Getting It Wrong: "Left Behind" and the Mainstream Press

BreakPoint with Charles Colson ^ | April 27, 2004 | Charles Colson

[Mr. Silverback]

What will probably be this year’s biggest book-publishing event took place a few weeks ago. It wasn’t the latest thriller by John Grisham or the sixth Harry Potter book; it was Glorious Appearing, the final installment in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

The mainstream media, which usually ignores happenings in the Christian publishing world, took notice this time. But, as usual, they got matters of Christian faith and practice wrong.

Writer Joan Didion, as Wheaton literature professor Alan Jacobs noted, regards Left Behind as “the key to unlocking the hidden agenda of the Bush administration . . . ”—reasoning, if that’s the word, that since the president’s “preferred constituency” has made Left Behind a best-seller, they must be trying to turn what’s in the book into reality. Bush’s Christian faith only deepened Didion’s suspicions—talk about conspiracy theories.

It doesn’t take much to see the flaws in Didion’s logic. But as Jacobs points out, it’s possible to read and even enjoy a book without subscribing to its tenets. What’s more, apart from the fact that Christ will return and that “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess,” orthodox Christian beliefs about the Second Coming are all over the lot. The uniformity that Didion sees is the stereotype conjured up by her overheated imagination.

Amy Johnson Frykholm, a cultural studies professor at Colorado Mountain College, draws a similar conclusion in her new book, Rapture Culture. She credits the Left Behind series with fomenting a “new engagement with the world” among American Christians.

This is nonsense. The civil-rights movement, the pro-life movement, the pro-family movement, and other forms of engagement predate these books by years. As reviewer Stephen Prothero put it, it’s not as though Christians “had their heads buried in the sand before LaHaye and Jenkins joined forces.”

Mistakes like Didion’s and Frykholm’s are possible because of abysmal ignorance of religious truth among many reporters. If these folks were familiar with their subject, they’d realize that, ironically, the beliefs reflected in the Left Behind novels are more likely to produce cultural withdrawal than cultural engagement.

That’s because, as Jacobs wrote in the Boston Globe, this viewpoint takes the position that cultural and social trajectories only travel in a downward direction. Societies will continue to deteriorate until the “only option for redemption is the Second Coming.” If that’s true, then attempting to renew culture is, at best, futile and, at worst, opposed to God’s sovereign purposes.

In fact, taken to its logical extreme, bad news for the culture becomes good news for the Christian, since it’s seen as hastening Christ’s return. That’s one of the problems with this eschatology, because it can often lead to Christian indifference.

Thankfully, most Christians don’t think that way. They understand that Christian hope and love of neighbor, the basis for our engagement, are not in tension with one another. They are manifestations of the same truth: that in God’s good timing, this world will be remade into what God intends it to be.

None of this is hard to figure out—that is, of course, if your goal is to report fairly. Most journalists, however, when it comes to the Christian faith, sadly prefer unfair characterizations.

[orionblamblam]

Dan 9:25
25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to
restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks,

> weeks of years

Errr... wait. The Biblical quote says "Weeks," not "weeks of years."

[orionblamblam]

> For further elucidation try:
> Link #1
> Link #2

Read 'em. But there seems to be a problem, unless I missed something: the Bible quote in question here jsut says weeks, not "week of years." Consequently, if we are to assume that "weeks" here means "weeks of years," then "weeks" *must* mean "weeks of years" *everywhere* in the Bible.

To me it just seems like a lot of torturing of the passages to squeeze out the desired results.

[orionblamblam]

>this world will not recognize him for who he is because
certain events will not have occured (i.e. rapture) when he appears claiming to be Jesus.
People won't even know that they are in the tribulation.

Errr... if the "left behindeers" are correct, most of the world will suddenly be confronted with the fact that X million (however many) Christians just up and vanished. Were that to occur, the rest of the world would know that something is up, and since there's currently only one prophetic world view that includes the Christians suddenly going "poof," then the world would have a good idea what was up.

The Antichrist would have a hard time making any headway with hundreds of millions of people holding the script for the next seven years...

[Dianna]

Were that to occur, the rest of the world would know that something is up, and since there's currently only one prophetic world view that includes the Christians suddenly going "poof," then the world would have a good idea what was up.

Did everyone who saw that Jesus' tomb was empty believe that he was risen from the dead, repent and become Christian?

People largely believe what they want to believe. If a Bill Clinton figure explained that it (the rapture) was some atmospheric event caused by global warming, you don't think people would believe it?

[gawatchman]

Right, but contrary to popular belief, no one is going anywhere before antichrist appears on this earth at the sixth trump claiming to be Jesus come to take the believers home, and we will ALL be changed into a spiritual body at the same time at seventh trump following the tribulation and not until then. I do not know the exact miracles he will perform, but he is supernatural, and will be performing miracles as we are told in the following verse.

Rev 13:13 "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men."

[LearnsFromMistakes]

We do know that God will give us the grace and strength necessary to stand, whichever of these is true.

Glad we can agree.

[Publius6961]

Mistakes like Didion’s and Frykholm’s are possible because of abysmal ignorance of religious truth among many reporters.

At first blush this seems the reasonable explanation, but still, something must have acted as a catalyst; there is more at play than abysmal ignorance.
I enjoyed a series of Dirk Pitt novels, yet was never accused of being an Atlantis freak or Nazi conspiracy paranoid.

It all connects to the late 70s outing of the perverts and the deviants. Their quest for legitimacy fuels the mindless rage and constant search for a lever with which to finalize their transformation into "normalcy". They wanted toleration? They got it. They want more? they're doomed to fail, because faith is like an iceberg (no pun intended). That most of us do not wear it on our sleeve, like they wear their deviancy, does not mean it is not there. And it is difficult to dismiss. It is huge. The irritating bible thumpers are like the part of the iceberg above water. The real body of Christianity is hidden from view. But it thinks, it votes and it responds.

Good luck to idiot perverts and their sympathizers.

Most of us Christians do not advertise our faith, and it is a huge mistake to assume that it suddenly appeared with the publication of a series that is fiction.

D'OH!

[Wicket]

Sorry, on my pc this isn't formatting into paragraphs for some reason. To a large extent I agree with you. Most Christians who take their faith seriously are not out grabbing the shirt collars of total strangers. They are, however, often doing what they can to help improve what is appears to be becoming a time and extent of evil not seen since the days of Noah. There are also some out there - abortion clinic prayer warriors, for instance - who are more visible and irritate the tar out of the left, doing what they can to stem the tide. In my view, there is a role for the "irritating Bible thumper" as well. If they speak the truth of the gospel, it will not return void. And in this time, I believe there is an increasing obligation to be ready (and eager) to discuss the real hope found in the gospel message. Politics is important - fighting the moral vacuum and influence of the Clinton administration - pro-life movement are examples, and those wonderful trends you mention from the 70's -but much of it has no eternal consequences. And works of fiction have their role - I understand that "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was hugely influential in the anti-slavery movement. I believe that Left Behind, because it presents the hope of the Gospel, will also have influence in those who are difficult to reach with a more straightforward Gospel message.

[kimmie7]

You're welcome!

[orionblamblam]

> Did everyone who saw that Jesus' tomb was empty believe that he was risen from the dead,
repent and become Christian?

No, because an empty tomb is hardly proof of anything, apart from a tomb being empty. If I showed you an empty Volkswagon Beetle, woudl you assume that the driver had been borne bodily into Heaven?

> If a Bill Clinton figure explained that it (the
rapture) was some atmospheric event caused by global warming, you don't think people
would believe it?

Not many. Millions or billions of peopel suddenly vanishing would be an unprecedented event, especially as there would be millions or billions of eyewitnesses.

[orionblamblam]

> but contrary to popular belief...

Belief on this matter is all over the place. Given that The End Of The World is an intensely popular prophesy to make, and so far all such predictions have failed, I have no reason to believe that any variation on rapture/tribulation/antichrist/whatever end-of-world is likely to occur, either. I'm just pointing out that if things DID occur largely as the left behinders believe, Satan and the Antichrist would have to be astonishingly dim to play along.

[familyofman]

"...it’s possible to read and even enjoy a book without subscribing to its tenets."

I agree wholeheartedly. I'm an atheist and have enjoyed the first 4 books in the series. Although, the story is moving a bit slowly & some of the character development seems weak, something like a Tom Clancy experience.

[kjam22]

People largely believe what they want to believe. If a Bill Clinton figure explained that it (the rapture) was some atmospheric event caused by global warming, you don't think people would believe it?

Yep... especially if there were a lot of churches and church people left behind agreeing with him.

[Mr. Silverback]

Quick, get this man a medal!

Nah, you can just give me a ribbon. They're exactly the same thing, dontcha know?

[Begins limbering up his throwing arm]

[stars & stripes forever]

Satan is but a puppet, since his actions are pre-ordained. Satan would be thus no more accountable for evil actions than an AK-47 is to blame for being used to shoot a cop.

...all will be condemned who have not believed the truth, but have delighted in wickedness. 2Thessalonians 2:12

[stars & stripes forever]

Satan is but a puppet, since his actions are pre-ordained. Satan would be thus no more accountable for evil actions than an AK-47 is to blame for being used to shoot a cop.

...all will be condemned who have not believed the truth, but have delighted in wickedness. 2 Thessalonians 2:12

[Mr. Silverback]

So there you paranoid liberal nut! (not you mr. silver, the author)

No danger of that mistake. I'm only a paranoid nut, I haven't been a liberal for about ten years now. ;-)

[joeyGibson]

I tried to read the first book, Left Behind, but I was so bored that I didn't make it past 100 pages. The characters just did nothing for me. I couldn't muster enough interest in them to really care what happened to them. Needless to say, I've not read the others...

[bondserv]

This is where so many people without a desire to study the Bible fall into the trap of, "The Bible is obscure so it can't have any meaning for me personally".

I am glad that you are one of the people that has an interest to pursue the matter beyond merely passing it by without any further thought. As I stated in the beginning of the post, "God is a rewarder of the diligent student". He created us with the amazing capacity for understanding subtleties (eg. body language, reading between the lines, double intentions...). However, in this case, buried within the context, we have a straightforward usage of the Hebrew meaning "weeks" as in the following passage which I indicated in Link #2.

In the second link was posted:
Here is a perfect passage that illustrates how the word week is used to mean seven years.

Gen 29:26-28
26 And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn.
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.

Thank you for your interest, and I pray that this fulfilled prophecy produces a desire in you to seek God via His readily available message to you. The Holy Bible.

[orionblamblam]

>>Satan is but a puppet, since his actions are pre-ordained.

> ...all will be condemned who have not believed the truth, but have delighted in wickedness.
2Thessalonians 2:12

Errr... a problem with that particular response. If there is *anyone* who would believe in God... it would be Satan.