The reboot of “Left Behind” is set to hit theaters today (October 3rd, 2014) starring Nicolas Cage. I won’t be seeing this film in the theaters…if ever. It’s not that I don’t like Nic Cage, in fact I’ve always been a fan. It’s that I just can’t support a movie that wields such a horrendous, unbiblical view about eschatology.
How I Could Watch “Left Behind”:
Have you ever played the “what if” game? It’s a kind of game that allows you consider the “what if’s” in life. For instance, what if I watched this movie? Well, if I were to watch this movie (which I probably wont, I’ll just wait for the next National Treasure movie to get my Nic Cage fix) I would wait for the dvd release, curl up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and watch this movie in conjunction with any other sci-fi genre movies that I enjoy watching. I might even possibly watch this movie on “cheesy movie night” a designated family movie night where we gather around the living room and watch movies that have absolutely no bearing on reality. This one, (Left Behind) quite possibly would be right after Sharknado and that other academy award winning (sarcastic cough), awesomely bad/awesomely cheesy second installment Sharknado 2. What an awesome cheesy movie night that would be!
The Real Problem With Left Behind:
Some are using this apocalyptic movie as some sort of credible means to evangelistically scare the literal hell out of people, cue up the childhood memories of watching A Thief In The Night. 
I am all for loving people into the kingdom and for everyone to be introduced to Christ…but this, in my opinion, is NOT the way to go about it. People shouldn’t be coerced into finding Christ through fictional-theatrical ploys such as this. Real relationships with real people = real evangelistic opportunities to know Him. Not some marketing campaign in which the writer of this fictional story makes a killing even in a mediocre movie release.
I love movies. I am a sci-fi geek, I openly admit this. I also love reading and understanding God’s Word and digging deeper to better understand what it says; but I just can’t mash these two things together in THIS movie and come away feeling the truth and even “End Times” truths have been accurately represented in this work of fiction. This is horrible theology.
IF you go to see this film in the theaters (and I hope you don’t)…
Don’t go to see this film if you want to know more about God.
Don’t go spend your $10 plus dollars on a movie ticket and then a $100 dollars on movie priced snacks (seriously who pays $30 for a bag of soggy popcorn and a soda?) and enter the theater thinking you’re going to uncover the truths of Revelation and how it’ll all “go down”. Please show me anywhere in scripture where the depictions of Left Behind are in anyway accurate!?
Don’t drink the Left Behind cool-aide and then begin chanting in “Kirk Cameron we trust“, oh wait he isn’t in this one. I’m sorry if this come off as cynical. I’m just sort of sensitive when scripture gets misrepresented and then attempts to become a big money maker…it sort of grinds on me that way. It’s fiction, take it for what it is. Don’t use it as some sort of evangelistic campaign. It just comes off as disingenuous.
Who knows, maybe six months from now I might be curled up on the couch eating my popcorn as the credits roll on Sharknado 2 and think “what the heck, let’s watch another cheesy sci-fi movie” and then Left Behind starring Nic Cage might come to mind. Who knows, maybe then I’ll watch it and roll my eyes…it could happen.
-Just a thought, and a rather opinionated (more than usual) blog post.
Pastor's Ponderings 
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