| HIGHLIGHTS OF DAWN | September 2004 |
Ever Be with the Lord
|
“Afterwards, we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to a meeting with the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” |
THERE HAVE BEEN A RASH of best-selling fictional books in recent time with religious themes. Some of these have been number one on the best-seller’s list. A commentary on such books appeared in the Daily News on April 17, 2004 in its Religion Section. The commentator wrote:
“The lesson from this week’s best-seller list is simple: God sells. But what worries some scholars is that the hottest religious books depart from traditional Christian teaching or distort the faith’s origins.
LEFT BEHIND
“The latest pulse-pounder in the ‘Left Behind’ series about the end of the world—Glorious Appearing—couldn’t have appeared more gloriously, at No. 1 on the fiction list of Publishers Weekly. It edges out another religion-theme novel, The Da Vinci Code, which has ranked among the top three for fifty-four straight weeks.
“Jerry Jenkins, co-author of Glorious Appearing with Tim LaHaye, calls the phenomenon ‘God hunger—people looking for something beyond themselves.’
“Yet the success of the books troubles some critics, largely because the authors have made unusual claims that—though they employ fiction—what they’re writing is true.
“Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code is a thriller whose characters malign traditional Christianity as fraudulent, but both liberal and conservative writers say it’s rife with errors.
CRITIQUE OF DA VINCI CODE
“Among inaccuracies they list: The characters’ claims that belief in Jesus’ divinity appeared in the fourth century rather than the first century; that the four New Testament Gospels became authoritative in the fourth century rather than the second century; and that the Dead Sea Scrolls and Gnostic writings (deemed heretical by the church) contain the earliest Christian records—though one Gnostic text does have some scholarly promoters.
“At first, Da Vinci drew little religious opposition because people ‘didn’t subject it to the same kind of scrutiny they would a nonfiction book,’ Garrett says. But when Brown told NBC that ‘absolutely all of it’ is true, the Rev. Darrell Bock of Dallas Theological seminary decided that the novelist wasn’t just having fun but was undermining Christianity.
“Bock wrote the first of several Protestant attack books, Breaking the Da Vinci Code.
“Roman Catholics will soon pile on with The Da Vinci Hoax. In the foreword, Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George says Brown’s history is ‘preposterous’ but must be counted because it misleads credulous readers. Brown is declining interviews.
THE RAPTURE EXPOSED
“The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has issued an adult education guide warning against Brown’s plot about Christianity founded upon ‘lies, cover-ups and political intrigues.’ But one of that denomination’s Bible professors, the Rev. Barbara Rossing, believes the Left Behind novels are a far worse threat, and explains why in “The Rapture Exposed.”
“Brown’s assertions are easily checked and refuted, Rossing says.
“Meanwhile, the Left Behind authors think their 12-book series depicts events of the sort the Bible predicted for Jesus’ Second Coming. Indeed, Glorious Appearing centers on Jesus’ return, which the authors expect to happen in the near future.
“Rossing charges that the series preaches despair, and distorts biblical teachings about the future, Mideast politics, and social responsibility.”
The Bible does not need to be fictionalized to make it interesting. It is a fascinating book and the real life stories it contains prove over and over again the adage, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” The Dawn has commented in a previous article on Brown’s Da Vinci Code. The new best-seller, the Left Behind series, was the subject of another news article which appeared in the Los Angeles Times magazine section on April 25, 2004. The title of the article was “Writing for Godot.” The article begins by saying:
TIM LAHAYE’S VIEWS
“In the beginning of the end, as Tim LaHaye tells it, millions of people will disappear off the face of the earth, ‘raptured’ up to heaven. Over the following seven years, tribulations of all kinds—demon locust, seas of blood, nuclear war—will claim billions more. The city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq will be rebuilt, as will the first temple in Jerusalem, on land now occupied by one of the most sacred sites in Islam, the Dome of the Rock. By then, though, all of the Muslims in the world will have been eliminated, either horrifyingly killed or converted to Christianity. Nearly all Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and other ‘unbelievers,’ even some Christians, face the same fate. Finally, after all the carnage, when the world is ready for Jesus to walk the earth again, the savior’s very words will cause the last of the unfortunates to fall gruesomely dead.
“LaHaye, an early organizer of the Moral Majority and a longtime activist in conservative politics, has brought that vision vividly to life in an astonishingly popular series of page-running action novels collectively known as the Left Behind series. Co-authored with Christian novelist Jerry B. Jenkins (Jenkins does the writing, LaHaye supplies the biblical underpinnings), the books so far have sold about sixty-two million copies, according to their publisher.
“Since 1995, loyal readers of the series have followed the adventures of a gang of clean-cut Christian yuppies as they have battled the forces of evil and the Antichrist across twelve novels, the last of which, Glorious Appearing, was published last month. It features a chatty Christ returning to a battered and depopulated earth to lead all believers and many converted Jews into a new millennium. But fans need not despair: No one involved in this publishing phenomenon is ready to call it quits, particularly at a time when popular culture is embracing Christian-themed stories with extraordinary fervor. Two more Left Behind books—a sequel and a prequel—are in the works for publisher Tyndale House that will further expand on the struggle between God and the Antichrist.”
Most of the article was about the life of Tim LaHaye, and his success in writing these books. It has become a billion-dollar business. The Left Behind titles have become the first Christian book series to be sold in mainstream outlets such as Wal-Mart and Barnes and Noble. In writing about the man and his commitment the article said:
“His Midas touch in the publishing world is not the most important thing to understand about Tim LaHaye, who now lives in Rancho Mirage. It is his commitment to impress his end-is-near worldview upon the rest of the culture. He’s certain that the fictional events of the Left Behind books—the Rapture of believers to heaven, the wholesale destruction of nonbelievers, the emergence of a murderous Antichrist, all of it—will unfold essentially as he describes it, and soon, possibly before he dies. For a man who wants to save as many souls as he can before that happens, time is running out. And no one is more aware of that than LaHaye, who will be 78 years old on Tuesday.”
THE TRUE VIEW OF I THESSALONIANS 4:17
In whatever way the public may view the message being conveyed to them by these books, we know that it is not true. How glad we are to know God’s wonderful plan as revealed in his Holy Word. How glad the world will be to know about that plan when it is revealed to them. How unfortunate that the vast majority of the world of mankind, whatever they believe, has been influenced by Satan and his first lie, “Ye shall not surely die.” (Gen. 3:4) Let us note how that lie has confused the thinking about interpreting I Thessalonians 4:13-18, on which the concept of the rapture is based. Most Christian people believe that these verses are teaching how Jesus will return to take away faithful Christians from earth. Whereas the teaching was intended by the Apostle Paul to be one of consolation to the Thessalonian brethren who were enduring severe persecution. This persecution was so severe that Paul had to leave them before losing his life. Others were not able to leave and some died.
Though these were faithful Christians they did not go to heaven when they died, but as verse 13 explains, they were now “asleep” in death. They also are described as being asleep “in Jesus” (vs. 14), which means that, although they were asleep in death, they were in the memory of Jesus and the Father. Paul was reminding these brethren at Thessalonica that their brethren who had died would be brought forth in the resurrection. First, however, all would be entering the sleep of death. The resurrection wouldn’t take place until our Lord returned. Those who would be living at the time of the presence (Greek, parousia) of the Lord (not coming) would not precede those who had fallen asleep in death. Contrary to the concept that when our Lord returns he sweeps up all the faithful living upon earth, Paul says that those asleep in death will be his first concern. These will be raised from the dead.
Those who have been invited to follow Jesus by taking up their cross must do so “unto death.” (Rev. 2:10) Thus, those who are of this class and are alive at the time of our Lord’s return must die before they can join all the other faithful footstep followers. The important feature of our Lord’s return is the resurrection. All those who had previously died will be raised from the dead. Those who are living at the time will die, but will not have to remain in the sleep of death awaiting the resurrection, rather they will be changed immediately to be with the Lord. (I Cor. 15:51-54) Such will be assembled with the other faithful to perform a great work during the kingdom of assisting Jesus in bringing back from the dead all that are in their graves. (John 5:28,29, Revised Standard Version) The work of uplifting the downtrodden family of Adam will end after one thousand years of instruction in the way of righteousness and Truth.
THE HOPE FOR THE WORLD
These books teach a now or never situation for mankind. They talk of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, and all other nonbelievers either being converted, or horrifyingly killed, in seven years before the rapture. Finally they say that when Jesus walks the earth again (but Jesus said, “the world seeth me no more,” John 14:19) that he will cause the last of these unfortunate to fall gruesomely dead. Fortunately all of this is fiction, even though the author believes that all of the things he has written will eventually unfold, such as the wholesale destruction of nonbelievers and the emergence of a murderous Antichrist. This is not a correct picture of the work God does in the end of this present evil world.
The Bible teaches the fulfillment of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10) It is at that time that God will “pour out” his “spirit upon all flesh.” (Joel 2:28) It won’t be necessary for anyone to say to his neighbor, “Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.” (Jer. 31:34) As the world comes back from the grave and realizes that it was God’s mighty power that was used to perform this great miracle, they will respond as prophesied by the prophet Isaiah, and say, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isa. 25:9) Furthermore, in that wonderful kingdom, “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain [kingdom]: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”—Isa. 11:9
Soon the work of finding a “people” for God’s name (Acts 15:14) will come to a close; and all of those who faithfully followed Jesus by denying self and taking up their cross (Matt. 16:24), will have been assembled by our returned Lord. These are described as living and reigning with Christ a thousand years. (Rev. 20:4-6) These are the faithful who will be evermore with the Lord. (I Thess. 4:17) Who do they reign over? Their subjects will be the poor downtrodden family of mankind. What father Adam and mother Eve could not do for them, their new parents, Jesus and the church (his bride), will. Truth is better than fiction.