Now that’s self-sacrifice, braintree. I’ll be watching with interest. Are we talking about a “Bullet Review” of each book, that kinda thing?
And where does the phrase “antichrist mojo” come into things? Care to give us a snaek preview?
Regarding the nuclear war scenario: In a full-scale nuclear war, all three elements of the ‘nuclear triad’ (land-based missiles, submarine-based missiles and manner bombers) would probably be used against the opposing nation. A nuclear attack by Russia on Israel would be rather asymmetric (especially if the latter opted not to retaliate). The land area of Israel is much smaller than that of the USA, also. So, fulfilling prophecies aside, using a small number of warheads would probably suffice.
To avoid provoking retaliation by countries that weren’t included in Revelation (i.e. the USA), the attack might be made to look ‘tactical’ rather than ‘strategic’. If the book says ‘nuclear missiles’, then it means that at least some strategic (ICBM/SLBM) weapons are used, if for no other reason than that intermediate-range missiles are banned by international treaty. The real flaw is that, as anyone who’s read Tom Clancy should know, aircraft in a nuclear strike wouldn’t be ‘MiGs’. The Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau specialized in fighters, and, although some would be nuclear-capable, a nuclear attack intended to destroy a nation wouldn’t involve a whole lot of fighters carrying 50-kiloton free-fall bombs. Strategic bombers were produced mostly by Tupolev, and those are the ones that would have been involved (with MiGs as escorts).
Some believers might criticize ‘Left Behind’ for distracting people from the real book about the end of the world, the Bible. And some might consider the author to be blasphemous for adding details – or, even worse, leaving some out: “And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.” - Revelation 22:19, NIV
Not strictly on-topic, but Fritz Haber went on, in WW1, to become a pioneer in chemical warfare: see here. His wife apparently committed suicide because of it, but he still won a Nobel prize.
Check out the third paragraph of post # 29 of this thread where Carpathia kills two men and, using his antichrist mojo©, dazzles everyone into remembering a murder/suicide in which one of his victims is blamed for that dastardly act.
And thanks for that life-affirming, technically-accurate tip, Manhattan. As long as I’m going to be wrong I might as well still be in the clear.
Roches: The thing about your explanation is that it hits on my main objection. As far as countries go, Israel is tiny. It really wouldn’t take all that much to wipe it out. If Russia was going to attck the US, then using the entire triad would make sense — at least as far as any act that would pretty much wipe out all human life on the planet can be said to make sense. But why shoot a postage stamp you’ve just set on fire?
I haven’t read the books, but we did once watch one of the movies once, just for a kick. It was mildly diverting, but stereotypes abounded.
Evil Russian president? Check.
Evil, anti-Christian UN that takes over after the Rapture, led by said Evil Russian? Check.
Respectable scholarly rabbi with strong Central European accent who accepts Jesus, and thereafter has the accent of a Kansas Baptist preacher? Check!
Personally, I prefer “left buttock”, but that’s just me.
Spectre,
Nice post. Just one note: That’s an evil Romanian dictator you’re talking about there.
Still, he’s from an eastern-European, former communist-block country so the whiff of Ruskie commidom is there.
Well, I read the first book thinking it was science fiction [I don’t remember if it was a library book, a used paper back, or a gift–in any case not something I put much, if any, money into.] I was surprised to find that though it started out like SF [what with references to alien abductions and bad guys from earth using super science], it wound up as fantasy. and religious fantasy at that. It appears that it [and therefore the whole stack of sequels] is based on a misinterpretation of the New Testament. I won’t argue about it here, but the idea that some people will just disappear and leave their clothes behind while others stay here in a more or less cursed world, is just plain ridiculous to me. If so many people are so gullable about this, think what a rich fanatic could do with TV, radio, newspapers, books, the internet, etc. if he really wanted to.
I’m mildly interested in the books, mainly so I can point out all that’s wrong with them if the opportunity ever comes up. So, braintree, I’d love a condensed Doper verson of the series if you’re able to do it. Good luck.
Anyway, I’ve (clearly) not read the books, but I’ve heard an interview on NPR with Tim LaHaye (which IMO made him sound like a lunatic) and I read the article in the May 24th Newsweek, which was very enlightening. I’ll pass on writing my own commentary on things said in those interviews.
But here’s what I’d like to know: The number of books sold I keep hearing and reading is somewhere in the neighborhood of 62 million. People keep saying that this is among the most popular fiction series ever. But there are 12 books in the series. If there have been 62 million books sold, isn’t it reasonable to assume that most of the people have bought the entire series? Which would mean than just over 5 million people have bought the series. That’s not quite 2% of the US population. What makes this so popular if only 2% of the country is reading it? Am I making some wrong assumptions here? Am I missing something?
Well, for a start, Thrillhouse, the idea that one copy = one reader is flawed. Books tend to be shared between families and friends, and a decent book will be read by three or so people in my house. Also, many copies would go to libraries, so hundreds could read that one copy.