Information Related to "What's "Left Behind" in the Rapture Theory?"

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January 2000 ¬ Ecumenism Gears Up for Year 2000 ¬ Hitler's Pope: The Roman Church and the Third Reich ¬ What's "Left Behind" in the Rapture Theory? ¬ In Brief... World News Review ¬ This Is the Way... A Different Kind of King of the South

From the publisher of The Good News magazine. Request the World News & Prophecy Related Resources The Middle East in Bible Prophecy The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy You Can Understand Bible Prophecy Are We Living in the Time of the End? The Book of Revelation Unveiled ------------------------------   What's "Left Behind" in the Rapture Theory? Millions have read novels structured around the idea of the rapture of Christians. Why this religious fad? Why do people believe there will be a rapture? by Cecil E. Maranville Thousands traveled to Jerusalem to be on the scene for the rapture on January 1, 2000. Yet the chronometers clicked over another year without it happening. Why do so many people believe there will be a rapture? Left Behind books and videos have variably stirred, frightened or entertained millions. Jim Jenkins and Tim LaHaye have popularized in the 1990s the same understanding and expectations about "a secret rapture" that author Hal Lindsey did in the 1970s with The Late Great Planet Earth and Vanished. The Left Behind novels all revolve around the story line that non-Christians are "left behind" when Christ secretly and suddenly removes true believers from the earth. Christians who are driving cars, piloting planes, living normal lives abruptly disappear-and those "left behind" must puzzle out their mysterious disappearance. What could possibly be "entertaining" about this you ask? Political and sexual intrigue is spliced into the religious theme of the books in the name of spreading the message to as wide an audience as possible. Lindsey was the first modern writer to popularize the rapture theory and still writes and speaks on the theme. 60 Minutes II recently caught up with him on a tour he was leading in Israel-still preaching that end-time prophecy "will begin with the rapture, which is the instant calling to heaven of all good Christians. People will actually disappear, Lindsey says" ("Apocalypse Now," CBS, 1999). Jenkins is the actual writer of the Left Behind material and LaHaye checks the work for biblical accuracy ("The Trials of the Tribulation" by Michael Joseph Cross, The Atlantic Monthly, January, 2000). Their popular writings do not offer readers the theology of the rapture idea in a systematic fashion. That is, the books do not explain the scriptural basis for the dogma, or how one could prove it from the Bible. Read the full article at www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0001/rapture.htm Related Information on UCG Sites: Other Articles by Cecil Maranville Rapture: _The Rapture - A Popular but False Doctrine! _What's 'Left Behind' in the Rapture Theory? _The Need for Spiritual Readiness _Questions and Answers - Jan/Mar/2005 Search Our Site Key Subjects Index General Topics Index Biblical References Index Good News Magazine Index Booklets and All Literature Index Home Page of this site