Left Behind Game Has Jєωs Asking, 'How Much Do Pro-Israel Christians REALLY Love Us?'

Dec 3rd, 2006 10:37 AM
By Stan Goodenough

A growing number of Jєωs are wondering how trustworthy Christians are who say they love Israel but embrace a teaching that sees the Church heading for glory while the Jєωs head for another h0Ɩ0cαųst.

Israel's biggest circulation daily, Yediot Ahronot, Thursday ran a report [ http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3334059,00.html ] on its Ynetnews website about the release of a hot new computer game based on a runaway American best-seller prophecy novel.

Described as extremely impressive graphically, and consequently a guaranteed hot sell, "Left Behind - Eternal Forces" pushes the same eschatological line as the books, which see all the world's Christians taken into heaven while the Jєωs are left on earth to go through "the Great Tribulation" or "time of Jacobs trouble."

This period of intense persecution culminates in the destruction of two-thirds of the world's Jєωs, while the surviving one-third convert to Christianity and are saved.

More than 75 percent of pro-Israel American Christians are believed to subscribe to this interpretation of how our age will end.

"Where do we fit into all this? asks Ynetnews reporter Noam Reshef. Is it "good for the Jєωs?" "Jєωs and Israelis will find the series' plotline extremely troubling, to say the least."

"Left Behind," he concludes, "supports Israel but portrays Judaism as a mistaken religion."

Reshef's report is just the latest in a series of articles that have appeared in recent years as interested, curious, suspicious and concerned Jєωs have sought to understand the beliefs and motives of the evangelical Christian community which is increasingly viewed as Israel's last and only ally in the world.