A Theological Critique of the "Left Behind" Films

I present reflections on the theology touched on by both movies entitled, Left Behind. Notwithstanding the many ridiculous elements in the storyline, I am isolating my comments to the theological messages of the films. Unfortunately, there are few theological lines to review. The movies appear to be made more for entertainment than education. If there is an educational goal, it seems to be to scare viewers into conversion. This may be difficult to do since the films are made to satisfy a Christian audience. Each section below includes the time of the scene, quotation, character speaking, followed by my analysis.

Left Behind (2000), starring Kirk Cameron

00:32 “How do we describe both, a beginning and an end? We should have known better, but we didn’t. What does it matter what we think we know? In the end, there’s no denying the truth.” – Buck (speaking as narrator).

This is the introductory statement preceding the first scene. It is never made clear to what Buck is referring to: the beginning and end of what? This is not a theological quandary, but knowing the producers’ vision would be helpful in comprehending their message. His statement, “What does it matter what we think we know?” presumes that anything we might know is irrelevant, but it comes right after stating that we should have known. And know what? That the Rapture was coming? These lines set the tone for the whole movie, which is to say, it is an “I told you so” film. Lines like these are geared to make those already believing in the Rapture feel justified that their interpretation is about to be validated in the next 98 minutes. To anyone watching this without preconceptions, only the last line makes sense. The only problem with the last line, about truth, is that the movie is claiming to present it.

08:58 “War will continue until the end. Desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for seven years.” – A prophet (probably one of the two witnesses from Revelation 11).

The prophet’s speech is a butchered rendition of Daniel 9:27, “And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come the one who makes desolate, until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, gushes forth on the one who makes desolate.” Notice how the producers left behind the details of stopping “sacrifice and grain offering.” One need only ask, when in history, after Daniel’s time, did lawful sacrifices in Israel cease. This would either be when Antiochus Epiphanes outlawed it or during the temple destruction by the Romans in AD 70. Furthermore, Daniel 9:20-27 describes the need for Israel to have seventy weeks (of years) to “make atonement for guilt, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and anoint the Most Holy Place” (Dan. 9:24), none of which is said to take place at the time of the Rapture. Instead, the producers would have us believe that this kicks off the seven- year tribulation.

40:18 – “‘In the beginning…’ [reading Genesis 1:1] It’s a little late for that.” – Rayford

This is not a direct theological statement but more of a comment to the audience that the movie takes place closer to the end of the Bible and the beginning. The problem I have with this statement is, any time parts of the Bible are dismissed because they’re not what the readers are looking for, then presuppositions are likely to dictate how people interpret what they do read. Furthermore, I am skeptical that anyone can interpret Revelation correctly without a comprehensive understanding of Genesis 1-11.

59:20 – “Here’s what we need: some sort of connection between the temple, the tracks of land,

and the destroyed planes.” – Buck

I cannot believe this line is in the movie! It’s too ironic. This is the formula for Rapture advocates: extract verses from all over the Bible and patch them together to form “some sort of connection” to support their beliefs.

1:05:25 – “They’re not coming back.” – Rayford

This is odd for Rayford to say about the people who have disappeared, since pretribulationism teaches that raptured believers will return after seven years.

1:12:40 – “1 Thessalonians tells us that the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” – Pastor Billings

The pastor is quoting 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. Buck is amazed to learn that the pastor predicted this passage would apply to their current situation involving millions of disappearances. I am also amazed that a pastor would come to this conclusion since the topic of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 is the resurrection of the dead. No mention is made of tribulation, removing living believers from a state of tribulation, nor anything about seven years. And although I disagree with aspects of posttribulationalism, it rightly counters the concept of a secret snatching of believers as contradictory to the description of verse 16 (and Matthew 24:30-31).

1:13:20 – “It’s all in here, including that, Ezekiel 38… God promised to protect Israel from total annihilation by her enemies from the North, miraculously. It’s all in there exactly as you witnessed it… it’s Daniel 7: the Rapture, the vanishings, this marks the beginning of the rise of the antichrist. He will control 10 kingdoms, which, in turn, will control the world… 2 Thessalonians 2: And the antichrist will sit in the temple of God, and he will declare to the whole world that he is God… Make no mistake about it. It’s written in the scriptures. He will rebuild the temple. I guarantee it… They’ll make peace with Israel. Daniel 9 chapter [sic] 27, and he will confirm a covenant with the many for seven years.” – Pastor Bruce

Here is the greatest abuse of biblical authorial intent and the most ridiculous nonsense presented as solid biblical interpretation I have ever seen in a Christian movie (including the God’s not Dead series). Four passages are used here to confirm the plot of the movie. Pastor Bruce lies by claiming to know that current events are fulfillments of three prophecies and one letter in the Bible. He adds and takes away from the text to make it sound plausible. First, Ezekiel 38 specifies that a great earthquake will cause “the mountains to be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground” (Ezek. 38:19-20). These same events are described in the seventh bowl of wrath (Rev. 16:17-20) and are not in conjunction with a Rapture. Second, Daniel 7 is not described at all by Pastor Bruce; rather, he says mysterious words and phrases associated with pretribulationism. You will not find the words, rapture, vanishings, nor antichrist. The fourth beast that has ten horns, which is what Bruce means by ten kingdoms, and devours the whole earth is conclusively identified to unbiased scholars as the Roman Empire. Third, Paul is addressing the brethren of Thessalonica in 2 Thessalonians 2 about their current situation. Understanding “The day of the Lord” (2 Thess. 2:2) to mean the Rapture or “the wrath to come” (1 Thess. 1:10) as the seven-year tribulation would not make sense to the Thessalonians. Furthermore, there is not one figure in all of Scripture known as the antichrist. It is a term used to describe anyone who denies that Jesus is the Son of God. Lastly, Daniel 9:27 is quoted in part and out of context, as previously mentioned. It is worth noting that the seventieth week described in Daniel 9:24-27 is the only passage on which proponents of a seven-year tribulation base their entire theory. It is a single pillar, which must be cherry-picked from the entire construct of the prophecy and woven together with other dissected scriptures to form a scenario scary enough that Americans would want to believe it. If one cannot find the seven-year tribulation supported in Scripture, then one must ask what need is there for a Rapture, and is there a world-wide antichrist?

1:15:50 – “The Bible says that if you don’t put your faith in God, you will be deceived.” – Rayford

“What? You think your being here is an accident? You know what I’m talking about. You can feel him? You can feel God tugging at your heart. Don’t ignore him.” – Pastor Bruce

I agree that Rayford’s statement to Buck is a message we can all take away from the Bible. Pastor Bruce takes it too far and gets weird, especially when talking to a person he just met. He lived a lie until a few days ago, and now he’s telling a stranger that God is “tugging at his heart” in a guilt-ridden attempt to convert him. He should not be preying on Buck’s vulnerability and stick with facts.

1:21:45 – “It’s true. All of it’s true.” – Buck

Poor, poor Buck. Those trying to persuade Buck of the reality of the Rapture use phrases like, “It’s all in here [the Bible]… [Ezekiel 38] reads exactly the way you witnessed it… Make no mistake about it; it’s written in the scriptures… I guarantee it.” There is little room for Buck to conclude for himself what the evidence suggests because he’s read nothing in the Bible for himself. For a journalist whose personality has been thus far established as one that asks questions and gets answers, he now acts out of character and leaves the room after hearing one rushed interpretation designed to support the preconceptions of the producers. It feels clear that the producers want viewers to be diverted back to the plot rather than think too hard about their inadequate biblical support.

1:35:15 – “Everything the Bible predicted is happening. If this is true and the antichrist is coming to power, then this is just the beginning. The next seven years are going to be the worst that mankind has ever seen. Our only hope is to join together and trust God. I don’t have all the answer, but for now, faith is enough.”

– Buck (speaking as narrator)

The movie completely failed to show that “Everything the Bible predicted is happening.” Unfortunately, Buck has no answers. He has been fed a solitary explanation that he believes, not because he was persuaded by facts but because the producers convinced him with plot twists. As a journalist who should be on a fact-finding mission, he quickly abandons all training and reason and, instead, jumps on the believer-bandwagon simply because what a few people told him made sense at a time when he was vulnerable by unprecedented tragedy. False explanations can make just as much sense as the truth. We need to ask ourselves what the Bible teaches instead of approaching Scripture attempting to justify a theological position.

Left Behind (2014), starring Nicolas Cage

13:28 – “If you look hard enough, you will see whatever it is that you are looking for. Now, you might have to ignore a lot of other things to do it, one of them might be the truth.” – Buck

After hearing this line, I had to ask myself, is this movie a parody of the original? This form of eisegesis is precisely on what the Rapture theory is based.

24:40 – “I have been praying for you to come home, and I believe that is why God brought you here.”

– mom

“God did not bring me home… I bought the ticket. I got on the flight. God had nothing to do with it.”

– Chloe

The mom is clueless if she thinks claiming to know God’s will is a compelling argument to convert her daughter. I’m a Christian, and I cringe when I hear other believers describe faith as praying and wanting something badly, hoping that God will honor how much they want it and reward their version of faith by forcing it to happen.

32:25 – Rapture happens: screen flashes white, low instrumental boom sounds for 2-3 seconds, and smoke comes out of where kid was standing.

The screen flashing completely white and the sound effect were merely to heighten the drama for the viewers and were not seen nor heard by those left behind because no one says anything about it the rest of the movie. In fact, when Buck later asks two passengers if they noticed anything unusual either right before or during the disappearances, both tell him no. He had even specified “a flash, a sound, anything?” However, one would think Chloe would mention how smoke came out of her brother’s clothes when he disappeared. Like in the previous Left Behind, this scene bears no resemblance to 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, even though it is taught to be the foundational verses supporting the Rapture.

1:18:35 – “He took them to protect them… from the darkest time in the history of this world: persecution, war, and seven years of darkness. He took them to heaven.” – Pastor Barnes

God has not ever spared believers from persecution, war, or darkness. There are biblical passages about protecting believers from the wrath of God, but we are guaranteed tribulation and persecution.

1:44:30 – Screen reads, “ But of that day and that hour knoweth no man. Mark 13:32.” This is followed by credits showing while the song, “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” by Larry Norman (1969) plays.

This verse, which is repeated in the fuller text of Matthew 24:23-44, is describing when Jesus comes again to earth and not removing Christians from it. The lyrics reinforce the idea that people should be scared into quick conversions.

Viewers are encouraged to download a free pdf copy of my thesis, An Evaluation of Rapture Theology, from the Books tab.

August 19, 2024