Coming Soon: Left Behind

When I became a Christian in the late 90s, the Left Behind books were one of the biggest things happening in the Christian book market. The main concept behind it – that the rapture happened and all the Christians were taken up to heaven while everyone else was “left behind” on earth to deal with what happened next – was difficult for me to get my head around as a young Christian. The theology of the rapture was not something I’d encountered before and it wasn’t taught at my church. I never got far into the books and never saw the original Kirk Cameron movies (I’d hired the first one out once, but never got around to actually watching it). But later this year a new Left Behind movie will hit cinemas, this time starring Nicolas Cage. I’m going to assume that this is going to be a thing that Christians will want to pay attention to. There’s going to be media attention and people are going to be talking about the rapture.

That’s why I’m getting ready now. IMDB has the release date for sometime in June. Sometime in the next four months, i plan to:

• Read the original Left Behind novel
• Read some books and articles by respected theologians who believe in the theology of the rapture
• Try and bring my self to watch the Kirk Cameron version of Left Behind

My aim is to have some articles written here to help people be ready for the Left Behind movie and any conversations about Jesus that it might bring up.

Here’s a clip from the upcoming movie –

My question for you: what should I be reading about the rapture? I’m looking for something a little more on the academic side than the stuff written for the popular market. I want to make sure I’ve got my head around all this and not just dismiss it out of hand.