c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) “The Mark,” the eighth title in the best-selling “Left Behind” apocalyptic series, delivers as well as its predecessors, offering a fast-paced plot, strong characters and the same amazing glimpse of what life might be like at the end of the world.

When this Christian publishing saga began, passengers aboard a Boeing 747 en route to Europe disappeared instantly. They left nothing behind but things unneeded in heaven: rumpled piles of clothes, dental fillings, jewelry and the like. Cars lacked drivers as believers were “raptured” to heaven as the apocalypse began.

Using writing strategies common in suspense novels, the writing team of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins found a responsive audience among American readers. Their books have set records in Christian publishing but also attract secular readers. Like the millions fascinated by the dawn of a new millennium, there is something about the end of the world that entices people.

LaHaye and Jenkins have produced books that offer drama, romance, war, intrigue and, ultimately, battles between the forces of good and evil. Like a three-part TV mini-series that hooks you with its storyline in the first segment, the “Left Behind” books keep readers reading.

In “The Mark” (Tyndale House Publishers, $22.99), subtitled “The Beast Rules the World,” the savvy and easy-to-hate character of Nicolae Carpathia, Global Community Potentate, is back. In this installment, he returns as Satan after being resurrected. He uses his return from the dead to demand absolute fealty from the entire world which he requires to worship him as god.

The Great Tribulation, the last three-and-a-half years of the seven-year Tribulation, begins in this book. Carpathia is identified as the Antichrist when he returns to life after being dead for three days.

As such, Carpathia brings new idiocy into being in his one-world government while one of his most trusted lieutenants establishes a new religion in his honor. Citizens worldwide have unhappy choices: submit to being tattooed with a mark of loyalty to Carpathia, die as martyrs or go underground.

Significant opposition in this endtimes scenario comes from the Tribulation Force. Rayford Steele establishes himself as its leader while its members settle into a safe house in downtown Chicago. Surveillance expert David Hassid stays at the Global Community Palace in New Babylon, yet he worries that his days are numbered when an edict is issued that all Global Community employees must bear the mark of loyalty.

In this book as the others, the religious themes weave well into the story, reflecting the sentiments and theology of the authors. Released in mid-November, “The Mark” was named No. 1 on USA Today’s Top 150 List on Nov. 25. The Wall Street Journal named it No. 1 on its hardcover fiction list the same day. It also spent the four weeks of December on top of The New York Times best-seller list.

Launched in 1995 by Tyndale House Publishers, the series is based on the book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament. The novels follow the lives of those who remain on earth following the Rapture, which some Christians believe precedes the end of the world and would be an event in which millions of believers would disappear.

The series also brings together an interesting writing duo. LaHaye, a pastor for 25 years, was a recognized thinker in politically conservative Christian circles when he conceived of the series. He is also well known as an author, speaker at Bible prophecy conferences and television commentator.

Jenkins, a writer with varying interests, has published works including biographies of sports heroes and Christian leaders. A former vice president of publishing for Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, he has edited Moody Magazine and is the writer of the nationally syndicated sports comic strip Gil Thorp.

(Cecile S. Holmes, longtime religion writer, teaches journalism at the University of South Carolina. Her email address is cecile.holmesusc.jour.sc.edu)

DEA END HOLMES