"The abnegation of reason is not the evidence of faith, but the confession of despair."
- J.B. Lightfoot
Friday, May 5, 2006
Kim "Not a Chick" Riddlebarger is reporting that Tim LaHaye's latest book, The Rapture, is set to release on 06/06/06. Classy.
Firstly, how many books on this made-up rapture thingy do we need? How many from this guy? When did this pretribulational rapture idea, which is only about 100 years old and has tenuous biblical support at best, become the golden calf of the evangelical imagination? (When it became a cash cow?)
Secondly, I'm willing to bet this is really just another repackaging of a previous LaHaye book, No Fear of the Storm which has already been released, by my count, thrice under three different titles (so that unsuspecting rapture addicts will shell out for it each time, thinking it's a new book). Off to investigate . . .
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Btw, Riddlebarger's A Case for Amillennialism is the bomb diggity, and according to the post linked above, it looks like he has another eschatological work set to release around the same time as LaHaye's. Might I recommend reading The Riddler's work instead?
(HT: Talking Out of Turn, who calls The Thinklings "infamous". That means "more than famous," right?)
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Update:
According to this article, "The Rapture is the third of three prequels in the 'Before They Were Left Behind' trilogy." So it is a new book.
The most disturbing thing in the article, however, is this quote:
On June 6, some Christian retailers are embracing the 666 theme by selling paperback editions of the Left Behind books for $6.66.
Oh no they didn't.
Trackbacks:
Trackback URL: http://thinklings.org/bloo.trackback.php/3029.
Comments on "Dear Lord, Make it Stop":
2. Raindream
- 05/05/2006 10:58 am CDT
The Man of Sin: Uncovering the Truth About the Antichrist by Kim Riddlebarger, due out June 2006
4. dbd
- 05/05/2006 5:09 pm CDT
"Almost every significant number in the story is the sum, remainder, product, or divisor of 666, i.e., 6+6+6, 6-6-6, 6x6x6, etc.," answers Jenkins. "In this case, 216 = 6x6x6."
My birth date: 3-25-1972
666 / 222 = 3 !
666 - 641 = 25 !!
666 x 2.961 = 1972 !!!
Well, I suppose I might as well accept my shadowy fate.
5. gina
- 05/05/2006 6:31 pm CDT
I've kinda been up for days with no sleep. But, didn't you say Kim is "not a dude" at the beginning and then say "he" has another book coming out soon?
6. Jon Edwards
- 05/05/2006 7:51 pm CDT
Tim leans on Tommy. That is, LaHaye leans on Ice. But if you think that Ice is a good person to lean on, especially for research, visit Yahoo and type in "Thomas Ice (Bloopers)." And to think that millions go ga-ga over the parnership of that dispensational duo. That pair doesn't know it yet, but one of these days they will need hiding places to escape the wrath of those they so willingly deceived! Jon
7. Danny Kaye
- 05/05/2006 11:33 pm CDT
I come at this from the point of ignorance (as is often the case!)
I've not read the books, and have no intention to do so. But I am correct in my assumption that they are novels? The authors of novels cannot deceive anyone.They're just stories. Kinda like those stories about prayer cover that I never read back in the early to mid '90s. (For all I know they could be the same books.
I dunno. I guess my point is that some people will always buy (meaning "to purchase" as well as "believe") theatrical, romantic, and sensationalized concepts.
If the books are novels, that is not the authors' fault. It would be one thing if he were doing seminars on the topic in order to sell books.
8. simon (of the big sort)
- 05/06/2006 4:56 am CDT
The difference is that these novels are written by people who have writting "non-fiction" that makes the same suggestions concerning the end times. They're simply using their novels as extended parables to preach what they believe to be "true".
Or at least what makes them money, anyway.
9. Jared
- 05/06/2006 5:47 am CDT
Gina, good catch.
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Simon:
Yep. Not even the authors regard the Left Behind series as "just novels." The majority of the readers believe they are plausible speculations as to how everything will go down.
You can tell they're not just novels whenever you mention to the average reader you don't think pretribulationism is true. I've had folks look at me like I was a heretic.
10. Debra
- 05/06/2006 1:00 pm CDT
I caught a news piece a while back that reported the discovery of one of the oldest fragments of the book of Revelations and it refers to the mark of the beast as 616. I had to laugh when I read about it....after all the wild speculations about the mysterious 666--it could turn out that it's a mundane number like 616.
11. Paul
- 05/06/2006 3:07 pm CDT
A Birthday Prayer
(My birthday is June 6)
Dear Lord,
All I ask for my birthday, on my birthday, is that you make Jared's wish come true. Please make it stop!!
14. Mark Weaver
- 05/08/2006 3:20 am CDT
Danny Kaye:
As a writer of fiction myself, I have spent a good deal of time contemplating the power of a story, be it based in fact, or fictionalized. Consider the impact of two works of fiction, one from history, and one from the present:
Uncle Tom's Cabin. President Lincoln reportedly called Harriet Beecher Stowe the "little lady who wrote the book that started this big war."
The DaVinci Code. Another very popular work of fiction that has had such an impact, I hear the Catholic Church is considering a lawsuit against the author.
Fiction can be very impactful, even to the Christian who should be sifting everything through the filter of Scripture.
15. Candide
- 05/08/2006 5:07 am CDT
Mark --
I think the power of The DaVinci Code is greatly hyped right now. In a year, I bet it is no more of an impact on our culture than Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I'd put money down.
16. Jared
- 05/08/2006 6:19 am CDT
Candide, I'd agree with you if TDC book hadn't been on the fiction bestsellers top ten chart for going on four years.
I just did some research on this for an article, and in a few weeks, TDC will surpass The Bridges of Madison County as the novel with the longest run in the top ten.
17. Damon
- 05/09/2006 12:56 am CDT
I wonder if the the film version of TDC wouldn't be so hyped up right now if the Christian McCarthy's weren't seeing a communist in every scene, or, well, you know what I mean.
Seems to me that when Christians lift the banners of war over every book, movie or speech made that it draws that much more attention to them, and has the sum effect of throwing a bucket of water on the forest fire that's outside your house. However it is accomplished, I think that we need to meet the challenges at their source, instead of being so reactionary... easier said than done, I know.
You know... I enjoyed the first what was it 97 or so of those books... Even though they were brain candy writing. (Stephen King would have done so much better - think The Stand gone biblical) But I got tired of it after awhile and never made it to the final what was it 74 books.
I find the whole concept of these new books extremely distasteful... because although I am not very cynical about Christian publishing and such - this does indeed scream "Cash Cow!!!" to me. Sigh.