idle banter

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Left Behind: the game


There are some pretty strange things on the net. Some good, some bad, and some just plain weird. Falling into the last category is this game- LEFT BEHIND : Eternal Forces.
Wage a war of apocalyptic proportions in LEFT BEHIND: Eternal Forces - a real-time strategy game based upon the best-selling LEFT BEHIND book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. Join the ultimate fight of Good against Evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers, and uncover the truth about the worldwide disappearances!
...
· Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.

· Recover ancient scriptures and witness spectacular Angelic and Demonic activity as a direct consequence of your choices.


So, a Christian-themed game that they are hoping might get a 'T'rating (suitable for those older than 13) where, amongst other things, you get to shoot unbelievers and the 'lukewarm'.

An LA Times article has this to say:
One of the series' authors, Tim LaHaye, said the game had the potential to communicate ideas such as salvation to people who might not think of themselves as particularly interested.

"We hope teenagers like the game," LaHaye said. "Our real goal is to have no one left behind."


Thoughts?
(I'll throw my 2 cents in a little later)

posted by Peter le Roux at 3:27 pm

4 Comments:

  • what a load of hogwash. these people are the same people who cry that sex and violence on tv is the cause of prostitution and teen pregnancy. They would say these are the signs of the "end times".

    and now they're hoping for a T rating... because their "godly" game is violent!

    what crap!

    By Blogger barry, at 6/04/2006 04:38:00 pm  

  • i'm more interested in a conversation about the "end times". we've been doing a study of Old Testament Leaders, including Daniel and I am blown away by the book's relevance for TODAY. My sense is that the book, and it's prophecies have NOTHING to do with the future (end times or anything else) but with living faithfully IN THE PRESENT.

    I am tired of prophecy being understood as Future-telling (whcih is against God's own OT Law about sorcery) rather than understood as God's living word (message) for NOW.

    By Blogger barry, at 6/04/2006 04:41:00 pm  

  • couple of thoughts:
    firstly, what sort of message does this send to non-believers about us? How do we preach tolerance and turning the other cheek with this game floating around?
    secondly,(with the news of a minor American 'victory' in Eye-Rack) this is uncomfortably aligned to a militaristic worldview in America at the moment. I would be curious to know whether the developers feel they are conforming to the ways of this world or submitting to God's will in this work.

    finally, is it hypocritical of me to be disturbed by this game yet enjoy playing Counterstrike (non-Christian first-person shooter game)?

    dcznlhaj

    By Blogger Peter le Roux, at 6/09/2006 08:19:00 am  

  • all good questions peter.

    regarding your query about eschatology herc... academic theology has many gifts, despite it's modernistic (overly rationalistic) leanings. one of the things that has really helped me is to understand the relationship between eschatology (the study of the "end things", like judgement, heaven, etc) and the present. Jesus had a very interesting eschatology: "the kingdom of heaven is near." sometimes he even said "the KOH is here!"

    this reflects the already-not-yet sense of things. we have confidence, and yet we hope. we claim the victory, and yet we continue to stuggle.

    my understanding of the purpose of eschatology (and talk about the end things) is to encourage, equip and empower us for the present.

    for example. a past bishop in our church, who spent 16 years on Robben Island as a political prisoner, told me that during the darkest days of the struggle, he found reading the book of Revelation most helpful. That sent me back to the book of Revelation with new questions. What did he see that i had never?

    I think that when you are persucuted, alsmot broken and despondent, someone needs to say: "Hey, i've seen the future and it turns out ok!"

    So my understanding of Daniel and Revelation is not that they tell us HOW it's all going ot pan out, but rather, who's gonna overcome.

    I have renewed strength to tackle the tasks and challenges of now (which is the only place God wants me to be, or God would have given me extraordinary powers to travel through time) because I have confidence in a future that is looking hopeful.

    a lot of christianity seems to be taken up with the spectacular - spectacluar inter-galactic wars between good and evil. isn't it obvious that these are just metaphors, whicg reflect the daily reality of our personal and communal struggles against stuff like prejudice, poverty and pollution...?

    By Blogger barry, at 6/09/2006 02:03:00 pm  

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