The Apocalypse Will Be Televised (the 'Left Behind' series)

Armageddon in an age of entertainment

Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005. Originally from November 2004. By Gene Lyons.

Sources

Discussed in this essay:

Glorious Appearing, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Tyndale House Publishers, 2004. 399 pages. $24.99.

Assassins, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Tyndale House Publishers, 1999. 413 pages. $14.99.

Nicolae, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Tyndale House Publishers, 1997. 415 pages. $14.99.

Left Behind, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Tyndale House Publishers, 1995. 468 pages. $14.99.

The Rapture Exposed, by Barbara R. Rossing. Westview Press, 2004. 212 pages. $24.

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But when a Man’s Fancy gets astride on his Reason, when Imagination is at Cuffs with the Senses, and common Understanding, as well as common Sense, is Kickt out of Doors; the first Proselyte he makes, is Himself, and when that is once compass’d, the Difficulty is not so great in bringing over others; a strong Delusion always operating from without, as vigorously as from within.

—Jonathan Swift,
A Tale of a Tub

After living in the Bible Belt for more than thirty years, I’ve learned several things about our fundamentalist Christian brethren: First, theirs is an embattled faith, which requires an ever evolving list of enemies to keep its focus. It includes Satan worshipers one year, “secular humanists” the next. Panic over backward masking on phonograph records yields to fears that supermarket bar codes harbor the Mark of the Beast. Some years back, Procter & Gamble was forced to deny widespread rumors that a moon-and-stars logo on boxes of soapsuds symbolized corporate diabolism. More recently, purging school libraries of Harry Potter’s witchcraft has emerged as a cause. As if the real world weren’t scary enough, chimerical threats must be found. It often appears that no form of occultism is too arcane or preposterous to provoke alarm.