Rapturous

I am not an evangelical.  Frankly, I find the group intimidating.  However, I can agree with them on one thing: The Left Behind Series is really really good.  I discovered it my junior year of high school when my aunt bought the entire series at a garage sale and they slowly made their way through my family.  My mother received them by mistake; she had tried, and failed, to read them previously and had no desire to try again.  She claimed she had been frightened, which was legitimate.  The chaos and catastrophe that occurs in the series is what the Bible claims will happen at some point before Jesus' Second Coming.

At the time, I was finishing up Confirmation classes in the Catholic Church, and had spent many Wednesday evenings poring over the Bible.  I decided to pick the first one up and give it a try, and to my surprise, I was hooked.  I sped through the series quickly, but because I saw them as fiction as opposed to a scary prophecy that was sure to come true.

The Second Great Awakening was a religious revival in America fueled by the proselytizing of oratorically   skilled pastors.  I feel if these books were available back then, fear would have played a major role in the conversion process.  Who would want to be Left Behind and suffer the plagues, the Antichrist, and the virtual Hell that the Earth turns into, when what is necessary to avoid it all is follow God, Jesus and His teachings from the start?  It would have been an excellent tool in convincing men and women to follow Christ.

I can't say I felt a sudden desire to amp up my Christianity in preparation for the Rapture.  I found the books to be extremely entertaining and held my attention. . .well, rapturously.