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Freedom Book of the Month for September, 1999:
Assassins (Left Behind)
by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Tyndale House, 415 pages, hardcover, $22.95
I'm usually not enamored of Christian fiction. A lot of it isn't well written, and too much of it relies on religious theme to replace good plot. The Left Behind series is an exception, which I think libertarians will find interesting regardless of personal belief. The quality of the writing is sufficient to have elevated Apollyon, the series' fifth title, to the New York Times' Best Seller list.
In six books, Tim Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins cover half of the biblical "tribulation" described in the Revelation attributed to St. John. They do so from the literal, fundamentalist standpoint endorsed by (among others) many Pentecostal and Baptist sects. The result looks like a libertarian's nightmare, with protagonists fighting a last-ditch battle against the essence of evil statism.
A brief outline: Someday, all of the Christians are going to disappear. In an instant, they'll be called up to heaven. This marks the beginning of a seven-year period in which God will punish the unrepentant and Satan will rule the world through the Antichrist. The Left Behind novels, as the title implies, deal with characters whose loved ones were taken in the "rapture" and who now seek to change their ways, serve God and live through the tribulation. Studying biblical prophecy, they're able to anticipate the elevation of Nicolae Carpathia to the head of the U.N. and his subsequent moves to unite the world under one government.
Carpathia is a charismatic and powerful leader. He moves quickly to disarm the world, keeping 10 percent of its nuclear stockpiles for the use of the U.N., renamed "The Global Community." He takes control of the press, forces most of the world's religions to come together under the ecumenical banner of the "Enigma Babylon One World Faith," and consolidates power with nuclear strikes to suppress rebellion. Between Carpathia's intrigues and the plagues and punishments dispensed by God, Earth has suddenly become a dangerous and terrible place to be. Opposition to Carpathia coalesces in a community of people converted to Christianity after the rapture.
So, why am I reviewing Assassins and the series as a whole?
Well, the books contain some curious paradoxes. The Antichrist is certainly anti-liberty, and characters take stands that would warm the hearts of freedom-lovers. They get their message out via the Internet, practicing free speech under a censorious regime and using the "underhanded" methods that we're fighting to preserve even today: anonymous remailers, encryption, etc. Knowing that at some point they're going to be required to take the Mark of the Beast in order to trade on the open market, they build their own black market apparatus instead.
On the other hand, the novels' characters try to pull a curious switch at times. Carpathia, having executed two preachers sent by God, says, "I esteem individual freedom over organized religion." This from the man who has monopolized the press, suppressed all opposition and set himself up as the dictator of a world government! And sometimes the Christian characters make statements that seem incongruous to the stand they are taking against totalitarianism.
All in all, I find the series to be of importance to freedom lovers. It requires more than the usual "willing suspension of disbelief" that most fiction demands. After all, it purports to be representative of true future happenings. But it's important that Christians, libertarians, and, yes, Christian libertarians begin to understand one another. Perhaps the latter two groups can find a way to communicate to the first one that the freedom we advocate doesn't predicate itself on what one person or another might choose to do with it. That is a province we leave to the individual conscience -- perhaps one formed by a God above, perhaps not -- of those whom we wish to free.
And of course, the books have something else to recommend them, the one indispensable element in good fiction -- a good story.
Additional Links:
edited by Thomas L. Knapp
June 2000: Law's Order by David Friedman
May 2000: Forge of the Elders by L. Neil Smith
April 2000: Reciprocia by Richard G. Rieben
March 2000: The Art of Fiction: A Guide for Writers and Readers by Ayn Rand
February 2000: Addiction is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler
January 2000: Revolutionary Language by David C. Calderwood
Special December 1999 Feature: The Freedom Book of the Year: Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement, 1993-1998 by Vin Suprynowicz
November 1999: Conquests and Cultures by Thomas Sowell
October 1999: A Way To Be Free by Robert LeFevre, edited by Wendy McElroy
September 1999: Assassins (Left Behind) by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
August 1999: Don't Shoot the Bastards (Yet): 101 More Ways to Salvage Freedom by Claire Wolfe
July 1999: The Mitzvah by L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman
June 1999: The Incredible Bread Machine by R.W. Grant
May 1999: Send in the Waco Killers by Vin Suprynowicz
April 1999: It Still Begins with Ayn Rand by Jerome Tuccille
March 1999: The Dictionary of Free-Market Economics by Fred Foldvary
February 1999: Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand edited by Mimi Reisel Gladstein and Chris Matthew Sciabarra
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
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