Tim LaHaye's Bible

I attended the graduation ceremonies for the Christian Heritage College (CHC) seniors this morning. The major announcement was that CHC has officially changed their name, following in the footsteps of the sister institution Southern California Bible College and Seminary (SCBC&S) who are now known as Southern California Seminary (SCS). CHC is now San Diego Christian College (SDCC).

The second announcement was that the school had found a President, allowing David Jeremiah (Interim President, Senior Pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church) to step aside from those duties and responsibilities. The new President is an alumni, Jerry Huson.

The third thing to note was the key note speaker: Tim LaHaye, founder of the original CHC, and co-author of the very popular Left Behind series. David Jeremiah introduced Tim LaHaye, and talked about his writings. Here's an intriguing portion of the intro:

"The Left Behind series is the top selling in the world . . . behind only the Bible. And you know why that is? Because it is the Bible."

Now, don't mistake David Jeremiah for saying that the Bible was the Left Behind series. There was not blasphemy on that level. But, what did he say? What did David Jeremiah mean? He was presenting the eschatology found and presented in the book series as what is found and exhorted in Scripture. Do I agree with the eschatology of LaHaye? No way. Premillenial, pre-trib rapture and all truly is the Johnny-come-lately.

Still, come on, Dr. J. That all maybe hype and intended not to be exposition while at the podium during a graduation ceremony, but it was still said. And words have impressions on people. It's a fictional story. People like it, and it sells a lot of copies. But the Bible it is not.