December 2: Left Behind

Let me start off by saying that I don't remember too many of the details. I know there were some disappearances, a new world leader, some weird tattoos, and a white horse descending from the sky.

While in college, I bought a truck and got a job at a restaurant to help me make payments. In 2004, I quit my job and moved my belongings from my Junior-year dorm two hours south and spent one last summer living at home. I knew there wasn't any point in pursuing a job while on Summer Break because the chances of finding an employer willing to hire an outsider for such a short amount of time was slim; so I stayed at home with the parents for three months and did nothing. Interesting. Sounds like a recent trip of mine...

I suppose I could have gotten rehired at my mom's office to do more filing and other miscellaneous chores because that's what I had done the previous two summers, but I hated that job more than life itself and I just wanted a relaxing, unproductive summer. It was while with the office position that I met someone that was reading a particular series of books that she swore by. Because I had all the time in the world the following summer, I decided to give the series a go. Big mistake.

The Left Behind series is sixteen (you read that right) novels that deal with the end of times according to Christianity. I've never been a very religious person and I certainly wasn't one when I picked up the first book. I don't even know if I was aware of the general theme when I made the decision to read them, either. Did my cubicle neighbor warn me? I can't remember.

All I know is that the series scared me and continues to have a major impact on the way I view current events and 2012 rumors. The writing is terrible. The character development is lacking. The mere fact that it is based off of the events of the bible, however, scares the crap out of me.

In the first book of the series, millions of people around the world instantaneously disappear leaving only piles of clothes behind. These people were "true believers of Christ" and everyone that was left behind must find Jesus before his triumphant return fifteen books later. In the meantime, the Antichrist rises as a great deceiver, there are storms of locusts, a Jew converts to Christianity, the moon bleeds, and the earth quakes. All hell literally breaks loose.

I'm convinced that if the rapture happened tomorrow, I would be left behind. It concerns me because I want to believe in the right things, but I just can't bring myself to have complete faith in something I've never seen or experienced. If the books are accurate, I'm screwed. I don't want to endure the New World Order or the Mark of the Beast, but if I don't start believing now, I'm definitely going to be left behind to be put through these tests.

In the summer of 2004, I read the Left Behind series; all sixteen books. I laughed at the ridiculous dialogue and yawned through the repetitive bombings, earthquakes, floods, floods, earthquakes, and bombings. I was relieved when I completed the series, but as the years have passed and I hear rumors of a One World Bank and read about new wars starting, I continue to think back on the many events of Left Behind. What if it's true. What if I don't disappear?