Some have deemed the 2014 movie year the “Year of the Bible.” Films like Noah, Son of God, Exodus and Mary are all Bible-based stories released, or to-be-released this year. But 2014 could also be labeled the “Year of the Rapture”—the millenarian tale where believers will be transported from earth at the Second Coming of Christ and the non-believers will be left behind in squalor. This story line alone has received three adaptations this year. A retelling of the Apocalyptic bestseller Left Behind as well as the much scarier take on the Rapture, The Remaining, were released recently. This past summer, HBO’s adaptation of Tom Peltover’s novel The Leftovers received critical praise for exploring the idea of the Rapture without the religious symbolism that pervaded previous stories.

But where did the Rapture come from? It’s originally a Christian idea. However, there is no word in Greek or Hebrew for Rapture in the Bible.

Most scholars believe the idea originates from Matthew 24:31, which many Christians interpret as Christ taking his people away from earth. However, scholars have debated when this will occur. Some argue that it will occur at the beginning of the Tribulation, a seven-year period of God punishing man. Others have argued that it occurs at the halfway point of the Tribulation, and some say it is at the end. Some scholars doubt that the Rapture is an event at all.

This argument over interpretation has continued since the beginning of the Christian Church. Early Christian writers like Polycarp and Irenaeus all expressed some belief that the Church would be “taken up” before the Tribulation, but those adherents were a small group for most of Church history.

According to historian Ernest Sandeen, it wasn’t until the 19th century that a British theologian reintroduce the Church to the Rapture. John Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish Bible teacher who invented “Dispensationalism,” the belief that the Judeo-Christian God dealt with His people according to certain “dispensations,” or time periods; there were seven different dispensations in history, and Christians live in the sixth one, which started when Christ was crucified and ends, as Darby describes, with the “secret rapture.” Sandeen explains that Darby’s conception of the Rapture is unique, for it emphasizes that the Church would be taken away before the End-Days in order to keep them safe from the End-Days.

Darby eventually brought those ideas over to America between 1866 and 1872. His teachings caught the attention of a C.I. Scofield, who was so entranced by Dispensationalism, that he used it while writing his own Study Bible. The Scofield Study Bible was innovative for the time, since it used footnotes in the Bible to provide commentary instead of putting it all in a separate book. This small innovation gave pastors and laymen access to both commentary and scripture without much fuss. It also helped a Dispensationalist reading seep into conservative seminaries, where it became a core idea in many theories of Biblical History, the Church and the End-Times.

By the publishing of The Fundamentals in 1915, Darby and Scofield’s ideas were fairly common in conservative theology, Baptist and Brethren churches. According to historian Mark Noll, many Christians interpreted the 20th century world wars as proof that the End-Times were approaching. Relgious leaders like Tim Lahaye and Hal Lindsey sold millions of books about the Rapture and encouraged Christians to watch for signs of the End-times.

While anecdotal evidence today shows a decreased interest in a dispensational Rapture among Christians, the doctrine still left its impact on pop culture and Christian culture. You may not follow the Bible as doctrine, but hey, it makes for great entertainment.

Wait, where did everybody go?