Rippon said:
Martin , a bigger question is : How long have you believed that Lahaye has been doctrinally sound ?
I have known, for more than a few years, that LaHaye was not a theology scholar. His inconsistant views, his never ending "FICTION" series, his taking advantage of public events to promote his views, and other things made me leary of LaHaye some time ago. What really "pushed me over the edge" was his amazon.com endorsement of Dave Hunt's horrible anti-Calvinism book "What Love Is This". Even those Christians who are not Calvinists should be outraged by Hunt's constant errors and poor argumentation. However that did not stop LaHaye from endorsing the book. I wonder if he has even read the thing. His apperance on TBN the other night was just icing on the cake. I have seen him on tv with questionable folks before, in fact I think I once saw him on Benny Hinn's tv show. Personally I believe he is probably making a lot of money and he enjoys the large crowds.
One other problem I have with LaHaye is that he causes serious Bible students, who are pre-tribulational, to have to constantly deal with his craziness. Some Christians who are not pre-tribulational use LaHaye's follies as a weapon to bash all pre-tribulationists over the head (just like they use Jack Van Impe). I, and other serious pre-tribulationalists, are tired of defending ourselves from accusations that we follow Tim LaHaye's teachings. We don't! LaHaye's "Left Behind" books have also caused many Christians to get lazy in their Bible study. After all, they figure, why do we need to study Bible prophecy the hard way when we can pick up a "fun" novel and read it! Such thinking, I assure you, is tragic and dangerous. One example: I recall a few years ago being in a local Christian bookstore when I heard a fellow customer ask for a book on prophecy. The girl who was working in the store walked the lady over to the shelf next to where I was standing. What was on that shelf? Left Behind novels (FICTION)! When the customer asked the girl for non-fiction instead of a fictional novel, the girl actually said "we don't carry those". I was stunned. Why? Because right behind me, less than five feet from this girl, was an entire section of non-fiction books on Bible prophecy (from different points of view). The customer wanted to learn about prophecy and all this poor girl knew about prophecy was Tim LaHaye. I am sorry, but that bothers me. Too many people, like that girl, read LaHaye's book and think it is correct. They forget that the books are nothing but LaHaye's understanding and Jenkin's fiction.
