Left Behind - Are We in the End Times?

About eleven years ago when I was a new Christian, Ithe Bible, namely Revelations. As I continued to read
read Tim LaHayes books; "The Left Behind Series".the books I became fearful that I would have to go
These are volumes of books ranging at aroundthrough the tribulation period and probably be
fourteen now. When I started reading them, I had notbeheaded for by faith. I was very disturbed by this until
yet read the book of Revelation and had noI was told that God's people will not be on this earth
understanding of end time prophesies. I think I was inwhile these things take place. I didn't understand why
Deuteronomy at the time I started reading theseuntil I read Thessalonians 4: 16-17 which says that "For
books.the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a
The first book started out with people disappearing onshout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the
an airline and people going crazy trying to find them. Ittrumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
was then discovered that this incident did not onlyThen we who are alive and remain shall be caught up
occur on the airline but all over the world. People cametogether with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
up missing, cars crashed into each other, airplanes fellthe air. And thus we shall be with the Lord forever".
from the sky, and complete chaos was happeningAnd as a believer, I wouldn't have to suffer this wrath
throughout the world. No one knew what happened. Itand persecution. I looked into this further and found a
was the most catastrophic event that had everyscripture that Paul says, "For God did not appoint us to
occurred in the world.suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord
The only things left behind from these missing peopleJesus Christ." 1 Thessalonians 5:9. This tells me that
were their clothes and jewelry. The media was in abelievers will not have to go through the tribulation
frenzy and people were looting stores, houses andperiod but will be caught up in the clouds with Christ.
anything they could get their hands on. Can youThat calmed my fears.
imagine this happening in our time? Can you imagineThese books are so true to life that I learned so much
the coverage CNN and Fox would be doing andabout Revelation and end time prophesies that after I
saying. What could they say that would calm the fearscompleted these books I consumed as much as the
of the people who were left behind. Some thought thatBible as I possibly could. I read the whole Bible in 3
aliens came for these people while others had no cluemonths and when I got to Revelation, I understood
to their disappearances.what the book was talking about. The Bible is the true
Then a man came on the scene that was theword of God written by his prophets and through the
anti-christ. In order to buy or sell anything you had toHoly Spirit these prophets wrote down what they
take the anti-christs number and put it on yourwitnessed.
forehead or your hand. The number was 666. If youWhether you're a new believer or have been a
didn't have the number you could be arrested, jailed,believer for some time, I recommend reading these
and even beheaded.books and aligning them up with scripture. Tim LaHaye
I could not put these books down because evendid a wonderful job telling us of the things that are
though they were fiction, a Christian friend of mine toldcoming and what to watch out for.
me that these books were taken from scriptures in