'Left Behind' finale is The End, literally

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The Second Coming, with a cast of billions of angels, millions of soldiers fighting the battle of Armageddon and one son of God on a white stallion in the heavens arrives in the nation's bookstores today.

"Glorious Appearing: The End of Days" is the final installment in a 12-part "Left Behind" series on the end of the world by evangelical Christian authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. The "Left Behind" product line, which includes children's and audio versions, will reach 62 million units in print with this latest volume.

The authors' success reveals an American culture fascinated with the end times, religious prophecy, Bible codes, heaven and the age-old battle between good and evil.

Religion and spiritual intrigue also cross paths in two other current blockbusters: Mitch Albom's "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code."

"Glorious Appearing" will also make the best-seller list if sales of the first 11 books are any indication. The "Left Behind" series has generated unprecedented coverage for novels based on biblical narrative, including a cover story in the July 1, 2002, edition of Time magazine and a Feb. 8 segment on CBS' "60 Minutes."

"There's a God hunger on the part of society," said Mr. Jenkins, 54, of Colorado Springs. "People may not consider themselves religious, but we can tell by the sales that people are looking for something beyond themselves. They hear of fiction based on prophecy and they have this hunger and thirst for it."

"Glorious Appearing" climaxes when, just before the armies of the world gather north of Jerusalem for the battle of Armageddon, the sign of the cross appears emblazoned on the skies worldwide.

The sun and moon then disappear and Jesus appears in the heavens on a white steed, surrounded by a cast of billions of warrior angels and the sanctified dead.

He then leads a band of followers -- who have been hiding out in the rock fortress of Petra east of the Dead Sea -- toward Armageddon, along with the heavenly host. Once at the battlefield, Christ vanquishes his enemies with a few words of Scripture. Then on to Jerusalem, where in a catastrophic judgment scene, he condemns the Antichrist to hell and orders the Archangel Michael to cast Satan into a bottomless pit.