Left Behind"
By William E. Hull, Research Professor
Samford University, Birmingham, AL
Editor`s Note: The article is an expanded study version of a sermon preached at the Mountain Brook Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, February 11, 2001.
- I. Four Key Words
- Rapture
- Pretribulation
- Premillennial
- Dispensationalism
- II. Key Words in Light of Scripture Interpretation
- III. Theology In Fictional Garb
There was a time when most Christians got their theology at church, which had many advantages. We could be assured that the pastor was familiar with the distinctive doctrines of our denomination. If we didn`t understand what was being taught, he was readily available to answer questions. In case we disagreed with some emphasis, fellow church members were always willing to sharpen the issues through friendly debate.
But now the role of the congregation in shaping our convictions has an aggressive competitor in the secular marketplace. Take, for example, the doctrine of the End-Time made popular by the millennial madness of 1999. While most churches have been almost silent about such things as the Tribulation, the Antichrist, or Armageddon, the mass media have been trumpeting these themes for all who will listen. In bookstores, at movie houses, and on the Web, we have been saturated with dramatic efforts to shape our basic understanding of the Christian hope by those whom we do not know and have no way of holding accountable within the household of faith.
The most prominent example of this marketplace theology is the wildly popular phenomenon called Left Behind. Originally launched as a single novel by that title in 1995, it quickly grew to a twelve-book series scheduled to appear at six-month intervals until June 2004. Thus far, eight installments have been published by Tyndale House with sales in excess of thirty-two million copies: Left Behind: A Novel of Earth`s Last Days, 1995; Tribulation Force: Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind, 1996; Nicolae: Rise of Antichrist, 1997; Soul Harvest: The World Takes Sides, 1998; Apollyon: Destroyer Is Unleashed, 1999; Assassins: Assignment Jerusalem, Target Antichrist, 1999; The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession, 2000; The Mark: The Beast Rules the World, 2000.
But the 3,255 pages thus far devoted to this theme have not yet satiated an audience hungry for more. Recent releases have generated an initial print run of two million copies, putting them ahead of Stephen King and landing them in first place on the New York Times best seller list as soon as released. Tyndale is considering a three million copy printing of Desecration, ninth in the series due out in October. And now comes the $17.5 million film version of Left Behind released on 874 screens nationwide after stimulating interest in a video format which has sold 2.8 million units. Add to that the children`s series called "Left Behind: The Kids," which has sold five million copies with only 14 of 36 planned installments out and you begin to sense the sensational success of what has become an end-time industry in doomsday chic.
The creators of this theological juggernaut work in a remarkable partnership. The idea was hatched by an independent Baptist minister from California named Tim LaHaye, best known in earlier years for writing and speaking with his wife Beverly on Christian family life. But in 1991 he became concerned about the decline of "pretribulational rapture Bible prophecy" and so by 1993 had established a "Pre-Trib Research Center" to reverse the trend. Because this brand of belief is both complex and esoteric, to say the least, LaHaye hit upon the approach of fictionalizing his views to make them accessible to the general public and enlisted Jerry Jenkins to assist him in that regard. The author of 120 books, Jenkins was best known as the ghostwriter of memoirs for sports celebrities and the autobiography of Billy Graham. He writes every word of the Left Behind series while LaHaye, now in his mid-seventies, gets credit as co-author for insuring "prophetic accuracy."
My purpose here is neither to attack nor to defend this emphasis but rather to explain its main contentions and evaluate its suitability as Christian doctrine. To do this, I shall not base my critique either on the book series or on the motion picture, since both have fictional elements, but will draw instead on LaHaye`s book, Revelation Unveiled, which Zondervan published in 1999 to serve as a scriptural companion to the Left Behind series. For any who might think it beneath their dignity to deal with "best-seller theology" designed for entertainment purposes, I would point out that, precisely because LaHaye and Jenkins have made their sensationalistic views so accessible, even homey, they will be embraced by many simply because alternative positions are not out there in the marketplace competing for attention.
I. Four Key Words
efore we can understand what LaHaye means by being "left behind," we must define four key words, all of which are loaded with theological meaning. The first is "Rapture," which we usually take to mean a state of emotional exhilaration or ecstatic delight. The biblical usage, however, has a quite different force. In 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Paul speaks of being "caught up" together with the dead in Christ to meet the Lord in the air. The Greek verb used here meant "to seize" something forcibly in order to carry it away, and so could be rendered "snatched up" in order to emphasize both the suddenness and power with which God would act. When this verse was put into Latin, the translators correctly used a comparable verb, rapio, which meant "to lay hold" of something both forcibly and quickly, one form of which was raptus from which we get such English words as "rapt" and "rapture." LaHaye uses the term "Rapture" theologically to mean the instantaneous conveyance of Christians to heaven from their abode here on earth.
The second essential term, "Pretribulation," obviously has two parts. The root of the word, "tribulation," refers to a period immediately preceding the end-times which Jesus described as the most utterly corrupt era in human history (Mark 13:19). Based on his interpretation of Daniel 9:24-27, LaHaye calculates that this upheaval will last for seven years, from the appearance of the Antichrist to the final battle between good and evil called Armageddon. The addition of "pre" indicates that the Rapture will take place before the Tribulation, whereas a "Posttribulation" view would indicate that the Rapture will take place after the Tribulation.
The third term is "Premillennial," another compound with the same prefix. The root "millennial" comes from the Latin word for "thousand" and refers to the triumphant reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20:3. Those who are "Premillennialists" hold that the Rapture and the Tribulation will take place before the thousand-year kingdom is established, whereas those who are "Postmillennialists" hold that the Tribulation and Rapture will take place after the thousand-year reign of Christ is ended.
The final term is "Dispensationalism" which refers to a system of interpreting prophecy which incorporates and integrates the three positions just described. In other words, Dispensationalists are those who believe in a premillennial pretribulational rapture! The term itself refers to the belief that God deals with humanity in seven successive "dispensations" or epochs of history. In its entirety, Dispensationalism is both a full-blown biblical theology and a philosophy of history, but of greatest interest to us is its two most distinctive contentions: (1) that prophecy does not apply to the Church Age, which is a "great parenthesis" in God`s dealings with his people; and (2) that there are two prophetic tracks, one for the Gentiles but another for the Jews, the return of Israel to the Holy Land and the rebuilding of the Temple lying at the heart of the system.
Admittedly these are complex and, for the beginner, baffling distinctions, but every one of them is crucial for an understanding of what LaHaye means by being "left behind." By this phrase he is referring to non-believers who remain on earth when all true Christians, both living and dead, are suddenly translated into heaven. Their departure unleashes a worldwide upsurge of evil for seven years presided over by its ultimate embodiment in the Antichrist. The first half of this period will see the rise of a one-world apostate church and a craze for one-world government, all of which will lead to sheer chaos in the second half of the period. Despite this hell on earth, a remnant of 144,000 Jews will be converted, to whom Christ will come in his Glorious Appearing to reign over a Millennium of peace, at the end of which the final judgment will usher in eternity.
In case this end-time scenario seems a bit strange or even bizarre to you, LaHaye freely admits that his position has long been a minority view with only a negligible number of major theologians embracing it throughout the long history of the church. In the modern English-speaking world, the two most influential exponents of LaHaye`s Dispensationalism have been John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), a leader of the strict Plymouth Brethren sect in England who set forth his system in thirty-two published volumes, and Cyrus I. Scofield (1843-1921), an independent Bible teacher of enormous popularity here in America. His Scofield Reference Bible, which skillfully summarized Darbyite Dispensationalism in a series of notes printed beneath the Scriptural text, has done more to spread the Premillennial system adopted by LaHaye than any other source. The publisher, Oxford University Press, estimates that between 1909 and 1967 its sales exceeded ten million, with a 1967 revision selling another 2.5 million by 1990.
Now that the influence of Scofield is beginning to wane, it remains to be seen whether the recent popularizations of Dispensationalism, first by Hal Lindsey and then by Tim LaHaye, will give it a new lease on life in the twenty-first century.
II. Key Words in Light of Scripture Interpretation
Having identified the theological underpinnings to which the Left Behind series carefully adheres, let us evaluate their adequacy in light of Scripture. Here our task will not be to marshall a collection of verses that either support or oppose the theory of LaHaye, for he has already identified every passage that might conceivably bear on his position. Rather, the crux of the matter is the methodology by which these many texts are interpreted. The issue of whether to accept or to reject Dispensationalism is not predetermined by whether one is a believer or non-believer, Biblicist or non-Biblicist, inerrantist or non-inerrantist. As LaHaye recognizes, Christians of the deepest possible commitment to Scripture differ sharply on this issue because they interpret the very same texts in quite different ways. Indeed, I cannot think of any other doctrine on which devout Bible students of equal faith and piety come to such diametrically different conclusions. Here let me mention only three of the methodological issues that create this difficulty.
First, the centerpiece of LaHaye`s system, the one decisive reason why anyone can be "left behind," is the worldwide secret rapture that suddenly and surprisingly snatches up every believer from the earth. But notice how slight and ambiguous is the biblical evidence for this position. LaHaye`s prime passage is 1 Thessalonians 4:17, but the shouted command, the archangel`s call, and the trumpet`s sound in verse 16 suggest that this will be a very public rather than a private event, thus many conclude that it refers to the Final Advent rather than to the rapture. The second most cited passage, John 14:3, speaks of Christ coming to take his troubled disciples unto himself, but the larger context implies in verses 18 and 23 that this post-resurrection "coming" will be to earth rather than to heaven. Finally, LaHaye appeals to Revelation 4:1-2 where John is invited through heaven`s open door to glimpse God`s plans for the future, but this is standard language for being granted a prophetic vision while remaining on earth (cf. 2 Cor. 12:1-4).
When we look hard at LaHaye`s best evidence, we find solid indications of God`s determination not to neglect or abandon his troubled children here on earth. But these few texts just do not say anything explicit about God plucking the whole church out of the world and leaving everybody else behind. LaHaye likes to claim that there are 318 scriptural references to some phase of the Second Coming of Christ and lists twenty-six "rapture passages" among them, but his whole effort to split the Final Advent into two parts separated by seven years is just not supported by these texts themselves. At a stretch, we might find vague allusions or fleeting hints of some sort of "rapture" in two or three verses, but is that any foundation on which to build a theological superstructure? There are many core doctrines in the Bible explicitly taught in hundreds or even thousands of texts. The first principle of sound interpretation is to begin with what the Bible says most clearly, most consistently, and most constantly. The notion of a pretribulationist secret rapture fails this test.
Second, if LaHaye does not get his "left behind" scenario from the explicit teachings of the Biblical texts, then where does he get it? The answer is that it comes from the way in which he combines many Scripture passages that were originally unrelated to each other. Beginning with the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24-27, he tries to fit virtually the entire sweep of biblical history from the Babylonian Exile to the Millennium into its cryptic timetable of heptads (seven sevens, then sixty-two sevens, then one final seven). While one cannot help but admire the ingenuity of this effort, the problem is that the Bible itself nowhere makes these connections. The New Testament frequently utilizes the Old Testament, some 2,688 times according to one count, often in a relationship of promise and fulfillment, but it never comes close to utilizing Daniel 9 as the framework for a doctrine of the future in the way that LaHaye does. In other words, his system is like a necklace, each separate part a pearl taken straight out of Scripture, but the string holding these pearls together taken straight out of Scofield!
In terms of methodology, we are back to the old problem of proof-texting. I am only quoting Scripture when I cite Matthew 27:5 and Luke 10:37, but when I combine them in that sequence, the result reads that Judas "went and hanged himself . . . go and do thou likewise!" Thus we come to a second principle of interpretation: What God has joined together in Scripture, let us not put asunder. Likewise, what God has left separate in Scripture, let us beware of joining together lest the relationship thereby established reflects our own ideas rather than the plain teachings of Scripture. Fidelity to Scripture is determined, not only by the number of separate passages that we can cite in support of a particular theory, but also by the extent to which our overall design corresponds to the way in which these texts were actually used in relation to their original context within Scripture itself. A doctrine is not sound unless both its building blocks and its blueprint come from the Bible.
A third issue arises from LaHaye`s strong insistence on interpreting the Bible literally, as if only this approach passes the test of "making common sense" out of Scripture. The problem, again, is that the Bible itself does not teach, or even imply, that all of its content should be understood literally. Take, for example, the key prophecy of Joel 2:28-32 which predicted that the coming of the Spirit in the "last days" would be so world-shaking that "the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood." But when this passage was fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 2:20), did these "wonders in the heaven above" (v. 19) take place literally? Peter plainly said that what was happening "is what was spoken by the prophet Joel" (v. 16), yet it was at the "literal" level a perfectly ordinary day, so ordinary that bystanders supposed that the Spirit-filled disciples were merely drunk (v. 15)! Why, we must ask, does it make "common sense" to interpret a passage "literally" if it was intended to be interpreted spiritually?
This brings us to our last principle of interpretation, namely, that the type of literature which God chose to use in revealing his truth should be taken with the utmost seriousness. To be sure, if God wished to convey factual information, as in an historical narrative, then a "literal" interpretation would be entirely appropriate. But God also chose to speak through parable and poetry and proverb using figurative language which does not lend itself to "literal" interpretation. This is especially true of highly symbolic apocalyptic writings such as Daniel and Revelation which lie at the heart of LaHaye`s enterprise. Many of the verses which LaHaye tries to force into a rigid historical framework are expressions of transcendent truths that cannot be limited by time. Indeed, one of the main reasons why Biblical writers employed vivid imagery was in an effort to describe realities that are eternal and thus relevant in every age of history.
III. Theology In Fictional Garb
Why have we devoted this much attention to LaHaye`s understanding of biblical prophecy if it is so methodologically flawed? Not only because of its enormous impact in the media marketplace, but also because it raises fundamental issues which lie at the heart of our hope for the future. Since, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, let us turn from LaHaye`s use of the Bible to the ways in which his partner, Jerry Jenkins, has dressed this theology in fictional and cinematic garb. Any thoughtful reader of the books or viewer of the movie would have to ask at least three questions prompted by his portrayal of the Christian faith.
First, does God really love the world, as John 3:16 affirms, or does he abhor it? By his own admission, LaHaye conceived the idea of Left Behind while sitting on airplanes and watching the pilots, thinking to himself, "What if the Rapture occurred on an airplane?" The "signature scene" in Jenkin`s fictionalized account is of a crowded 747 red-eying it from O`Hare to Heathrow when suddenly dozens of passengers including every child on board, plus three crew members, simply disappear without taking any of their clothing and personal effects with them. The only thing that saves the plane is that the Captain and First Officer are "left behind." When they return to Chicago and finally manage to land, chaos abounds. The highways are littered with wrecks from disappeared drivers, mothers are screaming for their missing babies, a woman in childbirth watches her womb deflate as the obstetrician can find no trace of the fetus and must content himself with delivering the placenta! When the pilot, Rayford Steele, finally gets home, all that is left of his sleeping wife is an empty nightgown and her wedding ring between the sheets.
Surrounded by scenes of devastation caused by the Rapture, we are forced to wonder: Does Christ care for his own at the cost of such worldwide carnage? Does God want to strip the world of its good folks so that the bad folks will stew in their own juices? Did Jesus try to separate his disciples from publicans and sinners or to bring them together at unheard of levels of intimacy (Mark 2:13-17)? Is the strategy of the Gospel a deliberate effort to create so much earthly chaos that Christianity will be seen as a way to escape from its clutches? The highly respected evangelical scholar Gordon Fee put it this way: "Theologically, the distressing point for me is that [Left Behind] makes Christian conversion a matter of fear, rather than a matter of hearing the good news of the gospel, of the God who has loved us in Christ, come among us and redeemed us. It focuses on, very frankly, selfish fear."
Which leads straight to a second question: What does awaken true faith in Christ? Another main character, Buck Williams, is a young journalist always on the prowl for a fast-breaking story, full of the skepticism and cynicism that sometimes characterizes his profession. On that fateful overseas flight, for example, instead of helping frantic mothers try to find their children, he quickly plugs in his laptop and begins tapping out a scoop for his editor in New York. But when, a few days later, the now-converted pilot shows him a videotape on dispensational prophecy, Buck begins to view the events he is covering, particularly at the United Nations, in light of its predictions. Once he decides that history is, indeed, beginning to unfold in accordance with LaHaye`s understanding of the Tribulation, light dawns, he sinks to the floor in amazement, and soon joins a tiny remnant of those who share his clue to the meaning of world events.
Again we ponder: Is the struggle of faith a search for the right understanding of political events, especially involving the nation of Israel, or is it a search for personal and cosmic renewal from a risen Lord? Is faith confirmed when historical events unfold in accordance with a predetermined sequence, or when the Holy Spirit leads us through whatever the future may happen to bring? Indeed, are we saved by an understanding of anything regarding the Tribulation, or are we saved by a cross-bearing relationship with Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:20)? During his earthly ministry, Jesus refused all requests for signs (Mark 8:11-2), for times and places that could be observed (Luke 17:20-21), insisting that even he did not know the day or the hour when the end would come (Mark 13:32). Like him, we would do well to leave matters of calculation in the hands of God, for so often we have been mistaken in reading the "signs of the times" (Luke 12:54-56). Just in my lifetime I have heard the Antichrist identified as a certain Pope, or as Adolf Hitler, or as Josif Stalin, none of which could be correct because, on LaHaye`s timetable, the Antichrist will appear for only seven years before the Millennium!
Our final question is built on answers to the first two. If the gospel means that God loves not just the church but the world as well, and if faith means learning to love him back in return, then what is to be the attitude of God`s people toward the world around them? Just in case readers and viewers are not sufficiently attracted to Left Behind by Dispensational Theology`s potent combination of the surprising, the suspenseful, and the spectacular, this series has much to offer those addicted to right-wing ideological crusades. The plot line is rich with what Richard Hofstadter called "the paranoid style in American politics": anti-United Nations, anti-common currency, anti-ecumenical movement, anti-Arab coalition, and anti-governmental taxation. The kind of carping about contemporary life that one can hear in any country club locker room has been demonized by LaHaye as a "one-world mania" that "seems to be gripping the world" today.
So, what shall we do with our enemies in "this adulterous and sinful generation" (Mark 8:38)? Left Behind seems to offer two answers: First, flee from them by means of that miraculous evacuation called the Rapture. Second, fight them in the greatest war ever waged called Armageddon. But did Jesus advocate this kind of instant escapism and unrestrained violence as a way of bringing history to its intended end? In his own Apocalyptic Discourse he warned that wickedness would be multiplied and men`s love would grow cold (Matthew 24:12), to which we should respond, not by escaping, but by "enduring to the end" (v. 13). That endurance was not to be passive, however, but involved a preaching of "the gospel of the Kingdom" to the ends of the earth (v. 14). Only then will the end come, not because our enemies have been destroyed by "wars and rumors of wars" (v. 6), but because friend and foe alike have been given a loving invitation to believe. As the familiar hymn puts it:
For not with swords` loud clashing,
Or roll of stirring drums;
With deeds of love and mercy
The heavenly kingdom comes.
In the midst of his ministry, Jesus took three of his leading disciples up a high mountain where they witnessed him communing with Moses and Elijah (Mark 9:4). Neither of these Old Testament worthies had undergone a normal death and burial but, in a sense, had been "raptured" to heaven by God. Seizing the moment, Peter blurted out his wish to make this mountaintop experience more permanent (v. 5), but God interrupted with a command to keep listening to Jesus as he pointed them toward Jerusalem and the challenges which awaited them there (Mark 8:31). All of us would welcome a short-cut to glory, but Jesus still bids us share his saving gospel of suffering love with all the world until time shall be no more.
