In the spirit of full disclosure: I have no intention of seeing the newest Left Behind movie. What follows is my reasoning for not watching it.
Most simply, I don't think Left Behind is Christian. Not in the least.
Because it's primarily a profit-driven franchise (books, kids books, movies, study guides, related books from the authors, and graphic novels) that's meant to make a buck at the expense of sisters and brothers of the Faith (particularly Catholics) and through means of psychological and spiritual fear (particularly that of children).
I'll leave aside the questionable character of the authors -- especially Tim LaHaye. But there's much to say there if need be.
No, my problems with Left Behind involve how it understands the "end times" playing out biblically. It's junk theology because it abuses and neglects the Scripture in fear-mongering ways.
The major event you see described in the movie -- where millions upon millions of people simply disappear to meet Jesus somewhere in the air, thereby creating a "third coming" problem -- is described no where in the Bible. That, I think, should give any Christian pause. This kind of "doomsday" theology peddles fear at the possibility of being abandoned by God himself.
That sort of fearful theology actually misses the depth and breadth and length of God's love for the world. It marginalizes and ignores so much of what Jesus said and did, because of its myopic reading of the Gospel through a fearful lens. And, as a result, it works against that Gospel and weakens Christian love in the process.
Just think how it negatively paints Catholic brothers and sisters. Which isn't a surprise, given the negative comments LaHaye made in the 80s that Roman Catholics follow a "false religion". That sort of division is the very spirit of the antichrist mentioned in 1 John, because it denies the unity of those who believe in Jesus. Think John 17 here.
If we take Jesus as the pattern, and follow "in his steps", the way of faithfulness goes through suffering, not out of it (1 Peter 2). In spite of burdens, the life we live now is a life "with Christ", even if in a "hidden" way (Colossians 3). The "rapture" is nothing more than a hope that is escapist, because it envisions God as one to be feared.
How's that the Father of Jesus Christ?
Because such divine love "casts out fear" (1 John 4).
No, Left Behind isn't Christian, because its hope is a false hope, based on a conditional love. It's not the hope in the Resurrected One (1 Corinthians 15). It's not the divine love that "bears with all things" (1 Corinthians 13).
And, as I've heard so many share since the books first made their appearance in 1995, it's a fear and conditional love mostly passed on to children as biblical truth. The expectation of doom that fuels Left Behind feeds a fatalism that has negatively affected the spiritual lives of so many kids. It passes on an anemic Christian faith, because it amounts to a "hang on by your fingernails until Jesus comes" mentality. Because you want to be found as a "survivor of the faithful", not "left behind".
What becomes lost, of course, is Jesus' desire that we be "salt and light" in the world now, even in the most disastrous of circumstances. Goodness, love, hope -- those are realities here and now, Jesus insists, because the Kingdom is present in and through him, and us.
Instead of leading a revolution of love that was the New Testament vision, Left Behind has us turning inward, choosing to separate and isolate, and pointing a cold, bony finger of judgment on the world. Such a view has little confidence in God's power to work in weakness.
But that's hardly a surprise for Left Behind, because it follows from the directorial direction of movies like God's Not Dead, and marginalizes the new life Jesus articulated. They both make God look so strange, so unlike the God and Father of Jesus Christ. The entire "gospel" of movies like these is reduced to a single decision about one's destiny in the afterlife, forsaking the biblical calling to live a righteous life, holy and pleasing to God, in faith, by his grace. It's less the proclamation of Jesus, and more the proclamation of fear.
And all that driven by market forces. Hollywood has realized, after The Passion of the Christ, that there's profit to be had by movies like these. So the media machine whips into action -- its 24-hour news cycle just isn't enough. Bad news sells because it peddles fear. And if there's anything we know in our world, it's fear.
But exactly how does that proclaim Jesus, whose very life was framed by one simple message: "Do not fear"? The larger the crisis, the more we fear, the more we watch. And Left Behind capitalizes on that. Somehow, then, Left Behind is supposed to be Christian.
But it's not. Not even in the slightest.