Just before we left for North Carolina, I co-hosted a question and answer session with the youth group in our church. It was an open forum where several of the church leaders fielded questions on any topic the teens wanted information on.

I learned something that I didn't know and would not have expected. The number one topic they had questions on, with nothing even close for second place: end times theology.

Our church doesn't spend a lot of time on eschatology or prophecy. That's not to say we never touch it, but it is not central by any stretch of the imagination (except for, of course, the resurrection of the dead and the future state of glory). But these kids had tons of questions on issues like the Rapture, the anti-Christ, the Beast, etc.

I knew that the LaHaye books were making an impact and selling in the tens of millions, but I still was not prepared for the influence I saw them having over our young people. Because LaHaye's dispensational premillenialism is essentially the default position in evangelicalism, I don't think any of these kids had ever even heard that there were other Christian end-times scenarios, nor that the "Left Behind" view is a relative novelty in Christianity. To even suggest that the Antichrist may not be some European leader in a nice suit, but rather a spirit of unbelief, is to invite more than a few raised eyebrows. It's interesting to then see the lightbulb going on as one reads them the actual Scriptures which refer to "antichrist."

I know Gary DeMar did a book debunking the "Left Behind" rapture view. It would be nice to see more evangelicals writing for a broad audience to show that there are other, better-attested options in conservative biblical theology. Our kids are drinking LaHaye-ism up by default.