As new Left Behind movie hits the screens on October 3. If it gets people thinking about our Lord and about being ready for his coming, that is a very good thing. Nevertheless, there is a theological premise behind the Left Behind series that is problematic biblically. It is a premise that I was taught soon after my conversion, but as I read the supporting verses in context I quickly became convinced that every one of them was being used out of context. (Apologies to my dear friends who still hold this view.)
This is a doctrine widely held today, yet not a single text explicitly supports it, and no one in history articulated this view before 1830. I comment on this problem briefly in the blog post I wrote for a wider audience at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-s-keener/left-behind_2_b_5883062.html
In addition, Huffington Post’s religion editor also interviewed me, along with two other scholars from varying perspectives, regarding this issue in the audio postcast (27 minutes) at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/03/all-together-left-behind-_n_5926750.html
Dr. Michael Brown and I also discussed the issue on his Line of Fire broadcast (http://www.lineoffireradio.com/) on Oct. 8, 2014.