Apocalypse Soon: `Left Behind' Series Picks Up Steam

March 14, 2002

In the multimillion-selling "Left Behind" books, the planet is constantly in peril: Jets crash, folks evaporate from their clothes and locusts swarm with a sickening hum that heralds the end of the world as we know it.

The newest "Left Behind" installment, "Desecration," topped national best-seller lists out of the box - and finished last year No. 1, according to Publishers Weekly. The book knocked John Grisham out of the top spot he has held since 1994.

So pitched is "Left Behind" mania that with the October release of "Desecration," readers snaked through the Mall of America, waiting hours for authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, who also pens the "Gil Thorpe" sports comic strip, to autograph books.

And only a month before, interest in previous volumes soared even as the World Trade Center towers toppled. Sales for book one, "Left Behind," doubled after Sept. 11, while other series titles rose 60 percent or more.

Call it apocalyptic fever, post-Sept. 11 catharsis or the latest pop fiction trend; the popularity of such a series has been unprecedented. Still, many recent converts might not be aware of one stranger-than-fiction asterisk. The authors believe their works are true from a biblical standpoint: 100 percent true.

The overarching plot, based largely on the book of Revelation, goes like this: All saved Christians, dead and alive, get snatched into heaven. Those with weak faith get "left behind" to fight the Antichrist. A seven-year tribulation of plagues and an earthquake ravages the planet. Then Jesus Christ returns in glory to rule for 1,000 years.

Christian critics from scholars to satirists treat the premise of "Left Behind" as flawed - or just plain cracked. "It's silly because playing games with Revelation is like a Chinese puzzle; it gets you nowhere," said James Finn Garner, author of "Politically Correct Bedtime Stories" and more recently "Apocalypse Wow! A Memoir for the End of Time." "God created the subtle creative ticking of the universe. This is just a sledgehammer."

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