Since September 11, 2001
This book was written (and the cover design was laid out) prior to September 11, 2001. Many people have suggested that the subsequent destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York City (pictured on the cover) was fulfillment of prophecies about the destruction of “Babylon”. It certainly is symbolic of the destruction of Babylon, but I believe that the real thing is yet to come.
The general thrust of that part of this book's interpretation of Bible prophecy is that tensions will develop between the United States and other forces in the United Nations. Because of an aggressive military agenda and other injustices committed by the United States, other nations of the world will eventually support an all-out military attack against the U.S. This is what we saw predicted in Bible prophecy, and it is what we see shaping up today.
Some Americans may take comfort in the fact that these aggressors against the U.S. are seen in prophecy, and in this book, to be acting as agents of the Antichrist. They will assume that it means the U.S. is correct in its stance.
But, ironically, Russia, its allies, and the United Nations will (if our understanding of Bible prophecy is correct) also be acting as God’s agents, inflicting a painful lesson on a country which has lost its way spiritually.
We apologise for any offence that this book may cause to people who see good in the United States. Obviously, there is good and bad in any country, and the U.S. is no exception. But we believe that true believers in any country are more concerned about loyalty to God and to His kingdom than they are about issues of patriotism, with their universal tendency to generate wars and war-mongering.
An important theme of this book (and of The Revelation) is the progressive role of Babylon (the Prostitute) throughout history. We have argued that America is the modern-day Babylon.
The authors of the Left Behind series felt it necessary to physically move the final world government to Iraq (the geographical site of the original Babylon) in order to make it clear that it was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Ironically, the U.S. has now firmly established its control and claim over that part of the world… leaving no doubt that, by whatever criteria one wishes to use, the U.S. still comes up as the modern-day equivalent of Babylon... the Prostitute.
Of course much of this book is conjecture, and the fall of America is only a small part of a much bigger story contained within Bible prophecy. The overall lessons of The Revelation are that no country can take the place of God’s invisible kingdom of faith, peace, and love, and that the Lamb’s example of laying down his life for others will eventually prove more powerful than all of the armies of the world.
Remember that as you observe world events unfold.
From Zion Ben-Jonah
My real name is not Zion Ben-Jonah, and the characters in this book are not real people. In fact, the whole story is fiction. Much of what it conveys is total conjecture.
Zion Ben-Jonah is inspired by a character in a series of books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. In that series, a character named Tsion Ben-Judah sets the world straight at a time when the mass media is monopolised by materialistic forces that seek to distort the truth.
We believe that this is already the situation in the world of religious entertainment. In order for a book to sell in a really big way, certain important truths (truths which are uncomfortable, and hard for the masses to accept) must be left out.
In the tradition of LaHaye's Tsion Ben-Judah, we will include those truths in this account of what we believe is coming to pass shortly, in America and elsewhere around the world.
Almost certainly some of what it predicts will not happen exactly as it is described in this book. This book is not meant to be taken as a prophecy in itself. But it is an attempt to apply the prophecies of the Bible to modern day events. A discerning reader will need to determine what is factual and what is not, as the actual events unfold in the years ahead.
Discovering the whole truth often involves knowing and admitting the limits of our understanding. We are each trapped within the boundaries of our own experience and imagination. No one has total knowledge of all truth except God himself. There will, I believe, be truth in this book which you have never read elsewhere. It is my firm conviction that I have been inspired by God as I have written it. But I (or anyone else) can be inspired in what I (or they) say, without being infallible. If you keep that in mind, you will be able to maintain better perspective as you read through what I have written.
On the other hand, I have a responsibility (as does every other Christian) not to deliberately distort truth for selfish motives. I could (as others have done) make millions of dollars by altering the facts in order to give the public what they want to hear. This book will not do that.
Instead, it will try to tell you what you need to know in order to be prepared for what is almost certainly going to happen on earth in the next few years, whether what it says sells or not. I have done it in story form, but I have also tried to be true to what the Bible actually says about the future, whether it conforms with popular opinion or not. These issues are too serious for anyone to take a chance on leading people astray just to make a few more dollars.
Notes appear at the end of each chapter to help you understand points made in that chapter. Those notes are my comments on the biblical implications of that part of the story.
--David McKay