Why Left Behind should be left behind.

I just returned from seeing the Left Behind remake and I am reminded of many memories of my childhood. This poorly done remake focuses solely on the plane ride of those who were left behind after the rapture. This movie was laced with horrible acting, awful implications (such as an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease getting left behind or the one Arab in the movie being a Muslim who gets left behind), horribly cheesy Christian merchandise on the items of all the Christians, and simply put horrible theology. If that was not bad enough the movie ends [SPOILER] with the plane finally landing, everyone embracing, and the three protagonists, Ray, Chloe, and Buck holding hands as Mark 13:33 plays across the screen. As the credits played to Jordan Spark's rendition of I wish we'd all been ready I could not help but, see the evangelistic theme of the film. It was clear that this horrible theology was turned into a movie to draw in people so they will be scared into Salvation. This worries me and is not how I believe Salvation should work. It may have worked before but, it hardly works now and seems pretty manipulative.

This idea of the rapture comes from Dispensational Premillennialism theology which did not even originate until the 19th century by a Revivalist known as John Nelson Darby. As cheesy as this film was it worries me. The fact that Hollywood finds a need to remake this film makes me worry that people will see this and buy into the theology of escapism. Left Behind and these ideas of the rapture lead to thoughts of the earth--which God created and said was good in Genesis--being evil and meant to be destroyed and that we should be taken from it. This line of thinking can lead Christians to believing we should not care for the earth because one day we will leave it. I find the words of protagonist Chloe Steele in this new adaptation to accurately describe how we should view this theology when she says, "The God my mother talked about would never do this!" 

Instead we should view Revelation as liturgy for what has happened filled with allegories, metaphors, and symbols. We need to view Revelation as we would view the entirety of Scripture: out of a hermeneutic of love. The point of Scripture is God's love and his saving grace. Scripture tells us Jesus is coming to renew this earth that He said was good and building the Kingdom of Heaven here. This is not escapist theology. This is a theology of caring for creation, of loving your enemies and neighbors, of showing everyone what God's love looks like and how we can better build God's kingdom here. A Kingdom without violence, terrors, hate, isolation, exclusion, and destruction. A Kingdom where people are not Left Behind.

For more great resources on this see:
Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness by Michael Gorman 
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thepangeablog/2014/06/05/a-raptureless-theology/
Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright