It is based on a literalistic interpretation of large segments of Scripture that are obviously meant to be intepreted symbolically (sorry to restate the obvious, kids, but there it is)
The characters are all one dimensional, and giving some of them a whole dimension is being generous.
So far (I’m only a couple of chapters into the second book) the series seems highly sexist. None of the female characters are developed independently. They only exist in relation to the male characters.
It’s anti-Catholic. 'Course, I should have expected that.
It’s poorly written. The plot is developed in no great depth, the story is told in a cold, matter of fact way that does not engage an intelligent reader’s mind or emotions. 'Course, I kind of expected that.
The authors do not know what the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse represent. Well, they got three of them right- War, Famine and Death. The guy on the white horse, they say represents the Antichrist. Everybody who hasn’t read the book knows it’s Plague (or Pestilence).
The Antichrist is the only character that has any good lines.
Somehow, I feel compelled to keep reading. Anything that has infected American Popular Culture to the extent these books have demands investigation. Bear in mind, some people actually regard these books as textbooks for a course on Bible Prophecy and the end times…
Scary.
I remember when I first heard of the Rapture when I was a teenager. My first concern was for the people left behind–what with people disappearing from cars, trains, planes, etc. Church leaders indicated I didn’t have quite the right attitude. Needless to say, I have no desire to read this series–I shudder when I pass a display–but I appreciate your sacrifice in order to keep us informed. Your review confirmed my suspicions.
I recall when Frank Peretti started this whole Christian Fiction trend. I read “This Present Darkness” and couldn’t understand how in the heck anyone could read that and mistake it for being even remotely related to Christian belief.
Gotta say this for the LB books, they’re fast reading. But that’s because they have no depth, and your mind can just skim along the surface.
Note- all of the characters, especially the peripheral ones, are extemely artificial. They are obviously created to represent a “type”.
I can just see Tim and Jerry sitting down, saying, “OK, we need a materialistic, sophisticated careerist, an intellectual who is struggling with his beliefs, a college-age girl to appeal to the younger people, an airheaded blonde… what else? Oh, yeah, the Antichrist.”
Also, the Antichrist is revealed as such to the main characters far too soon in the first book to build suspense. He should have been referred to, been seen on the news, etc. early on, but not actually introduced as a character until the the second book. And been a probable suspect, but not actually revealed as the Antichrist until the third book.
No suspense is built up. No sense of drama.
I may have to go out and buy the Illuminatus trilogy when I’m done reading the LB series (please God, don’t let them release any more of these books). That way I can remember what it was like to have my mind blown to smithereens by well-written fiction.
Maybe Tim and Jerry should get together and do a “Write by the Numbers” book.
I’ve read some of them. My general attitude is “meh.” I’ve read worse, but I’ve also read much, much better. However, some of my friends are crazy about them and argue over what’s going to happen in them.
I don’t like the anti-Catholic slant, which is why I don’t like a lot of contemporary Christian literature or music. It just doesn’t seem to have much artistic merit, it’s the Britney Spears of Christendom, or so it seems to me.
I can take them or leave them, personally.
I triple dog dare you to go post this, or something like this over on the Left Behind boards. Someone did about a month ago, I think. I noticed it on my rare wanderings over to the boards again. She was getting torn up over saying that they aren’t well written.(which they aren’t)
And, I, uh, hate to tell you this, but there are supposed to be 12 of them. :eek:
Yeah. And it’s all just ripped off from Dune, anyway.
But why are we talking about Robert Jordan in a Left Behind thread?
Sorry. Really, I’m sorry. But I just couldn’t resist . . .
Though, from what I understand, the central conciet of the books, (which I haven’t read, and don’t intend too) would have made a pretty good episode idea for an Outer Limits/Twilight Zone type show
. . .
The real question is, are they worse than 1945 . . .
–
“When I go into a church, I don’t want to be assaulted with God, God, God . . .”
okay, okay, i got hooked into these books as well, stop poking now.
there is something weird about these books. it is rather like watching an accident… you want to turn away… you need to turn away… but you can’t. the writers are rather clever in using the “arabian nights” trick of leaving you hanging at the end of each book so you will buy the next. i’m waiting for the “indwelling” to go trade paperback, or perhaps a coupon or two so i can buy it rather cheaply.
Hmmm. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? That Tim and Jerry are maybe…
And they wrote the books just to throw us off the trail?
Bought 'em. I lost my library card, and the Las Vegas library system leaves much to be desired. If I wanted to read all the books, I’d have to have my nearest branch order them from other brances, assuming the entire library system has the entire series.
I read all of the series and have seen the movie of the first book. I really liked them and found them to be right on target. I am just glad that I will not be one of the ones Left Behind.
Alot of you might not agree with me, but you know what, I dont really care.
OK, I don’t agree with you, but fortunately, you don’t care.
Not about the books, which I haven’t read, but about taking them seriously, and about the attitude that goes with that: “I am just glad that I will not be one of the ones Left Behind.”
I find the notion that this age is more likely than any other since Christ to be the End-Times to be one of those incredible conceits that is perpetuated by the deadly combination of born-again Christian gullibility, and the reality that one can gain more of a following by preaching that the end-times are imminent, than by preaching that they aren’t.
I’ve been hearing about the #$%&! endtimes’ imminent arrival since I first came to know the Lord thirty years ago (feel free to exhume a copy of Hal Lindsey’s The Late, Great Planet Earth - ain’t it amazing, the guy’s still selling books! See what I mean about born-again gullibility?), and they didn’t happen then, and they aren’t coming now. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Besides, quite honestly, given the 'tude of those who feel they’ll be Raptured, I’d rather be Left Behind.
maidenunicorn41, your posting strikes me as just about as unChristian and arrogant as it can be. If you really are devout your would care about everyone else,and be trying to persuade the unsaved(gently) to convert, so their souls would be saved. As for me, I try to muddle along in the faith as best I can, and I’m more worried about the bad example I usually am.
maidenunicorn41…far be it from me to condemn you. If you are so sure of yourself, then more power to you.
I think that Revelation is more figurative that literal. After all, it is a work of prophecy, and previous works of prophecy in the Bible (such as Jeremiah, Isaiah, etc.) used a good bit of metaphor. I don’t know how accurate the LB series can be with such matters if it makes them so literal, but then again, the writers could be trying to avoid being sacrilegious…I don’t know.
They really aren’t literary masterpieces, but they’re a quick read.
Personally, I’d rather find my Christ in other things rather than a book, but that’s just me.
Well said, hon. And I’m with Nocturne…even when I was a Christian, I never saw Revelations as literal. However, if those who DO get raptured, maybe that wouldn’t be so bad…
Don’t put away your yarmulke, keep celebrating Hanukah. ;j
As Nocturne and Falcon have indicated, there’s far from universal agreement among Christians when it comes to interpreting the eschatological passages of the Bible. The belief, among some Christians, in “The Rapture,” where Jesus is supposed to come down from the clouds, and Christians, dead and living, will be whooshed up into the air to meet him halfway between Earth and Heaven, from whence Jesus will take them the rest of the way to Heaven, is based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17, with an assist from 1 Corinthians 15:52 and Matthew 24:37-41. Some Christians interpret the Thessalonians passage literally, others don’t. (I apologize for the absence of links or quotes; I’m working on a slow machine, away from my bookmarks.)
The LBers fit this purported future event into a framework set down in the book of Revelation (no final s), the last book of the Christian New Testament. As Nocturne and Falcon have already said, some Christians believe in Revelation more literally, and some more figuratively. And many look at it, throw up their hands, and stick to parts of the Bible that actually make sense. My position is that we’ll know we’re in the times referred to in Revelation, whatever they may be like, when the book starts making sense in some natural way. I’m not waiting up nights, ifyaknowwhatImean.
And even among those who buy the basic structure of the end-times as described in Revelation, and believe in the Rapture, have disagreements about a myriad of other details. Revelation fans, so to speak, believe there will be a horrific seven-year period, the Tribulation, before Christ returns and saves the world from the Antichrist. The Rapture takes place at either the beginning, the end, or even the midpoint of the Tribulation, depending on what school of Endtimes flakes one falls into. (The plot basis of the LB books is that the Rapture takes place at the beginning of the Tribulation, FWIW.)
Anyhow, even if one accepts the LBers’ eschatological theories, it wouldn’t do our tired, abused planet a lick of good to be free from all the people Raptured, however many they may be, since the Trib would probably be every bit as hard on the planet’s ecosystems as it supposedly will be on its people. But not to worry - at the end of seven years, Christ will come back and put the rapacious corporate destroyers of our natural world in their place.
OK, so that last bit isn’t standard LBer belief - to most of them, rapacious corporate destroyers of our environment are the good guys. I guess that’s because another shopping mall is a greater witness to the glory of God than a forest could ever be, and a fleet of SUVs more so than a pack of wolves. But I digress.
I’ve thumbed through a few of the books, and they surely read like they’re aimed at a middle-school reading level…I hate to be so harsh, but it’s just the plain truth. Every time I see something about this series, and they mention the main character, Buck Williams, I giggle a little as I think of Buck Turgidson, the George C. Scott character from Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. At least Kubrick was going for the humorish aspect of naming one of his leads “Buck” .
There’s a movie made out of the series staring Kirk Cameron and directed by some guy who made some “Spencer: For Hire” TV movies, but unfortunately it was released on video and DVD before it gets to theaters next summer, so it won’t be eligible for Oscar consideration :rolleyes: .
