beatrice_otter | (Reply)

Ooh, thanks for the info. I'm especially fascinated by the origins of the Rapture, which I'd never learned about before. (The origins, that is.)

I read Revelation in a 7th grade religion class at a Presbyterian private school, but I only attended the school for that year and I don't think it was super sectarian; my teacher might not have even been Presbyterian. I grew up in a heavily Catholic area and my intermittent exposure to Christian teachings involved a bunch of different protestant and Catholic churches. Anyway my memory of the teacher was that she was pretty liberal, especially compared to most other teachers, so I suspect my own very literal interpretations were at least as much a result of a) being 12 years old and b) general exposure to literal bible interpretations in dominant culture, as it was to her teaching in particular.

I remember a year or two later talking with a friend about Revelation, and saying that it sounded terrifying and awful. And she said it sounded great. At the time I figured she said that because she thought she would be Raptured away and didn't care or think about what would happen to everyone else. But I suppose it's possible that she was going with the "Heaven comes to Earth" interpretation. Though honestly, probably not.