Comments on: FlashForward Eschatology

By: Dani Atkinson

Dani Atkinson — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:39:20 +0000

That is frighteningly plausible, and also points out that you’d have zillions of competing explanations for any event like this.

I think that was gone into in the original novel. It’s been a while, but if I recall correctly, Sawyer interspersed the narrative with clips and excerpts from newspapers and magazines discussing the Flash-Forward event, with everything from the news reports on new cults and “expert” explanations, to classified ads saying “Hey, I totally caught a glimpse of the last three numbers for the big lotto win, did anyone see the first ones? Get in touch, and we’ll make a killing.”

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:49:00 +0000

Jota: That is frighteningly plausible, and also points out that you’d have zillions of competing explanations for any event like this. There’d be a lot of flavors of religions offering up one potential explanation or another, Art Bell would come out of retirement to listen to people talk about government experiments or aliens, and the Internet would burst into flames from all of the arguments.

Ross: I’d missed that! I need to go through those now.

By: Ross

Ross — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:58:20 +0000

Have you looked at “Right Behind”? It’s linked from Slacktivist and is a collection of short pieces suggesting how characters who were something more than spokespeople for the authors’ propaganda would react to the events of Left Behind. Also, there’s one where they rewrite Tribulation Force as an episode of Seinfeld.

Every once in a while, I see a car with a bumper sticker that says “In the event of Rapture, this car will be unpiloted”. The glee in the tone at the thought of turning their gas-guzzling SUV into a two ton dumb-fire torpedo aimed to negligently murder heathens makes me want to run them off the road.

By: Jota

Jota — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:06:15 +0000

Coincidentally, my mother actually suggested (in a randomly speculating, not particularly serious way) the upcoming Rapture as one explanation for why they were all seeing visions. Naturally, those who had no visions of the future were the ones who were already taken away.

By: links for 2009-10-14 | GFMorris.com

links for 2009-10-14 | GFMorris.com — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:30:15 +0000

[...] FlashForward Eschatology | Live Granades OUCH. (tags: gfmorris_comment) [...]

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:12:38 +0000

Jeff: It definitely foregrounds the question of theodicy. What’s presented in Left Behind is not that out of line for the Old Testament God, who was focused on a splinter of humanity and cared nothing for anyone else; it’s rather out of character for how Jesus presents God, and is a weird perversion of the evangelical impulse — sort of an “I’ve got mine, ha ha ha, and we’re not going to help you!” As Fred Clark points out over at Slacktivist, that’s a thread throughout the series. He’s partway through book 2, and there’s a select core of newly-minted believers who know what’s going on, know that Nicolae is the Antichrist, and respond by making sure they don’t tell the rest of the congregation about him.

Note that the idea of the Rapture isn’t core to Christianity, and in fact wasn’t introduced until the 1700s. The specific brand of Rapture that LaHaye and Jenkins is peddling is even newer.

Dylan: I’ve been a regular reader for years, but I don’t comment over there. That’s mostly laziness on my part more than anything else.

By: DylanW

DylanW — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:28:05 +0000

Do you post over at Slacktivist much? I read LBF regularly too, and I think I found this blog completely independently of that (I think it was the “If Christians made video games like we made t-shirts” post on Digg or Fark that got me to subscribe.)

By: Kismet

Kismet — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 23:16:18 +0000

And this word spanking is yet another reason I love you so much Doc.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:53:31 +0000

I tried the Left Behind series. I really did. I couldn’t get more than about fifty pages into the first book – just about the point you focus on. Everyone’s going about their day, the rapture comes, then BOOM the main character is suddenly saying “Where’s my wife and son, oh gee, that’s too bad?” And instead of freaking out, he starts saying “Gosh, I should have been a better Christian! Guess you showed me, God!”

By: Jeff Smithpeters

Jeff Smithpeters — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:33:22 +0000

Your recounting of the Left Behind rapture scenario begs a question that should chill Christians to the bone. Why would a God who would visit such tragedy on the world in the interest of rewarding a mere splinter of humanity be worth our worshiping and trusting? Wouldn’t this God have demonstrated he has no more compassion than a boy for the toy soldiers he melts with matchsticks?

No wonder the Christian Right is often so dismissive of the sufferings of those not of their own faith and so often falls in line when we go to war on innocents . . . they’re only behaving as their God would.