Book: The Left Behind Series by Tim F. Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

Posted in Member Reviews on March 15, 2002

-- Review by Nancy Park, as printed in the March 2002 issue of the Mensokie

This winter, I decided to dive back into the Left Behind series with the last three books, The Indwelling, The Mark, and Desecration. I had forgotten how fast a read these things are; they’re like popcorn. You’ve got to have a whole handful. Suspense and action thrillers, these books keep you turning pages long after you should have gone to sleep. I like horror and fantasy, so these fit my taste when I’m feeling like fast reading. I told my daughter that I would send her the two last ones, which she had not read, and she told me she preferred to borrow them at the library or from a friend. Why? Because she didn’t want them in the house with the children.

The oldest, who is a sensitive and imaginative child, has a newspaper route, which gives him an income to use as he likes. He started reading the Left Behind series for children. I was a little concerned about it when I visited them in August, and saw the books on his bookshelf. He had all of the Harry Potter books, too, which are far healthier, being a lot further from what Christians believe to be reality. I love this child, and he would ask me to walk along with him on his short neighborhood paper route. I learned which houses had old folks in them, for he would put the paper carefully in the mailbox or inside the screen door for them.

The thing that makes the “Left Behind” series pernicious for that sweet child, as well as, I suspect, many others, is the fact that one of the authors is a Revelations scholar. Many books and predictions have been written concerning both the abstract and the concrete images in Revelations. Adults know how to sift through speculation; they also know how to enjoy rousing good fiction, but these two authors, as far as I’m concerned, are busy milking a financial cow for all it’s worth, and terrifying Christian children at the same time. This last book that I am reading seems to be covering a period of a few days only, and each one of them in the past (I think there are ten now) has stretched a short period of time into a whole book, so that the two authors can realize the financial benefit of mucho moulah.

On one of our walks back to the house from his paper route, Matthew confided in me that sometimes when he came back from his route and entered the house, everything was quiet, and he would immediately be frightened that all of his family had been caught up in the Rapture, and he had been left behind. I immediately assured him that he was as worthy as any of them, but I wasn’t there long enough to address any other fears the books had instilled. My daughter is aware of it, and will try to protect him from these egregious books.

So I can recommend them for a fun, fast read, but please don’t give them to your children!