​Whitehead and the Rapture

the passing of the love on earth to heaven 
and the recycling of that love back to earth 

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

What is done in the world is transformed into a reality in heaven, and the reality in heaven passes back into the world. By reason of this reciprocal relation, the love in the world passes into the love in heaven and floods back again into the world. In this sense, God is the great companion—the fellow-sufferer who understands.'

- Alfred North Whitehead, Process and Reality

The Rapture: A Scholarly Discussion

offered by BBC's In Our Time
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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas developed by the Anglican priest John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), drawn from his reading of scripture, in which Jesus would suddenly take His believers up into the air, and those left behind would suffer on Earth until He returned with His church to rule for a thousand years before Final Judgement. Some believers would look for signs that civilization was declining, such as wars and natural disasters, or for new Roman Empires that would harbour the Antichrist, and from these predict the time of the Rapture. Darby helped establish the Plymouth Brethren, and later his ideas were picked up in the Scofield Reference Bible (1909) and soon became influential, particularly in the USA.

With Elizabeth Phillips, Research Fellow at the Margaret Beaufort Institute at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Fellow in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University; Crawford Gribben, Professor of Early Modern British History at Queen’s University Belfast; and Nicholas Guyatt, Reader in North American History at the University of Cambridge

Process Theology and the Rapture
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Some evangelical Christians believe that before a thousand-year reign of Christ on our planet, there will be a time of extreme tribulation. Preceding this tribulation, a Rapture will occur. In the Rapture, believers in Jesus Christ will be taken up to heaven, both the living and the dead, to dwell with Jesus, avoiding the tribulation. They will then return to Earth, along with Him, when the thousand-year reign begins. At the end of that reign, the final judgment will occur, and some will rejoin God in heaven, while others will face eternal damnation. The thousand-year reign, the Millennium, is a test of hearts. People will still have the capacity for sin, and their true nature and allegiance will become evident during this time. Those who choose to reject God's grace and salvation during this period will face damnation at the final judgment, while those who accept God's grace and salvation will rejoin God in heaven.

Many process-oriented thinkers reject these ideas as implausible, mean-spirited, and harmful. They turn to process theology as an alternative way of thinking. Nevertheless, there is a seed of a Whiteheadian idea in it. It is the notion that the goodness done on Earth is lifted up into heaven and then returns to Earth in a divinely recycled form, adding creative and healing energy to the world. It is not that people are lifted up, but rather that their love is lifted up, transformed by God, and then returned to Earth. This 'lifting up of love' can be seen as a Whiteheadian version of the Rapture. Whitehead expresses this concept in 'Process and Reality': '"What is done in the world is transformed into a reality in heaven, and the reality in heaven passes back into the world. By reason of this reciprocal relation, the love in the world passes into the love in heaven and floods back again into the world. In this sense, God is the great companion—the fellow-sufferer who understands.'"

Of course, there are important differences from conservative evangelical approaches. In this Whiteheadian version, the Rapture is de-tribalized. The love that is lifted up into heaven is not necessarily that of believing Christians; it is the love of anyone whose heart is filled with tenderness and care and who acts on those feelings. The love is also, in principle, trans-humanized and seen in more cosmological terms. It is possible and probable that love in one form or another emerges in the experiences of other creatures on Earth and, for that matter, on other planets. Love is an energy and a feeling, not limited to human beings. All of this differs from conservative evangelical approaches to the Rapture.

Still, Whitehead offers a certain way of thinking about the Rapture that is inspiring in its own right. Additionally, there may be a connection with the idea of a thousand-year reign, understood as a period of history when goodness prevails but is persistently tested. Process theologians, influenced by Whitehead, indeed hope for and strive to bring about, with God's help, a period of human history on Earth where people live with respect and care for one another, transcending the limitations of ethnic hatred and tribal violence. They envision a new dispensation, an age in which old dispensations of nationalism, ethnocentrism, anthropocentrism, and patriarchalism have been transcended. They call it an Ecological Civilization, believing it to be willed and desired by God.

They acknowledge that this civilization won't last forever. All things pass, including even good things. And all things are fragile; even if a semblance of this civilization emerges, hearts will be tempted by greed, hatred, and envy, which are sources of evil. However, the prevailing ideal, love, will operate. According to Christian process theologians, love is the deep meaning of Christ. Thus, as long as love reigns, Christ reigns. An Ecological Civilization, I suggest, is a process version of the millennium.

Here, too, there are differences from the evangelical version. The process millennium is not necessarily preceded by a time of tribulation, although crises of various sorts may precipitate it. It is brought about not by divine hands alone but by the collaborative efforts of human beings with each other and the more-than-human (natural) world, along with the agency of God. It is inclusive, welcoming people of all faiths and no faith. Still, it is a finite and hopeful period, serving as an ideal around which our lives can be oriented. The Rapture does not precede it; the Rapture also occurs within it. Love is continually recycled. The Rapture is trans-millennial or a-millennial.

As for the Final Judgment, Whitehead speaks of a side of God that continually judges the world, saving what can be saved. Whitehead writes: 'The consequent nature of God is His judgment on the world. He saves the world as it passes into the immediacy of His own life. It is the judgment of tenderness that loses nothing that can be saved. It is also the judgment of wisdom that uses what in the temporal world is mere wreckage.' On this view, we are judged at each moment of our lives, not by divine petulance, but by divine tenderness and love. The measure of our lives is not determined by what we own or possess; it is determined by how much we have loved. The reward is the goodness that we contribute to God and the world. This ultimacy is everlasting.
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In summary, the Rapture, the Millennium, and Final Judgment carry within them seeds of truth that, when reinterpreted through a process perspective, offer wisdom and hope. These reinterpretations may not be accepted by conservative evangelical Christians, as they may seem watered-down and unfaithful to a literal interpretation of the Bible. However, from a process perspective, ideas inherited from the past function as a 'lure for feeling' in the present, and their meanings can evolve over time. In this reinterpretation, the Rapture can be seen as an ongoing process, where love on Earth is continually lifted up into heaven and recycled back to Earth. The Final Judgment is also ongoing, with each moment of our lives being judged by the ideal of love. The thousand-year reign represents a hopeful period where people live with respect and care for the community of life, reflecting the reign of Christ through love. i It is an aspirational ideal which can be approximated in earthly life. These reinterpretations can be embraced and honored by contemporary Christians, including evangelicals seeking new ways to appreciate and reinterpret traditional ideas.

- Jay McDaniel