Left Behind All Over Again?
Monday, March 24, 2014 at 01:20PM 
The cynic in me understands that there is big money to be made on rapture movies, which is why film-makers keep on cranking them out. The claim is made that these films are intended to lead people to Christ--the stark reality is that they really don't. But they do make money for those making them, apparently, lots of money. In fact, we will be treated to two rapture films in just one year. A couple of weeks ago I posted about another new rapture film, Final Watch.
Billed as the "scariest Christian movie ever," "Final Watch: The Rapture" is marketed as a sure fire way to scare someone into accepting Jesus by using the horror film genre to warn unbelievers (as well as careless "professing" Christians) of the terror of being left behind after the Rapture occurs (h.t. Gene Veith--Cranach).
Now the 2000 Left behind movie, starring Kirk Cameron is being "replaced" (dispensationalists love this word) by a new version of Left Behind, starring everybody's favorite actor, Nicolas Cage. The sure sign of career failure in Hollywood is when B-list actors like Cage start turning up in moves like this one. Michael York comes to mind.
And, of course, we are treated to the obligatory movie poster featuring a packed airplane--which we know will either crash because the pilot is a Christian and is suddenly raptured away from the controls at a critical moment in the flight, or suddenly, the plane will be missing a whole bunch of passengers who instantaneously disappear to the horror of all those left behind.
The commercial success of AMC's The Walking Dead, is clearly be responsible for this spate of rapture movies, because one of the promo pictures from the new version of Left behind, tells us of the horrors of having to go through the tribulation, aping the critical issue faced by Walking Dead's main character, Sheriff Rick Grimes and the ubermensch himself, his son Carl. The rules go out the window after the rapture, just like they do after the zombie apocalypse.
One more pet peeve of mine is, why do characters in movies of this genre always have highly improbable nicknames? "Buck" Williams sounds far more like a Seinfeld quip applied to George Costanza, than to a nickname someone actually possesses. Where are the guys named Bob, Steve, Mike, or Fred? You know, like real people . . .
If you haven't heard enough, here's the website so you can check it out for yourself: Left Behind All Over Again
Reader Comments (3)
I am so tired of these movies and am tired of telling people what I think of them. I always appreciate what you have to say and I track with you.
Maybe we should figure out a catchy title to answer this goofy genre that keeps popping up. Mike Horton countered the purpose craze with his Gospel Driven. I'm not clever enough... But what about for those caught in between... "this age and the age to come."
Anyway... Always can count on you for a good post!
Pete from Hayward, Ca
The Pretrib Rapture Jackpot!
by Bruce Rockwell
Attention, writers. You can make a fortune by promoting the pretrib rapture!
First, some background. As you know, pretrib began in Scotland in 1830. The earliest developers, including Edward Irving and John Darby, admitted that it was then a totally new view that had never been part of any church's theology.
They also admitted that it had suddenly sprung from only OT and NT "types" and "symbols" and not from any clear Bible statement!
As late as 1957, pretrib expert John Walvoord admitted in "The Rapture Question" (p. 148) that "pretribulationism" is NOT "an explicit teaching of Scripture"!
Since the early 1900s pretrib has been sold by novelists like Sydney Watson (in 1913) and by Salem Kirban whose "Left Behind"-type novel "666" came out in 1970 - the same year Hal Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" started breaking sales records.
The very first rapture novel titled "Left Behind" came from the joint pens of Peter and Patti Lalonde in mid-1995, resulting in some competitors being left behind.
The pretrib rapture view, which admittedly is only an "inference" and not "explicit," rests basically on verses in John 14, I Thess. 4, and I Cor. 15, none of which have either a "taken/left" separation or exciting, nail-biting scenarios that can "sell" pretrib.
You have to go to Revelation's action-packed chapters instead. When you do, you discover they can be tied to end time details found basically in the Olivet Discourse.
As you know, pretribs believe in two stages; Stage 1 is the pretrib rapture which supposedly occurs several years before Stage 2 which is the posttrib second coming to earth.
Since the three "rapture" chapters listed above don't have any clear rapture-type separation between the "righteous" and the "wicked," your best launching pad if you want to be a bestselling author is "the one shall be taken, and the other left" phrase in Matt. 24:40, 41 and Luke 17:34-36.
Trouble is, Dr. Walvoord and many other pretrib leaders declare that the "one taken" are the "wicked" taken in judgment while the "righteous" are left! But since the average pew-sitters don't seem to know this, you can easily convince them that the "one taken" is a sort of code for an any-moment pretrib rapture!
And the pew-sitters don't know that Walvoord etc. also teach that the same phrase is part of "non-imminent" Stage 2 which is posttrib (and not pretrib) and is on "Jewish" (and not "Church") ground!
In order to preserve and emphasize Stage 1 (the pretrib rapture), pretrib merchandisers in recent decades have been stretching forward various aspects found in Stage 2 and quietly applying them to Stage 1. Aspects include "the day of the Lord," "God's wrath," "the taken/left phrase," "the unknown day and hour," and Christ's coming "as a thief" (which is always tied to Armageddon and other posttrib events).
(For more on the above Google "The Correct Answer to Who's Taken" etc. on Joe Ortiz's blog of Apr. 12, 2010. Also Google "Pretrib Rapture Stealth.")
Yes, I've told you how you can turn yourself into a bestselling, wealthy author.
But unfortunately you have some competition because Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins have already become opportunists and made millions of dollars that are destined to be left behind!
For more on them and their partners, Google "The 'Left Behind' Rupture," "LaHaye's Temperament," "Jerry Jenkins Apologizes for Being Seen Gambling in Casinos," "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)," "Walvoord Melts Ice," "Famous Rapture Watchers," "Margaret Macdonald's Rapture Chart," "Pretrib Rapture's Missing Lines," "Roots of Warlike Christian Zionism," "Evangelicals Use Occult Deception," "Pretrib Rapture Secrecy," "Letter from Mrs. Billy Graham," "Pretrib Rapture Politics" and "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty."
In closing let me say that Jeremiah 17:11 warns that "he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool."
And you can bet on this!