Tim LaHaye: Left Behind Series

[rmichael]

I’d have to agree with Bengal Fan’s last post. Too often as Catholics we give the excuse that we “might turn someone off” if we defend or speak out about our Faith. And too often we don’t know our Faith well enough to speak out about it. An important thing to remember is that we will one day be judged not only on the things that we did, but also on the things we did not do.

 

[Malachi4U]

Tim LeHaye is a well known anti-Catholic and doesn’t hide the fact.:tsktsk: His left behind series is proof. Look at how He treats Christ body, the Catholic Church!

His theology is wrong, his books are wrong. Don’t be trapped thinking he tells the truth about Catholics because he doesn’t.

Pray for him, he needs it like all who lie about Christs body to make a buck. :ehh:

Malachi4U

Jas 2:24-26 “24 See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone…For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”:yup:

 

[AmandaPS]

After he’s done with the series, he’s going to market them to children in the form of a 30 some-odd number of children’s books. Scary.

 

[briand]

WhiteDove:

Time to discuss them here, if anyone is interested. Has anyone read them? I hear they are anti-Catholic. They are all the rage among Evangelicals, who swallow his Rapture Theology hook, line and sinker.

I have a lot of disdain for this fanciful type and simplistic nonsense. It is the ultimate in Bible Belt anti-Catholic blather. A good book which counters all this is “Will Catholics be Left Behind?”

Mr. Lahaye made a great deal of money off these books and a little off the movie. That makes them a success. There are many people I knew who really fell into end time beliefs, some sold their houses, left families and so on. Their lives were totally ruined, of course that means nothing at all, but I find it sad. The Y2k lie, the 88 reasons Jesus will come back in 88 then the sequal in 89. Many I remember loosing their faith because of this type of stuff, than is totally irrelevant, but it to is sad.

Mr. Lahaye has made a small industry, he has a good market base and a product people want, that is all that matters, the rest is irrelevant in the extreme. I know this is a total charactor flaw on my part, or at least that is what I have been told, but It really ripps by gutz out to see people loose their faith because of these great disappointments.

I am sure Mr. Lahaye is sincere not that, that really has any meaning. I find the books sad, the movies even more sad to the point of being funny, I mean I laugh, and am totally ashamed as to how pathetic I am to have believed all this in the first place.

 

[Josh_Miller]

Poisson:

Doesn’t the second book talk about how the only reason the Pope was raptured was because he rejected many Catholic teachings in favor of more Protestant doctrine?
I read the first two and that was enough. The theology was bad, the writting wasn’t bad but it wasn’t very good either.

Yes, that’s exactly what the second book states. The Pope who was raptured was taken because of his Lutherian reforms, as if you can’t accept Jesus as Lord and Savior unless you accept Martin Luther’s theology.

I read the first books myself, and agree that they are poorly written. They are pretty entertaining, though.

 

[Edwin1961]

AmandaPS:

After he’s done with the series, he’s going to market them to children in the form of a 30 some-odd number of children’s books. Scary.

He already has: I have seen them in Christian bookstores and have been out for several years. You’d find then at www.leftbehind.com

Yes, it’s a scary thought!
Go with God!
Edwin

 

[tjjaxn]

I too am a protestant who is researching the Catholic faith and will be converting. I have read all of the books in the series and completely agree with bengal fan in that I did not find them at all anti-Catholic. While I agree that there is much anti-Catholic sentiment among fundamentalist Protestants I felt these books tried to make the statement that there are true believers in many of the Christian denominations. Why does the question have to be, “is this anti-Catholic?” Just because there are disagreements in theology, does not mean that there is no value. Either you like the entertainment or you don’t but it is just entertainment. Something to keep in mind is that Protestants are just unrealized Catholics and they may eventually, in the exploration of their faith,come to understand. I did.

 

[Ryan_King]

Having read all the Left Behind books currently in print, and heard about the authors, I have to agree that the authors are anti-Catholic, and the books mildly so.

With regard to the books themselves, the anti-Catholicism is not blatant, but under the surface.

Firstly, the Pope who was raptured was one who changed Catholic doctrine to mirror that of Luther.
Secondly, the newly-elected “pope” is a liberal who becomes a pathetic tool of the antichrist. (In all fairness, I should mention that, if the Rapture were real, orthodox Catholics would probably be all in heaven, so the heterodox, so-called “liberals”, would be the only ones left. However, this argument is defeated with regard to the Left Behind books, as the Pope who was raptured had repudiated core Catholic doctrine.)
Thirdly, the new “pope” uses a parody of a Catholic title, calling himself Peter II, when he is the high priest of the antichrist’s religion.
Finally, I have heard that the authors are virulently anti-Catholic. Someone who reads their non-fiction could probably attest to that.

Ryan King

 

[Writer]

Well, you have read him more thoroughly than I… But all I can say is that I listened to Jerry Jenkins speak for several hours over the course of a couple days and found no hint of an anti-Catholic bias present in his presentations. In fact, I perceived him as being more open to the different traditions than I expected. In regards to LaHaye, however, I must admit that I am not very familiar with his writings. I would not be surprised if he were more rigid in this regard. I agree with the previous post, though, that sometimes Catholics and Protestants seem to begin reading a work with preconceptions and assumptions that it is against their belief structure when it may not be as bas as imagined. If these books have encouraged one person to explore Christianity and pursue his faith, I think that they have achieved an important value in today’s society. Best regards…

 

[Al_Eluia]

Rae4:

I have just started reading the Left Behind and I am almost finished with book 1. So far, I have not seen anything that is anti-Catholic. As far as fiction goes, I like it. I believe that if it gets people thinking about God and how we endanger our souls by not being Christ-like then I am for it.

I admittedly haven’t read Left Behind or seen the movie, but I’m very familiar with the theology of LaHaye and like-minded preachers/authors. I wonder if the toning down of any anti-Catholicism is due to co-author Jerry Jenkins, who seems like a pro with a good ear for what will sell in the mass market.

 

[jesusfreak77]

I don’t think the books are anticatholic at all. I think they are well written, have enjoyable characters and plot, and I think that the theology is very accurate to scripture.

 

[scylla]

I would suggest you look at the background of the rapture belief before you make a statement affirming it’s accuracy to scripture. If I were you I would look to see how this belief developed and who first came up with the idea of the rapture.

Here is link to an article on the rapture
catholic.com/library/rapture.asp

God Bless
Scylla

 

[Singinbeauty]

Hello!

While I LOVED these books and just ate them up (I read pretty much every book in about a period of 4mon) I do agree that there are some things in it that don’t ‘jive’ scripturally. That being said, I didn’t see anything ‘anti-catholic’ in it. I think that the reason that the Cardinal became Pope (and then the leader of this one world faith - obviously this character was not a true believer) was because the original Pope was raptured, right? How is that anti-catholic? I think the reason that the authors chose to say that it was the cardinal that finally took the place of the one world faith leader was because of how most people equivilate catholocism with christianity more than any other denomination. shrug

They were inspiring to me and brought me to increasing my faith even more. If you take them for just what they are meant to be you will see a wonderful story that is ONE point of view of how the end times COULD be. I cried and laughed and though the writing is a bit simplistic it is still a good read. I did not, however, care for the movies.

 

[Fidelis]

…The original Pope was raptured, right?

Yes, in one of the first books, he was “raptured” along with all the other true believers right after he --Ahem— embraced a distinctively Protestant theology. In other words, Catholics are Christians only if they are Protestants.

 

[Singinbeauty]

Fidelis:

Yes, in one of the first books, he was “raptured” along with all the other true believers right after he --Ahem— embraced a distinctively Protestant theology. In other words, Catholics are Christians only if they are Protestants.

What did he embrace to make him protestant? It’s been a while since I read these books…

 

[axolotl]

One subtle dig was when Carpathia was going to take the throne in Jerusalem, and Fortunato had this whole procession planned out…it was a profane version of Stations of the Cross. But Carpathia didn’t want to spend the time…besides, most of those things didn’t happen anyway, he (Carpathia) was there.

To me they are taken a swipe at Catholics and their inventions.

 

[aurora77]

I got about halfway through the series and realized how poorly written they were. Specifically, it was so blatantly obvious who shot the anti-Christ character, yet they had to waste half the next book hinting around at it before they finally came out and said it. At that point, I stopped reading them. It really turned me off Christian fiction. I got hints of anit-Catholicism too, which was a huge turn-off.

 

[Fidelis]

Singinbeauty:

What did he embrace to make him protestant? It’s been a while since I read these books…

From the first Left Behind book:

A lot of Catholics were confused, because while many remained, some had disappeared — including the new pope, who had been installed just a few months before the vanishings. He had stirred up controversy in the church with a new doctrine that seemed to coincide more with the “heresy” of Martin Luther than with the historic orthodoxy they were used to

According to Carl Olson, author of “Will Catholics Be Left Behind” who was raised in a Protestant, rapture believing home:

Other examples abound. Tribulation Force depicts the leading Catholic character, the American Cardinal Matthews, as a greedy, power-hungry, biblically illiterate egomaniac, whose devious actions apparently are the result of the fact that he holds to “normal” Catholic beliefs and practices. He later becomes the new pope and then the head of an evil, one-world religion called Enigma One World Faith. He is called Pontifex Maximus Peter, and he declares war on anyone believing in the Bible. His anger is especially directed toward “true believers” who meet in small home churches.

For those familiar with fundamentalist-speak, this is a not-so-subtle way of saying that non-denominational “Bible churches” are full of true Christians, while the Catholic Church is evil, anti-Christian, and fully corrupt. Jenkins has insisted in interviews and on the Internet that since the focus of the books is mostly on Protestants, it’s unfair to call the books anti-Catholic. However, I think it’s more correct to say that the books condemn most everyone who denies belief in the rapture, whether Protestant or Catholic, but reserve special scorn for Catholics and the Catholic Church.

For more info about these books, I never tire of recommending this site:
carl-olson.com/rapture_articles.html

 

[sunnygirl807]

I have read the entire series of these books. There are subtle tones of anti-catholicism in this books. (By the way, the set was giving to me by my future mother-in-law, who watches TBN all day long). i.e. The only Catholics that were raptured were those with Protestant views. The anti-Christ did take on a leadership role similar to a pope. Of course, to a person that is non-Catholic, you probably won’t recognize the anti-catholicism in them. We who are will see it.

Also, there is a left behind series for children. She probably get them for my son.

 

[rayne89]

sunnygirl807:

I have read the entire series of these books. There are subtle tones of anti-catholicism in this books. (By the way, the set was giving to me by my future mother-in-law, who watches TBN all day long). i.e. The only Catholics that were raptured were those with Protestant views. The anti-Christ did take on a leadership role similar to a pope. Of course, to a person that is non-Catholic, you probably won’t recognize the anti-catholicism in them. We who are will see it.

Also, there is a left behind series for children. She probably get them for my son.

My mother in law in Pentacostal and is very into the rapture hysteria. We get movies (illegally burned dvds) of all kinds of rapture movies from my in laws-which promptly go in the trash. She gave me the series to read but I could not even get past the first one. I found them very poorly written.

As far as our daughter goes if she gave the children books of that series to our daughter I would ask her to take them back. My mother-in-law told me at the end of this summer that next summer she was going to take a week off of work and have our daughter come stay with them so she could go to their vacation bible school. I didn’t respond to her comment figuring it was a year away but if she brings it up again next summer the answer will no, I’m sorry, I’m not comfortable with that. We go to her church when we visit but I’m not exposing our daughter to a week of once saved always saved theology and end times skits.

She was visiting us about a month ago and she saw a holy card I have of St. Anne. She asked who that was and I said Mary’s mother. She says I didn’t they made her a saint. I said well after all she raised a very holy daughter. And my mother in law says in front of our 9 year old why would Mary be considered so holy? My daughter look at my MIL like she was from another planet. She says Grandma she is Jesus’ mom!

Anyway my point was you have a right and responsibilty to raise your children in the Catholic faith. And to protect them from confusing doctrine while they are still being formed in the faith. I would suggest either decline accepting the books or put them away. Don’t feel you have to give them to your child because you mother in law wants him to have them. I doubt they would allow Catholic children’s books to be passed out to young children at their church.