Rod Dreher has an interesting piece on a book that debunks the "end times" concept that has pushed the Left Behind books to the top of the Christian bestsellers list.
I’ve always been very wary of this kind of charismatic Christianity’s popularity. If anything, it’s based upon some very poor interpretations of Scripture that was never intended to be a direct correlation to the real world. The concept of the Rapture and other hallmarks of the end times idea are recent inventions with little or no historical or theology precedent behind them.
I can understand some of the fascination with the concept of the end of the world, but that kind of ideology can easily be overdone. Granted, these books do have some good moral messages, but there’s something about the way that they twist Scripture and teach an interpretation of the Bible that is literalist while still warping its meaning that just unsettles me.
Well, here’s something we can both agree upon…