Glorious Convergence

"Left Behind"

I really hate these books.

It’s an interesting premise, to be sure. The Left Behind books by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye could have been an adventure tale about living in the End Times. To an extent, they do fill this role, but Jenkins and LaHaye have done much to indicate that they believe the End Times are NOW and they believe the Rapture is going to happen any minute. (Personally, I think they’re very poorly written, but then again, Jenkins and LaHaye get interviewed on the History Channel and are laughing all the way to the bank while I’m putting my ideas out via blog, so what do I know? I’ll leave the literary critiquing for another time.)

For those who aren’t familiar, the Left Behind series tells the story of those who are left on Earth after Christ “Raptures” all the true believers into heaven. They go through all kinds of tribulations, become true believers, battle the Antichrist, and eventually reunite with their loved ones in heaven once Jesus comes and defeats the Antichrist.

I have many reasons for hating these books, even aside from their dubious literary quality.

The authors draw heavily upon the Revelation of John for their imagery, and I can't say I blame them. If you want to scare people, there are some terrifying images to work with in here, and I certainly don't envy John his nightmares! The fearful focus, of course, is on the Beast, the anti-Christ whose number is 666. Well, there's a problem here. Many Bible scholars now believe that John was writing a warning to the people of his own time. The Beast of such evil was the Roman Emperor Domitian, who was the first Roman Emperor to persecute Christians in earnest. The number 666? Well, some early manuscripts actually show it as 616.

The written Hebrew of the first century used a form of numerology as a way of disguising the meaning, and in that code, 616 gives us "Caesar Nero." (666, by the way, gives us "Caesar Neron," which was the Greek version of the Emperor's name.) Yes, I know I said above that it was Emperor Domitian. But Domitian, because of his insane cruelty, was said by many to be Nero reborn. (Revelation also mentions the death and rebirth of the Beast, by the way.)

Now, I realize there are as many interpretations of Revelation as there are people who have read it, but I do believe that the Left Behind authors failed to take the context of the writing into account. At the end of the first century, commonly accepted as the date of the writing of Revelation, an uprising in Jerusalem had been put down violently by the Romans. The Temple had been destroyed, and the Jews and Christians (and at that time, most Christians were also Jews) had been scattered and forced to flee. In times of great turmoil (including our own) it is common enough for writers to use an apocalyptic style to call attention to the points they wish to make. John of Patmos wrote as a church leader, to followers of that infant church of the first century, not to us.

Even more than the historical/theological flaws I see in the Left Behind interpretation of the Bible, I hate its exclusionistic tendencies. Some people seem to take a great amount of smug satisfaction in the fact that they have an "in" with God; that once the Rapture comes, they're going to be airlifted to safety while the rest of us sinners are stuck down here going through the Tribulation. It makes people feel safe and secure, with no need to question or examine their beliefs, while they sit and bite their thumbs at the rest of us.

Granted, most of those who believe in this more literal interpretation of Revelation do genuinely want to bring the rest of us into the fold so that we may be Raptured as well, once the time comes, but the very idea of the Rapture creates such an "us and them" mentality that I have a lot of trouble reconciling it with what I do understand of the contents of the Bible. Witness Paul's words to the Galatians: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Even more telling is the story of Jesus and the Gentile woman, as told in Matthew's Gospel. Jesus then left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter has a demon in her, and it is severely tormenting her." But Jesus gave her no reply--not even a word.
Then his disciples urged him to send her away. "Tell her to leave," they said. "She is bothering us with all her begging."
Then he said to the woman, "I was sent only to help the people of Israel--God's lost sheep--not the Gentiles."
But she came and worshiped him and pleaded again, "Lord, help me!"
"It isn't right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs," he said.
"Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even dogs are permitted to eat crumbs that fall beneath their master's table."
"Woman," Jesus said to her, "your faith is great. Your request is granted." And her daughter was instantly healed.

To me, this story is about Jesus showing the disciples the way their ministry will eventually take, that faith and the path to God will be open to all people.

For the record, I don't believe that we are living in the End Times.

I do believe that these are times of great turmoil and trouble. But in all of recorded history, when has humanity not lived in times of turmoil and trouble?

In Matthew, we are told to be ready, for we know not when the hour will come: Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. This, I believe, refers not to a literal coming of the Son of Man, but to each person's moment of death. No one can pinpoint the moment they will die, and anything could happen at any moment to cause it. Keep ready and be ready to meet God, this passage is saying, for someday you will die, and then you will meet God. It is another way to tell us that our treasures are best found not on earth, but in heaven.

posted by Bainwen Gilrana @ 12:07 PM