Thread by @JoLuehmann

On the doctrine of the rapture. A thread:

Martin Luther didn’t translate the Bible into German so that ppl could engage freely w/it and get to their own personal conclusions, but instead so that they could all arrive at his conclusions.
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He believed the papal office was the anti-Christ, and the Bible was the source of revelation of God. He was frustrated w/corruption inside the church and the church abusing ppl for political and financial gain, and he believed that ppl needed the Bible to see what he saw.
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He was right about a lot, his frustration was justified, but his conclusions about his work were misguided. Luther believed he was living in the End Times and the story of the Bible was about him and what was happening in the world and to him could be explained w/the Bible.
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He would be shocked to know it is 2020 and the world hasn’t ended.

Obviously we know now that ppl didn’t arrive at the same conclusions as Luther, the absolute opposite. There are dozens of different denominations within Protestantism,
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and 1000s of different iterations of those denoms. And while like Luther I believe ppl should have access to the Bible, I also believe giving access to ppl to a series of books and saying as you give access, that they are THE source of revelation from God, was not ok.
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By the time we get to the 1800s ppl w/no understanding of church history, or how ideas were developed throughout the centuries, or what the context of many of the books of the Bible were, or even the many notes and commentaries Luther left behind,
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which he intended for ppl reading the Bible to also read; had created different doctrines based on taken out of context pieces of the Bible. That’s exactly how we got the doctrine of the rapture.
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This idea that faithful Christian ppl would be taken up to heaven before the end times hasn’t existed for more than 150 yrs. It was quite literally invented by white men who had no understanding of the development of heaven and hell through history,
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of the context in which books were written, of any historical tradition. Thanks to the patriarchy and white supremacy these men were convinced they were right and then through the years more white men just like them, backed these claims with pseudo scholarly writings.
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Every time the world is going through a major crisis #RaptureAnxiety takes over the minds of millions of ppl. The psychological trauma of growing up and living life believing that one day everyone around you might be taken up, and you’ll be left behind to experience
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horrific war, famine, and suffering, cannot be understated. And all of this was invented just 150+ yrs ago.

I am often asked if I believe the Bible is true, it’s a silly question really, because historically, when it comes to the Bible,
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what’s true about it is what powerful men have decided is true, not really what’s in it.

For more on the rapture you can read my highlight on Instagram on the development of this doctrine.