Left Behind series

[Rancid Uncle]

In this series about the end of the world apparently tons of Jews convert to christianity. I assume since the world is ending the rest die. This is really scary for a person of Jewish heritage like myself. How can so many Americans enjoy a book that expects a huge group of people to convert or die? I also heard it attacks the UN, has the Jewish people as architects of an anti-chirst government and protrays a christian militia in a good light. I hate to say it but the Left Behind series seems awfully like the turner diaries. They both involve militia groups and jewish conspiracies. That alone worries me. Are these books anti-semetic or are they just pro-christian?

[cookiesusedunderprotest]

I've never read the books, and I don't think I agree with the specifics of their eschatology, but I do have a few comments about some of the questions posed here.

In this series about the end of the world apparently tons of Jews convert to christianity. I assume since the world is ending the rest die.

What other possibility is there? That few or none accept Jesus as the Christ? According to the Bible, and Jesus specifically, all those who don't have a personal relationship with Him will be condemned to hell (Matthew 7:21-23, Matthew 25:31-46). Which is more hopeful, that many Jews will be saved, or few?

Interestingly enough, today I just "happened" (or was it divinely orchestrated?) to read Romans 11, which discusses issues of God's chosen people. Verse 26 reads, in part, "And so all Israel will be saved." (NIV) Now this phase occurs in a large and complex context, so I don't think it can simply be taken at facevalue. But perhaps it provides a Biblical basis for a prediction that many Jews will become Christians in the end? If so, I doubt it is anti-semitic, because the book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul, "an Israelite..., a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1, NIV)"

This is really scary for a person of Jewish heritage like myself.

I would expect it to be scary for anyone who does not believe in Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile (perhaps especially for a Gentile, in light of the aforementioned verses). But it needn't be scary for those who do have the hope of life in Jesus Christ: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:1-2, NIV)

[Angry McFurious]

In this series about the end of the world apparently tons of Jews convert to christianity. I assume since the world is ending the rest die. This is really scary for a person of Jewish heritage like myself. How can so many Americans enjoy a book that expects a huge group of people to convert or die? I also heard it attacks the UN, has the Jewish people as architects of an anti-chirst government and protrays a christian militia in a good light. I hate to say it but the Left Behind series seems awfully like the turner diaries. They both involve militia groups and jewish conspiracies. That alone worries me. Are these books anti-semetic or are they just pro-christian?

pro-christian. i mean it's a story that christians seem to wrap there self in. Read Revelations if you want truth from your religion not that load of ****.

[aprilannies]

I don't know about anti-semitic. I picked them up because I think the end of the world is a fun topic for fiction.

But I do know after three volumes I had to stop reading them because they got pretty preachy. But I don't know what else to expect from Christian fiction

I also know there are factions of fundamental Christians who consider these books 'evil' and another faction that considers them gospel. http://www.raptureready.com (the latter faction)

A little off topic, there's a fictional Jewish series that I believe deals with a similar subject, does anyone know the name?

[Dilettante]

I've never read the books, and I don't think I agree with the specifics of their eschatology, but I do have a few comments about some of the questions posed here.

In this series about the end of the world apparently tons of Jews convert to christianity. I assume since the world is ending the rest die.

What other possibility is there? That few or none accept Jesus as the Christ? According to the Bible, and Jesus specifically, all those who don't have a personal relationship with Him will be condemned to hell (Matthew 7:21-23, Matthew 25:31-46). Which is more hopeful, that many Jews will be saved, or few?

Interestingly enough, today I just "happened" (or was it divinely orchestrated?) to read Romans 11, which discusses issues of God's chosen people. Verse 26 reads, in part, "And so all Israel will be saved." (NIV) Now this phase occurs in a large and complex context, so I don't think it can simply be taken at facevalue. But perhaps it provides a Biblical basis for a prediction that many Jews will become Christians in the end?

I haven't studied the issue in depth, but I understand that the Jews had a covenant with God first. Also, the Pope said a few years ago that the Jews did not really need to convert to Christianity, since they had originally been the "chosen people". And who am I to disagree with the Pope about something he evidently knows more about than I do?

[StephS]

I don't see anything necessarily anti-Semitic about the Left Behind series. If anything, it's very pro-Christian.

[userr123]

In this series about the end of the world apparently tons of Jews convert to christianity. I assume since the world is ending the rest die. This is really scary for a person of Jewish heritage like myself. How can so many Americans enjoy a book that expects a huge group of people to convert or die? I also heard it attacks the UN, has the Jewish people as architects of an anti-chirst government and protrays a christian militia in a good light. I hate to say it but the Left Behind series seems awfully like the turner diaries. They both involve militia groups and jewish conspiracies. That alone worries me. Are these books anti-semetic or are they just pro-christian?

The Left Behind series are based on the Bible. If you read the book of Revelations, you would find most of those scenarios written. One thing that you have to consider when reading revelaions is that it was written by a man named Paul while he was exiled on an island named Patmos. God gave him the visions of what the end times were like. Since paul lived in those times, he was not sure of what he was seeing because the visions of the end times occurred quite far into the future where almost everything has changed. Try to take what paul describes and think of what he would be describing in modern times and it might make a little more sense.

[MagusYanam]

The Left Behind series are based on the Bible. If you read the book of Revelations, you would find most of those scenarios written. One thing that you have to consider when reading revelaions is that it was written by a man named Paul while he was exiled on an island named Patmos. God gave him the visions of what the end times were like. Since paul lived in those times, he was not sure of what he was seeing because the visions of the end times occurred quite far into the future where almost everything has changed. Try to take what paul describes and think of what he would be describing in modern times and it might make a little more sense.

First off, the Book of Revelation was not written by St Paul but by St John the Divine.

Secondly, the Book of Revelation uses imagery and numerology which was common to the apocalyptic literature of the time - and in the time of St John the Divine, apocalyptic literature was not meant to serve as a crude prediction of the future, but rather to extend hope and comfort to the oppressed and to express subversive anti-imperialist sentiment against Rome (though it was cloaked in powerful imagery and symbolism). The Left Behind books not only remove this anti-imperialist message from the Book of Revelation, they also blasphemously remove the hope and comfort to the oppressed and replace it with a wholly unchristian right-wing revenge fantasy.

[userr123]

The Left Behind series are based on the Bible. If you read the book of Revelations, you would find most of those scenarios written. One thing that you have to consider when reading revelaions is that it was written by a man named Paul while he was exiled on an island named Patmos. God gave him the visions of what the end times were like. Since paul lived in those times, he was not sure of what he was seeing because the visions of the end times occurred quite far into the future where almost everything has changed. Try to take what paul describes and think of what he would be describing in modern times and it might make a little more sense.

First off, the Book of Revelation was not written by St Paul but by St John the Divine.

Secondly, the Book of Revelation uses imagery and numerology which was common to the apocalyptic literature of the time - and in the time of St John the Divine, apocalyptic literature was not meant to serve as a crude prediction of the future, but rather to extend hope and comfort to the oppressed and to express subversive anti-imperialist sentiment against Rome (though it was cloaked in powerful imagery and symbolism). The Left Behind books not only remove this anti-imperialist message from the Book of Revelation, they also blasphemously remove the hope and comfort to the oppressed and replace it with a wholly unchristian right-wing revenge fantasy.

I meant to say John (my bad). I'm sorry but most people would not find the majority of the book of Revelations to be "comforting." The Left Behind series, I find, truly and biblically caputures what the end times may really be like.

[Cathar1950]

. The series is an interpretation of revelations.
I read one of the books but I have seen a few of the movies. When it comes to fiction or in this case fantasy or some form of science fiction, I like to watch the movies as I don't read much fiction these days. By the time I was 12 I have read anything CS Lewis wrote both fantasy and others. I hade read Dracula, Frankenstein, The silver challis, the Robe, the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and covenants, all the Tarzan books and anything I could find. Now I like reading non-fiction, mythology, religion, history, science, and jus about any other non fiction. Every now and then I read a fiction , usually supernatural or time travel. I am a time travel nut.

The Left Behind series is a reinterpretation of the 19th century interpretations of apocalyptic writings.
I have come to the conclusion that everyone lives in the last time in that we are all going to eventually die yet for the world it hasn't happened as promised, according to some writings, and two thousand years later it is all do for reinterpretation just like it has always been interpreted and reinterpreted.
Inmy later Christians years I decided there were some problems with the traditional interpretations and reading.
Some tradition say Jesus or the Christi as living in the community and their calling was to live in the present as if it was the future kingdom that had already arrived in believers in community. There are suggestions that Jesus may nt have even identified himself wit the cosmic :Son of Man" or the traditional messiah where he need not be born of the line of David because his anointing was to his being called by God and like the ancient Royal ideology David like his descendents were adopted by God as sons.
The movies are not that good but I always get a kick out of them and I can see were self-fulfilling prophesy can make the end for us come true.

[MagusYanam]

I meant to say John (my bad). I'm sorry but most people would not find the majority of the book of Revelations to be "comforting." The Left Behind series, I find, truly and biblically caputures what the end times may really be like.

Most today would not. But this is an invalid hermeneutic, given that apocalyptic literature was aimed not at a chronological forecast of the eschaton, but an archetypical (kairos) depiction of an historical struggle between visions of society as it would play out at the time of its writing - and the imagery St John the Divine uses is stridently anti-imperialist and anti-Roman. It would have brought definite comfort to the subject and enslaved people living under Roman rule.

Left Behind is wholly unbiblical for the simple reason that it promotes imperial violence and coercion by the heirs of the modern-day equivalent of the Roman Empire against a people who have been historically wronged, and the way the authors live in multi-million dollar mansions while preying upon the prejudices and revenge fantasies of their readers places them pretty squarely among the principalities and powers.