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I have read Darby and other advocates of the rapture. As a dyed in the wool LCMS guy, I tend to get a little skeptical when someone comes up with a brand new revelation by twisting around the words in Revelation and Daniel.

Exactly. You get some guy with little or no formal religious training, and all of a sudden they've "discovered" a hidden doctrine, central to Christianity, that everyone else just happened to miss for the last 1950 years? Riiiight....

In the old days they used to tar and feather such hucksters and run them out of town on a rail. And rightfully so.

I read a few of the Left Behind books. I didn't take all of the theology seriously, but suspended my scepticism long enough to get caught up in the narratives (just as I did when I saw the movie The Omen). A few of the stories were pretty exciting, as I recall. It is nice that books about Christians attempting to survive in a post-modern world should be so popular.

The main thing I got out of the books was that they showed the danger of believing in "the Church" more than in God. Some Catholics take this to mean the RCC. In the books, after the rapture (and the Pope at the time was raptured, BTW), "the church" is taken over by heretical, pantheistic types who teach that all beliefs are valid, and that a belief in only one religion is "intolerant". This is a real danger today in all Christian denominations. Since the early part of Revelation deals with an apostate church, I thought it was effective of the books to portray such a church in the novels. The fact that the New World Order Church had a pontiff did not constitute an attack on catholicism, IMO. It was catholic in that it was all-inclusive of the religious denominations only.

Some sort of "meeting Christ in the air" has to take place, as this is promised in 1st Thessalonians. I don't concern myself with end-time prophecy much. Whatever will be, will be (or maybe has-been). I still think that the LB books can bring some people to a closer relationship with Christ and the Bible. I agree with the poster who mentioned that the real danger is from Da Vinci Code/Templar/Grail types of gnostic/heretical BS. If someone subscribes to the tribulation/rapture theory of his/her choice, yet believes in the divine Christ's complete work as the source of salvation, he/she could do a lot wors.

Exactly. You get some guy with little or no formal religious training, and all of a sudden they've "discovered" a hidden doctrine, central to Christianity, that everyone else just happened to miss for the last 1950 years? Riiiight....

Hal Lindsey, (the Late, Great Planet Earth guy) was a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, which, agree or disagree with their theology, isn't exactly a diploma mill. That makes matters all the worse, because the guy SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!

In light of his "testimony" and "Christian Witness", i'd $uspect more ba$e motive$ for Lind$ey rather than $imple bad theolgy, if you can $ee What i am $aying.