As Americans watch daily news unfold, more than one-third are wondering how it might relate to the end of the world. They're also talking about what the Bible has to say on the subject, according to a TIME/CNN poll.
Nearly 60 percent of those polled nationwide said they believe the events in Revelation will come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to a lengthy report in Time magazine titled "The Bible and the Apocalypse."
The popular Left Behind series, which debuted in 1995, is feeding Americans' interest in the Apocalypse, according to Time. The series has sold 32 million copies, not including children's versions. Sales jumped 60 percent after Sept. 11, and Book 9, published in October, was the best-selling novel of 2001.
More than 2.75 million hard-cover copies of the series' 10th book, "The Remnant," will hit stores July 2. Though some churches are using the series in Bible studies, only half of Left Behind readers are evangelicals, according to Time; the rest are Americans searching for answers.
Thomas Tewell, senior minister of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, N.Y., said he had gone for years without anyone asking about the end times.
"But since Sept. 11, hard-core, crusty, cynical New York lawyers and stockbrokers who are not moved by anything are saying, ‘Is the world going to end?' ‘Are all the events of the Bible coming true?' " Tewell told the magazine. "They want to get right with God. I've never seen anything like it in my 30 years in ministry."
