The effect here is like watching the beginning of a bad horror movie, where the honeymooners whose car has broken down are happy and relieved to spot a light up ahead in what they don't seem to notice is an incredibly creepy looking mansion. The filmmakers seem to intend such scenes to be suspenseful, but the audience instead is usually thinking that the young couple are idiots for seeking assistance from such an obviously malevolent source. Instead of thinking "Oh no! They're heading into danger unawares!" the audience is thinking "That does it, these morons deserve whatever happens to them in there." Read more

Billings doesn't care about the resurrection of the dead. He's hoping for something he thinks would be even better -- not dying at all. Thus where the majority of Christians for 2,000 years read Paul as saying "We shall not all SLEEP, but we will all be CHANGED," Billings and L&J read Paul as saying "We shall not ALL sleep, but WE will all be changed." Read more

The distinction between dead and dead-like is immaterial. It does not matter to Rayford and it does not matter to Irene and Raymie. But it is desperately important to LaHaye and Jenkins. It is central to the appeal of their Rapture theory. "Sinners die, but Christians fly" is the core of what they believe. Read more