The Popular Fiction of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

Peter C. Boogaart and Thomas A. Boogaart

The novels of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins are runaway best sellers. Of seven planned titles, four are currently available: : A Novel of the Earth's Last Days; Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind; : The Rise of the ; and . 1 The cover of the latest edition of Left Behind proudly announces, "Over 2,000,000 Sold in the Series," an advertising technique reminiscent of McDonald's restaurants. With sales of each novel exceeding 20,000 copies a month, the number sold will rise rapidly. The vast and growing network of Christian bookstores has not seen sales like this since the early 1970s when Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth2 found its way to the shelves. About the purpose of the novels LaHaye says: "My original dream more than ten years ago-to write a novel that would wake people up to the fact that is coming again and the need to be prepared-has been realized. "3 He thanks Jenkins "whose fine writing skills and ability have brought relevant drama to this work." A flood of letters and E-mail witness that their books indeed have helped many people rethink life priorities, make new commitments, become more diligent in Bible study, and reach out to the lost. Many of the 2,000,000 readers are in Reformed churches. Like leaven, the theology of LaHaye and Jenkins is permeating the Reformed community. Over the backyard fence, during coffee time after worship, standing in the check-out line at the grocery store, neighbors and friends talk about these novels and recommend them to each other. While clergy and theologians have shown little interest in them, the laity are intrigued by their depiction of the end times. They wonder whether the picture of God drawn by LaHaye and Jenkins is biblical, and how it relates to their tradition. What follows is our review of Left Behind and Tribulation Force, the first novels in the series, and our analysis of their literary and theological achievement from a Reformed perspective.

Dispensationalism These novels are the imaginative creation of LaHaye and Jenkins and are meant to capture the imagination of readers. While they are filled with action, violence, intrigue, and romance, their goal is not to entertain but to instruct

141 readers in the truths of the premillennial dispensationalist tradition. LaHaye and Jenkins walk in the footsteps of such notables as John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), Sir Robert Anderson (1841 -1918), James Brookes, Dwight L. Moody, Cyrus Scofield (1843-1921), Donald Grey Barnhouse, and Charles Fuller. Dispensationalists believe that God's plan for the world unfolds in distinct stages or dispensations. Cyrus Scofield wrote in his popular Scofield Bible: "The past is seen to fall into periods, marked off by distinct limits, and distinguishable period from period, by something peculiar to each. " 4 Left Behind begins with the utter and universal confusion that the brings to the world. The protagonists, Rayford Steele, a pilot for Pan­ Continental Airlines, his daughter Chloe, Bruce Barnes, a pastor at New Hope Village Church of Mount Prospect, Illinois, and Buck Williams, a reporter for the Global Weekly, struggle to understand what has happened to them. They gradually learn the prophetic books, especially Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation, have foretold God's plan for history. signals the close of the Age of the Church and the beginning of the Age of Tribulation. The rest of history will follow this pattern: The Close of the Age of the Church (The Great Parenthesis) -The Return of the Jews -The Prosperity of the Nation of Israel -The Russian Invasion of Israel -The Rapture of the True Christians The Age of Tribulation -The Seven Seal Judgments (twenty-one months) -first seal: a white horse -the Antichrist establishes his power -signs a pact with the State of Israel -rebuilds the temple -divides the world into ten kingdoms -makes Babylon his capital -establishes an apostate church -the appearance of the two witnesses (Rev.11 :3-14) who prophesy 2,260 days, convert 144,000 Jews, are killed, and rise from the dead after three and a half days -the great soul Harvest: the 144,000 converted Jews (12,000 from each of the twelve tribes) witness throughout the world and bring a billion people to Christ -second seal : a red horse-the Antichrist puts down a rebellion by three rulers from the south and starts World War III -third seal: the black horse-inflation and famine follow on the heels of war

142 -fourth seal: the pale horse- a plague of death claims a quarter of the world's people -fifth seal: martyrdom-millions of Christians converted after the rapture are killed by the world leader and the harlot -sixth seal: earthquake-in retaliation for the martyred saints -seventh seal: silence in that precedes the Trumpet Judgments -The Seven Trumpet Judgments (twenty-one months) -The Seven Vial (Bowl) Judgments or the Great Tribulation -The Battle of The -Judgment -Beast Cast into the Fire - Bound The Millennial Kingdom Satan's Last Revolt Eternity

View of Prophecy Dispensationalists believe that God revealed this plan for the world in two sets of prophecies. One set foretold the coming of Jesus who brought the Age of Israel to a close and ushered in the Age of the Church; a second set foretold the coming of the Antichrist who will bring The Age of the Church to a close and usher in the Age of Tribulation and eventually the Age of the Millennium. While strict dispensationalists do not believe that prophecy foretells events in the Age of the Church, popularizers have always understood themselves to be living at the close of the Age of the Church and have applied prophecies to events of their day. Much of the popular literature flowing through the Christian Book Store network in the last fifty years has argued that events such as the establishment of the State of Israel, the development of the nuclear arsenal, the European Union, glasnost under Mikhail Gorbachev, and the Gulf War signaled the beginning of the end. Both sets of prophecies are summarized and explained in these novels. In Tribulation Force, LaHaye and Jenkins create the character of Rabbi Ben-Judah who has spent years studying biblical prophecies. In a dramatic international television appearance, he reviews the texts and announces the results of his findings. To the consternation and anger of the Jews in the audience, he publicly affirms his belief that Jesus is the Messiah. 5 This rabbi embodies the authors' view of Jews. In the end, thoughtful and committed Jews are expected to see the error of their ways and turn to Jesus. Ben-Judah is but one example of Jewish stereotypes employed in these novels. In addition, readers

143 encounter Chaim Rosenzweig, the brilliant scientist and secular Jew, and Rabbi Marc Feinberg, the parsimonious Jew. In Left Behind, Bruce Barnes converts after missing out on the rapture and commits himself to study prophecy in the hope of receiving a second chance. His expertise enables him to explain to his new Christian flock (and of course, to a flock of readers) what will happen to them during the Age of Tribulation. Dispensationalists believe that God inspired prophets to see events centuries in advance. Although prophets recorded exactly what they saw, their writings are difficult to understand for three reasons: (1) prophets wrote succinctly; (2) they used startling images to reveal the deeper, sometimes invisible forces of history; (3) they saw objects that did not exist in their world and therefore were compelled to . search their own language for roughly equivalent words. Thus, prophetic texts must be read literally and symbolically at the same time. While the prophets literally saw and recorded future events, their words and images require interpretation and an interpretative tradition. Consider, for example, the defeat of Gog described in Ezekiel 39: 3, 9: "I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand . . . . Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them-bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, handpikes and spears- and they will make fires of them for seven years." The puzzling piece here is the vast number of bows and arrows required to provide fuel for seven years. Maintaining a strict literalism, some dispensationalists have argued that Ezekiel meant just what he said: bows and arrows. They speculate that high-tech weapons in the future will be made of wood because it cannot be detected by radar. 6 In the same vein, others have anticipated that nuclear-tipped arrows and spears will be developed in the near future for hand-to-hand combat. 7 But many more offer a symbolic interpretation. Robert Glenn Gromacki puts it this way: "[Ezekiel] could only use the language and vocabulary available to him. He could not mention missiles and tanks when the terms had not yet been coined . . . . He was simply directed by the Spirit of God to describe a future battle in the popular terms of his day. " 8 LaHaye and Jenkins also frequently interpret prophecy symbolically. They believe that Gog who attacks Israel in Ezekiel 38-39 is a reference to Russia, and they describe this attack early in Left Behind. No longer the great power it was during the cold war, the Russian bear still retains its military might and its ambition to control the Middle East. Furthermore, Israeli scientist, Chaim Rosenzweig, has discovered a chemical compound that when mixed with water makes the desert bloom. Because of this, little Israel has become the earth's richest nation. To obtain this compound for its own vast tundra, Russia launches a surprise attack. Its armada of planes, apparently invincible, is mysteriously blown out of the sky by God with a combination of fire, rain,

144 hail, and earthquake. God's salvation of Israel is so complete that not a single plane falls on a house or city. "Among the ruins," write the authors, "the Israelis found combustible material that would serve as fuel and preserve their natural resources for more than six years. "9 This interpretation of the bows and arrows follows the spirit of Ezekiel's text, not the letter. It is a form of symbolic interpretation that dispensationalists decry in mainline scholars. Another example is LaHaye and Jenkins' interpretation of the "cloud" in Ezekiel 38: 14-16: "On that day when my people Israel are living securely, you [Gog] will rouse yourself and come from your place out of the remotest parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army; you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the earth." In Left Behind, the authors describe an air attack on Israel by missiles and planes. Thus Gog comes up against Israel like a cloud. In this case the symbolic interpretation is at variance with the literal, commonsensical one. Given the reference to the great number of horses, we can be fairly certain that the cloud image plays upon the cloud of dust created by this great, advancing horde. It will envelop the land as smog envelops a city. This tendency to interpret prophetic texts symbolically provides sufficient common ground between the dispensational and Reformed tradition to open up possibilities for conversation. Both traditions have considered what happens at the moment of inspiration when the word of God becomes the word of a human being. Both have acknowledged that human beings are limited in their ability to understand and convey the truth of God. This recognition of human limitation has led both to methods of interpretation that distinguish between the literal (letter) and symbolic (spirit) meaning of a text. The difference between these two traditions lies not in methods of interpreting prophecy but in the assumptions made about the prophet's role. The dispensational tradition assumes that prophets speak not to people of their own day, but to people thousands of years in the future. This prophetic foreknowledge of God's distant future is regarded as empirical evidence in a disbelieving world that God exists and the Bible is reliable. The Reformed tradition assumes that prophets speak to the people of their own day. Some prophecies challenge the practices of the day- false worship, entangling alliances, neglecting the poor-and others warn of future happenings. But all of them reveal God's character and call the people of the prophet's day to repentance and commitment. These prophecies are relevant today because God is the Alpha and the Omega; God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Before this timeless God, all followers are contemporaries. God's words to the people of Israel are also God's words to people today. In order to know what God is saying now, Christians need to understand what God was saying then.

145 This view of prophecy challenges the dispensational view of history in several ways. First, living in the presence of a God who is forever the same, Reformed believers experience only one dispensation, not a series of them. Throughout time God's interaction with people and the world is consistent. Second, the world is not abandoned by God to disintegrate into a series of dispensations. Desirous that people repent, God sends prophets to turn things around. Like the rain and the sun, prophecy is a manifestation of God's abiding care for the world. Third, prophecy reveals that God who has begun a good thing in creation will bring it to completion. Christ is both a prophet and the fulfillment of the prophetic tradition. He came preaching that the kingdom of God was at hand, and his resurrection inaugurated the new heaven and the new earth. Unlike dispensationalists, who believe that the world is doomed and that kingdom joy is in the future, the Reformed tradition teaches that in Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection, the joy of the millennial kingdom is already a part of this world.

Fiction and Prophecy Dispensational theologians generally affirm that the Bible is without error in all that it teaches, whether about science, history, or salvation. The Bible contains facts that speak for themselves and, contrary to Calvinists' views, need no Holy Spirit to illuminate them. Given this predisposition, one would expect dispensationalists to have a low regard for fiction. Yet, fiction is the natural companion of . While prophetic texts are assumed to provide factually accurate accounts of future events, their fragmentary nature and cryptic imagery invite imaginative reconstruction. Just as scientists create hypotheses from fragmentary evidence, so do dispensationalists. Both groups create scenarios of how things are and test them against reality. As history moves forward and more evidence becomes available, old scenarios are quietly dropped and new ones formulated. It is this fictive quality that gives the dispensational tradition its resilience. For example, at different times writers have identified the pope, Mikhail Gorbachev, or Saddam Hussein as the Antichrist. When events failed to confirm such speculations, the writers began looking for someone else. Dispensationalists do not question the coming of the Antichrist, but only particular interpretations of his coming. One example demonstrates how these scenarios find their way into most books on prophecy. Texts that had been on the periphery of dispensational speculation moved to the center after the manufacture and deployment of the atom bomb. Second Peter 3: 10 reads: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed" (other manuscripts read "will be burned up"). Joel 1: 19 and

146 2: 10 also refer to a fiery disaster: "To you, 0 Lord, I cry. For fire has devoured the ... pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field ... . The earth quakes before them, the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining." From these prophecies, James Reid in God, the Atom, and the Universe, creates the following scenario: "The words used by Joel and Peter centuries ago could well have been a description of an atomic explosion on a gigantic scale; the great rushing sound as the huge pillar of smoke ascends and breaks out into a tremendous mushroom formation, the blazing fire and blood-red cloud, the fission of atoms and disintegration of elements- the whole picture of nuclear horrors was painted in vivid but restrained language by the Biblical writers centuries ago." 10 It is a small step from such occasional scenarios to a full -blown novel. The fact is that even a representative list shows that the very popular novels of LaHaye and Jenkins are simply the latest in a long line. 11

Derivative Fiction Left Behind, Tribulation Force, et al. belong to a type of fiction that LaHaye and Jenkins did not create. Their depiction of the rapture, for example, borrows heavily from earlier authors. For years people have been fascinated with the concept of a sudden rapture and have speculated about its consequences. Imagine the resulting chaos. No one to guide the planes. No one to drive the automobiles. No one to watch the pan on the stove. Simple, everyday occurrences become disasters. Planes and cars become missiles, stoves incendiary devices. Fetuses disappear from the wombs of their mothers; children from the arms of their fathers. Doctors leave critically ill patients on the operating table. Political leaders on whom many depend are gone. These scenarios, long a part of dispensational thinking, appear in these novels. Many writers have connected the rapture with the rapid rise of the Antichrist. Its traumatic consequences will leave the world reeling in confusion and grief. Dave Hunt says that this unstable situation will facilitate the Antichrist's rise to power, 12 and LaHaye and Jenkins echo this theme. In a few short weeks, a Nicholae Carpathia rises to become president of Romania and then secretary-general of the United Nations. LaHaye and Jenkins write: "Because of the cosmic trauma the world had endured, they [the nations] had come looking for answers, for help, for support." 13 The disappearance of loved ones all over the globe brings back brotherly love and a sense of the brotherhood of people and nations. The Antichrist rides this train of emotion to power. Their novels also draw other themes from the deep reservoir of dispensational speculation. Left Behind ends with the four main characters-

147 Rayford Steele, Chloe Steele, Bruce Barnes, and Buck Williams- banding together to form the "Tribulation Force," a militia group that stockpiles underground food , water, and weapons in order to oppose the Antichrist. This depiction of active resistance comes straight from James McKeever's, The Rapture Book: Victory in the End Times. 14 His writings encouraged Christians to form the "Omega Force," militia groups to resist the Antichrist. LaHaye and Jenkins adopted the name and the notion of resistance to the Antichrist, but placed the formation of the Tribulation after the rapture.

The Character of the Antichrist LaHaye and Jenkins' depiction of the Antichrist also borrows heavily from previous writers. For years dispensationalists have pondered the meaning of a phrase in Daniel 7: 8, 11, 20 and Revelation 13: 5 that refers to the Antichrist as "a mouth speaking great things (KJV) . " What could be meant by "great things?" A consensus arose that the Antichrist would be a handsome and electrifying public speaker with the power to hypnotize people and manipulate the media. This is exactly how LaHaye and Jenkins portray him. First, Nicholae Carpathia is handsome. In Left Behind, reference is made to People magazine whose January issue features the "Sexiest Man Alive." However, the Carpathia media frenzy leads the editors to replace this promotion of a young singing star with the rising star from Romania. This minor episode in the novel is significant because dispensationalists have interpreted rock star hysteria as foreshadowing the rise of the Antichrist. 15 In LaHaye and Jenkins' novels, Carpathia surpasses the mass appeal of a rock star. Second, the Antichrist utilizes the power of television. In Left Behind, Wallace Theodore (a combination of Ted Koppel and Mike Wallace?) interviews Carpathia after he has made a dramatic presentation at the United Nations. Theodore says: "Your speech at the United Nations which was sandwiched between two press conferences today, seems to have electrified New York, and because so much of it has been aired on both early evening and late night local newscasts, you've become a popular man in this country seemingly all at once." 16 Dispensationalism' s theme that the Antichrist will enjoy a meteoric rise through media mastery is drawn from Revelation 13:7b- 8: "It [the beast] was given authority over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all the inhabitants of the earth will worship it . .. . " For many years dispensationalists have asked how any one person could have such a universal, instantaneous effect. The answer: the massive infrastructure that has made global communication possible is also preparing the way for the beast.

148 Third, LaHaye and Jenkins ' Antichrist possesses hypnotic power. In Le Behind, Carpathia calls a private conference of friends and appointees jus before he is to be sworn in as secretary-general of the United Nations. Bue Williams, reporter and emerging believer, is invited . His pastor, Bruce Barnes, warns him that "the Antichrist is a deceiver. And he has the power to control men's minds. He can make people see lies as truth. " 17 By attending the meeting Williams "ran the danger of being mentally overcome, brainwashed, hypnotized, or worse." 18 At the conference Carpathia takes a gun from a guard and kills Todd Cothran and Jonathan Stonagal. These two men control the world's monetary system, and thus stand in the way of his absolute power. Carpathia then announces to the gathering: "What we have just witnessed here was a horrible, tragic end to two otherwise extravagantly productive lives. These men were two I respected and admired more than any others in the world. What compelled Mr. Stonagal to rush the guard, disarm him, take his own life and that of his British colleague, I do not know and may never fully understand." 19 With this statement, the Antichrist manipulates the minds of everyone except Williams, whose prayer for protection from Carpathia's hypnotic power was answered. Fourth, our authors portray the Antichrist as a false peacemaker. This trait derives from such texts as Ezekiel 38:8 that says the Antichrist and his army will descend on Israel whose "people were brought out from the nations and now are living in safety, all of them. " Another is Jeremiah 6: 14 that depicts a time just before destruction when the prophets and priests cry, '"Peace, peace,' when there is no peace. " Dispensationalist writers who imaginatively reconstruct this scenario warn of a charming Antichrist who initially wins the world over with false promises of nuclear disarmament and peace. In a scenario now obviously discarded, James McKeever suggested that Gorbachev was the Antichrist, for his policy of glasnost and his congeniality were lulling people into a false sense of safety.20 LaHaye and Jenkins also present Carpathia as a peacemaker. During his sudden rise to power, the whole world is convinced that he is sincerely striving for world peace. Even the president of the United States says: "At this difficult hour in world history, it's crucial that lovers of peace and unity step forward to remind us that we' re part of a global community. Any friend of peace is a friend of the United States, and Mr. Carpathia is a friend of peace. "21

The Truth in Fiction Dispensational fiction is committed to presenting a true picture of reality. The drama that unfolds in our novels intends to bring the drama of history into sharper relief. The struggle of its characters to understand what is happening to them is meant to inform the struggle of people everywhere. Readers of Left

149 Behind and Tribulation Force are not being encouraged to enjoy a few moments of escapism; they are being confronted with reality and the need to decide for or against the truth. As we noted earlier, LaHaye informs all who click on his website that his dream in writing the novels was to "wake people up to the fact that Jesus is coming again and the need to be prepared." Flannery O'Conner and Frederick Buechner would echo such sentiments, although their fiction is far superior. But both LaHaye and O'Conner remind us that fiction is a serious business and has more to do with fact than people generally realize. LaHaye and Jenkins' commitment to render a true picture of reality and their desire to convert their readers raise the stakes for literary analysis. They have not written an escapist romance (although we will show how the injection of romance into the mix undermines their work). They intend a true portrayal of good and evil. Yet, we must ask if this portrayal is so compelling that their readers are better able to resist the evil and choose the good? Although it is no small task to portray the Antichrist, Carpathia is by far the most real and compelling character in the novel. Readers genuinely wonder about him and his power. His nature appears to exist somewhere between deity and humanity. His power to influence people is not absolute. He has surpassing knowledge without omniscience. He manipulates people, but miscalculates. Thus, readers are schooled in the dynamics of deception, both the overt deception of Carpathia himself and the self-deception of his followers. Regarding overt deception: Although readers know early on that his motives are evil, they experience an aura of sincerity and truth in his explanations and justifications for his devious actions. Regarding self­ deception: Readers are presented with a contrast between Buck Williams and his boss Steven Plank, the executive editor of the Global Weekly. Both are extremely ambitious, and Carpathia tries to manipulate their ambition by offering each a position of prestige and power. Buck resists; Steven does not, and becomes a mindless drone in the Antichrist's hive. LaHaye and Jenkins do not, however, sustain our interest in Carpathia. Because they fail to develop the complexity in his character, he becomes increasingly predictable. Thus, in the end, their portrayal of evil is simpler than our experience of it in everyday life. Despite interesting beginnings, the novels fail to move us to deeper understandings of the reality of evil.

The Manipulation of Character Unlike Carpathia, the portrayal of Rayford Steele is uninteresting from beginning to end . One of the numerous problems with his characterization is that he is emotionally flat. The rapture leaves him pining for his lost wife, Irene, and their son, Raymie. Guilt haunts his loneliness because at the time of

150 the disappearances he was planning an affair with his beautiful flight attendant, Hattie Durham. In the fl ash of the rapture, he realizes how full and wonderful his relationship with his wife had been and how empty and tawdry his relationship with Hattie would have been. From this point on, Rayford repeats again and again what a perfect saint Irene had been and what a perfect ditty Hattie is (both women are portrayed as stereotypically wooden) . He suffers spasms of regret for his lust, his drinking, his pride, and his greed. The latter echoes the dispensational theme of the evil of a capitalistic, consumer-driven economy. Throughout the first novel and much of the second, are variations on this refrain: "Rayford Steele could not sleep. For some reason he was overcome anew with grief and remorse over the loss of his wife and son . . . . Rayford knew he had been forgiven for mocking his wife, for never really listening, for having ignored God for so many years . . . . But that didn't stop the aching emptiness in his heart, the longing to hold his wife and son, to kiss them and tell them how much he loved them. "22 Confronted with the combined evidence of the rapture and Scripture, Rayford converts to . He knows that the Tribulation has begun and that Christ will appear with his family in seven years. He dreams of kissing Irene again and of being reunited with Raymie. Readers understand Rayford's emotions, but also wonder about the genuineness of his conversion under the circumstances. The emphasis on anticipated rewards in all such conversions calls into question the depth of the conviction of sin and the need for a Savior. Not until deep into the second novel is there any indication that Rayford's heart has been changed. Alone at home with so much to remind him of his lost loved ones, grief wells up again: "Rayford was growing emotional, but he didn't mind as much any more. His grief was more melancholic than painful now. The closer he grew to God, the more he looked forward to being with him and with Irene and Raymie after the Glorious Appearing. "23 These lines at last satisfy the reader's longing for the authors to record some change in the protagonist's heart. Yet, the reader is totally unprepared for what happens next. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Rayford is kissing not Irene but Amanda White, a woman hastily introduced at the end of Tribulation Force. Steele soon proposes to her and suggests a double wedding to include his daughter Chloe and Buck Williams. Amanda herself gives voice to the readers' surprise- unintended we are sure­ when she says: "Rayford Steele! . . . It takes a while to get your temperature up, but not long to make you boil. "24 The title, Tribulation Force, leads readers to believe that the gang of four formed at the end of Left Behind would resist the Antichrist. Instead, Tribulation Force devotes numerous pages to the romances of Chloe and Buck, Rayford and Amanda. Although romance is part of LaHaye and Jenkins'

151 success formula, they write it into the story line at the expense of characters like Rayford. Readers are left to imagine what will happen at the Glorious Appearing when Rayford greets Irene and Raymie with Amanda on his arm. Rayford's character is also manipulated when the authors use his inner dialogue to instruct readers in the truths of premillennial dispensationalism. Rayford's daughter Chloe thinks his view of the rapture is not intellectually respectable, and resists his evangelistic efforts. LaHaye and Jenkins describe Rayford's reaction: "It was all Rayford could do to stay calm. Had he been this pseudosophisticated at that age? Of course he had . He had run everything through that maddening intellectual grid-until recently, when the supernatural came crashing through his academic pretense. But like the cabbie had said, you'd have to be blind not to see the light now, no matter how educated you thought you were. "25 Here Rayford is made the mouthpiece of dispensationalism's view of formal education as dangerous, pretense, and pseudo. It blocks out the light and breeds confidence in one's own abilities or even perfectibility.

The Role of Scripture Dispensational thinkers see themselves as engaged in scientific research. The Bible is their field of inquiry and the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Revelation form their canon within the canon. They study the evidence in prophetic literature, formulate hypotheses regarding the course of history, and test these hypotheses against historical reality. They often use the image of a puzzle to explain their work. Prophetic evidence are the puzzle's pieces; hypotheses link these pieces together to offer a glimpse of the total picture. As pieces come together, the picture becomes clearer. "Bible prophecy is history written in advance, "26 says the raptured Pastor Vernon Billings in the videotape he left behind. Those not deluded by arrogance and pride will eventually see the picture and thus learn the meaning of history. The biblical prophets reveal that history is heading toward total disintegration and conflagration. People are doomed and unable to save themselves. When they realize their helplessness and commit themselves to Jesus, they will be saved. The meaning of salvation is conveyed in the rapture itself. The faithful, both living and dead, will be plucked from the doomed world to join Christ. Those who convert during the Tribulation will experience suffering or death, but will also be taken up to heaven after the judgment. References to the life and ministry of Jesus are conspicuously absent from this picture of salvation history. The teachings of Jesus are mentioned only once in Left Behind and Tribulation Force. Buck, alone and lonely in his new Chicago apartment, wonders about the future of his relationship with Chloe. He decides to read the Bible until he falls asleep. Thus, "he found himself

152 turning to the Gospels rather than the Old Testament or the Revelation prophecies. What a revolutionary Jesus turned out to be. Buck was fascinated with the character, the personality, the mission of the man. The Jesus he had always imagined or thought he knew about was an imposter. The Jesus of the Bible was a radical, a man of paradoxes. "27 Immediately his mind shifts to Chloe and the question of whether love, marriage, and children are sensible pursuits with Jesus coming back in seven short years. Love and marriage are prominent themes of this second novel. In dispensational thinking the Bible's chief role is to prepare people for what LaHaye and Jenkins call the "transaction" of faith. They walk us through the stages of this transaction with Rayford, Chloe, and Buck. 28 First, one pieces together what the Bible says about the course of history. Second, one becomes aware of God's plan for salvation. Third, one becomes convicted of sinfulness and helplessness. Fourth, one prays the prayer: "Dear God, I admit that I'm a sinner. I am sorry for my sins. Please forgive me and save me. I ask this in the name of Jesus, who died for me. I trust in him right now. I believe that the sinless blood of Jesus is sufficient to pay the price for my salvation. Thank you for hearing me and receiving me. Thank you for saving my soul. "29 Fifth, one receives salvation and assurance of heaven (a summary of the whole transaction is "believing and receiving"). The description of Buck's conversion is typical. He escapes to a stall in the washroom just before he is to meet Carpathia. Fearing the evil of the Antichrist, he says, "God, ... I need you, and not just for this meeting." The account continues: "And as he prayed he believed. This was no experiment, no halfhearted attempt. He wasn't just hoping or trying something out. Buck knew he was talking to God himself. He admitted he needed God, that he knew he was as lost and as sinful as anyone. He didn't specifically pray the prayer he had heard others talk about, but when he finished he had covered the same territory and the deal was done. "30 Note how private this conversion is. Buck's knowledge of God comes neither in community nor through preaching, catechism, or Sunday School. Rayford Steele made the transaction in the privacy of his home, listening to Pastor Billings' videotape and bowing before the television-a TV evangelist's dream. come true. Buck also requires little more knowledge of Jesus than that he came and paid the price for our sin. He mentions no personal relationship with his Savior. Only later does he read the gospels and discover that Jesus was a "revolutionary." Dispensationalists are certainly not revolutionaries. Their Jesus is not the one preaching that the kingdom has come (cf. Luke 4: 16-30), but the one seated at God's right hand who is coming to rapture the faithful and judge the world. To strive for peace and justice makes no sense because the world is doomed. The novels make very clear that Christian communities are militias.

153 They stockpile resources, defend themselves, and persevere until they are raptured and receive their eternal reward. As one book on prophecy explains: "Christians can relax, if we wish. The rapture will take us off this sinking ship, and we'll be spared further grief. But . .. we can do better than that .. . If believers can show the world a united, triumphant front in these troubled times, it may just cause some of the world to think. They may want to know why we are as we are, and we surely can tell them. "31 Reformed readers will wonder why these novels make little mention of the Holy Spirit and whether dispensationalism places too much confidence in people's ability both to understand the Bible on their own and to work out their own salvation. LaHaye and Jenkins do not regard the Holy Spirit as one who illuminates the Bible and prepares hearts for conversion and growth in the faith. The Bible assumes authority in the life of converts when they discover that it predicted events centuries in advance. When they realize from the Bible that their world is doomed, they need to pray the prayer. To be effective, this prayer must be genuine. As Pastor Billings says in the videotape: "If you were genuine, you are saved, born again, a child of God. "32 Apparently, biblical understanding and purity of heart can be achieved without the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit simply seals the deal. Pastor Billings says, "If you accept God's message of salvation, his Holy Spirit will come in unto you and make you spiritually born anew. " 33

Reaching the Masses LaHaye and Jenkins' runaway best sellers convey their faith to millions, an accomplishment Reformed Christians can only envy. Our authors do not pretend to write great literature. They write "to wake people up to the fact that Jesus is coming again and the need to be prepared." How are we to judge their success? What will be the long-term impact of these novels within the dispensational community and beyond? We risk the following judgments. A Millennial Climate. The approaching end of the millenium has deeply affected both religious and non-religious people in the West. It forces them to think about the meaning of time. We all mark time and structure it with numbers. Our numbering system both progresses and returns to zero. This is so obvious that we easily overlook it: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 100, 1000, 2000 and so forth. This system applied to years suggests a view of history in which time advances but then returns to the beginning. The bigger the number, the more dramatic the return. The year 2000 is a dramatic return. This imminent return to zero moves us all to think of the beginning and ending of periods, and therefore of the meaning of time.

154 LaHaye and Jenkins offer an account of the structure and meaning of time. They are careful not to set dates nor to mention the coming of the year 2000. But they are responding to the opportunity the millennium climate affords, for this climate fuels the desire to buy and read their books. The of Consumerism. We all are so immersed in a consumerist culture that it is difficult to focus on it. As a world- and lifeview, consumerism is an offspring of Christianity. It offers a ritual meal- the consumption of the "body," or resources of the earth to enhance life; it has an eschatology-a historical drama framed by promise and fulfillment. The latter is of special interest in evaluating the impact of the premillennial dispensational tradition. Imagine walking into a showroom and eyeing a bright red, Jeep Cherokee. Just as so many commercials portray, the inanimate vehicle becomes animate. The Jeep speaks to your heart with promises. "Buy me," it says, "and you will be more secure on the road, will overcome any obstacle, will be happier with yourself, and more in control of your life. " Your heart is filled with hope and anxiety as you ponder the truth of the promises. You long for the freedom of the open road and liberation from life's potholes, but you have been disappointed in the past. Nevertheless, you decide to buy the Jeep Cherokee and trust its offer of happiness. You drive away, riding high above the fray in seats fitted to your body. You can touch and smell the newness of manufactured goodness. You hear the purring of the engine and feel the power literally at your feet. The promises seem fulfilled. At first you feel elation behind the wheel, but later only when you are showing your red Jeep to your friends. Then, as the odometer turns, as the tires wear down and the finish is scratched in the church parking lot, your joy also wears down and finally wears out. The animate vehicle becomes inanimate again. It ceases to speak to you at all. This is the eschatology of consumerism. Consumers move from promise to fulfillment a thousand times a year with a thousand products. It is not just the Jeep Cherokee that makes promises to us, but also the vacation in Hawaii, the tomato-red dress in the window, and the donut in the coffee shop. Yet the scope of these promises is small, the fulfillment insignificant, and the time frame short. Thus, consumerism is an absurd contraction of . The evangelist said, "For God so loved the world." The angels announced, "I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people." We echo their words and sing hopefully, "Joy to the world! the Lord is come." In the Bible God promises that the good established in the beginning of creation will be made good in the end. All of us caught up in the contracted eschatology of consumerism are likewise contracted, and our shriveled souls yearn for a larger purpose, a larger

155 world, and larger spans of time. We yearn for a promise large enough to encompass all of history and for a fulfillment joyful enough to last all of eternity. At its best, dispensationalism responds to this yearning among people caught in the consumerist system, people whose lives are fragmented by endless and minute cycles of promise and fulfillment. Becauses it offers them a larger vision of history and the meaning of life, its allure will endure. We can only hope that the more compelling vision of history and life offered by the Reformed tradition will find a winsome expression as our consumptive world approaches the new millennium. The Global Village. Today's global interconnection has made this old phrase more relevant than ever. The world is increasingly united in one economic system with global opportunities and global competition. Companies are becoming larger, and power is concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people. Today, the main job of our elected leaders is to manage the economy; the main job of our schools is to prepare students to fit into the economic system. All of us recognize these trends, even though we may describe and evaluate them differently. The global village strikes fear into the hearts of dispensationalists. Historically, they have been suspicious of capitalism with its "selfish lust for money, possessions, and power" ;34 suspicious of the notion of progress; and suspicious of the concentration of power. They believe that any form of global unity creates an infrastructure that the Antichrist will take over and use for evil purposes. Therefore, economic unification at the end of the second millenium provides fertile ground for the growth of premillenial dispensational writing and influence. Popularizing. In his provocative and sympathetic study of prophetic belief, When Time Shall Be Nor More, Paul Boyer observes: "By the late twentieth century no longer attracted expositors of even the Barnhouse or Smith caliber. ... Living off the intellectual capital of the past, the interchangeable parade of popularizers continued, as though in a time warp, to expound a system of belief wholly cut off from the larger world of ideas and scholarship. "35 Living off the capital of the past, popularizers tend to have short-term and not long-term impact. We feel this is true of LaHaye and Jenkins. In their desire to reach the masses, they ignore important issues of the day and compromise their own tradition. We have earlier shown that they introduce romance into their novels at the expense of developing consistent and significant characters. Although titillating romance-even if only chaste kissing-sells books, it also sells the

156 dispensational tradition short. Similarly, their subtle commitment to the present economic arrangements is revealed when inflation is depicted as one of the devastations of the Tribulation. Pastor Vernon Billings warns in his videotape: "You'll find that government and religion will change, war and inflation will erupt, there will be widespread death and destruction, martyrdom of saints, and even a devastating earthquake. Be prepared. "36 How did "inflation" make its way into this depiction of end-time horrors? Would not a decrease in the value of money be a good thing, reducing the influence of the Antichrist, who according to the novel came to power partly by killing Stonagal and taking over his global, financial empire? This observation may seem picayune, but we see it is an example of the loss of force and vision in the dispensational movement. LaHaye and Jenkins make money very important in and around the novels, whereas the founders of the movement decried money's influence. They saw in James and Revelation powerful prophecies against big business, the accumulation of wealth, and the whole idea of commerce. 37 Marketing. LaHaye and Jenkins market their product brilliantly. No one sells 2,000,000 books without understanding and manipulating market forces. LaHaye supplies the dispensational framework and Jenkins adds the action, intrigue, and romance. The Christian Book Store network and the Christian talk shows promote the books and ring up the sales. The authors have sold the movie right to the novels, have prepared a children's version, and have established an interactive website. The only thing lacking-but probably forthcoming-are Chloe and Buck dolls to compete with Barbie and Ken. This mass marketing, mass appeal, and mass influence are not consistent with the spirit of the founders of dispensationalism. We wonder if the movement is in the process of selling its birthright. We cannot judge the motives-for all we know, all the money being made may be designated to charity. We can only note the irony that LaHaye and Jenkins resemble Carpathia more than they resemble Pastor Billings and Barnes. Like Carpathia, they use the massive communication infrastructure to promote their cause. All that money and all that influence tie one pretty tightly to a world that is supposedly doomed.

ENDNOTES

1 Left Behind (Wheaton, IL, Tyndale Publishing, 1995); Tribulation Force (Wheaton, IL, Tyndale Publishing, 1996). 2 Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970. 3 Quoted from the website www. leftbehind.com.

157 4New York: Oxford U.P., 1917 . 5 Left, 376-98. 6 William Goetz, Next: Updated (Cathedral City, CA : Horizon House, 1981) 149-52. 7 Richard W. DeHaan, Israel and the Nations in Prophecy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1967) 11 5. 8 Old Tappan, NJ : Fleming H. Revell, 1970, 128. 9 Left, 14 . 10 Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1968, 160. 11 Forrest Loman Oilar, Be Thou Prepared, for Jesus Is Coming (Boston: Meandor Publishing Co., 1937); Ernest Angley, Raptured: A Novel on the of th e Lord (Akron: Winston Press, 1950); Salem Kirban, Matthew: The Beginning of Sorrow (Chicago: Moody Press, 1972); Salem Kirban, 666: A Novel (Chicago: Moody Press, 1970); Chaos (comic book) (Chino, CA: Chick Publications); Dan Betzer, The Beast: A Novel of the Future World Dictator (Lafayette: LA:, Prescott Press, 1985); Charles Colson, "Prologue- March 24, 1998," in Kingdoms in Conflict (New York: William Morrow Co., 1987); Timothy J. Dailey, "Final Battle, Final Hope" in The Gathering Storm, (Tarrytown, NY: Chosen Books, 1992); also see W. Warrren Wager, Terminal Visions (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1982) on the massive outpouring of dispensational thinking in the popular media, and www.armageddonbooks.com for a complete list ofpremillennial dispensational novels. 12 Peace, Prosperity, and the Coming Holocaust (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1983) 47. 13 Left, 244 . 14 Medford, OR: Omega Publications, 1987. 15 Cf. John Wesley White, Coming World Dictator (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1981) 10 , 35; Walvoord, The Nations in Prophecy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1968) 144. 16 Left, 269-70. 17 Left, 427. 18 Left, 440. 19 Left, 458. 20 End-times News Digest, March and September, 1989. 21 Left, 303. 22 Left, 298f. 23 Tribulation, 225 . 24 Tribulation, 422. 25 Left, 237. 26 Left, 214. 27 Tribulation, 40. 28 Left, 210-217; 400-408; 443-448. 29 Left, 216. 30 Left, 446-4 7.

158 31 Thomas S. McCall and Zola Levitt, The Coming Russian Invasion of Israel: Updated, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1989) 74-75. 32 Left, 216. 33 Left, 215 . 34 Dave Hunt, op. cit., 171. 35 Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard U.P., 1992), 310. 36 Left, 215. 37 Cf. Paul Boyer, op . cit., 91 -112.

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