Rating  - Biblical? Not Really
I grew up a fundamentalist as my father is a pentecostal minister. I use to believe in all of this, so there was some nostalgia in reading this book. I have long since become disillusioned with my former beliefs and no longer see things the way I use to. I recently re-read Revelation, not because I care about the bible, but because my father rants and raves about its prophecies constantly and I wanted to know what the book actually says. Let me just say it was an eye opening experience. While the Left Behind series makes for an entertaining read for some, the authors really have no right to call their story biblical. Now I will say obviously that it wouldn't matter in terms of my own beliefs if the book was straight forward. But even from a christian point of view all this anti-christ apocalyptic stuff should be downright bizarre. None of this in there explicitly, and most of this one would have to stretch a great deal in order to force its presence into John's words.
The book is muddled, partly because the man who wrote it had been severely tortured and was understandably not in his right mind and partly for a specific purpose. John was a member of an oppressed group that was being wiped out by Nero and the Roman empire at the time. He wrote in code so that only other followers would understand what he was saying. The result is a book that makes absolutely no sense without enormous understanding of historical context and textual references. If one simply reads it without outside knowledge, you can read any prophecy you want into it. Revelation is in no way straight forward and no, it is not clear about all this anti-christ, tribulation, etc. Modern day people have formulated an interpretation and forced it upon the words of the text and made it fit. None of the Left Behind series is really 'biblical.' It is merely the result of what is a rather odd interpretation of the bible. The flaws of religion being the flaws of the people who create said religion is no more apparent than in this interpretation of Revelation. I would also like to point out that the book itself starts off by saying the time IS at hand. Which means its not even a prophecy, it's about the time they were living in. Of course the evil dragon, son of satan, so called 'anti-Christ' is Nero himself. No kidding John would look at him as being the source of all that was evil. Nero was a sadistic whack job who loved to kill Christians by feeding them to lions (which explains why one of his faces is a lion by the way). None of Revelation makes any claim as to be about anything other than what it is saying, a symbolic vision about the chaotic time at hand for John and his fellow followers. All of this end of the world prophecy stuff is complete nonsense if you simply read the book for what it is rather than having an inerpretation going in.
The entire point to my rant is please, stop claiming your paranoid delusions as being the product of the bible. It's not. Your own book doesn't support your theories and this book is simply fiction pretending to be gospel. Frankly I found the book a little stale at that, nothing that can't be read elsewhere or heard at some tent revival. I have no idea where the whole interpretation of revelation as some road map to the future came from, but it is incredibly peculiar and in no way based on the actual text. There will be no rapture, no tribulation, no anti-christ. Everything Revelation was talking about happened a very long time ago. Yet for some reason many Christian groups, especially the pentecostal AG I grew up in, love to have this perception that they are persecuted. That their rights will be stripped away and that they will be oppressed or are already oppressed and that the world is heading into this period of great religious repression. Yeah a president was elected simply because he said he was born again. You people are really persecuted. At any rate, my rant is over. The book is terrible both in that it is a borring and trite fiction concerning the end of the world, and in the fact that it claims to be biblical when it in no way resembles anything from the bible.
Rating  - Some people need to read a book before reviewing it.
First off if you READ the book (and the series)it depicts events in this order:
1) The Rapture
2) the Tribulation
3) The SECOND COMING (this is NOT the rapture, folks!)
Now, with that little item corrected from earlier posts that apparently did not read the book, let's move on.
The story started out a bit slow for me. I must admit I was a good 3 or 4 chapters in before I was really interested in continuing this story. The characters took a long time to become anything resembling life-like characters.
As to biblical ties and what not, people keep forgetting this is a fictional story. It is the author's take on Biblical interpretation, but it is FICTIONAL. When you go looking for this book, you don't find it in the non-fiction section. You find it in the fiction section. Inspirational fiction maybe but still fiction.
Readers need to concentrate on the morality of the story, less on factual inaccuracies to which they can not testify, as they were not around during the times of Jesus.
These stories were not written as a means through which people can start to define their own theology. They were written as a message to believers and unbelievers alike.
Jesus Christ is THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIGHT. No one comes to the Father but "through me." (Jesus said that...)
Left Behind is an introduction to a series that has changed lives. If you go looking to it for theology, it is not the fault of the writer(s) who make no claims other than that they have interpreted events using their training, education, experience and knowledge of Biblical prophecy. They aren't trying to start a new religion. They're simply trying to revive a dying one.... trying to get people to understand it's okay to love Jesus in a world that seems to have forgotten him.
Rating  - So very good!
I recently had a large accident in which cars and half of my brain was taken out of half my brain because of the accident.
This book has been kept me safe and company. It is the best books ever written!!!!
GOD BLESS KEEP AND YOU!!!!
Rating - Very Enjoyable!
Left Behind (book#1) by Tim F. LaHaye is a story that follows the lives of several characters that in the blink of an eye.....their lives changed. In an instant, millions of people around the world disappeared off the face of the earth. As you can imagine, this makes for a very interesting storyline. As they excitement builds in the storyline, Tim LaHaye has cleverly woven in the signs that are actually in the bible that some say are there to warn us of events to come. The part I liked the most about the book is that when ever it would make religious references they would be easy to understand what exactly they mean and it's really interesting to see how the character relates it to his own situation in such a real and possible way. It's really easy to imagine yourself in the same positions that they are in.This is a great book for both Christains and non-Christains.
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