Tuesday 15 October 2002

Pic of the day: Unfortunate pragmatic. Could this be me some day? (Screenshot from DAoC, again.)

Left Behind Worship?

OK, this may be the strangest thing I have seen in the window of a Christian book & record shop. I just peeked in the window and there was a case, like a CD or DVD or something, called Left Behind Worship. And I thought, like, WHAT?!?

OK, my first association runs to the Left Behind series of religious thriller books, in which Christ has taken his faithful to Heaven, Satan has set up his world HQ in the capital of Iraq, and the second-rate Christians desperately try to survive and do some good in a world that actively persecutes them. At first I dismissed this association as ridiculous, but it kept hanging on to me, and I checked up on the Net when I came home. The CD is indeed being sold with The Remnants, one of the Left Behind novels.

Now stop and think for a moment. I know most of you aren't Christians, so it may seem kinda remote. But in our religion, it is pretty much accepted as a fact that Jesus Christ will someday come back and fetch those who belong to him, away from the tough times on Earth. He seems to have said so himself, and Jesus is kinda considered an authority on Jesus things. Those who are left behind, then, are by default not exactly the cream of Christianity.

If you're a Christian, why would you go out and buy Left Behind music when Jesus hasn't even come back yet? If you want to worship, why wait until you're left behind? That certainly makes little sense to me. You should start worshiping at once, if that's what you want. It's not like anyone will stop you. It certainly won't be any easier after Jesus and his loved ones have left the planet to let it marinade in evil for several years, as the prevailing theory is on the Great Tribulation. It's hard enough to be holy now that we're privileged, pampered and fat.

***

I guess it is the more disturbing because I can sort of identify with it. I don't really expect to be bridenapped by Jesus myself. For each passing year, it seems my faith wears thinner. In a way, it would be good if Jesus returned even if I was left for torture and death under the reign of the Beast. Not that I would like that, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to die for my faith if I could not live for it. But I think my joy on behalf of the planet, for there actually being a Savior, would do much to outweigh my own tragedy. Compared to the current possibility that we will all be sucked into a man-made black hole sometime in 2005, I'd say a few years of Antichrist and the False Prophet is a pretty good trade.

But most of all, I am baffled by the sheer implied hubris of thinking "I'll turn to God later, when it gets really hard to be a Christian." It sounds like "I'll get in shape AFTER I've had a heart infarct". I can see the attraction of it: Why bother if it doesn't happen? But it's not bloody likely that you'll be able to actually pull it off. Most likely you'll die pitifully whining. And that goes for me too, but at least I am kinda mentally prepared that this is how it's gonna end. Because, well, I'm not a very brave person. If I were, I would have joined sides with Satan back in the times when I believed that God actually tortured people forever for minor transgressions.

Perhaps they should make a CD with music for people who want to worship an evil God.

I praise you, God, because I fear
that you will smite me if you do not hear
me singing praises when I really feel
you are a bully and a callous heel.

Now that would be "left behind worship" to write home about. And it sure fits with Revelation 16,9: They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him. Left Behind Worship? Damned if I'd count on it.