves and hopefully survive long enough to get a second chance with God.

Why work to eliminate poverty and disease? The end is near.

Why dig wells? The end is near.

Why care about liberating the oppressed? Most marginalized groups aren’t Christians by their standards. Therefore, why alleviate their suffering if God plans to make them suffer?

Why prepare a better future for generations to come? The end is near.

I wish your followers were more suspicious of you. I wish they’d ask themselves critical questions like:

Who benefits from humanity believing the world will end?

Who is making money from humanity believing the world will end?

Who is being exploited with the help of humanity believing the world will end?

The answers are simple.

You don’t benefit humanity. The greedy and powerful will forever thank you and celebrate you as their greatest asset.

However, your reign of terror will not last. It cannot continue in the face of knowledge and truth. There is no reason to believe in you, and more and more of your followers are learning the truth. They’re discovering that you’re only two hundred years old. They’re learning that you’re simply a seductive illusion of escape. They’re finding out not only that you are nonsense but unbiblical.

The Deception of the Left Behind Rapture: 5 Reasons to Break Free

You have caused so much damage not only to me, but to society as a whole, past, present, and future. Even so, I can be grateful to have experienced the paradigm shift from a state of hopelessness to hope. I know my actions matter. I know I and  others can create a beautiful future. My hope lies now in humans working toward a better, more just, more loving, and more equitable society.

Knowing that I can contribute to building a better society has given me purpose in this life. I no longer want to escape it. I want to improve it.

It is time for everyone that believes in you to leave you behind because we have an exciting future to prepare for and look forward to.

Blessed Day,

Kimberly

 

If you’d like to dig into this subject further, I highly recommend Bart Ehrman’s newly released book:

Armageddon: What the Bible Really Says about the End

New to Deconstruction? Start Here:

Awakening to a New System: Deconstruction and Collective Change