The Left Behind Series

For my Timothy and Titus class, I have to present to the class a false teaching that has affected my Christian thought and behavior. So this is what I ended up coming up with, and what I shall present to the class tomorrow. I wish I had something with more substance, but seriously, my theology has always been perfect! Tough life, this is...

It was difficult for me to come up with a specific false teaching that I could look back upon and say with certainty that it was this instance in which I was duped into misguided theology. Part of this is because of the similarities between my church's theology and the theology of CBC, and the other part is a combination forgetfulness and forgiveness, I'm sure. So it ended up being an outside source that altered my theology. This perpetrators in this instance are Time LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, authors of the infamous “Left Behind” series. I know that their theology has probably affected a number of you, but I get to go first.

For those of you that don't know, the Left Behind series is a fictional account of “the last days” which is based on the premise of the Rapture, a theory in which Christians are “taken” or “caught up” from Earth to Heaven. In the series, the bodies of believers simply disappear, leaving behind clothes, jewelry, dental fillings, and so on. This concept has only been around in the church within the last 200 years. So reading this, as a preteen and young teenager, I fully believed this work of fiction to be based on probable events. This was firstly because it was in my church library, and secondly because the authors referenced certain sections of text, namely Revelations, which seemed to align with the fictional events that were taking place. While I knew and understood the literature to be a fictional account, it promoted a theology different from the one portrayed in the Bible.

I specifically remember a time when I desired for the rapture to occur and to not be taken up into the heavens so that I might be able to be one of the Tribulation Force Elite, like on the newest video game released in the series, Left Behind: Eternal Forces. I wanted to be like Buck or Ray and fight in the clearly divided world of Christian versus non-Christian. I kept waiting for the end of the world so that I could start beginning to act like a real Christian. I stopped reading the series when I realized just how poorly they were written, and how bored I was becoming with the characters.

It was actually here, at CBC during my first year of college, with John Vooys, when I realized that there were perhaps other interpretations to the book of Revelations. From there and through classes like Church History, I've been able to see a variety of possibilities for a biblical interpretation of the last days, some of which are more biblical than others. Like the false teachers from Ephesus, the authors of the Left Behind series actually believe their theology, as according to statements that they've made on their website. However, I've come to accept a theology where these are, already, the last days, and now is the time in which I should be acting like a “real Christian”.

Comment, if you can, before I present on this so that I might take your suggestions.