[intopieces]

>Do they not believe that they aren't going to be here for it?

There are three main beliefs within Christianity:

Some believe that the rapture will occur before the rise of the Antichrist and the events described in Revelation (note the singular).

Some believe that Christ will call home the faithful midway through the strife.

Some believe that only those who are faithful for the complete event will be called up.

I haven't read the book myself in a while, but I do remember being told about these three schools of thought, as it were.

[Spellman]

Yup, there are three schools of thought.

Premillenialism, Amillennialism, and Postmillenialism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennialism

Most Evangelicals believe in Premillenialism (thank you Left Behind Series) so the grandparent is correct they believe they won't be around for the acts of Revelation. But they are also super paranoid about this stuff and see things like this (and the adoption of stuff like this) as signs that the End Times are coming.

Plus, no one really know which will occur, and there's a field of thought that believe by taking the Mark of the Beast you won't be saved anymore (again, thank you Left Behind series) so they are SUPER paranoid.

[fu9ar]

There are also Christians who believe it was an allegorical story based on events that were happening when it was written.

[throwanem]

Yes, and we call these "most Christians". Dispensationalism of whatever stripe is pretty unusual, for all that it was heavily discussed last decade.

[bobwaycott]

I don't know about this being most Christians. From my hyper-conservative, Christian upbringing to the present day, meeting any who think of Revelation as allegory of events long past has been exceedingly rare. Perhaps especially here in the southeastern US.