Right Behind: A Parody of Last Days Goofiness

by N.D. Wilson

LaHaye and Jenkins' best-selling apocalyptic fiction novel, Left Behind, is already so ridiculous that it's hard to make a parody of it. Yet the conservative Christian author, Nathan Wilson, bravely sets forth to push it over the top. Tweaked versions of all the original characters work together in an absurd tangle of Evangelical goofiness struggling to make sense of the pathetically gnostic vision of the original story. You won't want to miss all body parts, cats, and youth pastors left behind, Buff Williamson's Ivy League deductions, Haddie the Whore of Babylon, or the climactic struggle with the Tulsa Antichrist in a Christian "book store." If you regret reading Left Behind, read Right Behind to ease that pain with laughter.

Genres: Fiction, Humor, Christian, Theology, Satire, Comedy, Religion

110 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2001

Reviews

[Jeremy]

Kirk Cameron read this on the set while shooting Left Behind and thought that Nate was an angry atheist. See here (2:49–4:45).

[Hannah Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite stupid, which was the point. I laughed out loud many times.

[Sal · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This book was hilarious,” he said.

“Ha! Haha!” he said.

“I can’t believe I laughed out loud. What a short book. This was a great way to make progress on my goodreads yearly goal,” he said.

“The audiobook narration was spot-on and added depth and humor to the already humorous moments of humor,” he said. He sighed from exhaustion. Writing a review was hard work. Then he sat down, and cried himself to sleep.

[Daniel Lopez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Growing up watching the left behind movies made this book a satirical delight. There are no sentences to build in its defense. If you have watched the "Left Behind" movies or read the "Left Behind" books this is a wonderful way to bring balance into your eschatological resources.

[Jesse Broussard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh wow. This was one of the most delightfully hilarious books I've ever read. Written by a postmillenial author (who is an astonishing author as well as my rhetoric teacher) in response to the Left Behind series, and it is amazing. He makes fun of the prose:

"Buff sat by his window in business class and watched the sun come up like a single tooth in a bleeding gum."

He makes fun of the inherent gnosticism:

"Then he has finally turned his back on this world of matter and all things evil. He has jumped right out of the corruption that matter entails... He has reached the enlightened world of Forms where there is no jewelry but spiritual jewels, where dentures cannot go, where everyone is naked. He has been raptured..."

And he had way too much fun writing it (unless it was his co-author, Mr. Sock, the "renown prophecy expert...who for the last four decades has been carefully predicting the beginning of the apocalypse as always within the next four years. Sadly, Mrs. Sock was never seen after a tragic washing-machine journey in 1988..."

"'Haddie (the Whore of Babylon) was enthralled. This man had ideas.'

'Ninety-two percent of each of your country's arms will be destroyed. The other eight percent will be given to me personally. The keys to all the tanks and jeeps will be mailed to the following address...
'Lastly for now, the headquarters of the United Nations is no longer in New York. The entire building, and even the delegates, shall in one week be moved to the city of Babylon. It is currently only a Kurdish trailer court, but I think if we move there, others will follow.

'I would once again like to thank you for choosing me as your Antichrist. I will do...'

Haddie's phone rang.
'Hello?' Haddie said.
'Haddie. This is Buff. Do you still wanna warm the bed of the Antichrist?'
'Absolutely!'
'Did you see him on TV?'
'Yes. Isn't he gorgeous?'
'He looks like a small carpet salesman, but that's your call... He'll be at the Manhattan Comfort Inn for another week... Haddie, he's an evil man.'
'Yes, but so cute.'
'Haddie, he asked me if you wear scarlet.'
'I love scarlet, especilly if he does.'
'Haddie, the man laughed and said, "The smoke from her goes up forever." '
'You know that I smoke.'
'Haddie, he wants to make you the Whore of Babylon.'
'I'm no prude.'
'He wants you to live in a trailer court with him.'
'I'll talk to him about that one, but I'm sure that it's a mere stepping stone...' "

It's just great.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very fun read, a bit over the top at times, but not without cause. It made me chuckle quite a bit, sometimes the best critique of something or someone is to parody it, I find that to be mostly true in this case. I wish the book was longer or that there were at least half as many sequels as the Left Behind series.

Here's one of my favorite exchanges in the book:

"You're drunk and disgusting," Scott said and he stood up.
"I've only had one beer, not even that," Buff said looking at his glass.
"You're in an Evangelical story, by Evangelicals, for Evangelicals, written in an attempt to make more Evangelicals. One beer does it for them.
"Dammit, you're right. I'm tanked."

[ThePrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious. A quick, easy, yet profound read. From appendixes, nose jobs, and wigs that get left behind, a carpet-salesman antichrist, and the most bizarre and unexpected repercussions of the rapture, Nate Wilson paints a lovely little self-aware tale that, amidst all the laughs, causes its readers to seriously consider what it looks like to build Christendom and not waste your life waiting to be whisked away.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ridiculously hilarious

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed his satirical exaggerations. I never read the Left Behind series, but watched the first movie (year 2000) and am familiar with today's Dispensational views and End Times drama. Reading this book, one can guess at some of the ridiculous eschatological ideas and low quality writing in the Left Behind book. It makes me want to read Left Behind to really see how true the criticisms are.

I recommend readers to first read the single page near the back titled, "The Upturned Table Parody Series" as it gives rebuttal to some criticisms others may have of this book.

Here's an example quote I enjoyed:

"But now he was realizing that things like traffic would be tough because of how many minivans had been left empty, careening through traffic, when their Evangelical drivers disappeared. Luckily, their bumperstickers had warned as much." (p. 37)

And here is a statement about the book by one of the Left Behind Authors:

"If they're right [the parody author/publisher], then millions of evangelicals are silly and goofy and stupid and are being misled by people with ill motives. If we're that offbase and doing a disservice to the church, it's all that much worse because of how popular our stuff is."
--Jerry Jenkins, 12-09-2001, 01:57PM at leftbehind.com

[Gene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Right Behind was a book I started reading on the way to the bus terminal, whose bus would take me to the airport that would lead to a domestic flight to Phoenix. It was in the pouch in the seat in front of me in the vehicle I was riding in. I finished while at the gate awaiting my flight, so you can see it is a short book.

It caught my attention by the obvious spoof in the title, and the entire book was a parody of the recently popular Left Behind book series which presents a Dispensationalist pre-tribulation view.

It was humorous enough to get me hooked and to hold my attention through its brief contents. If it were longer, I fear that I would have been surfeited with the silliness. I'm sure it would have been more enjoyable had I suffered through the Left Behind series first.

The story poked fun both of rapture theology and the lucrative business of literature based on this theology, especially that portion of it which hardly merits the designation of "literature." It never delves into the actual Biblical texts to try to disprove Dispensationalism, but it tries to mock the scenarious that arise from a pre-tribulation rapture.

The value of the book is mostly the fun involved in laughing at myself and others in the Evangelical community.

[Evan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clever satire of the series' poor writing, hyper active dispensationalism, and overly sugary Christian subculture in general. Short enough to read in one sitting, much of the satire directly related to Left Behind may go over one's head if you're not familiar with the series at least somewhat. Might not resonate well for those with a short sense of humor.

[ValeReads Kyriosity · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very silly. 🤪

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more familiar you are with the original Left Behind Series, the funnier this satire will be. Jabs are rightly taken at Dispensationalism, but more so at the ham-fisted nature of the writing in Dispensational Apocalyptic Fan Fiction. Multiple laugh out loud moments. I’m glad my children will never know the terror of Dispensationalism or Left Behind-ism, but it does stink that they won’t get the kick out of this book that I did.

[Micah Bloomquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious book mocking the left behind series. It's does a great job at creatively poking holes in and showing the folly of dispensationalism and the modern American evangelical's theological paradigm.

[Tifani Newton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I completely regretted spending a year trying to read the Left Behind series and not reading anything else. It was a complete waste of time.
Recently I discovered a treasure that all should know about… N. D. Wilson. This Parody of his is the best thing I’ve ever read. All of the jokes are completely true which make it all the more funny. I wish I could’ve never read the Left Behind books, but if reading those books meant I could enjoy this book all the more, I’m SORTA glad I did so.

[Camille Lopez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very funny Left Behind parody! I enjoyed it quite a bit and definitely laughed out loud at many parts! It was also not long at all, just the perfect length.

[Douglas Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a hoot.

[Wade Stotts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read in Sept 2015 and Oct 2017. Hilarious again.

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one hit somewhere between one star ("did not like it") and two ("it was okay"). I think it annoyed me more than anything, not so much for disagreement with the author or his aims (though I doubt we're on the same page eschatologically) but for annoyance at the writing. It's hard for me to judge how much of that is actually this author's fault or how much is the fault of the material he is parodying--I read two or three of the LB books when I was 14.

This author's humor didn't usually work for me. It seemed like the type of thing that could only be written by someone I generally would not enjoy hanging out with.

Some of his devices, such as the character's acknowledgement of things happening to them because they were part of a certain kind of literature, were amusing enough--clever, though not brilliant. Grammar was fine throughout, thankfully.

In all, I felt like the author was trying to tell a Douglas Adams story, particularly a Dirk Gently story, or at least to tell his own story in the style of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently, but that he lacked the skill to pull it off. As a result, it was a bit off-putting. It was like reading the name of a LIDL brand Twix bar: Caramel Cookie Bar with Milk Chocolate and Vegetable Fat Coating. Yes. That's really what they named it.

Anyway, this book had a few moments. Here are the two I enjoyed the most:

"He had shot himself in the chest with a long-barreled Winchester repeater five times."

"The cat was also very depressed. You see, every other pet in the neighborhood had been Raptured. They hadn't even all been dogs. Kittens had been taken too, and one chinchilla. As the only adult cat on the block, the poor creature was dealing with the despair of being left behind."

This is worth watching.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous, but not hilarious. This definitely gives some needed poking towards Left Behind, but honestly I was hoping for so much more. It is such a ripe subject for parody, especially the view of prophecy underlying Left Behind. Wilson certainly lands some comical blows against the Left Behind series and produces several good chuckles in his readers; however, the impact of these blows is undermined by the many blows that fail to land. After a while, it begins to feel like Wilson is just punching at whatever he sees without thinking. With all that said, the writing and narration style are certainly entertaining. Overall, Right Behind is still enjoyable, as long as you do not put too much stock in the points it is trying to make, which is ironically what I would also say about Left Behind.

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to give it a lower score but the book clearly stated that it was a parody and obviously was going to poor literature. Can't take off points for a book being what it said it would be!

The rest of the rating is for being hilarious and a bit obnoxious. Mr Sock (R.I.P. or is it MIA?) and Mr Wilson did a good job presenting the silliness that has come about in the last 200 years (1830s was an unprecedented decade for protestants...we could have skipped them).

This book is great for a laugh. Might be fun to read to your spouse before bed or with older kids as you study eschatology. Best if read immediately after Left Behind by LaHaye and Jenkins.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having not read the left behind series, much of this went over my head. Having grown up in a dispensational family and church, a lot of this hit home.

Wilson said that he had trouble writing this book because it is so hard to parody something that is already a parody. This is why some sections are just over the top and others far-fetched. Eventually you run out of subject matter. Kirk Cameron read this book while on set of the left behind series and assumed Wilson was an atheist, which goes to show how far this doctrine has ingrained itself into American theology to the point where Dispensationalism is synonymous with Christianity. Cameron is now a postmillenial Calvinist.

[Timothy Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, solid parody at several levels. Got a little long after a while, but at least it mocked itself for that, too. Late in the book, two characters indulge in a fourth-wall-destroying discussion of the rest of the plot, giving away some spoilers in the process.
"Wait, the audience doesn't know that yet," says one.
The other responds, "Do you think anybody's still reading by this point?"
Hilarious.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Mostly we need to take some time to laugh at ourselves. I used to hold to the "left behind" eschatology and I was deeply into the books when they came out (yes, I read them all). But oh, in this day an age it was good just to laugh and be silly. You don't have to be overly familiar with the books but it helps. ha!

Read it, laugh. Don't be offended.

Going to pick up the second one from my church library today. ;)

[Jeremy Swartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you’ve read any of the Left Behind series, or even have just seen the movies, then you’ll get a kick out of this book. It basically shows how silly the whole series actually is, and how silly the idea of a Rapture is in the first place. Wilson comments on how detrimental dispensationalism is to the culture at the end of the book, so stick it out! This parody reveals the goofiness of the end times theology of squishy Evangelicalism today, so it’s worth a read!

[Caleb M. Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty funny. Part of me wishes I had recently reread the Left Behind series, just so I could more easily appreciate some of the more direct satirical jabs... but the other, more intelligent part of knows that it would absolutely not have been worth it.

[Brittney · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a funny ride.

Also, found out while reading this that Kirk Cameron read this while on the set filming Left Behind and thought it must be an angry atheist because he’d never met a Christian who didn’t believe in the rapture. Wilson and Cameron are now friends.

[Roy Timpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very funny book

[Parker Ambrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious.

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is hilarious. Highly recommend to anyone that read the Left Behind series and wants to laugh at themselves or others silliness.