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Joel's review

Left Behind
by Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27523.Left_Behind?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Left Behind" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1167881648m/27523.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27523.Left_Behind?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Left Behind</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15451.Tim_LaHaye">Tim LaHaye</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21548903?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 3 of 5 stars I read this book as an experiment. This is a Christian novel about the end of the world. By Christian I mean the "Born Again" type of Christian. 
 
 Overall, the plot was very interesting. There is a love interest that kept my attention pretty well as well as some intracompany as well as international politics. 
 
 I had also remembered seeing a Simpson's episode where they spoofed this book with a movie called "Left below". 
 
 The story begins with the "Rapture" which involves people accross the world simultaneously vanishing, leaving only their clothes behind. It soon becomes clear that all children and mostly active christians have disappeared. Many theories abound but the protagonist (an airline pilot who had some passengers disappear while in the air) discovers that his wife and son left because they were active in his church and he wasn't active and wasn't righteous. He had wanted to have an affair with his flight attendant, but never did. He soon becomes "converted to Christ" and becomes a religious zealot. His wife's church was almost completely vanished except for a few people, one of whom repents and becomes a zealous follower of Christ. There is a very interesting relationship between the flight attendant, the pilot, a prominent news reporter and several political characters who end up fulfilling biblical prophecy.
 
 
 
 The parts I had trouble with were mostly the religiously slanted items for example:
 
 - The conversion process (when the characters find God, and when they try to decide how to convert their friends) dragged on a bit too long. I tried to compare it to my own experience, but it was clearly slanted from the "born again" type of experience which is slightly different from my perspective.
 - Some of the Biblical interpretations seemed believable, but many of them seemed so strange or even unrealistic that I had trouble with them. Admittedly this comes from my different perspectives on interpreting the book of Revealation. I do not claim to be an expert on the book of Revelation, but the following interpretations didn't seem right to me:
 -it seemed odd that all the righteous should leave the earth 7 years before Christ's 2nd coming.
 -It seemed ridiculous that within a couple of weeks the United Nations would become top power and all nations would agree to destroy 90% of their weapons and give the rest to the UN.
 -Only one type of "Christian" was taken to heaven. Most catholics, for example were left behind, except the Pope, who was radical, and a few radical catholics. Many good people who didn't believe were left behind. This whole interpretation of the rapture seemed strange (so does the word rapture, I guess)
 -The establishment of a One world religion is as far fetched as anything. Still I think this is a literal reading of the book of Revealation
 
 
 Overall I was able to deal with these personal concerns enough to read the next book in the series.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1132119?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Joel's review
rating:
bookshelves: audiobooks

I read this book as an experiment. This is a Christian novel about the end of the world. By Christian I mean the "Born Again" type of Christian.

Overall, the plot was very interesting. There is a love interest that kept my attention pretty well as well as some intracompany as well as international politics.

I had also remembered seeing a Simpson's episode where they spoofed this book with a movie called "Left below".

The story begins with the "Rapture" which involves people accross the world simultaneously vanishing, leaving only their clothes behind. It soon becomes clear that all children and mostly active christians have disappeared. Many theories abound but the protagonist (an airline pilot who had some passengers disappear while in the air) discovers that his wife and son left because they were active in his church and he wasn't active and wasn't righteous. He had wanted to have an affair with his flight attendant, but never did. ...more I read this book as an experiment. This is a Christian novel about the end of the world. By Christian I mean the "Born Again" type of Christian.

Overall, the plot was very interesting. There is a love interest that kept my attention pretty well as well as some intracompany as well as international politics.

I had also remembered seeing a Simpson's episode where they spoofed this book with a movie called "Left below".

The story begins with the "Rapture" which involves people accross the world simultaneously vanishing, leaving only their clothes behind. It soon becomes clear that all children and mostly active christians have disappeared. Many theories abound but the protagonist (an airline pilot who had some passengers disappear while in the air) discovers that his wife and son left because they were active in his church and he wasn't active and wasn't righteous. He had wanted to have an affair with his flight attendant, but never did. He soon becomes "converted to Christ" and becomes a religious zealot. His wife's church was almost completely vanished except for a few people, one of whom repents and becomes a zealous follower of Christ. There is a very interesting relationship between the flight attendant, the pilot, a prominent news reporter and several political characters who end up fulfilling biblical prophecy.

The parts I had trouble with were mostly the religiously slanted items for example:

- The conversion process (when the characters find God, and when they try to decide how to convert their friends) dragged on a bit too long. I tried to compare it to my own experience, but it was clearly slanted from the "born again" type of experience which is slightly different from my perspective.
- Some of the Biblical interpretations seemed believable, but many of them seemed so strange or even unrealistic that I had trouble with them. Admittedly this comes from my different perspectives on interpreting the book of Revealation. I do not claim to be an expert on the book of Revelation, but the following interpretations didn't seem right to me:
-it seemed odd that all the righteous should leave the earth 7 years before Christ's 2nd coming.
-It seemed ridiculous that within a couple of weeks the United Nations would become top power and all nations would agree to destroy 90% of their weapons and give the rest to the UN.
-Only one type of "Christian" was taken to heaven. Most catholics, for example were left behind, except the Pope, who was radical, and a few radical catholics. Many good people who didn't believe were left behind. This whole interpretation of the rapture seemed strange (so does the word rapture, I guess)
-The establishment of a One world religion is as far fetched as anything. Still I think this is a literal reading of the book of Revealation

Overall I was able to deal with these personal concerns enough to read the next book in the series....less

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