I have a love-hate relationship with the book of Revelation. Actually, it’s more like a love-fear relationship. With a whole lot of fear.
My phobia concerning the last book of the Bible can be traced to my coming of age in the late 1970s and early ’80s. When I was about nine, I went to a youth event at my church, where we saw A Thief in the Night, the 1972 Russell Doughten film that depicts the Rapture and the Great Tribulation. The film and its sequels—A Distant Thunder (1978), Image of the Beast (1981), and The Prodigal Planet (1983)—would give Friday the 13th, Carrie, and the rest of those ’70s horror films a run for their money.
Needless to say, I came away from the movie a bit unnerved. Did I really believe in Jesus? Would I be left behind?
