Putting the Fun into Fundamental
Episode 1: Beam Me Up Jesus
In the first programme, Elliott Gerner investigates 'The Rapture' – the belief held by huge numbers of American Christians that Jesus is due imminently to come down from heaven and collect all 'true believers', who will then be transported to paradise. It is estimated that some 50 million Americans are followers of 'The Rapture' movement, while many more believe in the New Testament's Book of Revelations, with its prophecy of the tumultuous Last Days and the end of the world, when Jesus saves the godly and damns the sinners.
According to evangelist Terry James, author of End Times, we are currently living in the Last Days and 'The Rapture’ could happen at any moment. Believers therefore have to be 'Rapture ready', and high-profile preachers across America are producing websites, tv programmes and books as if there were no tomorrow, to exhort people to repent for their sins.
To find out more, Gerner visits the evangelical Christian Bob Jones University, and talks to Tim LaHaye, co-author of the bestselling Left Behind series, a fictional account of the Last Days whose 12 volumes have sold some 58 million copies.
These evangelical Christians believe that Jews like Gerner, who don't accept that Jesus was the son of God, cannot be amongst those chosen to be carried up to heaven – but that doesn't stop evangelists from trying to save him anyway. He even meets some Jewish converts to evangelical Christianity.
But, as Gerner travels through the Bible Belt, he discovers that those who believe in 'The Rapture' come in all shapes and sizes – from the bike-preacher who confesses to having shot his wife, and whose friends are into sexual exhibitionism and rock music, to the strict top men at Bob Jones University, who have banned rock 'n' roll on campus because they believe it is 'the Devil's music'.
