Adventurous Reading but Theology ??

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	• Left Behind Boxed Set 2 Tim F. LaHaye Tyndale House Publishers, 2003 average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Adventurous Reading but Theology ??

I have read all of the Left Behind Series and have enjoyed them. This series is an adventurous reading that focuses on those left behind after the rapture of the church. The story has a future seven years in which there will be great tribulation on the earth. The message of this book is to give your life to Jesus now, because you do not want to be here to have to go through the tribulation. In my opinion these books fail in this regard, because they are so adventurous that it seems that Christians would want to be here for such excitement. The threat of death by the Anti-Christ is not as great as the adventure itself. After all, most Christians that read these books will never have the opportunity to die for Jesus through testimony or at least they will never take it. In fact most of us will die for nothing, but at least Buck, Chloe, Rayford and the others lay their lives on the line for the Lord. This is an exciting, page-turning read that if you buy this box set, you will not have to go through what I did and that is waiting for the next one to come out, because I am left hanging at the end of each. You will get attached to the characters and live vicariously through them and for me that is very good writing. Having said this, I now turn to look at some of the theological question marks of the series.
First, I have already pointed out the adventure aspect of being left behind. I do not think the books intend to have this affect, but they do, at least for some.
Second, the rapture is forced into where the dispensationalist want it in the Book of Revelation and in a natural reading of Revelation, one would never get the idea that a rapture even had to occur, at least not until the end of Revelation, but the dispensationalist imagine it to come at Revelation 4:1 (with a couple of exceptions). To speak of the rapture at all is to bring it in from 1 Thessalonians and then force it into a pre-conjectured future scheme that one has already made of Revelation. Some will have no trouble finding this acceptable, but it deserves at least to be looked at with a critical eye. The problem is that the most popular thing going is LaHaye's brand of seeing the future and so many never know that there are other less forced ways of reading Revelation.
Third, a major concern for me is the message that returning violence for violence is okay under the imagined circumstances that LaHaye and Jenkins give us. Buck, in one scene needs to make his escape and he hits a man and kills him in order to do so and the conclusion is reached that is okay to kill the enemy. Lost altogether is Jesus message to "take up your cross and follow me." What happened to love your enemy and bless those who persecute you? It is tragically lost in this series. This reflects the current message of many in the pulpits of America today who espouse war and violence against "terrorists" or the "axis of evil." This kind of preaching is not only missing from the lips of Jesus, but the opposite is preached from him. "Put away your sword...he that lives by the sword will die by the sword." In the book of Revelation the 144,000 are said to follow the Lamb wherever he goes. He went to the cross and died for the sins of the world. In LaHaye and Jenkins scheme the Tribulation Force gathers arms and fights with and kills in violent bloody warfare the enemy. I can hear Paul saying "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." In the imagined Christian world of LaHaye and Jenkins it is violence and not prayer and life in the Spirit. The only way the cross enters in for LaHaye in Jenkins is that it gets you out of Hell and into Heaven and that is it, but other than that it means nothing.
Fourth, Jesus reconstituted Israel in himself and he was the Messiah or Israel's true representative. Let us just take Matthew's Gospel to examine this for a moment. Joseph and Mary take Jesus and flee down to Egypt to escape Herod. When Herod dies, Joseph is bringing Jesus back out, Matthew quotes Hosea 11:1 "Out of Egypt I have called my son." In Exodus 4:22 YHWH speaking to Moses says to him to go tell Pharaoh "Israel is my first born son, go tell Pharaoh to let my first born son go." When Hosea quotes the passage he is speaking of Israel being brought up out of Egypt. Matthew has taken this prophecy and applied it to Jesus. Jesus is being brought up out of Egypt enacting the role of Israel. Then next we see him at the Jordan getting Baptized by John which he was going though the waters (Red Sea) just as Israel had done and the heavens open and a voice says "This is my beloved son and in him I am well pleased." From there Jesus goes into the wilderness just as Israel had went through the waters leaving Egypt behind, Jesus goes through the waters leaving Egypt behind and then into the wilderness. In the wilderness Israel failed temptation, but Jesus would not fail, but overcame in the wilderness. My point is to show Jesus in the role of Israel. This is why Paul says in Galatians 3:29 "Whoever has put on Christ is Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." In Romans 10:12 Paul says "There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and merciful to all who call upon him."
Now, LaHaye would say that one cannot take the word Israel in the Bible and replace it with the word Church and if one could do so then he would have to take the curses that are pronounced against Israel for disobedience and apply them to the Church and as he said in an interview "I do not think anybody wants to do that." Again, he misses the meaning of the New Testament and Jesus in Galatians 3:13 "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree". It is not the Church but Jesus that is the true Israel and the Church by extension of being in him.

The read is fun, but there is more fiction here than just the the characters. The theology is fictitious as well.

Questions or comments contact me at darrengjohnson38@yahoo.com

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Can't stop reading!

I read Left Behind, the first book, many years ago when it first came out. I didn't read Tribulation Force, the second book, until a couple years later, and same with the third book, Nicolae, which I just finished. I have seen the first two movies, and can't wait to see the next ones. I hope they make movies all the way to the end of the series because it is really neat to get a visual of what you've read. I am glad I had Soul Harvest, the fourth book, as soon as I finished Nicolae because I immediately wanted to know what happened next. I read for 3 hours straight and finally had to force myself to put the book down and go to bed! These are GREAT, and it makes you believe it will happen just like this.

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Left Behind Series

This is the most entrapping series of books that I've ever read. It is as though the story grabs your attention and does not end until victory is won over reading the pages. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who does not enjoy reading. To christians and those skeptical of christian faith this is an excellent choice. If reading is a passion, then consider this the series to breeze through.

reviews: page 1, 2

This collection includes five soft cover editions of the best-selling Left Behind series. Set 2 consists of books six through ten. Left Behind products have sold more than 40,000,000 copies and continue to be a national phenomena.

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