Lights, Camera, Apocalypse!

The end of the world is very popular, it seems. Christian fiction that depicts Armageddon, the end of human history where Christ and Antichrist enter into open combat, keeps setting new sales records in book form while the movies are doing rather well, too. Conflict between God and Satan makes for very heavy drama - although we already have that in the Bible, so why the need to reproduce it in a new form?

An article in the Globe and Mail reports:

Why this fascination with our own cataclysmic demise? For one thing, the times are biblically ripe, says Toronto director André van Heerden, who co-produced Left Behind: The Movie . The attack on Manhattan's twin towers, the war in Iraq, and the constant threat of terrorism have made people fearful about the future. ...That uneasiness was reflected last year in a Time Magazine/CNN poll. It found 59 per cent of Americans believe the end-of-the-world prophecies in the Book of Revelation will come true. About 25 per cent believe the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were predicted in the Bible. And 17 per cent believe the world will end in their lifetime.

The real problem with such beliefs, of course, is that too often they can lead a person to think that they have to "help" history along by making sure that the end of the world arrives in a timely fashion. Part of this may stem from a need not to be wrong, but much may stem from a firm belief that the person has in their ability to know exactly what God wants - and that they are God's chosen instrument.

More:

• Armageddon
• Project Megiddo