Are you rapture ready?
As a teenager in the buckle of the Bible Belt, Zack Hunt was convinced the rapture would happen at any moment. Being ready meant never missing church, never sinning, and always listening to Christian radio.
But when the rapture didn’t happen, Hunt’s tightly wound faith began to fray. If he had been wrong about the rapture, what else about his faith might not hold water?
Part memoir, part tour of the apocalypse, and part call to action, Unraptured traces how the church’s focus on escaping to heaven has it mired in decay. Teetering on the brink of irrelevancy in a world rocked by refugee crises, climate change, war and rumors of war, the church cannot afford to focus on the end times instead of following Jesus in the here and now. Unraptured uses these signs of the times to help readers reorient their understanding of the gospel around loving and caring for the least of these.
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...“[A] piquant debut. . . . Hunt, who has a master’s degree in Christian history from Yale Divinity School, demonstrates scholarly expertise on the apocalypse, but also makes the book accessible to the lay reader through his personal stories, sense of humor, and casual, conversational tone. Readers eager to learn more about biblical prophecies for the end times will appreciate this informed take.”Publishers Weekly
“Thoughtful, entertaining, carefully researched, and rapturously (sorry) readable, Unraptured manages to be both personally edifying and culturally relevant. With some of the most powerful people in the world making decisions based on speculative end-times theology, we need better stories about what it means for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Zack Hunt is the perfect storyteller for the moment.”Rachel Held Evans, author of Searching for Sunday and Inspired
“Zack Hunt leads us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the apocalypse industry, with its many failed predictions and false promises. Thankfully, he also leads us back outside, raising significant questions about the Bible’s teachings and prophecies. Unraptured is an important book that is going to spark some overdue conversations among religious Americans. Read it now so you won’t feel, well, left behind!”Jonathan Merritt, author of Learning to Speak God from Scratch and contributor to The Atlantic
“Zack Hunt’s exploration of evangelical America’s obsession with the end times is a wake-up call for believers to break free from their doctrine of rescue and embrace a faith that resists the excuses, limitations, and assumptions that come with bad theology. Hunt’s skill as both a writer and a theologian shine in Unraptured, an offering that’s as important as it is entertaining.”Matthew Paul Turner, author of When God Made You and Our Great Big American God
“To those unfamiliar with conservative evangelical culture: be prepared to be thoroughly entertained by the idiosyncrasies of this subculture and gain an accessible breakdown of why many obsess over apocalyptic prophecies. To those of us who did grow up in this culture: you will both laugh and cry over our shared shenanigans—blissful catharsis awaits you. Woven through the humor is a poignant faith story and a hopeful retelling of the rapture mythology that is sorely needed for this time.”Cindy Wang Brandt, author of Parenting Forward
“I’ve never read a book that’s so warm, smart, funny, wise, and relatable to my own fear-filled experiences growing up in evangelical subculture. If I had a DeLorean time machine, I’d ship Unraptured back to my younger self, knowing it’d save me from so much of the fear and self-doubt that’s still nestled in my chest today. This is an absolute must-read for anyone trying to make sense of end-times theology.”Caleb Wilde, author of Confessions of a Funeral Director
“This is an apocalypse book, and this is a prophetic book. But this is not an apocalyptic prophecy book, and that’s a very, very good thing. Zack Hunt writes with the perfect combination of scholarship, personality, and humor. Set aside your color-coded end-times charts and pick up this book instead.”Jason Boyett, author of Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse and other books
“Zack Hunt could have been an honorary general in the tribulation force. Instead, he has vulnerably and humbly shared his journey from an end-times know-it-all to a theology nerd guided by the peaceful kingdom of God. Readers who grew up with the anxiety of the end times will find Hunt a delightful, winsome guide to a book of the Bible that can be perplexing. Never forsaking his Nazarene roots, love for theology, or penchant for a solid punchline, Hunt offers a disarming insider critique of end-times theology by pointing to a more hopeful and indisputably less terrifying explanation of the end times.”Ed Cyzewski, author of Flee, Be Silent, Pray
“Zack Hunt has brilliantly put to words the stories of so many of us who grew up in a part of evangelicalism that was obsessed with being ready for the rapture. He has given voice to why many of us have left behind that theology for something more hopeful and biblical. May those who read Unraptured be enraptured in God’s love, revealed by Revelation’s slaughtered Lamb!”Kurt Willems, lead pastor at Pangea Church and resource curator at TheologyCurator.com
“For almost a decade, I’ve watched Zack Hunt use wit, humor, and common sense to poke and prod the church toward action. I can’t count how many times I slow clapped while reading this book!”Jimmy Spencer, founder of Glocal, a social impact marketplace