L.B.: Nice people finish last

Last updated on: October 17, 2014 at 6:56 pm by Fred Clark

47 Comments

L.B.: Nice people finish last 2014-10-17T18:56:47-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Left Behind, pp. 59-66

Over the next several pages we find something new in Left Behind — sympathetic characters.

We meet three new people in these pages. None of them is particularly important and each serves mainly to move along the plot and to provide some helpful (and unsubtle) exposition. But LaHaye and Jenkins also want us to think of these minor characters as nice people.

The first is the suddenly, providentially appearing doctor who shows up to treat Buck Williams’ bleeding scalp.

He doesn’t come across as sympathetic to the readers, but that’s only because the readers — unlike the authors — still remember that just outside the airport club where the doctor is lounging about is a scene of human disaster and suffering desperately in need of medical attention.

Bracket that, as the authors do, and the doctor is a nice enough guy. He’s a little curt, perhaps, but in a world-weary way that’s kind of likeable.

Next up is a character we meet via Buck’s e-mail, “Steve Plank’s secretary, the matronly Marge Potter.” (So for those of you keeping score at home, that’s four female characters we’ve met by name so far: 1 ingenue; 2 madonnas; 1 whore.) Via e-mail, at least, she seems like a nice woman. Her expository note also tips us off that “nice people” is meant to be something of a theme in this section:

I hoped and prayed you’d be all right. Have you noticed it seems to have struck the innocents? Everyone we know who’s gone is either a child or a very nice person. On the other hand, some truly wonderful people are still here. I’m glad you’re one of them …

A couple pages later we’re back with Rayford Steele, hitching his way the last few miles to his suburban home. He encounters another very nice person, a “woman of about 40” who gives rides to strangers.

Why this sudden rash of nice people doing nice things and talking about niceness?

L&J here are offering the first hints of something they will explore in more detail later, but their basic point is the Calvinist doctrine that salvation is a matter of grace, not of works. They take this to mean that there will be many nice people and even good people among the unsaved who are left behind.

Like many American evangelical Christians, L&J would defend this idea by citing Ephesians 2:8-9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast …”

Like many American evangelical Christians, they will also steadfastly avoid citing — or even reading — the rest of that paragraph: “… For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The difficulty of reading verses 8 and 9 of Ephesians 2 without ever reading verse 10 is nowhere near as complicated as the gymnastics required for some of the selective omissions L&J have in store later in the series. Consider the complexity of reading Matthew 25:31-34 and also verse 46, without ever reading the 11 verses in between. Or reading Revelation 20:11-12a, 13a and 14-15 without ever reading the second half of those two verses.

Fear of a doctrine of “works righteousness” — salvation through good works — has led to a fear of good works themselves. This is not unique to L&J, although they do exhibit a particularly virulent strain of the disease. They believe the road to Hell is paved not with good intentions, but with good works.

Although this Protestant phobia of “works” derives from Calvin, the reformer himself wouldn’t have recognized it. His doctrine that “salvation is grace; ethics is gratitude” has been Americanized into “It’s not what you do; it’s who you know.”

As we will see in the chapters ahead — with their pornographic depictions of religious conversion — L&J’s soteriology is even further removed from that of the Reformation. Ultimately for L&J, salvation is not a matter of who you know, but of what you know. Left Behind isn’t Calvinist. It’s gnostic.

We’ll see much more in the coming pages about the divorce of faith and ethics. That separation is a major theme in this book.

Left Behind

Previous Post

August 16, 2004

The Dot-Org Crash

Next Post

August 18, 2004 Social Security quick change

Recent Comments

47 Comments | Leave a Comment

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category class warfare evangelicals Iraq Left Behind Mammon music Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many days did God take to create the world?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Seven Ten Two Six