Getting Rapture Ready: The Materiality of the Rapture in North America

Abstract

Evangelical and fundamentalist belief in the Rapture, an event in which righteous Christians are called up to heaven, can be found in fiction, prophecy books, and on the internet, yet much of the scholarship on the Rapture focuses upon the rhetoric and beliefs of this impending beginning of the end. However, rapture readiness is also an act of faith with bodily practice, artifacts, and materiality. This article explores rapture practice, RaptureReady.com, and the work of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins to argue that the Rapture is more than words and requires material action to become ready for the end and avoid the cataclysm of the Tribulation period and judgment.