(RNS) — When global shutdowns rippled across the globe in March 2020, Stacie Grahn thought it was the literal end of the world.“I thought, this is it. We’re all in our homes — is this when we’re all going to disappear?” Grahn told Religion News Service in a phone call from British Columbia, Canada. “With the vaccine, I thought, is this how they’re going to separate us? Is this going to be the mark of the beast we have to take?”
For those like Grahn who are taught the rapture can happen at any second, the End Times are more than fodder for apocalyptic fiction. Fear-saturated stories about the saved being transported to heaven while the world faces havoc and hellfire can generate lifelong panic, paranoia and anxiety, reorienting people’s lives around what’s to come instead of what is. These religious beliefs have societal implications, too. Why care about the refugee crisis or climate change if the world is doomed?
Stacie Grahn. Courtesy photo
The rapture is a relatively recent early 19th-century phenomenon most often embraced in evangelical or fundamentalist circles. In the late 20th century, it was reinforced through popular media, including Hal Lindsay’s 1970 bestseller “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which interpreted world events as signs of the end times, as well as the 1972 thriller “A Thief in the Night” and, in the 1990s, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’ wildly popular “Left Behind” series. But, as Grahn could tell you, these ideas aren’t relics of the past.
Grahn’s grandmother first introduced her to the rapture at a young age via videos of end-times ministries and preachers like JD Farag. Anything her grandmother planned was with an asterisk. “We can plan that, but the Lord could be coming back,” Grahn recalled her grandmother saying.
Unlike Grahn, Nikki G, 46, came to view the rapture as gospel later in life. In 2010, she uprooted her life to join the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri. Nikki, who as a survivor of several high-control religious groups asked to go by her first name due to safety concerns, was attracted by the fervency of the group, which has been hosting 24/7 worship and prayer since 1999 and has a distinct End Times flavor.
“We believe that the Church will go through the Great Tribulation with great power and victory and will only be raptured at the end of the Great Tribulation. No one can know with certainty the timing of the Lord’s return,” the organization’s website says.
As a result of the apocalyptic messaging she heard in these groups, Nikki said she rejected materialism, began canning food and strategized survival tactics. But prepping to surviv …
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For those like Grahn who are taught the rapture can happen at any second, the End Times are more than fodder for apocalyptic fiction. Fear-saturated stories about the saved being transported to heaven while the world faces havoc and hellfire can generate lifelong panic, paranoia and anxiety, reorienting people’s lives around what’s to come instead of what is. These religious beliefs have societal implications, too. Why care about the refugee crisis or climate change if the world is doomed?
Stacie Grahn. Courtesy photo
The rapture is a relatively recent early 19th-century phenomenon most often embraced in evangelical or fundamentalist circles. In the late 20th century, it was reinforced through popular media, including Hal Lindsay’s 1970 bestseller “The Late Great Planet Earth,” which interpreted world events as signs of the end times, as well as the 1972 thriller “A Thief in the Night” and, in the 1990s, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’ wildly popular “Left Behind” series. But, as Grahn could tell you, these ideas aren’t relics of the past.
Grahn’s grandmother first introduced her to the rapture at a young age via videos of end-times ministries and preachers like JD Farag. Anything her grandmother planned was with an asterisk. “We can plan that, but the Lord could be coming back,” Grahn recalled her grandmother saying.
Unlike Grahn, Nikki G, 46, came to view the rapture as gospel later in life. In 2010, she uprooted her life to join the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri. Nikki, who as a survivor of several high-control religious groups asked to go by her first name due to safety concerns, was attracted by the fervency of the group, which has been hosting 24/7 worship and prayer since 1999 and has a distinct End Times flavor.
“We believe that the Church will go through the Great Tribulation with great power and victory and will only be raptured at the end of the Great Tribulation. No one can know with certainty the timing of the Lord’s return,” the organization’s website says.
As a result of the apocalyptic messaging she heard in these groups, Nikki said she rejected materialism, began canning food and strategized survival tactics. But prepping to surviv …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]