Someone has just sent me an interesting article on the current debate over the “eschatological novels.” After nine years of amazing success, The Left Behind Series, which has sold over 42 million copies, has found competition in the market. The same publisher that put out Tim Lahaye’s best-sellers is now putting out an alternative novel that runs completely against Tim Lahaye’s pre-tribulational stance. This new series is called The Last Disciple by Hank Hanegraaff and Sigmund Brouwer.
This new series espouses the idea that John’s letter was written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Contrary to Lahaye’s assertion that the book of Revelation was written in 95 AD, and therefore is entirely futuristic in nature, Brouwer and Hanegraaff assert that Revelation was written for a specific generation that endured the torment of persecution in the 1st century church.
Novels can be a very helpful source in understanding not only eschatology, but an ideology. There was nothing inherently wrong with Tim Lahaye’s idea to publicize his views through novels, but it is inconsistent for Lahaye to criticize someone else for doing the same thing.
If you would like further information about Dispensationalism or Partial-preterism (the position espoused in The Last Disciple) please e-mail me at: apologus@hotmail.com for links and articles on these topics.
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