Obviously, a lot of people are taken in. And I suspect it makes "a good read." It may even be fun as science fiction, if we remember that it has nothing to do with the Gospel.

But when a teenager in my church informed me he was reading the series, I decided it was time for me to be more blunt with my opinion.

Bad theology -- that's one problem.

Unbiblical -- that's another.

There is no "Rapture" in the Bible -- unless you want to read the Book of Revelation in a rather silly and far too literal way.

Jesus didn't teach Rapture -- the idea that all Christians will one day be secretly sucked off the earth, leaving a world of bad folk to suffer a long period of "tribulation."

Jesus taught (in Matthew 13) that the good and the bad would live in this world together until the end of time.

Does what Jesus taught count?

Does what Jesus taught about the nature of God count?

Most Christians know that God does not do evil. God doesn't send plagues and wars to torture people.

Ask Christians if God sent the recent earthquake that killed so many in India. Most will say that God does not do things like that.

Then why would God do that in the future? Why would the one who loves the whole world take out all the Christians and torture the rest?

Is that the God who loves the sinner -- who sends the refreshing rain on the just and the unjust because God treats all alike?

Come now! If your reading of the Bible doesn't square with what Jesus taught us about the nature of God -- you've got a problem.

And by the way, notice that when Christians are removed from the world in these books (and in the movie), life seems to go on pretty well without them -- except for the ugly stuff God does.

Moral: Christians are unnecessary and God is the one who causes the problems. An atheist couldn't have said it better!

Now I know that some fine Christians believe in the Rapture. Good people can have bad theology.

But Jesus taught us better. And since this is Lent, let me suggest that all Christians give up the Left Behind series in honor of the season.