The "Left Behind" books: How the Christian Right Uses Jews and Israel.

The most popular novel in America right now is one in which the world is tyrannized by the former secretary general of the U.N., who operates from Iraq, and his global force of storm troopers, called "peacekeepers." Revered rabbis evangelize for Christ, repenting Israel's "specific national sin" of "[r]ejecting the messiahship of Jesus." Much of the world is deceived by a false prophet, part of the inner circle of the Antichrist, who seems a lot like the pope -- he's a Catholic cardinal, "all robed and hatted and vested in velvet and piping."

"The Remnant," which debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, is the 10th entry in Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye's phenomenally popular "Left Behind" series, a Tom Clancy-meets-Revelation saga of the Rapture, the Tribulation and, presumably, the eventual return of Jesus. Last year's "Desecration," the ninth volume of a projected 14, was 2001's bestselling hardcover novel. There is probably very little overlap between Salon's readership and the audience for apocalyptic Christian fiction, but these books and their massive success deserve attention if only for what they tell us about the core beliefs of a great many people in this country, people whose views shape the way America behaves in the world.

After all, Tim LaHaye isn't merely a fringe figure like Hal Lindsey, the former king of the genre, whose 1970 Christian end-times book "The Late Great Planet Earth" was the bestseller of that decade. The former co-chairman of Jack Kemp's presidential campaign, LaHaye was a member of the original board of directors of the Moral Majority and an organizer of the Council for National Policy, which ABCNews.com has called "the most powerful conservative organization in America you've never heard of" and whose membership has included John Ashcroft, Tommy Thompson and Oliver North. George W. Bush is still refusing to release a tape of a speech he gave to the group in 1999.

The point isn't that all these leaders are part of some kind of right-wing Illuminati. It's simply that the seemingly wacky ideology promulgated in the Left Behind books is one that important people in America are quite comfortable with. The Left Behind series provides a narrative and a theological rationale for a whole host of perplexing conservative policies, from the White House's craven decision to cut off aid to the United Nations Family Planning Fund to America's surreally casual mobilization for an invasion of Baghdad -- a city that is, in the Left Behind books, Satan's headquarters.

Political attitudes and actions that make no practical or moral sense to secularists become comprehensible when viewed through Christian pop culture's eschatological looking glass. At a time when America is flagrantly flouting international law, spurning the U.N. and tacitly supporting the land grabs of Israeli maximalists, surely it's significant that the most popular fiction in the country creates a gripping narrative that pits American Christians against a conspiracy of Satan-worshipping, abortion-promoting, gun-controlling globalists -- all of it revolving around the sovereignty of Israel.

Israel is the key to the theology that dominates Left Behind (as well as much of American evangelical Christianity). In the religion, as in the series, the rapture is kicked off by a military attack on the country, which survives almost unscathed (though the first Left Behind, written before the current intifada, had Russian aggressors rather than Arabs). Indeed, the chain of events that lead to the return of Christ depends on the existence of a Holy Land that is under catastrophic assault. No wonder the born-again lobby is obsessed with Israeli self-defense, but opposed to any peace plan.

Those Israeli settlements in the West Bank that add so much kindling to the conflagration in the Middle East are often "adopted" and funded by American evangelical churches whose members are devouring a novel that depicts Jews reclaiming Palestinian land, moving Al-Aqsa Mosque out of Jerusalem and rebuilding the second temple on the Dome of the Rock. The chosen people are suddenly the darlings of the religious right, while a bestseller promotes the idea that Jews will soon convert to Christianity -- and atone for their centuries of stubbornness -- en masse.

Of course, it's not that every reader of the more than 50 million Left Behind books sold so far is an end-times fundamentalist any more than every Eminem fan is a homophobe. Nor are the books guaranteed to change their audiences' views on American foreign policy -- the relationship between culture and politics is never that simple. But the stories people tell themselves about the world necessarily shape the way they act in it, and right now, this is the story that's captivating America.

On one level, the attraction of the Left Behind books isn't that much different from that of, say, Tom Clancy or Stephen King. The plotting is brisk and the characterizations Manichean. People disappear and things blow up. Revelation is, after all, supremely creepy, which is why it gets so much play in horror flicks from "Rosemary's Baby" to "End of Days."

The opening sequence of the first Left Behind book is gripping and cinematic. Rayford Steele, an unhappily married commercial pilot, is flying to London and contemplating an affair with a stewardess, when, handing the controls over to his co-pilot and walking into the cabin, he finds her hysterical. People throughout the plane have disappeared, their clothes left in neat piles on their seats.

"This was no joke, no trick, no dream," Jenkins and LaHaye write. "Something was terribly wrong, and there was no place to run."

Returning to America, Steele finds a world in chaos. All real Christians -- as opposed to mere churchgoers -- as well as children and fetuses out of wombs have vanished. Planes flown by believers have crashed, along with cars driven by the faithful. The media struggles to make sense of it, but Rayford, whose marital troubles were caused by his wife's newfound religious passion, knows what happened. His wife had told him that Christians would be raptured up to heaven in preparation for the rise of the Antichrist, his nefarious seven-year reign and the Second Coming of Jesus.

The Left Behind books chronicle those seven years -- known to Christians as the Tribulation -- as a ragtag group of new believers form the "Tribulation Force" to thwart the murderous plans of Nicolae Carpathia, the U.N.-leader-cum-prince-of-darkness (often just called "the evil one," Osama bin Laden-style). Carpathia's rise is engineered by a cabal of bankers. He's supported by Israeli liberals enthralled by his devious promises of peace, and a Democratic American president sells out the country to Carpathia's one-world government. Meanwhile, the Tribulation Force finds a spiritual leader in Tsion Ben-Judah, a rabbi and former Israeli statesman who realizes the error of his Jewish ways and becomes a guerrilla media evangelist.

It's bizarre that more attention hasn't been paid to the series' open hostility to the Jewish religion, if not the Jewish people. Imagine if, say, James Carville wrote a novel in which a band of heroic gay socialists defeated a voracious army of slack-jawed Bible-quoting Republicans to turn the world into a gigantic French-speaking free-love commune. He'd be crucified on the talk shows, and all kinds of sinister motives would be impugned to the Democratic Party.

That a Republican player can create a blockbuster media empire out of analogous extremism suggests two seemingly contradictory things. First, Christian paranoia has become so mainstream that few see fit to remark on it anymore. Second, while the novels' popularity has received lots of media attention, their actual content is utterly off the radar of the kind of people who write about books. Nobody, it seems -- except, of course, for the series' millions of fans -- is reading Left Behind.

The Left Behind books actually play on that sense of being unfairly ignored, reveling in the moment when smug agnostics, insufficiently zealous Christians and, most of all, Jews realize how terribly wrong they were. As Gersholm Gorenberg wrote of the books in his "The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount," "Christianity's ancient, anxious amazement that the people who know the Old Testament best don't accept that it leads to Jesus (don't, in fact, accept that it is Old Testament) is at last disarmed."

Cannily, the authors make their protagonists disbelievers who are disdainful of fundamentalism. That means that doubters can relate to them and are thus drawn into their dawning religious consciousness, while believers get the satisfaction of seeing the heroes come around to their point of view. By having even minor characters recount their conversions, Jenkins and LaHaye make sure that each volume has moments when readers can enjoy a bit of high-minded revenge against mocking urbanites.

The writers take a special pleasure in the self-abnegation of supposedly sophisticated media types. In "The Remnant," a British reporter makes an appearance solely to explain her salvation. "All I can say is that the enemy has a stronghold over the mind until one surrenders to God," she says. "I was a pragmatist, proud, a journalist. I wanted control over my own destiny. Things had to be proved to me." Now born-again, she tells Steele that she's mystified by her former "lunacy."

Seeing the self-defeating delusions of erstwhile elites exposed may be the greatest pleasure the Left Behind books offer their readers.

The plotting alone certainly isn't enough to sustain attention in "The Remnant." That wasn't true of the first book -- theology aside, the setup of the original Left Behind makes for a strangely compelling thriller. The stage is the whole world gone mad, and the story roils with international intrigue. Jenkins and LaHaye are very good at turning esoteric biblical augury into real-world scenarios, and they get the action going before they start inserting too many sermons into the mix.

So simple fascination with a good story might have accounted for the book's initial success -- after all, audiences don't necessarily endorse the politics behind every action adventure they devour.

But by the time "The Remnant" starts, the suspense has pretty much died, because the story has the ultimate deus ex machina. Whenever things look grim for our heroes, when the enemy is closing in and there's nowhere to run, they're saved at the last minute by ... God. At the beginning of "The Remnant," Ben-Judah is encamped, Moses-like, with a million followers in the Jordanian desert. Carpathia's forces unleash a devastating bombing raid, but thanks to God, the resulting "massive sea of raging flames" leaves the so-called Judah-ites untouched. God can also be relied upon to speed up computer searches and drop plenty of nourishing manna on his blockaded flock. In the wittiest scene in "The Remnant," God is literally a co-pilot, sending an angel to help fly a plane during a tense getaway.

There's not much drama in the repeated victories of an omnipotent being, but that's not the only thing that makes "The Remnant" sluggish. In order to stretch out the series for so long, Jenkins and LaHaye have larded it with tedious subplots and countless techno-geek scenes in which a crafty Christian hacker named Chang sabotages Carpathia's plans or creates false identities for his comrades. About a third of "The Remnant" concerns the rescue of a Tribulation Force pilot named George Sebastian from Greece. The action mostly involves the characters driving around, splitting up, reconnoitering and then trying to find each other.

The Remnant has very little in the way of climactic good vs. evil showdowns. While there is a bit of supernatural deviltry (masses of vipers attack believers lured from Ben-Judah's protection by agents of the False Prophet) and some martyrdom (though not of any main characters), most of the story follows members of the Tribulation Force jetting around the globe running various errands. The nuclear annihilation of Chicago rates just a few lines, while the cellphone codes the Force uses to communicate gets several pages.

Left Behind cloaks itself in the conventions of ordinary airport thrillers, but it does far more than just provide a Christian alternative to decadent mainstream entertainment. It creates a Christian theory of everything, one that slates current events into a master narrative in which the world is destroyed and then remade to evangelical specifications. It's an alternate universe in which conservative Middle Americans are vindicated against everyone who doesn't share their beliefs -- especially liberals and Jews.

There's nothing wrong with that. Everyone is entitled to their fantasies. But LaHaye and Jenkins are at pains to show that the Left Behind books are meant as more than fiction. They write on the Left Behind Web site, "While it is true that in the broad spectrum of Protestant Christianity there are multiple views of the end-times scenario, the pre-millennialist theology found in the Left Behind Series is the prominent view among evangelical Christians, including their leading seminaries such as Talbot Seminary, Trinity Seminary and Dallas Theological Seminary."

So the rest of us can ignore Left Behind, or chuckle at its over-the-top Christian kitsch. We should keep in mind, though, that for some of the most powerful people in the world, this stuff isn't melodrama. It's prophecy.

The Left Behind series is getting tens and tens of MILLIONS of souls to think about End Times, (which will lead many of them to the Bible and many eventually to the Lord) who would otherwise be curled up with some kinda meaningless Steven King escapism. That's not a good thing?

You're right, Berned. Overall, it's a good and great thing - to remind people of the ultimate 2nd coming of Christ - especially for those who have forgotten the wonderful meaning and essence of the first coming.

I just finished reading the "Behind" series for the (blush) THIRD TIME so I feel qualified to present my RIGHT WING opinion.. I think it is hilarious that a LEFT WING (Probable Atheist at best)Pinko-Salon-Wacko does not have a CLUE what the series is all about..Me thinks Mr. Steele would not be the only one left behind if the premise of the books is true..btw, the authors state that this is not the only way that things could happen,,, just one way that events MIGHT happen.. With all my reading (many subtle nuances picked up with each reading) I can not find a JEWBASHING hostile environment,,,just deep love for a special people who do not seem to understand their own "SPECIALNESS".OOOPS, JUST lost my objectivity..

What I really love about this sort of review, is that it was obviously written by someone who has not actually read the work being reviewed, instead relying upon other people's views and summaries to fill in details.

Anyone reading the Left Behind series must keep one thing in mind....

It is a work of fiction which describes a reasonably realistic view of the way Biblical end-times prophecies could very well unfold. We must also keep in mind that Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, the writers, are human.

Personally, the Left Behind series has helped strengthen my faith, while at the same time, encouraging me to further study the Bible.

For anyone interested in end-times prophecy-based fiction should also check out James BeauSeigneur's "Christ Clone Trillogy":

In His Image
Birth Of An Age
Acts Of God

Although written from a Christian perspective, this book also covers the roll that other "beliefs" play in the end times. This book series has a lot less of the feel-goods found in the Left Behind series.

It's just my opinion, but I think that support is more zealous because of bible prophecy.

The main reason I have supported Israel is because of the book "Exodus" by Leon Uris and the holocaust. Later I was exposed to Christian bible prophecy concerning the Jews and that made me want to back them all the more, naturally.

Of late I've had to ask myself if I am being totally objective to side unequivocally with the Jews. They aren't always in the right. Usually they are, but there have been incidents where they went too far imo, assuming you can get the whole truth from either side.

According to Christians... Jews and Moslems (and other non believers) will spend an eternity together because they haven't accepted Jesus.

That's what the Bible clearly teaches, whether people like it or not. Jesus is the only way to God. Unbelievers, of any stripe, are always hostile to the gospel until their hearts are changed by the Holy Spirit. Christians are to relay this truth in humility and in love, but they must proclaim the truth, nonetheless. To do otherwise, is to disobey God.

Try checking out this web site -- http://www.levitt.com/

Zola Levitt is a messianic Jew who has an informative web site. He has made many videos about Christians and Jews -- one of his points is that God has not finished his work with the Jewish nation. It is God's desire to save all who will accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour -- and in the end times many Jews will be saved.

I do admire Zola Levitts zeal for the Lord. However, his view of Biblical history is excessively narrow and favorable to his own Jewish background, and his arguments to the effect that (from his site):

From the time of the return of the first remnant after the Babylonian exile, sacred historians, prophets, apostles, and the Lord Himself, regarded the "Jews" whether in the land or in "Dispersion" as representatives of "all Israel," and the only people in line of the covenants and the promises which God made with the fathers...

are overreaching and simply do not hold water. His Biblical citations in defense of those and other positions are quite challengeable.

The Left Behind series is getting tens and tens of MILLIONS of souls to think about End Times, (which will lead many of them to the Bible and many eventually to the Lord

I thought leading people to the Lord was salvation, and that YOU were mixing end times speculation with salvation. Leading people to the Lord through end times fiction is backward. I doubt it happens, though people are often led into cults that way.

Specifically how you ASSUME that you KNOW the anti-chist is the Pope. As if you wrote Revelations yourself. We argued this long and hard. You cannot get past the fact that your ASSUMPTION is just that an ASSUMPTION, a GUESS, an OPINION, not FACT. FACT is for God to determine. You read one or two sentences from one book in the Bible and to you, it ALL makes sense. You have a certain chance of being right, but unless you are God, you are merely GUESSING.

The Christian concept of Crusading and burning heretics...

The idea of burning heretics is not a Christian principle. I get so tired of hearing this idea repeated over and over. First off it happened a few hundred years ago and I think we can safely say that Chrisitan ideals have evolved somewhat since that time. If the burning of heretics is currently a big issue why I have not seen anyone burnt at the stake during my life time. God, knows there are enough heretics to justify a prye on every street corner. It is a sad chapter from Chrisitian history that really should be given a rest.

If killing people for not accepting your religious belief is an exuclusively Christian idea please explain to me why Druids bar-be-qued their heretics,or the Aztecs, the Romans for that matter. In fact one would be hard pressed to find a major world religion which has not done it at some point They were doing this well before Christianity came into being. I get sick to tearings listening to the new age people drivel on about the brutality of Chrisitanity when the Druids who they hold in high esteam did the same things. For some reason the blood on their hands dosen't count. I guess it's because they were kind to trees to they can pass the politically correct smell test.

Killing people who disagree with your religion has to do with crappy human behavior and nothing to do with Chrisitanity. The modern western world no longer tolerates this atrocious crime. The Muslim world does. We are living in the current world not the past. To argue that "well Christians did it hundreds of years ago so who are we to point fingers" is an attemmpt to inpart some sort of phoney guilt within Christians for believing in their faith. I for one have never owned a slave, killed an Indian, or burnt a heretic. I hazard to guess if you will not find many ,if any, American Christians who have.

Specifically how you ASSUME that you KNOW the anti-chist is the Pope.

When did I EVER say that the antichrsit would be the Pope??

I believe a future Pope will be THE FALSE PROPHET -- not the Antichrist.

Are you truly so ignorant of Scripture to not know the difference between the Antichrist and the False Prophet, and that they are two seperate persons?

It's wearying to converse with people like you, ada$tra, who read my posts but do not comprehend what they read. Then you want to put words in my mouth that I never said, because of YOUR ignorance of Bible basics.

I suggest you try to read Revelation for yourself, once through, before you post any more on things which you reveal to all who browse here that you are in complete ignorance of.

Amen! And I don't hold any Jews any more culpable in Christ's death than I hold my self and all the people of the World culpable. Unlike Bill Clinton (regardless of what he said last week) and his Salon dot com buddies, I think it is America and Israel against the world right now. The day we turn our backs on Israel is the day we will face the tribulation.

I love what you said there so I thought I'd post it again!

It is my firm belief that how you interpret the end times is in no way essential to salvation. I am a premillennialist like LaHaye, however it is not a required for salvation belief at all. Certainly it is not worth fighting over. The one thing we all know for sure is that NO ONE knows the time, place, or exactly how Revelation will play out.

I like the Left Behind books but a person can be a wonderful Christian and disagree with LaHaye's take on the end times. Even he would say so.

Essential beliefs are: Who God is--Creator, Holy, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent....who man is--a sinner....who Christ is--God's Son, Redeemer, Savior, Holy....what faith means--not of ourselves, it is a free gift from God, not of works...

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