Locusts with teeth like lions, breastplates of iron, and a sting whose pain lasts for five months. Two hundred million horsemen riding horses that have heads like lions and breathe fire and sulfur. The latest offering from Stephen King? Not exactly. These are scenes from The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession, the seventh installment in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.
Left Behind is currently the hottest series in Christian fiction. The first installment, Left Behind, sold one million copies in 39 months. The Indwelling sold one million copies in pre-sales four months prior to publication. Scheduled to total 12 books, the series is enormously popular because it can be read and understood on different levels by many people, from those interested in page-turning suspense to those interested in biblical prophecy.
The series focuses on the lives of the Tribulation Force, a small group left behind to face the Tribulation after the Rapture occurs. The series follows the lives of pilot Rayford Steele, his daughter Chloe Steele Williams, her husband Cameron Buck Williams (a journalist), and Tsion Ben-Judah, a former rabbinical scholar who goes into exile upon his public announcement of Jesus Christ as Messiah. The Indwelling, to be released later this month, picks up where Assassins ends, with the assassination of Nicolae Carpathia, the charismatic leader of the one-world Global Community, who is known by members of the Tribulation Force to be the Anti-Christ. Readers familiar with biblical prophecy can predict some of the events that will occur in The Indwelling. What they can’t predict is how the authors will go about creating the chain of events that ultimately leads to the fulfillment of certain prophecies. LaHaye and Jenkins are masterful storytellers who have managed to translate biblical prophecy into a story that keeps readers intrigued. Were I a prophet, my prophecy would be that The Indwelling will continue the success of the Left Behind series.
Jeff Morris, CPA, is often mistaken for Al Borland of Tooltime fame.
