I’m about 3/4 of the way through the first in the “Left Behind” series. So far, not great, but not bad. My question is, is it worth it to continue reading the series? So far I haven’t made up my mind if it’s a worthwhile piece of literature, or a Jack Chick tract in novel form. I don’t mind spoilers(within reason), but can anyone tell me whether I should continue after this first book?
My apologies to the moderator if this belongs in Great Debates, but I thought I’d try keeping it to a small discussion.
I’ve read the entire series (so far - there are still more books to come) and I have mixed feelings. I happen to hold to some of the same basic beliefs as the authors, but to be honest - I’ve found the series to be pretty dull in spots, even downright tedious at times. (fellow believers, please don’t be offended…) The series is based on Tim LaHayes years and years of studying Bible prophecy, especially the book of the Revelation and is basically a story form of his teachings.
I’m not sure I’ve actually answered your question. Let’s see…I’d rather read any book of this series than read a chick tract but there are a lot of books(both christian and non-christian) that are WAY higher up on my list than any of this series. If you are interested in a much shorter teatment of the same basic subject as the Left Behind books try Paul Meier’s The Third Millineium.
Being Jewish myself, I don’t read the Bible or Left Behind books, but I was under the impression that there was no mention of ‘the rapture’ in Revelations.
I’m sorry, Adam, if I was unclear. What I meant was that the series is basically a story form of Tim LaHaye’s interpretation of biblical prophecy. I was trying not to get into any GD kinds of discussions but rather, just answer the question posed by riserius.
I read the first four, and while the first one has a certain wooden charm (the authors have the worst tin-ears for realistic dialogue I’ve ever read), the earlier books do move along at a good clip. By the time they get to book four, the uber-plot (the whole take-over-the-world thing) has s…l…o…w d…o…w…n to a crawl as the authors try to milk more books out of the series.
It’s worth reading the first one or two for schlock value, but beyond that…
(The world they’ve created is also filled with the dumbest characters in the universe. Everything happens exactly like Revelation predicts, and almost no-one gets it. :rolleyes: )
Why can it not be literature and propaganda? Think 1984 and Animal farm.
I have stumbled across a book written, as far as I can tell, around 1900 called In a Twinkling of an Eye.
This book, and its sequel The Mark of the Beast cover the exact same territory as the Left Behind books. But the author really believed that everything was in place 100 years ago. It really goes to show that prophesy can be twisted to fit any situation.
If enough people are interested I could start a thread where I summarize the book chapter by chapter.
Unfortuneately, I do not have the second book. Since it is so old I despair that I may not be able to find it. However, since it was copyrighted in the USA in 1933 by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, I may be able to have a friend find a copy in the Biola University library.
It will be almost impossible to find, but I heartily recommend the last issue of “The Door” magazine, which has an interview with (someone whom I forget), who spells out how Pre-Tribulation rapture theology is a creation of only the 20th century. And to think that people have been put out of schools (he was) and denied jobs (my friend’s Dad) because of a refusal to click the heels and “Ja, wohl” this theory.
To quote Grandpa Simpson
“A little from column A, a little from column B”
The books definitely have an agenda. They are meant to promote religion. Specifically the bible intensive, literalist form of Christianity (which is a denomination of Christianity I do not practice, but I have been known to read other works that I don’t exactly agree with…).
I think they get their message across in a somewhat entertaining manner. I have read all of them and will continue reading them. It has grown tired. I do think they have stretched out the series a bit long. It seems like only one or two significant events have happened in each of the last few books. The rest is the cast discussing it (boring) or talking about the impact of religion on their lives (again, this is the intent of the authors).
I say finish the series. If you don’t want to invest any more money in the series, I am sure you could grab another at your library.
To summarize, to enjoy these books, you really can’t disslike Christianity. It is a vehicle to promote Christianity. But doesn’t all literature have SOME social agenda? LB goes a bit beyond convention, and they’ll never be able to use it in schools as a form of study, but it is a decent read.
(NOTE: The last few books, I have listened to on tape, which has cool sound effects and eerie music.)
A little of both. They are not as bad as the JC tracts, and “great literature” they ain’t.
I’ve read all of them (a new one comes out very soon) and I remember heard that the authors orginally planned the series to be six books, but when they realized how well they were selling, decided to make it longer. This is really obvious in the 7th book, Indwelling which, IIRC, only covers a 2 or 3 day time span. :rolleyes:
As others have said, the writing style leaves a lot to be desired. I think if they had moved the action along faster, and keep the series at six books, they would seem better. They’re just dragggggging the story out.
A word of warning…DO NOT go to the LB message board. It’s full of narrow-minded fundies who like to tell people they’re going to Hell for not believing in God exactly as they do.
{Upon preview, and after going to http://www.leftbehind.com I see that the 9th book, Desecration is already out. I’ll wait for the library)
It’s funny you should mention that, because that’s exactly where I got the first volume, after having to wait a month on the reserve list for it. I wanted to know if it was worth reserving anymore of the series. I have found the whole take-over-the-world part to be the most entertaining bit and the how-i-never-took-christianity-seriously bit to be the most tedious.
I guess I’ll try the second volume, but if it doesn’t pick up after that i guess I’ll have to wait for the real thing
This has me confused, can you please elaborate? If I read this correctly, and it is quite possible that I am not, you are saying that the interviewee was kicked out(?) of school and your fathers friend didn’t get a job because they don’t believe in the rapture?
I’ll warn you now, they get worse. By the 8th book, they are pretty tedious.
But, book 10 came out yesterday. One of my friends bought it and loaned it to me to read first, on the stipulation that if she finishes Lord of the Rings before I finish this one, she gets it back, so I thought I’d give this one a shot.
It’s going much better than the other recent ones-the pace is way up. The dialogue is still poor, but they haven’t told us all about everyone’s conversion (again) in this one-it still has the message that they are trying to get across, but not in such a pointed way. Maybe they’re trying a little harder. Who knows.
But yeah, the authors have an agenda-you have to to write a series like this.
I will read most anything, but it’s got to make sense and really, the leap of faith to follow this anywhere was beyond me (this from a man who loved Venus on the Half Shell). I may have just found an especially bad one of the series, but I did what I seldom do, just quit reading.
I found the characters one dimentional, the plot seemed aimed at young teenagers at best and as for any form of complexity at any level, well, it just wasn’t there.
I’ve got to believe that this is propaganda. It certainily isn’t literature. Now this is going to make some people mad, but it’s the way I feel. I sort of see this as I see “Christian music”–Not quite good enough to be “real” music so it has to have the “Christian” title.
I guess I’ll just have to go back to reading C.S. Lewis and listening to Mahalia Jackson for penance.
I have both of the Sydney Watson novels. My copy of Mark of the Beast is a Revell paperback reissue from the 1960s, so it is possible to find. I could dig 'em out if you have questions about them. Although they are very dated, Twinkling of an Eye is the better read, from a literary standpoint.
Someday, I will try to read the Left Behind series, but only if I find the books at flea markets, etc.
My beef with such books is that so often an average schmoe, though the course of events and some wild coincidences, is tied up intimately with the all-powerful world leader, the Antichrist. A couple of books have tried to look at the idea of what would it be like for an average person just to live through what the authors figure the “last days” will be like, and they make for better reading, IMO.
BTW, there are lots of “end time” novels out there. Even Ernest Angley has written one. Yes, that Ernest Angley.
If Big Sam’s question is serious, “left behind” refers to when the non-Christians are left behind on Earth to go through the events of the “last days”. According to the LB authors’ theology, all the Christians who are alive at the time are taken away by God so the Antichrist can come to power, and start his 7 years of heck-raising, tormenting the non-Christians who are left and those who convert to Christianity after the rapture.
Thanks, I thought the books were really obscure. I don’t see why anyone would reprint them, especially in paperback, after WWI and WWII completely destroyed the scenario of the Book. If the second book is worse than the first, I don’t think I am going to go out of my way to find it. The first was not exactly haute literature.
but there are a lot of books(both christian and non-christian) that are WAY higher up on my list than any of this series. If you are interested in a much shorter teatment of the same basic subject as the Left Behind books try Paul Meier’s The Third Millineium.