Produced by Game Stop
"...a real-time strategy game of apocalyptic proportions based upon the bestselling Left Behind book series, created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. In this new genre, you’ll join the ultimate fight of good against evil, commanding Tribulation Forces or the Global Community Peacekeepers...."Gamers will command more than 30 unit types, each developed with unique attributes and special abilities. Players will have the opportunity to compete in multiple environments created identically from the streets of New York City. New perspectives not commonly seen in real-time strategy games show off the high-level detail of 3D graphic models developed to enhance real-time strategy command, control and visual experiences.
KILLING FOR THE KINGDOM - JUST FUN & GAMES
By Paul Proctor - May 2006
When a reader of mine first sent me the link to a controversial article
about an upcoming new "Christian" video game for teens called, "Left Behind:
Eternal Forces," he prefaced it with: "You won't believe this one." After
reading it, I responded back with: "You're right…"
I thought it was just a page from one of those sacred satire sites. You know
the ones I'm talking about, with their outrageous headlines and shocking
reports on quirky church stuff that we all get now and then from fun-loving
friends and family -- and have ourselves been fooled by at least once.
I actually had to reread the piece to see that it was indeed a legitimate
product being prepared for sale through the mega church market by a company
called Left Behind Games. On their website, under Board of Advisors, a man
named Mark Carver is listed as "the Executive Director for Purpose Driven,
the leadership/church growth training arm of [Rick Warren's] Saddleback
Church in Lake Forest, California." Surprised? Me neither…
According to the article's author, the video game involves post-rapture
Christians in New York City battling the antichrist's "Global Community
Peacekeepers" for world domination in an adventurous attempt to either
convert them to Christ or kill them using an assortment of high-tech
weaponry. That's right - "kill them…"
Newsweek calls it a "high-caliber shoot-'em-up," giving the end times
enthusiast a generous helping of cutting-edge cyber-carnage and
Christianized chaos -- just the kind of choreographed crises that draw
crowds and sell things, which is precisely what many pastors are looking for
these days to raise revenues and reel in those "unchurched" customers - "for
the Kingdom," of course; a very spiritual endeavor, you understand. If
you've been out of the loop lately, this is some of that new evangelism
that's all the rage.
Its part of a celebrated strategy reinvented reverends embraced sometime ago
called "being relevant to the culture." The message doesn't change, they
insist, just the methods....
Seems though I recall Jesus telling his disciples, before sending them
out to "heal" and "preach the Kingdom," (that's "heal and preach," not kill
and conquer) to not even carry with them a second coat, much less an assault
rifle.
But then nobody's actually getting killed here, are they? It's just
make-believe murder and mayhem - you know, simulated sin. Harmless, right?
How come the church doesn't apply that same Laodicean logic to say,
pornography?....
It does, however, give the rest of us a little peak at the delusional dreams
of Dominionists -- some of whom proudly proclaim that they are going to take
back this country and world FOR Jesus, as if He needed their arrogant agenda
and unchecked adrenaline to do so, in spite of what the scriptures say about
the last days, the apostasy and this world "passing away."
One has to wonder if computer games like this aren't really just training
videos and simulators designed by ecclesiastically embedded enemies of
Christ, in the tradition of Judas, to undermine the Gospel and seduce its
more naive and narcissistic players into pursuing their passions rather than
yielding to the Word of God; providing a purpose driven pretext for
recreational rebellion; a sanctimonious sanctioning of sin and sadism for
the supposed salvation of seekers under the gratuitous guise of "meeting
their felt needs"....
From what I can ascertain, they're just taking pragmatism to the next
level here, that's all; which is precisely what unrepentant sin always does.
But, hey - it's just harmless entertainment, right? Why take it so
seriously? It's pretend, for crying out loud! Nobody's actually going to get
hurt here; and if you object, then - well, you obviously have no real
compassion for or interest in reaching young people for Christ, now do you?
Think it's all just fun and games?
Tell that to the folks out in Littleton Colorado where violent video gamers,
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold trained religiously at home on their computer
screens in preparation for that infamous massacre of Christians and others
at Columbine High School on April 20th, 1999 -- an event that led to an
entire string of similar shootings in schools and churches across the
country.
You can find the entire article at http://www.newswithviews.com/PaulProctor/proctor94.htm
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