A Theif In The Night

[Suzy]

I didn't see this particular movie. But my father and his wife often try to scare me saying I'd be "left behind" if I don't go to church. Funny (not) how it's always about playing on your guilt and fears. I always wondered what motivates THEM to be in the church, if they think scaring people (with Hell, being left behind) is the best way to make them go to church.

 

But I'm not afraid of being "left behind". I never was. I believed in the rapture but I was not afraid of being left behind and I'm not afraid of it now.

[Guest ephymeris]

Speaking of terrible christian propaganda, I think of those terrible "Left Behind" books I read as a teenager. One night I fell asleep reading one of those books and startled awake by the horn on a diesel truck (they were doing early morning construction on the road near my house) and I was convinced the rapture was occurring and I was left behind.

[SirPhoenix]

The whole "rapture" doctrine started way back in the 1st century. Everyone back in the day figured that Jesus was coming back real soon. As time went one, people began to wonder. Some of the early church members had died. This presented quite the predicament for Paul. How did he explain this? Ah ha, I'll just write a letter to those Thesselonians, becuase they are the ones stirring up shit, and tell them that they need not worry. Jesus IS coming back, but he's going to appear in the sky, and all of the ones that are "asleep in christ" will rise out of the grave, and then the rest of them will rise up and they will all have a sky party. At some other point, Paul wrote to them that Jesus isn't taking too long, it's just that he doesn't figure time the way we do. This of course was then mutated into the rapture as we know it today, when in fact, all Paul was trying to do back in the day was quiet down the people who were saying, "WTF, I thought you said he was coming back?"

 

Then we bring in the acid trip known as the book or Revelation. This masterpiece of confusion was then woven into the rapture story, from which we get all the pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib crap. Seriously, if you are bored some night and pounding tacks into your finger nails isn't as much fun as it used to be, try to reconcile the "second coming" stories of the NT. Sure you can do it, but it takes some immagination. In my version, Jesus fights the Hanukah Zombie and the Woodland Critters before saving everyone.

[Tabula Rasa]

FinallyFree, while I didn't see the original film, I did see one of the sequels, and it and all the preaching about the rapture I heard in church did a number on my head too. Like many others have mentioned, I'd sometimes find my parents gone, and start to get nervous or freak out, thinking the rapture had come and I'd be left behind. So I definitely can sympathize with you in that regard. I honestly think the rapture scare movies are almost as bad as the hell scare movies, and no one should ever have to watch them, especially kids.

 

What'd be great is if someone downloaded "Thief in the Night" and did a parody by completely re-doing the dialogue. One of the best weapons against religious dogma, and fear based teachings, is good old fashioned mockery.

[SilentLoner]

I maintain that "Pamela's Prayer" is still the most horrifying piece of christian film ever produced

 

The sad thing is it actually has mostly good reviews on Amazon. This is the only one-star review for the VHS:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Pamelas-Prayer-VHS-Dave-Christiano/dp/0966691105/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

 

NOT a good Christian film!, March 8, 2001

By Corey Albert (New Haven, CT USA) - See all my reviewsThis review is from: Pamela's Prayer [VHS] (VHS Tape)

 

Based on the good reviews that I read on Amazon and on what friends

told me, I thought that this movie would be good viewing for my

family. was I wrong! the whole movie is about kissing, about guys

trying to kiss girls, and about girls not sure if they should kiss or

not and on and on. it started fine, but ten minutes in I knew that it

was not appropriate for my family, but my wife said 'no no no' and

made me keep it on, and I hoped that it would get better. but it just

got worse.

 

what a disaster! wouldn't you know it, as soon as the

movie is over, my kids start asking 'how do you kiss,' 'why do you

kiss' and on and on. pretty soon, they were running around the house

pretending to kiss everything - the animals, the pets, each other. I

know that they were trying to bug their dad, but this movie put ideas

in their heads that weren't there before. we have home schooled our

children for their whole lives - my son is 13 and my daughter is 7 -

and we have not let them watch videos, we block out the satellite

channels and don't let them on the internet. and now we show them

this 'Christian' film and everything is down the toilet. all they

talk about is kissing now!

 

it wouldn't be so bad if this were a typical Hollywood film, since

everyone knows that they are trash. but it's worse that this is

supposed to be a film that is moral and CHRISTIAN and good for

families and it still puts ideas in kids heads.

 

I am very angry at the people who made this junk!

 

[ExFundiDCLawyer]

I remember seeing the movie originally when I was a child, maybe 7 or 8, then again later as a teen we watched it in youth group. I seem to remember there being a series of similar movies, kind of like a 70s version of the left behind books. I was always afraid of waking up and everyone being gone. I remember praying the "sinners pray" over and over again, just in case I didn't do it right the first time. I was raised independent baptist, so "once saved, always saved", but that didn't stop me from re-praying again and again. I always felt that, no matter how good I tried to be, my life never measured up, so I must not have done it right the first time. Talk about guilt - the shit fundis put their kids through. Thankfully, I wised up before the damage had been done to much to my kids. They are 6,8, n 9 and although my wife still considers herself to be a christian I couldn't tell you the last time she took them to church.

[FinallyFree]

I maintain that "Pamela's Prayer" is still the most horrifying piece of christian film ever produced

 

 

 

Wow - that is SO warped. I love how the father acts like the world is going to end when Pamela tells him that her friend made out with a boy. I also enjoyed that the moral of the story was - if you make out - you WILL have sex next, and then you will go directly to hell... do not pass go, etc.

 

The father reminds me of someone who would tell his daughter that she needs to practice with him first before she can get married.

Sicko.

[Evelyn]

I saw that movie when I was 13, scared "the hell" into me! It scared me for many years. I now see some large holes in the story line (like when they are in the store wanting to use the same number and want to not use it at the same time, hello, that could have been done better, like shopping at separate times but no, they end up in two different lines and get to the register at the same time so set off the alarm, etc). It is also terribly acted. Many years later, when my husband became an Xian, we rented some Xian movies and they were surprisingly well-done and well acted.

 

Sort of getting back to the topic, I was a Pre-Trib Rapture believer for many years and could draw the event timelines with the best of them even in high school. I read Hal Lindsey's book, "There's A New World Coming" when I was 13. I was told in high school that Jebus would probably return before I graduated in 1977. I specifically remember the little book "88 Reasons Jesus Will Return in 1988". After reading it, I saw, in my mind's eye, the calendar page for January 2000 and figured I would probably live to see it and I did. Now there's a group saying Jebus will return on May 20, 2011 and Gawd will destroy the world on October 20, 2011. You can look it up.

[Brought None]

I think there needs to be a parody made called "A Queef in the Night".

[FinallyFree]

I think there needs to be a parody made called "A Queef in the Night".

 

ahahahahahahahahahaha!!

 

 

 

[FinallyFree]

I saw that movie when I was 13, scared "the hell" into me! It scared me for many years. I now see some large holes in the story line (like when they are in the store wanting to use the same number and want to not use it at the same time, hello, that could have been done better, like shopping at separate times but no, they end up in two different lines and get to the register at the same time so set off the alarm, etc). It is also terribly acted. Many years later, when my husband became an Xian, we rented some Xian movies and they were surprisingly well-done and well acted.

 

Sort of getting back to the topic, I was a Pre-Trib Rapture believer for many years and could draw the event timelines with the best of them even in high school. I read Hal Lindsey's book, "There's A New World Coming" when I was 13. I was told in high school that Jebus would probably return before I graduated in 1977. I specifically remember the little book "88 Reasons Jesus Will Return in 1988". After reading it, I saw, in my mind's eye, the calendar page for January 2000 and figured I would probably live to see it and I did. Now there's a group saying Jebus will return on May 20, 2011 and Gawd will destroy the world on October 20, 2011. You can look it up.

 

 

It was so drilled into my head that jesus was coming back any minute now, that I never thought I would graduate high school, or get married, or have children.

 

I have done all of those things, and still - no jesus.

 

 

[oddbird1963]

But none of that will ever happen. Even some Christian theologians do not believe in the rapture or anything even close to it. It is a made-up doctrine pieced together from several Bible verses none of which directly teach that there will be a rapture.

 

I'd say most Christian theologians don't believe in the rapture. It's mostly an American evangelical Protestant thing.

 

 

I concur. It is really a minority view among Christian groups. It is over-represented because tv evangelists can rake in the donations by getting people excited through fear and motivated by anticipation.

[Neon Genesis]

 

My old senior pastor said he had an afternoon of sheer terror, thinking his parents had been raptured and that he'd been left behind. But then he found them and all was right again. But he told it like it was a cutesy little story about his faithful Christian childhood.

This reminds me of how one time during Sunday school at my parents' church, the teacher talked about how he was reading his kindergarten-aged daughter the bible verses where it says parents should stone disobedient children and she started crying. He asked her why she was crying and she said she felt sorry for all the kids that died. He told it like it was a cutesy memory and everyone thought it was a really cute and adorable story but I thought it was sick. Who reads their kindergarten kids Leviticus passages? Even my parents never did that to me. I believed in the Second Coming when I was a Christian though I didn't believe in all that 1000 year Rapture stuff but one of my fears when I was a Christian was that Jesus would come back when I was naked and everyone would see me naked because of this verse in Revelation where it commands Christians not to sleep naked in case Jesus comes back while you're naked. Like what if Jesus came back while I was masturbating or something?

[Vomit Comet]

Like what if Jesus came back while I was masturbating or something?

 

Aim for his eye!

[FinallyFree]

But none of that will ever happen. Even some Christian theologians do not believe in the rapture or anything even close to it. It is a made-up doctrine pieced together from several Bible verses none of which directly teach that there will be a rapture.

 

I'd say most Christian theologians don't believe in the rapture. It's mostly an American evangelical Protestant thing.

 

 

I concur. It is really a minority view among Christian groups. It is over-represented because tv evangelists can rake in the donations by getting people excited through fear and motivated by anticipation.

 

 

Televangelists... yuck

 

 

[FinallyFree]

Found this quote on Reddit, author unknown:

 

"Don't fret about the world ending tomorrow, for it's already tomorrow in Australia."

[MultifariousBirdLady]

I might have seen something like "Like a Thief in the Night" as a child but the memory is hazy. I also saw clips of it (but not the whole thing) later on as a young adult, but the context was different.

 

What was influential along these lines, though, is that my parents got me this End Times comic for Christmas one year.

 

Speaking of terrible christian propaganda, I think of those terrible "Left Behind" books I read as a teenager. One night I fell asleep reading one of those books and startled awake by the horn on a diesel truck (they were doing early morning construction on the road near my house) and I was convinced the rapture was occurring and I was left behind.

My parents were fundamentalist Christians in college. I forgot the exact circumstances in the story but they told me about something happening in their college dorm which caused a close friend of theirs (still a friend of the family) to run out of the building in her pajamas because she thought the rapture was happening and that she'd be left behind.

 

Speaking of things like this, at Thanksgiving I received as an early holiday gift a boxed set of the Left Behind video series from a relative. I'm somewhat curious about just how bad the videos are but haven't bothered to find out yet.