Jerry B. Jenkins is the co-author, with Tim LaHaye, of the enormously popular Left Behind fiction series, which tells the stories of people who, after the rapture of the church are "left behind" to experience the tribulation and other events prior to Jesus' return to Earth. The author of more than 100 books and the former editor of Moody Magazine, his writing has appeared in Reader's Digest and Parad. Jenkins is also the writer of the nationally syndicated sports story comic strip Gil Thorp.

Interviewed by Deborah Caldwell

Q. What are you hearing from readers about how they believe the terrorist attacks and the impending war fit into God's plan for the end-times?

A. Many want to know is this is a sign of the end and if Antichrist will soon emerge. Some even ask if Osama Bin Laden could be Antichrist, but of course he cannot. The prophecies are clear that Antichrist will be charismatic, attractive, charming, winsome, and that almost everyone will believe he is not only a wonderful person but perhaps even Jesus reincarnate. I don't think anyone thinks that of Bin Laden.

	More on Left Behind 'Desecration': Chapter One What is the rapture? End Times Soap Opera Why Left Behind is a best seller 'I was saved by "Left Behind"' The Insignificance of the Antichrist

Q. What do you believe about how this event fits into the end-times?

A. It makes everything we've been writing about that much more immediate and real. Even I sometimes viewed the devastation scenes in the novels as futuristic and fantastic. Having been in Manhattan when this happened, I will never again be separated from such carnage by decades and oceans. Jesus told His disciples that one sign, not of the end but of the beginning of the end, would be wars and rumors of wars and nation rising up against nations.

Q. Although you don't subscribe to the idea that the Bible provides an exact prophecy of when Jesus will return, can you tell us where you think we are on the time line heading toward the end?

A. We believe that nothing more needs to be fulfilled before the coming of Christ. The last prophecy that was even debatable was whether the gospel had been preached to all the nations. After the memorial service, in which Billy Graham made plain the gospel, was broadcast to every country in the world, few can doubt that that has been fulfilled.

That is not to say that God is now obligated to send Christ back tomorrow. He may, in His mercy, wait one more day--which, in His economy of time, is as a thousand years. On the other hand, it could be today. We are instructed to live as if it could be any moment. Then, whether it happens that soon or not, our lives and those we come into contact with, should be impacted.

Q. Would this kind of attack have ever fit into one of your plot summaries?

A. While it's unlikely I would have come up with that exact scenario, it's the very type of heartless attack that appears in many places in the Left Behind series. In fact, in Desecration, Antichrist launches attacks on unarmed, defenseless civilians (a million of them) in the Holy Land, using all he technological weapons of mass destruction at his disposal. The manuscript was finished in mid-April.

Q. Does it worry you that end-times thoughts are re-emerging in popular imagination?

A. On the contrary. While, like any other rational person, I am amused and sometimes annoyed at the extremists who run to the hills waiting to be whisked away, I believe a true study of end times prophecies will change how people live. We are not to have our eyes so fixed on heaven that we're no earthly good. If we truly believe Christ will return someday, it should make us

	More on Left Behind 'Desecration': Chapter One What is the rapture? End Times Soap Opera Why Left Behind is a best seller 'I was saved by "Left Behind"' The Insignificance of the Antichrist

more aggressive and urgent in living out our faith, in being tolerant and loving and persuasive, but not holier-than-thou or condemning. We know not everyone will agree with us or accept our message or embrace Christ. But since we truly believe what we're writing, we would be remiss not to at least clarify for people what the issues and choices are. If my neighbor honestly believed that wearing a purple necklace would save my soul, I would not likely believe him or take him seriously. But if he really believed that, I would be offended if he didn't at least tell me so I could decide whether there was any merit to his belief.

Q. What role do you and Rev. LaHaye believe that you should play in helping people through these fears?

A. We hope that if nothing else, people will be led back to studying the Bible to see what it says about the end of time, and especially about the relationship between God and His creation. We believe there is a personal God who cares about every individual. We don't understand any more than anyone else does why He allows such tragedies, but we believe He is sovereign. He wants us to seek Him. He never promised to deliver us from trouble, but He does promise to be with us in trouble.

Q. What is the ultimate message of the series?

A. That Jesus is coming back some day and that everyone has the opportunity to be ready. We're not saying we know better or that we have an inside track or that if a reader disagrees with us he or she is less worthy a person. We're just saying, we've studied this, we believe it, at least investigate what the Bible says and make up your own mind.