Armageddon Now!: The Premillenarian Response to Russia and Israel Since 1917

Rating:
Summary: Alternatives to "Left Behind" series
Review: Written by Assemblies of God pastor Dwight Wilson, I first came across "Armageddon Now" in the 1980s when some evangelicals were predicting nuclear war with the Soviet Union and the imminent end of the age. Now the Soviet Union is mouldering in the ash heap of history, the predicted nuclear war never came to past, but dispensationalist eschatology continues to march on (thanks in good measure to the sensational success of Tim LaHaye's "Left Behind" series which, he fervently believes, is just a fictionalized account of biblical prophecy).

But there is a lively debate in evangelical churches about whether this blood-and-gore reading of the Bible is the right one. Wilson's church, the Assemblies of God, officially affirms the style of biblical interpretation that lies behind LaHaye's books, but Wilson asks a lot of thoughtful questions in this easy-to-read introduction to the subject.