: Left Behind
Author: Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
I was not expecting much from this book, the first in the wildly popular series, but to my astonishment, this is an excellent book. It’s surprisingly well-written, quick-paced, and interesting. The book begins with the Rapture — where Christians are taken to heaven and mysteriously vanish from the earth. Whether or not you believe in the Rapture, it makes for fascinating reading, as those “left behind” desperately come up with wild theories to explain the disappearences of their friends and loved ones. I found it wonderfully ironic that if all Christians are taken away, those left behind are obviously the least likely to accept God as the cause, though of course a few are convinced the disappearances are of supernatural origin.
I’ve heard the series described as a soap opera, and that’s probably true, but it’s still good fun and the Christian message, while occasionally heavy-handed, is presented a realistic and wholesome manner. A lot of Christian books are terribly unrealistic with characters and situations that don’t exist in the real world, but I was pleased that this book presented both secular and Christian views from a balanced perspective (that’s difficult for a writer to do).
As to the accuracy or inaccuracy of the Biblical prophecies that are the basis of the series, I must inject my own views and say that that’s irrelevant. The Bible speaks of the end times in riddles and metaphor: who is to say that we can interpret them accurately? What difference does it make either way? While some thought of the end times is good and appropriate, no one can guarantee their interpretation is correct. I find the concepts and stories fascinating, but fiction is the best vehicle for these kinds of ideas (versus the numerous non-fiction books written on the subject).
The series apparently continues on through the Tribulation, the period of suffering God inflicts on the world after the Rapture, and the core group of new Christians in this book become leaders of a resistence group. While I’m expecting the series quality to decline, I find it interesting enough I’ve ordered the next several books in the series, so we’ll see what happens next.
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