The Third Millennium

Third Millennium Trilogy #1

by Paul D. Meier

The Third Millemium , an unusual novel by Paul Meier, paints a blood-chilling picture of the chaos and confusion of the end times as witnessed by one american family as unforgettably narrated by their guardian angel, Michael.

Genres: Fiction, Christian Fiction, Christian, Science Fiction, Religion, Childrens, Faith

324 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 1995

About the author

Extract of DR. Paul Meier's biography on the website of the Meier Clinics:

Paul Meier is an MD/Psychiatrist/Ordained Minister who is the founder of the national chain of non-profit Christian psychiatry clinics, the Meier Clinics. He has authored or co-authored over 80 books, mostly Christian self-help books like Love is a Choice and Happiness is a Choice, and also a series of Bible Prophecy novels, including The Third Millennium.

Reviews

[J. Wootton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book anticipated, and may have helped create, the end-of-millennium wave of apocalyptic imagination that the Left Behind series commercialized so spectacularly. Best read as a stand-alone (I read, but did not enjoy and barely remember, the sequels coauthored with Robert Wise).

My head is fuzzy on the details, but as I recall the plot was based on a fairly literal take on Revelations/Apocalypse, and on biblical prophecy in general. I kept the book on my shelf for years because of the Appendix, which included a mind-bending conspiracy-theory-esque reading of the prophetic timeline that seemed, perplexingly, less and less brilliant the older I grew.

On the whole, this book is probably more valuable for its glimpse into the American Evangelical/Fundamentalist mind and the state of popular hermeneutics at the end of the twentieth century than for its story.

[Ugur · Rating 1 out of 5]

i thought this was sci-fi fantasy. turns out to be christian fiction. total garbage waste of time.

[Debbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are like me and have difficulty studying/understanding Revelation, Bible prophecy and fulfillment, this book is put in a novel fantasy form that actually helps understand all of that. It had me captivated from the very beginning. What I liked the most about it was even though it was fantasy it was still correlated with verses in the Bible to backup all the doctrine the author had given. It's a great way to study the Bible and enjoy a great book at the same time. Not all of the Bible prophecies are used in the book and not all of the story is quite accurate. After all it's a fantasy book based on a real life future event. This makes you have to use your Bible so you can check out the facts for yourself. The ending of course had me in tears of joy!

[Matthew Alexander Sandoval · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crap

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to read this several years after the events were supposed to have happened. I enjoyed this book, but it was very simplistic. Neither the writing nor the plot were complex, but perhaps that was the style in the 90s compared to books today. I am not enough of a literary critic to know that, but I can tell that this book was written to portray the end times rather than to excite with a well-planned, intricate story line.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Quickie Review

This was a weird one.  I'm not sure I agree with how Mr. Meier presents the "end times," but the strangeness of it all was simply gripping.  Readers beware, though: There's plenty of violence and scary content to go around, as is typical with apocalyptic novels.



 Score: 3.5/5

[Horace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was very interesting, especially the appendix - yeah, you'll have to read it for yourself and see why!! :-) I thought this was much better than the Left Behind series.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I read fiction I usually read classics or what goes by the weird name "inspirational fiction," which, for some reason, only includes Christian fiction, never Jewish fiction or Muslim fiction. I ran across this book while searching for Christian non-fiction and I thought it might be interesting. Sadly, it’s another one of those "left behind" books, with all the predictable tropes of the evangelical end time scenarios. So we have two literal human witnesses and literally exactly 144,000 Jewish men who are all virgins, a literal asteroid named "Wormwood" and all the rest. I wonder when those two witnesses ate, slept, or went to the bathroom?

Reading this book reminded me of when I first gave up on a literal interpretation of Revelation. It was in the Left Behind movie. Two of the Antichrist's minions were running up on the two witnesses with rifles. Just when they got in range of the witnesses' fire throwing mouths, streams of fire shot out and burned them up along with their rifles. It was so absurd that I literally laughed out loud. I had a similar experience when reading this book, when the Archangel Michal predicts that "A third of all the grasslands and trees will burn."

Some of the writing was pretty good. The author develops his Christian characters pretty well. But the evil characters, and especially the Antichrist figure are all flat. In this respect it reminded me of Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness. It had the same flaw of making all the Christian characters round and interesting and all the non-Christian characters flat and cardboard. Perhaps this is an endemic characteristic of Christian fiction writing of this era?

Of course, the book serves a good purpose in demonstrating the ridiculousness of the whole pretribulation rapture scenario. After the rapture, when the Antichrist announces his plans for world domination, one of the main protagonists declares, "Never would I have believed that people would quietly accept what we heard last night." Of course, that is exactly right.

[Amanda Nall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this when I was just a young teen and I really credit it for opening my eyes more and making the Rapture and the end times much more real to me. I read it knowing that not everything in it is 100% accurate obviously but reading it made me want to dig deeper into my faith and research things more on my own. I've read it several times over the years since then as well but somehow missed that it was part of a trilogy! I'll definitely be reading the other two soon.

[Mark Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was pretty fascinating. Kinda opened your eyes to different ideas and thoughts about the universe. Def going to share this book with friends.

[The Scorpion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read other books along the same lines as this but more well writer.

[Kevin Casto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great thoughtful book to make you think and draw close to Christ.

[Elizabeth Priebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book focused on end times but with a Messianic Jewish perspective.

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting storyline

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much Bible based, a good prediction of the end days.

[TL Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF just couldn't get past stilted writing.

[Bayneeta · Rating 1 out of 5]

Also read this for a Readers' Advisory group study of Christian/Religious Fiction; this was for the apocalyptic section. Actually thought I might like these. Again, not particularly well written. This tells the same story as the Left Behind series, but in one volume. In this book the Antichrist is the American president and an American family of non-practicing Jews have a guardian angel who helps them out and narrates some of the story.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this years ago while waiting for the next Left Behind book to be released. I enjoyed the interesting take on the book of John's Revelation and remember enjoying the book. It was also refreshing to get a shorter series of end times novels while the Left Behind crew was dragging that series out for every penny they could. Concise and interesting. That’s what I remember about this one.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the end times and sums up in one book what the whole Left Behind series is about. I really enjoyed reading this.

[Matt Hartzell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to the Left Behind series, these books take a more dramatic tone with a look at the End Times. I read books like this less for "accurate" information and more for entertainment.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of this book. It's like the Left Behind Series, only it came first and, in my opinion, is much better.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book. I've read the "Left Behind" series, but there is just something about this "short in comparison" book that I appreciated more.

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much deeper than Left Behind Series. I really liked this and the 4th Millenium.

[Karen Phelps · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read 2 of these and they are really good. Very thought provoking and gets you thinking of relevant issues today.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this one was really well done and then tried to get into the "Left Behind" series but couldn't do it, Meier's story was enough.

[DiAnna Cronic · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book before the "Left Behind" series came about, and liked it more than that entire series.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this novel. Scary, yet gives you a picture of the chaos that will ensue at the end of time.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to read more by this author!

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read..ready for the next in the series!

[Joanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book and can't wait to start the sequel!