The End Times
Inside there are two feature articles: “Apocalypse Now,” an examination of the healthy (and wealthy) “Bible prophecy” movement among Fundamentalist and Evangelical Protestants, and “Meet The Prophet,” a profile of Left Behind creator and co-author Tim LaHaye. Having written several articles on these topics, I was curious to see the approach that TIME – a magazine not known for its magnanimous treatment of Christians in general – would take. Would the articles be heavy-handed and condescending? Cautious, yet critical? Puzzled, but polite? After all, the mainstream media has often mocked, sometimes quite openly, the apocalyptic obsessions of certain Christian groups.
To its credit, TIME took the high road. The articles are polite, objective, and informative. Rather than dismiss the Left Behind phenomenon as an odd fringe movement – an approach sometimes taken by the media prior to the September 11 attacks – the pieces recognize that 32 million books sold (50 million counting the comic books and children’s versions) make a significant statement about the interests and concerns of average Americans. The 60% jump in sales of the Left Behind books immediately following the attacks was not, of course, coincidental. It seemed to validate LaHaye’s claims that the books aren’t just fiction and that their interpretation of the Book of Revelation is meant to be taken literally. There’s no doubt many people are reading them in just that way. One reader interviewed by TIME states that the books “helped me look at the news that’s going on about Israel and Palestine”; those events, he insists, are “just ushering in the End Times and it’s exciting for me.” Another reader says the books have helped her understand the September 11 events by placing them within the context of biblical prophecy: “It was almost a message right out of the Bible.” Other readers discuss their interest in the Book of Revelation and their conviction that today’s headlines are fulfilling the prophecies of that mysterious and controversial work. (To read a detailed and distinctly Catholic interpretation of the Book of Revelation, click here.)
None of this will be surprising to those familiar with the “left behind” theology taught by Tim LaHaye. Known more formally as premillennial dispensationalism, this theological system has been popular in America among numerous conservative Protestant groups for a century. The movement broke through to a larger audience in the 1970s with the publication of Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), a non-fiction work predicting the same major events as described in the fictional Left Behind novels: the rapidly approaching removal from earth of “true believers” (the Rapture), the rise of the Antichrist, a seven-year period of Tribulation, and the battle of Armageddon. Place Lindsey’s mega-selling book alongside LaHaye’s 1972 prophetic release, The Beginning of the End, and one might have difficulty telling the difference. The sensationalistic tone, breathless style, and theological beliefs are nearly identical; the main distinction is that Lindsey’s book sold 40 million more copies.
Meet the Prophet
But LaHaye, as the TIME articles detail, is having the last laugh. Lindsey was courted by the Pentagon and major media outlets in the 1970s, but it is now LaHaye who is topping the charts, appearing on Larry King Live, and shaping popular Fundamentalist and Evangelical opinions about the Middle East, the state of American culture, and the Bible. Fr. Richard Neuhaus, editor of First Things and a keen observer of the religious scene in the United States, has recently observed that LaHaye might be the most influential Fundamentalist of the past twenty-five years. Considering LaHaye’s views about Scripture, the world, culture, and other Christians, this is a troubling, albeit accurate, conclusion.
John Cloud, author of TIME’s profile of LaHaye, “Meet The Prophet,” observes that LaHaye believes Catholicism is a “false religion” and is not Christian. But Cloud also describes LaHaye as an “Evangelical,” a problematic description (although not inaccurate, it is not as precise or apt as “Fundamentalist.”) It is surprising that LaHaye is never described as a Fundamentalist, a term he readily embraces, referring as it does back to its historical definition (a conservative Protestant who believes in the “fundamentals” of Christianity), not to the sloppy way it is often used by the media today. This highlights a problem with the TIME articles: they provide very little historical or denominational context for the reader. They give the impression that almost all Christians believe the Book of Revelation describes current or rapidly approaching events, a view that most Catholics, Orthodox, and many Protestants do not embrace. Many Evangelicals, perhaps even the majority of them, do not adhere to the end time beliefs taught by LaHaye. Scholars from the Reformed and Calvinist traditions, for instance, are vehemently opposed to dispensationalism and have provided some of the most devastating critiques of it.
Although the Book of Revelation is a central topic in “Apocalypse Now,” there are no substantive quotes or statements from theologians holding to views different from those found in the Left Behind books. Once again, as is so often the case in secular articles about St. John’s great work, the Book of Revelation is a portrayed as a weird, largely incoherent mess of scary images and cryptic numbers. This isn’t surprising considering that many Americans, including journalists, are biblically illiterate. They would be baffled to learn that the Book of Revelation is the most Old Testament of the New Testament books, filled with dozens, even hundreds, of references to the Pentateuch, Temple practices, and the writings of Ezekiel and Daniel. It might even perplex some to discover that The Apocalypse (literally “unveiling”) is about Jesus Christ, His Kingdom, the Church, and the fulfillment of the New Covenant – not the military plans of China, or the use of nuclear weapons, or the establishment of a blissful, utopian reign of God on earth.
No End to Rapture Novels
Also absent is necessary historical context. Although a brief history of dispensationalism is given, it is nowhere noted that this belief system is a radical break from two thousand years of Christian orthodoxy. In discussing John Nelson Darby (b. 1800), the father of premillennial dispensationalism and the man who made the “Rapture” what it is today among Fundamentalists, there is no recognition of his central premises: Jesus Christ failed in His original mission, the Church is an interruption of God’s original plan of salvation, and that God has two chosen people, the Christians and the Jews. These unique beliefs were news to Protestants in Darby’s day and continue to be minority views among Protestants; they are soundly rejected by both Catholic and Orthodox doctrine. This is not to say the belief in the Rapture isn’t popular among Christians, only that its wild popularity in America distorts its proper place in the historical flow of Christian teaching and theology.
Oddly enough, a sidebar titled “The End: How It Got That Way” states, “Luckily for the Republic, few Americans are truly Darby obsessed anymore.” This is ironic considering the Left Behind books are nothing more than entertaining, fictionalized presentations of Darby’s beliefs. LaHaye vehemently defends Darby in his 1998 book Rapture Under Attack (a revision of his 1992 book, No Fear of the Storm), and any difference between Darby’s teachings and those of LaHaye and Hal Lindsey are minor. Few Left Behind readers know who Darby was, but his views are more popular than ever – just as few people know who James Naismith was, but basketball continues to be a popular and lucrative sports in the United States. Not only are LaHaye’s views based on Darby’s theological teachings, the Left Behind books are also derivative of earlier “Rapture novels.” Such fictional works date back to the 1930s and have sporadically appeared ever since. In 1970, the same year Lindsey published his best seller, a dispensationalist author named Salem Kirban published a Rapture novel, titled 666. It featured a non-Christian protagonist who witnesses the Rapture while on an airplane trip and is “left behind.” His wife and a child are Raptured. Eventually he discovers Bible passages such as 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and becomes a Christian; soon he infiltrates the camp of the Antichrist. Sound familiar? It’s the same plot as the first Left Behind book, a work that is not nearly as original or unique as many of its fans believe.
Those basing their understanding of Scripture and the end times on the Left Behind books will be sorely disappointed. But it’s doubtful that LaHaye and Tyndale Press, publisher of the Left Behind books, will be disappointed anytime soon. The Remnant: On The Eve of Armageddon, the tenth book in the series, was just released with a first print run of 2,750,000 copies. Rather than believe that LaHaye’s end time visions will soon come to pass, it’s a far safer bet that TIME and other major news magazines will be doing more stories on the Bible, the Apocalypse, and best-selling Rapture books in the near future.
© Copyright 2002 Catholic Exchange
Carl Olson is editor of Envoy Magazine.
