Saturday, May 13, 2006

More Entertainment To Confuse

As if my son was not confused enough about the Second Coming of Christ and the "rapture", now Tim LaHaye's site is promoting a Left Behind video game. It is said by LaHaye that the game will "communicate ideas like salvation".

In an interview Greg Bauman states:
In one cataclysmic moment, millions of people disappear, throwing the world into instant chaos. The Rapture has arrived, and those who have been saved are swept into Heaven. Our real-time strategy game takes place shortly after the disappearances as the Anti-Christ's forces are waging war on the remaining forces of good.
If everyone that is saved goes to heaven, who are these forces of good? Oh that's right, people get saved outside of the preaching of the gospel and the work of the church. Never mind.

I like video games. I even enjoyed Lucas Arts' Republic Commando. Running around and wasting time shooting lizards and blowing up robots can be fun for a gamer. Though, I simply do not see how sniping at an anti-Christ with a ray-gun leads men to Christ.

The Second Coming has often been complicated by some of the most complex systems. Dispensationalism's pretribulational theories not withstanding. Christians like my son are often left confused about "missing" the rapture, and God saving another people outside of the church during some Great Tribulation.

LaHayeism often tells us that there are no prophecies left to be fulfilled. Jesus could come back at any moment. Never mind the several prophecies that are yet to be accomplished. Never mind that the Gospel must be preached in every nation and every language (Rev 14:6).

So what is the meaning of this post? What does eschatology have to do with video games? Nothing really and so this post is meaningless. Then again, so are video games, which is why I like to play them.

;-)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Stimulating blog! My guess is that you would enjoy moving to Google and then typing in "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)" (he's a researcher that Falwell and LaHaye value and lean on), "Pretrib Rapture Diehards," "Appendix F: Thou Shalt Not Steal" (plagiarism exposed in LaHaye, Falwell etc.!), and "Famous Rapture Watchers" (revealing THE rapture view of choice between the years 1 and 1830). THE OBSERVER