I’d like to take this opportunity to recommend a book that I am more than halfway through. The book is The Last Disciple, written by Hank Hanegraaff and Sigmund Brouwer, and is an fictional preterist counterpart to the enormously popular (and futurist) Left Behind series. The novel is set in the years of the Neronian persecution, leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
The book is written in a potboiler style (Bam! Bam! “Eeek! It’s the Romans!”). Although actually it is not that bad. Still, as fiction it is formulaic, and will not be studied one hundred years from now for its grace and style. But as a means of getting a knowledge of the historical events of the first century (and their relevance to the prophecies of the New Testament) into the contemporary evangelical consciousness, this is the book to do it. There are many Christians who will never read Tacitus or Josephus who would read an accessible book like this, if only for its novelty. The book shows, in an entirely believable way, how the words that Jesus spoke over Jerusalem were fulfilled within that generation, and have nothing to do with atomic explosions, killer bees, or Bulgarian antichrists. I recommend that pastors get this book, read it, and pass it around.