The Last Disciple series

[Maurice A. Williams]

Has anyone read "The Last Disciple" by Hank Hanegraaff and Sigmund Brouwer? It’s an interesting book. It’s similar to “The Left Behind” series except that it proposes many of the prophecies were fulfilled when the Church first started.

Tyndall House, the published of the twelve-volume "Left Behind" series agreed to publish this new series. The first volume is “The Last Disciple.” The second volume is “The Last Sacrifice.” Both end with Nero still alive and the Temple still standing, so more volumes are sure to follow. Three sequels are already planned.

One can see, by the reader’s reviews on Amazon.com, how people have taken sides on this dispute. Hanegraaff and the author of “Left Behind” have also gotten into the dispute. I've read "Left Behind" novels and "The Last Disciple." They are all well written novels using fictional characters to capture reader's involvement while the setting of both series describes the author's interpretations.

I think "The Last Disciple" is at a disadvantage because the general public is not familiar with early Church history and does not recognize the names of real historical characters and real events. For those people, the whole novel might read as fiction. "Left Behind," on the other hand, does not have this disadvantage. The reader easily discerns between the purely fictional characters and the proposed, future fulfillment of the prophecies.

Anyway, I wonder, since there are no posts on these books, if anyone has read them and what do you think of them?

Sincerely,

Maurice A. Williams

[Infinite Grace]

In case anyone is looking for this thread, I moved it here to the literature section. I thought it might fit better. I informed Maurice via PM, and will move it back if he wants me to.

In the meantime, let me say that I would love to read Hanegraff's novel. I haven't had time (grad school and all). I have NO INTEREST, zero, zip, nada, in LaHaye's tripe.

[Amie]

I haven't read either of the books either. I disagree with both of their takes of Revelation in that I don't see the beast as Nero and am not a "biblical futurist".

Why do you suppose that the Left Behind series sold so much better than The Last Disciple?

Amie

[christyG]

Yes, I've read The Last Disciple, thought it had it's good points, and much better take on Biblical interpretation than Left Behind, although as Amie said not accurate either.

It would be a hard book to read if you did not understand the preterist view at all. Thus hard for the bulk of society.

Christy

[Maurice A. Williams]

Hi Amie,

Sorry to take so long to answer. My son died in January, and everything became disrupted in my life. I’m just now getting back on my feet.

I think “Left Behind” sold so well for two reasons: the authors did a good job writing, and there has been wide interest in the rapture, tribulation, and millennium since the 1970’s when Hal Lindsey popularized the ideas.

I don’t believe in a future rapture, tribulation, and millennial kingdom with Christ physically present on earth as these concepts are proposed in “Left Behind.” However, I don’t find it hard to accept that Nero might have been “the Antichrist” the first Christians were warned about, but I think the Antichrist is really Christ’s rival, Satan. Satan finds willing human partners over and over again to combat Christ and his followers. There will be a final confrontation between Satan with his current human partner and Jesus Christ at the end of the world.

Revelation alludes to that, but I think Revelation was meant primarily for the early Christians as they struggled against Judean and Roman opposition to their following Christ. Rome was the most powerful nation confronting them. The unbelieving Judeans solicited Roman cooperation to destroy the memory and mission of Christ. Nero was the first Roman emperor to systematically try eradicating Christianity.

I think God did not want the mission of Jesus to fail. John the Baptist warned the Judeans what would happen if they reject the savior God sent and try to destroy his mission. Many of them did reject Jesus and did try to destroy, not only Jesus, but his followers as well. They failed because first they got into a revolt against Rome, and Nero sent an army to put down the rebellion. The army destroyed The Temple and most of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. A generation later, the Judeans convinced Rome that the Christians were not a sect of Judaism and, therefore, were not exempt from observing The Imperial Cult (where everyone had to acknowledge the emperor as God). The Christians were in grave danger then, because both Rome and the Judeans were out to destroy them.

The Judeans then launched a second revolt in A.D. 131-5 under the leadership of Bar Kochba. Very little is written about Bar Kochba. Very few interpretations even mention him. Unlike the earlier revolt, where there was a lot of infighting between rival factions of Judeans, the whole nation rallied under Bar Kochba. His army of 400,000 men defeated three Roman armies and liberated all of Palestine. He set up a new government “The first Jewish Commonwealth.” The present Israeli government, incidentally, is “The Second Jewish Commonwealth.”

Rome sent Septimus Severus who totally destroyed the Judean nation. Those not killed were dispersed into other nations and foreign people were brought in. So total was the dispersal of Judeans that as late as 1856, only 10,500 Jews lived in all of Palestine. From that time forward, the Church of Jesus Christ was safe from Judean opposition. Not too many years later, the Roman Empire accepted Christianity and the Church rapidly flourished and spread. An important point to remember is that Rev. 20:7 says that Satan will be loosed after 1000 years to seduce the nations. This would have happened in the past. Perhaps it is the reason why there is so much disagreement and argument among Christians today. It seems like the Gentile nations really are deceived. This surely will make it easier for Satan to find a human partner to, once again, try to destroy Christ’s church.

I think the primary intent of Revelation falls along those lines. There is also a warning for the Gentile nations when Christ returns and is rejected a second time. What happened to Judea when they rejected Christ the first time can serve as a prelude of what will happen to the Gentile unbelievers when Christ returns.

Sincerely,

Maurice A. Williams