Begun this Eschatology War has

Following up on the inexplicable runaway success of the Left Behind franchise, Tyndale House has announced a new series of apocalyptic novels by Hank "Bible Answer Man" Hanegraaff and Sigmund Brouwer, this time with a preterist take on Revelation instead of a Dispensationalist one. Predictably, this has gotten Tim LaHaye hopping mad:

But the Rev. Tim LaHaye, co-author of the "Left Behind" books, called the decision by his publisher "stunning and disappointing" and said he felt betrayed.

"They are going to take the money we made for them and promote this nonsense," he said. . . .

"I don't know what science fiction he is reading," said LaHaye. "We believe the Rapture is going to come, not his nonsense that Christ came back in 68 A.D."

"I am reading the Bible, specifically Revelations [sic] it [sic] was written for first-century Christians," retorted Hanegraaff. "I am not relying on some wooden, literal interpretation that is unsupportable."

[Full story]

It seems that LaHaye thinks he has a monopoly on last-days thrillers. Sorry to disappoint him. Although not much of a preterist, I'm looking forward to reading some of these new books myself. I'm just disappointed I didn't get there first.

[Props to Brandywine Books and Thinklings.]