Book Review: Kingdom Come - The Final Victory by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye

Stars: 2 out of 5
Pros: A chance to see old friends again; some suspense in the last 100 pages

Cons: Weak characters, poor theology, hardly any plot

The Bottom Line:

Yawn inducing book

Takes best selling series out

With a sad whimper

Left Behind Comes to a Bad End

I'll freely admit to have a love/hate relationship with the Left Behind books. I've enjoyed watching one man's take on prophecy unfold in a fictional setting. I came to care for the characters despite the fact that they are often little more then cardboard characters. The elementary writing style was actually a blessing because I could just breeze through them. So while they have always had their flaws, I've enjoyed reading most of them. Then there came Kingdom Come, which left me cold.

This book in the series, number 16 although it directly follows number 12, follows our heroes during the millennium. According to the theology believed by the authors, this time follows the tribulation and is marked by Jesus reigning on earth in a literal kingdom. Even so, people will still have a choice to follow Him or turn their own way.

Christians who have died have returned to earth in their glorified state to help those Christians who are still alive rule the earth. The earth's population is made up entirely of adult Christians and children who haven't yet made up their mind.

There is a huge need to evangelize the children, so Chloe and Buck, both glorified since they died in previous books, set up a day care. The children play games and learn Bible stories. Rayford, the only surviving member of the original Tribulation Force, reunites with old friends and works to further Christ's kingdom by doing whatever is needed. 100 years in, for example, he leads a group that sets about revitalized Egypt after it is judged for turning from God.

But in the background, there is resistance building. Calling themselves The Other Light, they set about convincing unbelievers that, if enough of them believe, Satan can win when he is freed. Is there anything our heroes can do to stop them?

So, where does this book go wrong? Actually, from page one. Nothing truly happens for the first 30 pages. Then, we advance to almost the 100 year mark, where we spend almost the entire time.

There really is no central villain to the story, which makes the conflict very weak. Some of the best scenes in the other books were the scenes where we watched the anti-Christ plotting. Those would rise above everything else and keep me glued to the book. Here, there's none of that. There are some villains, but we know they can't harm anyone, so there's little suspense. Furthermore, we aren't supposed to know who they are (even though it is completely obvious), so we don't get their side of the story.

As with Glorious Appearing (the previously mentioned book 12), there are long passages that are direct quotes from the Bible but do nothing to advance the story. It seemed appropriate in that book, but here it annoyed me. And this includes three times they stop what little story they have to tell us a Bible story quoted almost completely from the Bible.

The characters seem even weaker then normal, too, which is really saying something. The glorified characters are perfect, so they come across as so sweet they give you cavities. Even the characters that are still human are either good or bad. And there are so many characters that none of them get enough page time to develop anything else. Heck, one character's wife never even gets a name. Having said that, I did enjoy seeing them again and spending a little more time in their presence.

And that leaves out my biggest complaint. A major plot point is that all people who haven't accepted Christ will die on their hundredth birthday. I've been asking around, and no one I've talked to has ever heard that before. Furthermore, the verse they use to justify it sure doesn't seem to say that to me.

Now all this sounds like I hated it. The last 100 pages had some great conflict that I got caught up in. In fact, it almost redeemed the book for me. If the rest of it had been that way, I would have enjoyed the book more.

Glorious Appearing felt like a great conclusion to the series. I should have stopped there. Unless you are a die hard fan, don't bother reading Kingdom Come.