Most folks probably have not been made aware of a new game that is coming out that is sure to rattle some bones with both Christians and non-Christians. I myself did not hear about it until I went through my usual blog browsing and found out about it from Radford's Tim Jackson's Blog, "Maybe I'm Amazed."

The game is called "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" and is based in the post-Rapture future when the world will be forced to side with God, the Antichrist or some other third party that, in the end, yields to God. At first, I was excited to hear that there was a game being made based on the best-selling book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins but paused for a moment part-subconsciously thinking, "what the heck could they do with a game based on the series?"

After reading up on what the game has to offer, my fears appear to be coming true. The book series does deal with death at times because, after all, a large quantity of the world's post-Rapture population is going to die throughout the Tribulation period, a good many of them at the hands of the Antichrist and his one world government. In the book series, characters on both sides of the struggle die. In a few instances, some of the Christians in the novel are forced to defend themselves against those working for the "Global Community" (the name given to the one world government in the series by the Antichrist). Some Christians were turned off by reading this but the series does deal with explaining things that the Bible does speak about defending oneself in a war, which many have argued the Tribulation period will be - an ultimate war between good and evil for the souls of those left on the planet.

However, the video game that is coming out based on the series startles me because I believe it goes way too far. Gamespot.com describes some of what the game has to offer with this:

* - "Conduct physical & spiritual warfare: using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world."
* - "Control more than 30 unit types - from Prayer Warrior and Hellraiser to Spies, Special Forces and Battle Tanks."
* - "Play multi-player games as Tribulation Forces or Global Community Peacekeepers."

To some extent, it sounds a lot like Age of Empires: Rapture Edition, allowing the player to train an army for either side (mind you, this would mean that Christians would be playing the game as the forces of the Antichrist - the Global Community - and would be slaughtering their fellow futuristic brothers and sisters in Christ!) and wage war on each other.

The Bible tells us that a man must defend his family and home but making a game about the post-Rapture world where the goal is to go out and kill people is not the right thing to do. The Tribulation is/will be a serious issue - it will be a world where people will be making decisions that will effect them for all eternity - some will die, some will take the Mark of the Beast and worship his image, some will side with God and His Son, Jesus Christ but by no means is it an issue to go and play around with. To me, the folks who made this game have taken things too far.

Now, let me do note that it is possible that I may be over-reacting here or may be misinformed on what the game is about despite my readings and if so, I will write a follow-up article explaining things but I do not believe that will be the case. This game appears to be one that takes one of the most serious issues of all time and turns it into some shoot-em-up game where it does not matter what side you fight for as long as you blast away the most amount of people you can.

If that is the case, the Christian community will have a serious issue on their hands when this thing hits the shelves.