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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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The Magical Worlds Of Harry Potter and Left Behind

One has prophecies, a dark lord, Muggle citizens, and good vs. evil. The other is the Harry Potter series.
E. Stephen Burnett on Jul 31, 2014
4 comments
banner_themagicalworldsofharrypotterandleftbehind

One has a world of prophecies, a dark lord, Muggle citizens, and good vs. evil. The other is the Harry Potter series.

Oct. 3 brings us the Left Behind film remake starring Nicolas Cage. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers hopes to charm Muggle fans with even more Harry Potter franchise magic.

The backstories of both franchises are more alike than we may think.1

Once upon a time, specifically the late 1990s, these franchises fought. One was set in a world of good wizards, a dark lord, non-magical citizens, and a global battle between light and darkness. It won over bestseller lists. This surprised readers, because this series was by a Christian thriller novelist and a Christian prophecy teacher: the Left Behind series.

At that time arose another series about a boy wizard by British author J.K. Rowling.

From the Left Behind film Facebook page.

From the Left Behind film Facebook page.

Bestsellers battle

You may recall these novel series’ battle to top the New York Times fiction bestseller lists. Back then I was rooting for the Left Behind series. It won only because the NYT finally classified the Harry Potter series as children’s lit and moved the top-ranking titles to a separate list to make room for other books.

Please note, fellow evangelicals: Years ago I was a rabid Left Behind fan, and with some qualification, remain a more-tranquil fan.2,  But now I’m more of a Potter fan, thanks to its better writing and better-plotted story. And if I could travel back in time and scandalize myself, I would say:

In the future you have all seven Harry Potter books and all eight films. But you’re not too disillusioned with your Left Behind fandom; you have 15 Left Behind books except the last one, which alone destroyed your default belief in premillennialism.

For me, the two franchises are too similar to reject one or the other. In fact, their similarities may be exactly what propelled them both to bestseller status.

Tribulations saints vs. wizard societies

Voldemort even puts evil symbols on people’s heads.

Voldemort even puts his own evil mark on people’s heads or hands.

  • Both series started trends in their genres. Potter led a fantasy revival in both novels and film, coming soon after the film trilogy based on The Lord of the Rings. And though Left Behind gets little credit for this, that series preceded the current fad of dystopian fiction.
  • Supernatural events occur to the point of normalcy. In Potter, natural-law magic is part of life. In Left Behind, God’s-law miracles bring plagues, angelic aid, and resurrections.
  • Special people have destinies and separate societies. In Left Behind, “tribulation saints” predict events and fight their enemies. In Potter, magically gifted people form both a Ministry of Magic to preserve their wizarding lifestyle and the Order of the Phoenix to fight evil.
  • Normal, non-magical people are often helpless yet not always wicked. In Potter they are “Muggles”; in Left Behind they are non-Christian masses whom Christians evangelize.
  • Prophecy is big. Left Behind’s prophecies predict the Tribulation, the Antichrist, and Christ’s return while Harry Potter himself is prophesied to confront Lord Voldemort.
  • Villains are deceptively, demonically evil. Potter’s Lord Voldemort and Left Behind’s Nicolae Carpathia both begin as charismatic leaders whose evil goals are soon exposed.
  • Battles between good and evil have clearly drawn lines. However, both series make room for other characters whose allegiances and goals are often more complex.
  • Good guys practice magic. Christians may balk at this about Left Behind, but it’s true: Prophets, and later appointed believers, turn water into blood and call down or rescind plagues, including some described in Revelation. The villains even refer to this as magic. (“I have tricked this wizard into breaking his spell!” Carpathia boasts in Desecration.) Of course, the magic of Potter’s heroes is well known. But rarely if ever does it cross into the real occult actions Scripture forbids.

poster_undesirableno1harrypotterMystical arts

One more comparison extends from fantasy to reality: Both of these series have dedicated fan bases of readers and/or film viewers, fandoms who wish these worlds were real.

Certainly this applies to Potter fans who yearn to get their own student-acceptance letters from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But this I-wish-I-were-there dedication also applies to many Left Behind readers. Several fans on the old Left Behind website forums even said they’d like to be “left behind” themselves—to sit out a pre-tribulation Rapture. Why? They loved the books’ camaraderie between believers united against obvious evils, and the miracles and prophecies bringing vindications of Christianity.

I would venture this desire helps lead this unique Christian end-times fandom into error.

Often out of ignorance, some Christians accuse the Potter series of endorsing unhealthy escapism, occult mysticism, and anti-biblical fantasy. But don’t we often see Christian end-times fiction and prophecy fans falling into this very trio of temptations?

putthatversebackwhereitcamefromorsohelpme_matt2440Extreme end-times fans often want to escape the world, rather than help build the Kingdom wherever Christ calls us, and anticipate creation’s resurrection into a New Earth (Rev. 21).

Such fans also practice plain mysticism. I don’t know what else to call Christians’ attempts to divine the Antichrist or Mark of the Beast, or their apparent insistence that Bible has a secret code that reveals modern global events over and above the Word’s Gospel themes.

Finally, fans indulge in vindication or revenge fantasies such as “I can’t stand those liberals, but they’ll face the Tribulation because the end is near.” (Oddly, we may end up warning more about the Mark of the Beast and Satan than we teach about Christ’s return and judgment.)

Now, one need not blame the Left Behind authors or books for all these sins — any more than we would blame J. K. Rowling if Potter fans wanted to be “real” witches and thus joined Wicca.

Instead, individual Christians take our end-times fandoms too far. Of this we must repent.

No, we needn’t renounce Left Behind — though we might consider burning books of divination by some would-be evangelical “prophets.” And sure, we might also explore other end-times perspectives (I’m looking for one myself). Either way, let’s enjoy our fantasies for God’s glory, and not use our fandom freedoms as opportunities for the flesh.

  1. Original version published Aug. 5, 2013 at Christ and Pop Culture. (Time constraints and other writing commitments have prevented my finishing the Avatars of Forgiveness series; I hope to finish the series next week.) ↩
  2. Read more in this more-recent article, Looking Back at My “Left Behind” Fandom, July 16, 2014 at Christ and Pop Culture. ↩
E. Stephen Burnett
E. Stephen Burnett creates sci-fi and fantasy novels as well as nonfiction, exploring fantastical stories for God’s glory as publisher of Lorehaven.com and cohost of the Fantastical Truth podcast. As the oldest of six, he enjoys connecting with his homeschool roots by speaking at conferences for Christian families and creators. Stephen is coauthor of The Pop Culture Parent: Helping Kids Engage Their World for Christ from New Growth Press (2020, with Ted Turnau and Dr. Jared Moore). Stephen and his wife, Lacy, live in the Austin area, where they help with foster parenting and serve as members of Southern Hills Baptist Church.
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  1. Loren Eaton says:
    July 31, 2014 at 9:07 am

    I didn’t enjoy “Left Behind” all that much, but NICHOLAS CAGE?!

    *grabs popcorn*

    Reply
    • E. Stephen Burnett says:
      July 31, 2014 at 9:48 am

      Cage has gone a bit down in the acting world … but he was once slated to play Superman and is still well-known for action movies including searching for American treasure based on a map on the back of the Declaration of Independence.

      Also internet memes. In fact, in the above poster he gives us a brand-new Cage face.

      Reply
  2. sparksofember says:
    July 31, 2014 at 11:41 am

    I tried to read the Left Behind books around 10 years ago. My husband enjoyed them (we also own the entire set although we recently decided to donate them to the library at his work for the teens) so I wanted to read them so we could talk about them. But I only made it halfway through the 2nd or 3rd before I had to call it quits. My amillennialist beliefs just couldn’t take the story seriously and all the eye-rolling was hurting my husband’s feelings.

    Reply
  3. notleia says:
    August 1, 2014 at 5:34 pm

    +100,000,000,000 for the Monsters, Inc meme. Much lolz.

    Reply

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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.