Left Behind......Film Review

         It's one of my wife and my favorite type of days. We get in the car, stop at McDonalds where I get a large coffee and she gets a caramel frappe, and we head off somewhere. It might be to a craft show in some rural Ohio town, or a Greek food festival, or a museum or on occasion when I get it my way we visit a college campus, any campus, where I can walk around and ponder the many reasons why, and effects of, our living in a Facebook culture, were we are skilled at twittering out 140 characters on an iPhone but totally unable to analyze just why social media might not be the healthiest thing for the mind, or the body, or the country.
         Today was special. We went to the movies but had to travel an hour to get there. I had planned it out that we could stop for lunch and then arrive at the theater just in time for the film to start, missing all the previews of movies I have no intention of seeing. The GPS had us arriving at the restaurant and allowing us thirty minutes to eat and then ten minutes to get to the theater, buy the tickets, the popcorn and drinks. But alas, the "best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray!" Where we lost the time I'm not sure. We consumed half of our burgers without choking and boxed the other half. We had paid before the food arrived thanks to the help of the waitress and were in the car attempting to finish the meal while looking for theater signs on the very busy six-lane boulevard. I pulled up to the theater entrance and let my wife out while I parked the car and made it to the ticket counter just in time to hear the cashier say "We don't have that movie here."
         My wife would have given up but I'm of a much more stout-hearted mold. I was searching the Internet while walking back to the car and found the right theater. I wasn't exactly swerving in and out of lanes but I did get a honk of the horn or two. We didn't have time to let our eyes get accustomed to the dark for we had missed a few minutes of the film but I felt my way down to the front and we were seated. I looked up and don't think I have ever been that close to the screen in my life.
         I wouldn't have gone to see Left Behind if it didn't star Nicolas Cage. What can I say....I like the guy. The critics panned this film with a Christian message. My thinking has always been that the more they pan a film like this the better it must be! And it was good. The Christian message of coming judgement and the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior was strong. The casting was well done, the script was simple and pure, the cinematography was at times striking and the special effects were believable.
        There is no 'Rapture' as the film portrayed. Scripture does not say that Christians are going to be raptured prior to the Tribulation. All of the redeemed on this earth will indeed be taken up as Jesus returns with all of His mighty angels and the scenes in the film of chaos after the rapture may be very similar to when Jesus does return. The message in the film was not as much 'we are not going to be here' as 'judgement is coming to this earth.' Having such an accomplished actor as Nicolas Cage face what was happening all around him was alone worth the price of a ticket. How this film is doing at the box office I don't know but it will live on on DVD and probably television should our Lord tarry, which is looking less and less likely as these chaotic days go on. Multitudes will indeed be 'left behind' when that trumpet sounds and the timing within the Tribulation which is revealed to us in God's Word is an uncertainty to us at this time, but it will not be before this world experiences many cataclysmic events of various sorts. Cataclysmic events that appear to be on our very horizon!