Universal Rapture

Amy Frykholm's Rapture Culture captivates the influence of dispensationalism among American Protestants. I am struck by the universal nature of rapture and it's applicability to many different beliefs and ideas. Frykholm describes that "most scholars of American religion agree that the rapture emerged in American Protestant culture at a moment when conservative Protestants felt a decline of cultural power". In this scenario, rapture is used as a sort of threat or perhaps just a pressing reminder that there is a division between the saved and the damned. In contrast, a text regarding rapture, Left Behind, "detaches itself from particular church institutions" and in that sense does not establish right and wrong or differentiate saved and unsaved. In other words, rapture is influential in many different, even contradicting, ways. Rapture can be used to promote traditional values but at the same time give credence to "the concerns of contemporary culture". In conclusion, rapture is ambiguous and can be used to legitimized a plethora of different practices and beliefs.