My dad told me once about a conversation he had had with a coworker whose church had been going through a study of the end times. Apparently, the guest preacher had painted a pretty graphic picture of the Antichrist’s reign of terror and the horrors of the Great Tribulation. After going on about the horror of it all, the coworker concluded, “I never enjoyed anything so much in my life.” My dad was amused that his coworker got so much enjoyment out of such a grim subject, but he wasn’t the only one. There’s just something about the end of the world that Americans find compelling. Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth sold 28 million copies between 1970 and 1990. In 1976, it was adapted into a movie narrated by—guess who?—Orson Welles. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ fictional Left Behind series sold over 65 million, and four movies have been made from it.
The secular film industry has tapped into the dark side of biblical prophecy with films like The Omen, The Seventh Sign, The End of Days, and Knowing. I think part of the appeal of “doomsday” stories is that they’re a way of taking the things we’re afraid of and cutting them down to a size we can deal with. That’s true of horror fiction in general. Another part of it is the spectacle. As terrible as disasters are, they’re also awe-inspiring to watch. The sheer power of a force that can level a city or knock down a forest or a whole planet is oddly thrilling to us. Just ask the people who chase tornadoes.
For anybody who is interested in serious scholarly study of the topic of biblical end times prophecy, I’d recommend books like Gundry and Beck’s Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond and Gundry and Pate’s Four Views on the Book of Revelation. Those are both in my “to read” pile.I haven’t had the chance to read them yet, but I’m starting to build up a collection of Gundry’s “Views” books. In all of them, the author recruits scholars holding differing viewpoints and has each of them write his own chapter and then respond to the chapters of all of the other authors. It may sound confusing, but it’s a great way to learn. They’re not “entry level” books though.
For some interesting and unusual fictional takes on the subject, however, I’d recommend James BeauSeigneur’s The Christ Clone Trilogy and Chris Walley’s The Lamb Among the Stars Series. In The Christ Clone Trilogy, scientists attempt to clone Jesus of Nazareth from a blood sample found on an artifact and end up creating an Antichrist. James BeauSeigneur is a nice guy. He helped me a lot when I was publishing my first book. He’s also a former NSA agent, and that gives his work a certain air of credibility.
The Lamb Among the Stars takes place 10,000 years in the future. Humanity is spread out among the stars, and they’re living in peace. They are led by a benevolent council headquartered in Jerusalem, and life is going well for everyone until the forces of evil return for a final showdown. It’s an interesting premise, but it was Walley’s writing that really made me buy all three of those thick books and keep reading until I had read them all.
Since I’ve already announced that I’m writing a third Intrepid Force book, I guess it’s obvious that the world doesn’t end in Intrepid Force: Invasion so either Gogue isn’t really the Antichrist or his time hasn’t come yet. (Or is my third book a prequel? Hmm.) As noted, there is something compelling about end times imagery, and I wanted to tap into that. Anytime there is a major disaster–be it World War II, the Black Plague, or even Desert Storm–someone brings up end times prophecy even if the circumstances don’t exactly look like what was described in the Bible verses, and it would be easy for a deranged despot to tap into that.
