Has Anyone Read the "Left Behind" series

by TallTexan 38 Replies latest jw experiences

  • TallTexan
    TallTexan

    I'm about halfway through and I think they're very engaging books. Not sure about all the beliefs laid out in the books, but I still find them really interesting.

  • Yerusalyim
    Yerusalyim

    As a Catholic I have some serious theological differences with the writers, but I found the series VERY entertaining...and a bit uplifting...and look forward to the next two books, a "Prequel and a Sequel".

  • L_A_Big_Dawg
    L_A_Big_Dawg

    Hi Tall,

    I have not read any of the Left Behind series, but I am totally familar with the doctrine that drives them. You will be getting a good dose of pre-tribulation doctrine. No one, to my knowledge, has come out with a similar type of book proposing the other eschatological (end times) options. I wish someone would.

    LABD

  • Elsewhere
    Elsewhere

    Don't want to get left behind do ya??? Then you better do what we tell you!

    Sounds like a fear tactic used by christians.

  • L_A_Big_Dawg
    L_A_Big_Dawg

    Elsewhere,

    I would beg to differ. I believe that this rapture "theory" is a panacea for Christians. For many years the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches taught that the church would go through the tribulation. The rapture "theory" came along right about the time of the Adventists, and if I'm not mistaken had it's genesis in England, and said that 1700 years of Christian doctrine was all wet with the view of the church going through the tribulation. Christians bought into it and it eventually moved from being aberrant theology to being accepted within the pale of orthodoxy.

    Secondly, if one is getting "saved" to avoid the tribulation by getting raptured, then their salvation would be suspect. I know I sound judgemental, but that is what I believe. I don't want to get into preaching a message on this, but I just wanted to explain something more on this.

    LABD

  • Ciara
    Ciara

    OMG, I love that series!!! I can't wait for the last book to come out.

    Ciara

  • Big Tex
    Big Tex

    Haven't read the books, but I tried to watch the movie and flipped it off after half an hour. Interesting premise but it was poorly written with plot holes large enough to fly the Four Horsemen through.

  • Valis
    Valis

    I never read the books, but I have always been a fan of post apocalyptic fiction. Alas Babylon is one of my favorite books. The novel The Postman was also one of my faves.

    Sincerely,

    District Overbeer

  • Jankyn
    Jankyn

    Last book is out..."Glorious Appearing."

    Personally, I thought it was the least interesting of the series; one local reviewer hit the nail on the head:

    http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-05-20/mixbook.asp

    In the Mix - Book

    Glorious Appearing: The End of Days
    Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins
    Tynedale House

    Buy it at Amazon!
    By Kel Munger

    It?s a best seller that New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof recently suggested secularists should read to become more conversant with beliefs held by many American Christians. However, once ?action-hero? Jesus descends from the clouds and starts killing unbelievers with recitations of long Bible passages, the ?Left Behind? series? last book is pretty boring. Villain Nicolae Carpathia descends into a Boris Badenov cartoon-caricature, and we know how it ends. Though basing a novel on the book of Revelation does limit the plot choices available, good fiction is all in how you get there. Witness James BeauSigneur?s much better Christ Clone Trilogy, which has some unexpected twists. Otherwise, read Revelation from the King James Bible; it?s much scarier, and it?s better literature to boot.

    I liked the first few books as apocalyptic lit, though the world-view is a bit skewed. I do agree with the perspective expressed in the books that too many people have this uncritical acceptance of whatever the mass media repeats often enough, and that whoever controls the media controls the people. However, the characters are pretty one-dimensional. The action sequences are interesting, though.

    Perhaps it's a holdover from the first book I ever read--the big orange Paradise book--but "end of the world" scenarios are fascinating to me. Stephen King's The Stand, Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon, and Robert Merle's Malevil are among the best of the genre. Then there's A Canticle for Liebowitz...that's good, too.

    Best,

    Jankyn

  • Yerusalyim
    Yerusalyim

    OMG, I love that series!!! I can't wait for the last book to come out.

    Ciara

    Ummmm, the Glorious Appearing has been out since what...March? There will be a Prequel and then a Sequel (I'm assumming the Sequel will deal with life AFTER the Milleniul Reign..that wonderful "period of testing that would fool even the elect were it possible"

    I'm assumming the Prequell will deal with things like Israel being attacked by Russia, etc.

    Big Tex,

    Pretty much the movies sucked.

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