Pretensions was recently lent this book by a colleague, and read it more out of interest than anything. Left Behind is Tim LaHaye's vision of how the Rapture might be enacted in modern day society and how it leads on to the Apocalypse of the Book of Revelations. Written in the style of a Tom Clancy novel by experienced author Jerry B Jenkins (his bio says that he has written more than 170 books including adventure stories, biographies and childrens' books), the book has as its protagonist airline pilot Rayford Steele who loses his wife and son to the Rapture and must then cope in a world turned chaotic by the disappearance of key personnel. The book also portrays the appearance of an Antichrist type figure taking over the UN and eventually the world.

First published in 1995, the book chronicles the beginning of the seven years of "Tribulation", which mark the reign of the Antichrist in the end-times and the rise of a "Tribulation Force" to stand against it. Say what you will about the book, it's an entertaining read, which probably helped sell the estimated 65 million copies in circulation. Left Behind has also spawned an entire series, as well as graphic novels, childrens' books and movies.

P had never heard of the Rapture prior to this book - it was not a part of the Methodist doctrine in her church and she was never a very avid church-goer anyway. For those who are also new to it, it takes the teaching of Christ's second coming and the resurrection of the saints one step further, in that when Christ calls true Christians to him, their physical bodies literally disappear from the earth in a moment, and this event marks the start of the last days of Earth. Catholic friends tell me that this teaching is heretical and P has her own doubts, but she understands that it is a fundamentalist Christian concept at its heart. Many protestant denominations, such as the Baptists, Presbyterians and Calvinists believe that Revelations "beast" actually refers to the historical Catholic Church!

The problem with prophecy is that it's a little like statistics, interpretations can be skewed to give you the results you want. Babylon is the lair of the Antichrist in the novel, does that mean Saddam was the Antichrist? Or justify the invasion of Iraq? The novel just strikes P as propagating a skewed worldview, an extremist one, as much so as any vision of virgins in paradise. Take the book as cinematic fiction if you like, but don't use it as a guide for reality.