Last of the LaHaye series published...

[Hutch]

....according to the NY Times yesterday (sorry, no link, I'm still so primitive I actually read the printed page) :eek:

For those who don't know, Tim LeHaye has been writing a series of books about the Rapture and apparently is now at the end, with the return of Jesus and punishment for all us sinners. He claims to have taken the book of Revelation and used it based on modern/today history. The leader of the UN is the Antichrist (Gee, Kofi, and you sound like a nice guy, too) and of course terrible things happen to all the atheists in the end--after all, God loves us, remember.

Just a note because while most of us haven't read these books (I know I haven't) many fundamental and evangelical Christians have, and I wonder sometimes what effect they have, if any.

Love to know what's on GWB's reading list.....

Just wondering if anyone has encountered these books more than I have and can comment on them.

[Bottle or the Gun]

I'm hopefull the series actually ends. If I see one more 'end-times' movie starring Kirk Cameron and Michael York I'm getting violent.

A post-rapture world would actually be better a better place to live and much more peaceful. Since you and everyone else KNOWS that all the people that are left are total bastards, you can take steps accordingly. I bet it's more polite, since there would be the knowledge that your sinner neighbors will burn you out for playing a stero too loud.

[IllegalArgument]

Originally posted by Hutch
Love to know what's on GWB's reading list.....


Well, obviously the bible would be number one, consider how religous he says he is. The rest is unknown.

[Bottle or the Gun]

Originally posted by IllegalArgument


Well, obviously the bible would be number one, consider how religous he says he is. The rest is unknown.

He has books read to him. Fairy Tales, mostly.

[evildave]

Why be at "the end". 1000 years of Jesus ruling (naturally through his 'selected' proxies), then... oh I dunno. Yet another impending rapture?

[MLynn]

I have read several of the books, but haven't read any in about 2 years (I'm a Xtian). They were written as fiction based on the Book of Revelation. I would hope that the Xtians who have read them do not take them as "doctorine" or the gospel truth - it's just fiction.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Originally posted by MLynn
I would hope that the Xtians who have read them do not take them as "doctorine"

they do though

Originally posted by MLynn it's just fiction.

so is Genesis, but thats not stoping these guys. www.icr.org

[Marc]

To help those of us sorry to see this series end......... ok, none of us are sorry. Anyway, some of us might be interested in a similar book: Kiss My -- Left Behind (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1593301065/qid=1080674868/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-5934407-4176702?v=glance&s=books)

[Dragonrock]

I truged my way through the first 100 pages of the first book and found it to be rather poorly written and filled with sterotypes. All the characters seemed one dimensional until they accept christ. I'm reminded of the way characters became colorized in the movie Pleasantville.

[phildonnia]

Last of the LaHaye series? Don't count on it.

They said the same thing about the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

[Tricky]

Originally posted by MLynn
I have read several of the books, but haven't read any in about 2 years (I'm a Xtian). They were written as fiction based on the Book of Revelation. I would hope that the Xtians who have read them do not take them as "doctorine" or the gospel truth - it's just fiction.
I've had several people (including my brother) recommend this series to me. "You'd like it", they say, "The heroes are all unbelievers!".

Well, not exactly. The heros are all former unbelievers, but boy did they change their tune when the Xtians turned out to be right! (snicker snicker).

So it would seem that one not-so-subtle message pervading the series is, "You wouldn't be in this mess right now if you'd just believed the Bible." It may be good writing, (although a trusted literary friend of mine says the first one is crap and she won't read any more), but I'd have a hard time choking down that bit of preaching that sets up the series.

[Dragonrock]

I always wanted to point out that it is the non-believers who do the hard work after the rapture while the christians have run bravely away to hide behind Jesus' skirts.

I think seeing a bunch of people suddenly disappear would count as proof, so yes, I probably would become a believer after the rapture.

[MLynn]

Originally posted by Tricky

I've had several people (including my brother) recommend this series to me. "You'd like it", they say, "The heroes are all unbelievers!".

Well, not exactly. The heros are all former unbelievers, but boy did they change their tune when the Xtians turned out to be right! (snicker snicker).
Tricky, one of the reasons I lost interest in the series was because a whole sub-culture (circus?) developed and played off the books and it turned me off.

[phildonnia]

Originally posted by Tricky

...It may be good writing, (although a trusted literary friend of mine says the first one is crap and she won't read any more...

Let me second that. It's crap writing, and I speak as one who enjoys a good piece of apocalyptic fiction.

[Silicon]

Wow,

I remember reading a bit of apocolyptic christian fiction in jr high school, and believing it as if it was the Word of God. Now I wish I could remember the name of it, but it was pretty awful writing. Kind of an irwin-allen type of story, with locusts, the rapture, the sealed jews, all the stuff from revelation.

The story kept jumping around from these different people, like the anti-christ (a big media mogul, IIRC), and some people who converted after millions of people disappeared.

Kind of like some 70's disaster flick, it jumped back and forth between the stories.

The whole story ends at armaggedon, with jesus coming back, and some people in jet fighters proclaiming His return by skywriting crosses with their contrails.

It captured the entire revelations myth very vividly (at least for a 7th grader), and I recall it made me a very angry little jesus freak of a kid for a couple of years. I've been about 4 different religions since then, and finally discarded them all.

[Ralph]

Originally posted by evildave
Why be at "the end". 1000 years of Jesus ruling (naturally through his 'selected' proxies), then... oh I dunno. Yet another impending rapture?

I've noticed several of the RR folks who seem to be quite eager to become part Jesus's goon squad.

A kind of Einsatzgruppen for God-----

They'll have an opportunity to act out what's REALLY in their little hearts and all in the name of doing Jesus's work.................

[evildave]

Yeah. A bit sad, really. But never fear!

They don't have to wait for the 'rapture' to do this: they can just work away feverishly to get an official state religion passed. Make it the 'United States of Southern Rapture Baptists' (USSR-B), and round up all the people who don't think the way JESUS likes them to and send 'em all to 'camps' in... Alaska! They'll need lots of bodies to dig six-foot deep trenches... for oil.

Then they can turn to spreading Jesus Christ's message (as interpreted by the Southern Baptist Congress) to all the heathens of the world.

Maybe set up some 'satellite' states, like Iraq, to form a 'Buffer of Belief' around the unbelievers.

[Some Friggin Guy]

I have not read the books, but I got tricked into watching the first movie a few years back. There is something that I found REALLY amusing.

The antichrist character has, by the end of the movie, ended the religious feuding in the middle east, ended world hunger, stopped crime through peaceful means and basically eliminated poverty. Yet, for some odd reason, the main character's think he's a real bad guy.

I don't know, if I were a christian, I'd have recommended him for sainthood.

[ceo_esq]

Originally posted by Hutch
Love to know what's on GWB's reading list.....I don't think his reading tastes include novels. I've seen some of his reading lists published, and and they were all historical biography and political science works, plus a couple of classic devotional works such as My Utmost for His Highest.

[Luciano]

Originally posted by Dragonrock
I think seeing a bunch of people suddenly disappear would count as proof, so yes, I probably would become a believer after the rapture.
I could start to believe in the christian god but I couldn't start to worship the lazy moron!
Originally posted by Some Friggin Guy
I have not read the books, but I got tricked into watching the first movie a few years back. There is something that I found REALLY amusing.
The antichrist character has, by the end of the movie, ended the religious feuding in the middle east, ended world hunger, stopped crime through peaceful means and basically eliminated poverty. Yet, for some odd reason, the main character's think he's a real bad guy.
I don't know, if I were a christian, I'd have recommended him for sainthood.
YEP!:D

Luciano

[Tricky]

Originally posted by ceo_esq
I don't think his reading tastes include novels. I've seen some of his reading lists published, and and they were all historical biography and political science works, plus a couple of classic devotional works such as My Utmost for His Highest.
Kinky Friedman was on the radio the other day, and he said that GWB had told him that HE (Friedman) was his favorite author. Well, we all know politicians lie, but Bush did invite him to the White House.

[Hexxenhammer]

My sister reads them, and so does my sister in law. I choked down the first couple of chapters of the first book one time while visiting my sister. It was obvious from that small reading that all the unbeliever characters were immoral simply because they weren't chrisitian. Once they become christian, they become moral. That's not the way it works and I'll punch anyone in the face that thinks otherwise.

[sackett]

If Jesus comes back after the lickin' Mel Glibson says he got, he's going to be seriously PO'd. I picture Him wearing a leather jacket, swinging a piece of chain, and stinking like a wet bear! If you so much as look sideways, you'll wake up in the middle of next week all over plaster and wire like a new chicken-house! Jesus won't carry no briefcase nor wear no white shirt & tie!

Edited to add: Praise the Lord! Glory jee to Bezus!

[Yahweh]

If there are any authors out there, I recommend writing a book about a Christian turning to atheism, and the kind of treatment this person recieves from his fellow fundamentalists and atheist friends.

The book will no doubt be viewed as "Contraversial", and contraversy sells.

[Bottle or the Gun]

Originally posted by Dragonrock
I always wanted to point out that it is the non-believers who do the hard work after the rapture while the christians have run bravely away to hide behind Jesus' skirts.

I think seeing a bunch of people suddenly disappear would count as proof, so yes, I probably would become a believer after the rapture.

Actually, I think they all just hide when you come around, just to mess with your head. Kind of like when furriners speak gibberish. You just know the second you leave they go right back to speaking english with an Alabama drawl and laugh at you.

(Check the DVD section of any WalMart for the $5 remainder bin, and you will see scads of those movies...'Left Behind'.)