In the beginning of the end, as Tim LaHaye tells it, millions of people will disappear off the face of the earth, "raptured" up to heaven. Over the following seven years, tribulations of all kinds--demon locusts, seas of blood, nuclear war--will claim billions more. The city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq will be rebuilt, as will the first temple in Jerusalem, on land now occupied by one of the most sacred sites in Islam, the Dome of the Rock. By then, though, all of the Muslims in the world will have been eliminated, either horrifyingly killed or converted to Christianity. Nearly all Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists and other "unbelievers," even some Christians, face the same fate. Finally, after all the carnage, when the world is ready for Jesus to walk the earth again, the savior's very words will cause the last of the unfortunates to fall gruesomely dead.
Writing for Godot
The Bible Foretold It. The War in Iraq Proves It. The End Is Near, Says Christian Activist and Best-Selling Novelist Tim LaHaye, and He's Writing as Fast as He Can.
LaHaye, an early organizer of the Moral Majority and a longtime activist in conservative politics, has brought that vision vividly to life in an astonishingly popular series of page-turning action novels collectively known as the "Left Behind" series. Co-authored with Christian novelist Jerry B. Jenkins (Jenkins does the writing, LaHaye supplies the biblical underpinnings), the books so far have sold about 62 million copies, according to their publisher.
Since 1995, loyal readers of the series have followed the adventures of a gang of clean-cut Christian yuppies as they have battled the forces of evil and the antichrist across 12 novels, the last of which, "Glorious Appearing," was published last month. It features a chatty Christ returning to a battered and depopulated earth to lead all believers and many converted Jews into a new millennium. But fans need not despair: No one involved in this publishing phenomenon is ready to call it quits, particularly at a time when popular culture is embracing Christian-themed stories with extraordinary fervor. Two more Left Behind books--a sequel and a prequel--are in the works for publisher Tyndale House that will further expand on the struggle between God and the antichrist.
