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No. 51,413 CO|>>Tieli' (•'* 2000 The New York Times NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 8, 2000 $1 beyond the greater New York mctropolKan ar^a.

Apocalyptic Potboiler Is Publisher's Dream

By DINITIA SMITH WHEATON, 111.. June 4 — The latest thriller in a hugely popular Christian fundamentalist series about the Apocalypse will enter the New York Times fiction best-seller list at No, 1 on Sunday, an unparal leled achievement for an evangeli cal novel. The book, "The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession," by Tim F. LaHaye, a retired evangelical minister, and Jerry B. Jenkins, a professional writer, is the seventh installment in the "Left Behind" series, which in the last five years has sold some 17 million copies in the United States, about three mil lion less than the Harry Potter series. In April, before its official publication,it reached No. 1 on the Todil Buchanan (or The New York Times Amazon.com best-seller list, based Tim F. LaHaye, left, and Jerry B. Jenkins, right, interviewed by on advance orders. Mike Trout onan elaborate tour to promote theirapocalyptic novels. On the Times fiction best-seller list, it is displacing "Easy Prey," a that more than 100 of his passen detective novel by John Sandford. ored lights. Two huge candelabra lent the scene a "Phantom of the gers have disappeared in mid- The authors of "The Indwelling," flight. As il turns out, his devout whosay they have so far made $10 Opera" ambience as they took questions from a rapt audience. wife and son have vanished, too. million each from the series, are The latest book combines tradi All of them have, in evangelical on a 10-city tour, and their stop in parlance, "accepted Christ" and this college town this weekend had tional elements of science fiction with the authors' unorthodox inter have been summoned by Jesus to all the panoply of a revival meet the Rapture, a precursor to the ing.They attracted 900 peoplewho pretationofthe Book of Revelation to create a Rambo-style potboiler Apocalypse. paid $12 to $25 each to hear them In "The Indwelling," Steele is talk about the book in a Wheaton with a strong conservative ethos and noticeably contemporary suspected by the authorities of as College auditorium. - sassinating Nicolae Carpathia, the Mr. LaHaye and Mr. Jenkins charactcrs who drive Range Antichrist, a former secretary were accompanied by a retinue of Rovers, use the Internet and have general of the United Nations. 17, including a blind singer, Ginny everyday worries. Bat the false god is resurrected, Owens, and a singer-guitarist, The star of the series is Rayford Wayne Watson, who played with a Steele, a married commercial air baltle rages between Heaven and throbbing rock sound as the au line pilot who in an early scene in Earth, and the Beast takes control thors sat on thronelike black leath the first bookflirts with a steward Continued on Page CIS er chairs bathed in cyclamen-col- ess and minutes later discovers

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A movie based on novels of such contemporary writers 1948. evangelical minister from Palm "Left Behind" is to be filmed by a "This is a phenomenal number of Several explanations have been of as Janette Oke and Frank Peretti One hero of "The Indwelling" is Desert, Calif., attended Bob Jones books we're talking about," said Dai fered for the books' success, the small independent production com have sold millions of copies. Tsion Ben-Judah, the spiritual leader University in Greenville, S.C. He pany in partnership with a producer sy Maryles, executive editor of Pub reader's identification with recur Mainstream book critics have of the Tribulation Force, a Jew by calls himself "a prophecy scholar," of Christian videos and is scheduled lishers Weekly. ring characters, the popularity of the been less than overwhelmed by the birth who has accepted Christ as the and has established three churches, for release next February. The book's remarkable success re series. "The books read like artifacts Messiah. He announces his conver action-adventure genre in general, a Christian school system and the The authors say that business mat flects a rising interest in religious of a time machine sent to retrieve sion on international television. Mr. Christian Heritage College with 900 fiction among not only among funda ters less than the testimonials of pulp science fiction — and our moral LaHaye says that according to his students, all in the San Diego area. people who say have "received mentalists but a broader audience as ity — from the 50's," Douglas E. interpretation of the Book of Revela Mr. Jenkins, 50, of Colorado well, and the growing popularity of Christ" by reading their books. Winter wrote in a review in The tion, 144,000 Jews must be converted Offering adventure Springs, Colo., helped write Billy "We've heard from more than 2,000 such pop genres as Christian rock. Washington Post. to Christianity after the Rapture, be Graham's memoir "Just As I Am," people who tell us that," said Mr. The Times list does not take into The "Left Behind" books reflect fore the Second Coming can occur. *hope for a and is the author of best-selling Jenkins. They say they have donated account sales from Christian, or and the apocalyptic beliefs of Mr. La- He acknowledged that this view sports books, including one with Orel nearly half their earnings to reli other specialized, bookstores. Haye, Mr. Jenkins and other funda was abhorrent to many Jews. "Jews Second Coming.' Hersheiser, the baseball player. gious institutions. "I really love the character devel mentalists. They say that their inter have a deep-rooted conviction that "Our message is the greatest mes opment and the real people, and you Onstage at Wheaton College, pretation of the Book of Revelation is the Messiah has yet to come," he sage of hope in this world," Mr. La where he and his co-author were can relate to them," said Drid Wil a literal one. Their belief is often said." They will not accept Jesus as Haye said in the interview. "There is interviewed by Mike Trout, the co- son, who came to the event at Whea- and the belief of large numbers of referred to as "pre-millennial dis- the Messiah." Most Roman Catholics a new age coming resulting in the host with Dr. James Dobson of the ton College with her husband and two Americans in the Rapture and the pensationalism." Under this teach and mainstream Protestants do not coming of the most benevolent King radio program "Focus on the Fam children. Best of all, she said, eventual return of Christ. ing. the Rapture will be followedby a have this level of fascination with the of Kings, who's already demonstrat ily," Mr. Jenkins told of receiving a "there's hope for a Second Coming." Beyond that, there are characters seven-year period of Tribulation and end time or focus on this elaborate ed his compassion by dying on the letter from a man on death row in To capitalize on the book's poten the rule of the Antichrist, who will and literal prediction of events. Nor who are recognizably human living cross." Mr. Jenkins, who has a self- Texas who was scheduled for execu tial, the book's Christian publisher, establish a single world government do most mainstream denominations through supernatural times. Con deprecating sense of humor, said: tion last fall. Tyndale House, has advertised not and monetary system. (The authors focus on the conversion of Jews, par templating the disappearance of mil "There are some times when I think "He said, 'I've read 'Apollyon' "— only in Christian trade publications believe the United Nations and the ticularly since the Holocaust lions during the Rapture, Steele, the I was born for this project. Other the fifth book in the series — "and but also on "The Rush Limbaugh euro are signs of the impending Yet with its enormous popularity, airplane pilot, reflects: "Everyone times I think I was bom to play golf." I've grown in the Lord. Tlie problem Show" and other conservative radio Tribulation.) the "Left Behind" series may ulti had lost someone, and not a second He called the drama inherent in Rev is I would like to read 'Assassins,' " programs and in USA Today as well. The Tribulation will culminate in mately "influence the theology" of could pass when one was able forget elation "a novelist's dream." — the sixth book, a volume that had It has financed special displays in an Apocalypse and the Second Com Christian end-time belief, said that. It was the fear of missing the To keep pace with the demand for not yet been released. general-interest bookstores and su ing of Christ. Christ will reign for Charles Strozier, author of "Apoca school bus, losing your homework, "The Indwelling," Tyndale House "We called our good friends in perstores like Wal-Mart. 1,000 years; there will be another lypse: On the Psychology of Funda forgetting your gym clothes, know has built a new warehouse at its Tyndale House and they rushed a , Until now, the five-year-old series great battle and then, the creation of mentalism in America" (Beacon, ing you'd been caught cheating on a headquarters in Carol Stream, III. copy to him," Mr. Jenkins said propelled by national fix seemed the a new Heaven on Earth. 1994), and a professor of history at test, being called to the principal's Four printing plants worked for 40 proudly. ation on the year 2000,with its apoca Like many fundamentalists, Mr. John Jay College of Criminal Justice office, being fired, going bankrupt, days, and 79 semi-trailer trucks were The man has still not been e.xecut- lyptic themes. But even though inter LaHaye and Mr. Jenkins say that and the City University of New York cheating on your wife — all rolled required to deliver the first print run ed, but Mr. LaHaye says that if he est in the millennium has died down, before the Second Coming can occur, Graduate Center. into one." of two million books to the ware has accepted Christ, he will go to "The Indwelling" is doing better there must be an "indwelling" of "When the textual evidence is so In another passage, a character house. The series also includes chil heaven.