SERIOUSLY, HOLLYWOOD. WHAT DID YOU EXPECT? Well Hollywood, ticket sales were a flop, for a number of reasons. First, the media market has been saturated with books and films about post-Rapture events (take Tim LaHaye’s “Left Behind” series, for example). People got the message—if there is a pre-Trib rapture, the 7-year Tribulation will be hell on earth! And that’s supposed to be the “good news” from the revelation of Jesus Christ, right? That leads to the second point. With all the media-hype over the past couple decades about a secret Rapture, Christians across all denominations are talking more about it. And that has been leading more of them to question if there really will be a secret coming before Jesus’ glorious coming. Works like the “The Apocalypse Code” (Hanegraaff) are challenging Christians to rethink about what has been fed to them and so quickly swallowed—especially when leading proponents confess that the foundation of their teaching is biblically weak and out of synch with the majority of scholars! (see LaHaye, Revelation Unveiled; p. 100, 101.) Third, I think that there is a whole lot of Christians that are becoming uncomfortable with this teaching. After all, do most Christians really believe that they’re presently “saved,” when in fact so many do “not remain separated from the world” after professing to be saved? As LaHaye himself reminds his “left-behind” readers, there are “many so-called ‘Christians’ [in the] churches today” who live as if they are actually of the “synagogue of Satan, not the Church of Jesus Christ” (p. 55). According to the Rapture theory, these self-deceived Christians will be bound on earth for 7 hellish years! Now think about that. Is that the kind of “good news” that someone is going to run out and buy a ticket for? On the flip side, I have to wonder how successful Hollywood would be if it produced an eye-popping film on the wonders of heaven (imagination needed!). After “Noah” and “Left Behind,” Christians would probably rush to the doors if there really was some Good News in the theatres. Keep studying!
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 22:21:51 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015