Christian video game 'is a force for evil'

[Snowden]

Eternal Forces is set in post-apocalyptic New York. It features the Christian Tribulation Force against the keepers of the Antichrist, said to be based on the UN
Christian video game 'is a force for evil'

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
Call for ban on bestseller 'crusade'
Fantasy based on Book of Revelation


Articles of Faith: Ruth Gledhill's blog

A video game that depicts a crusade of violence by Christians could be heading for the bestseller charts this Christmas, even though it has been condemned by Muslims and secularists.

The game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, is set in post-apocalyptic New York and features God’s army battling the Antichrist.

Based on Left Behind, the bestselling Christian fantasy book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, it puts players in command of brainwashed legions fighting for Christianity.

Players are ordered to convert or kill to advance to the next level and remodel America as a Christian-controlled state, and establish its world vision of Christ’s dominion.

They pit battles between the paramilitary Christian Tribulation Force and the grey, faceless, Global Community Peacekeepers of the Antichrist, said to be modelled on the United Nations. The fantasy is based on what might happen if the events of the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, happened today.

Critics accuse its creators of mixing religion and violence to appeal to teenage fans of violent games such as Grand Theft Auto.
The game was sold originally in the US. British outlets are releasing the game for the Christmas market. The Left Behind books have sold more than 63 million copies.

Muslim groups have denounced the game as portraying Islam as evil and accuse its creators of insulting their faith. The Muslim Association of Britain called for the game to be banned, describing it as evil.

It said: “This game is irresponsible and highly racist. It demonises every other religion which isn’t Christianity. People must boycott this violent game.

“Games like this poison the minds of young people.”

Terry Sanderson, the president of the National Secular Society, said: “Fundamentalists on both the Christian and the Muslim side are creating this kind of nasty, extreme propaganda and aiming it at young people. I’m not into banning things or censoring them, but I think most Muslims and most Christians would recognise that this is crude and despicable hate-mongering and give it a wide berth.”

The creators of the game have dismissed the criticism, saying that the religious story- line in the game is not taken from the Bible and is a creation of the Left Behind authors, which should not be taken seriously.

Troy A. Lyndon, the chief executive of Left Behind Games, said: “The game is designed to be a classic battle between good and evil. We have deliberately censored the blood and it does not gratuitously depict death or violence. Left Behind is not taken from the Bible, it is a fictional story.”

A meeting of fiction and theology
Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’s bestselling series of 12 novels started in 1995 with Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth’s Last Days

President Bush is said to be a fan of the series.

The theological doctrine in the books and the new game is known as premillennial dispensationalism.

Neither the Church of England nor the Roman Catholic Church has said officially that it does not believe in this apocalyptic scenario
Christians in both churches endorse their belief in it in the Nicene Creed: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”


Christian video game 'is a force for evil' - World - Times Online

[Woodmonkey]

Originally Posted by Snowden

They pit battles between the paramilitary Christian Tribulation Force and the grey, faceless, Global Community Peacekeepers of the Antichrist, said to be modelled on the United Nations. The fantasy is based on what might happen if the events of the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, happened today.

< snip >

Neither the Church of England nor the Roman Catholic Church has said officially that it does not believe in this apocalyptic scenario
Christians in both churches endorse their belief in it in the Nicene Creed: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”

It's a fantasy all right and what is in the Nicene Creed isn't what is preached in these books, which BTW have made millions for the authors. They've got a good schtick going.

[Snowden]

Originally Posted by Woodmonkey

It's a fantasy all right and what is in the Nicene Creed isn't what is preached in these books, which BTW have made millions for the authors. They've got a good schtick going.

A ridiculous series, now a sick game. Christians doing the things that are said here to be done in the game is a terribly bad message, I believe.

Based on Left Behind, the bestselling Christian fantasy book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, it puts players in command of brainwashed legions fighting for Christianity.

I read the first book - that was more than enough. Clothes left carefully folded on plane seats as passengers disappeared - this is in the Book of Revelation? Not in any versions I've ever seen, and I've read a good many translations. Well, Ben says we have never read the Bible - only translations. Maybe the translators left that out, not knowing what airplanes were 1700+/- years ago. That's understandable.

"Brainwashed legions fighting for Christianity." Somehow, that too was left out of my Book of Revelation. It sort of sounds like most of Revelation has been left out of those books and are certainly left out of the game.

Players are ordered to convert or kill to advance to the next level and remodel America as a Christian-controlled state, and establish its world vision of Christ’s dominion.

Now, although pagans who converted to Christianity 2000 and coming this way through the centuries for a while, did convert by force, that has been realized not to be the way Jesus told us to convert. We are to "Go into all the world and tell the Good News." (Gospel) That's it; that's all we are told to do, and when we go beyond that, it is disobedience. We do not force, if we do what He said we are to do.

Also, Christ repeatedly said His Dominion is not of this Earth - what's this nonsense about the "world vision of Christ's dominion" all about? The promise is that all things will be made new. This earth is old - billions of years old, and darn unstable.

They pit battles between the paramilitary Christian Tribulation Force and the grey, faceless, Global Community Peacekeepers of the Antichrist, said to be modelled on the United Nations. The fantasy is based on what might happen if the events of the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, happened today.

It is not.

Critics accuse its creators of mixing religion and violence to appeal to teenage fans of violent games such as Grand Theft Auto.

Well, what's one more theft more or less? This lot has stolen the truth and corrupted it. It is a farce, and a rather dangerous one. I am inclined to agree that this is a force for evil - training the kids who will play it that violence is acceptable, that Muslims are evil, that we must kill, kill for God.

Islam is, IMO, evil because it is for forced conversion and the alternative to conversion is death. That is evil. Christianity does not teach that and never did. Once the converted pagans realized that, we stopped doing it, and today we don't want to start teaching it as the way to go. That's the way the terrorists are going, but we are not to do as they do.

Sometimes I feel like Mammy Yokum lately.

[Woodmonkey]

I don't see it as evil, just another violent game out there for kids, only this one disguised as Christian - and geared to make some bucks for the owner/developer.

[Snowden]

Originally Posted by Woodmonkey

I don't see it as evil, just another violent game out there for kids, only this one disguised as Christian - and geared to make some bucks for the owner/developer.

I disagree; I think it's definitely evil. Anything that presents Christianity as a violet religion is evil. You may disagree; that's your right, but I still view it as evil.