Soon by Jerry B. Jenkins

First published: Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 2003

Genre(s): Novel

Subgenre(s): Apocalyptic fiction; evangelical fiction

Core issue(s): Apocalypse; awakening; connectedness; conversion; faith; persecution

Principal characters

• Paul Stepola, expert on religions and National Peace Organization investigator
• Jae Stepola, Paul’s increasingly suspicious and emotionally distant wife
• Ranold Decenti, Paul’s father-in-law, a retired army general
• Stuart “Straight” Rathe, a hospital volunteer and clandestine Christian
• Angela, a young widow and daughter of a Christian martyr admired by Paul
• Bia Balaam, the fanatical head of the antiterrorist task force

Overview

Soon: The Beginning of the End by Jerry B. Jenkins, coauthor of the Left Behind series (1995-2007) with Tim LaHaye, has a similar theme to the popular series, which deals with the end-times. In Jenkins’s solo work, warring religious factions have caused World War III, which has brought devastating destruction to nations around the globe and has given birth to a world government dedicated to eradicating all religions. Thirty-six years after the war, Dr. Paul Stepola, expert on religions and investigator for the National Peace Organization (NPO), is cleaning out the effects of his deceased mother. He discovers a letter written to him by his long-dead father. The letter testifies of Christ and urges Paul to become a man of God. Horrified, Paul volunteers for the Zealot Underground, a task force formed to wipe out lingering religious believers. He gets an assignment to investigate an elderly widow in San Francisco who is rumored to be holding secret religious meetings.

In San Francisco, Paul and a team of NPO SEALs storm a building where people are praying and reading the Bible. They wipe out all the inhabitants, but a sudden earthquake kills everyone on the team except Paul. Paul’s next assignment is to investigate a pillar of fire above a burning oil well in the former state of Texas. Once there, he uses Christian code words he heard in San Francisco to expose a Christian roughneck, who is then bludgeoned to death. Paul’s interrogations are interrupted by another blazing gusher, and Paul is burnt and airlifted to a Chicago hospital, where he is told he will be permanently blind.

While recovering, Paul is angry at the world and at his wife, who decides to leave him. He is persistently visited by a black volunteer, Stuart “Straight” Rathe, whose wife and children were killed in a car wreck. Straight teaches Paul to play chess. Paul also spends time listening to New Testament tapes to find clues to help him unearth secret Christians.

Straight escorts Paul to Washington, D.C., to receive an award for bravery. There, Paul meets Bia Balaam, a ruthless woman who has replaced him on the task force. He also meets an attractive widow, Angela, who works at the Library of Congress and whom he asks to check out his father’s letter to see if it is genuine or a government plant. There are strange happenings afoot; all the cherry trees along the Potomac River instantly shrivel. During the stormy flight back to Chicago, Paul is terrified, realizes he is a sinner, and says “Help me, God.” The airplane is struck by lightning, and Paul’s sight is suddenly restored.

Thinking about the New Testament, Paul becomes a believer and discovers that Straight is one, too. Straight meets with the leadership of the Christian underground, housed in a 1,400-acre former salt mine, and proposes they use Paul as an informant on government persecution. Paul accepts the proposal and decides to become a double agent. Assigned to investigate a “cursed” vault in a New York City brokerage, Paul opens the vault and discovers that a tycoon inside has turned to silver. The tycoon’s brother jumps to his death but miraculously survives the fall, and Paul converts him.

Paul meets with the Christian underground and learns of their plans to clandestinely distribute Christian literature worldwide so that it will be available post-rapture. His boss next sends him to Las Vegas to apprehend Jonah, a drug-and-sex cult leader. There he finds Angela, who is working to convert prostitutes. Jonah kidnaps Angela, but Paul apprehends him and his henchmen. Although Angela is attracted to Paul, he tells her he is married.

Paul’s next assignment from Balaam is to go to Los Angeles, along with his father-in-law, Ranold, to crack down on the distribution of Christian literature. There Paul makes contact with “Specs” Quinn, an underground Christian hacker. However, shortly after their meeting, Quinn is exterminated by Ranold’s group, as are two hundred other Christians. The task force tells the press that the unresisting victims are heavily armed zealot terrorists. Paul contacts a group of Christians who have decided to do something visible before they are all killed, concluding that God’s army of angels will be on their side. They send up a drone with religious leaflets, but its controller is captured by the NPO army.

Paul gets the idea to have all Christians pray together for a miracle to dry up the Los Angeles water supply. This message is sent out over the Internet. Meanwhile, Paul’s wife, Jae, flies to Los Angeles to tell Paul she wants to get back together. Then Ranold discovers Paul with the Christians and suspends him from the task force.

During an opulent banquet, the governmental oppressors suddenly notice that the water in the fountains, pools, and in their glasses has evaporated. There is not a drop left in Los Angeles. It is the beginning of the end. Underground believers will now arise with confidence and strength, boldly proclaiming the message of faith: The powers that be will stop killing the people of God, or else they will all wither like the grass and die.

Christian Themes

Although denominations are not mentioned in Soon, the novel expresses the beliefs of those groups who anticipate the Second Coming of Christ and the Apocalypse as discussed in the New Testament book of Revelation. By linking the novel’s scenario to early twenty-first century world developments such as militant religious fanaticism, heightened antiterrorist measures, and what is portrayed as the determination to eliminate religion from the government, Jenkins heightens the reader’s sense that a climate of religious persecution could indeed emerge in the United States. That such a situation might then plausibly—and swiftly—bring about the wrathful displays of the end-times is the message of Soon.

Another purpose of Soon is to point out parallels between the world of the New Testament and that of today. Paul Stepola’s educational background and governmental position, as well as his name, remind readers of Paul the Apostle even before the investigator turns from persecution to discipleship. In the novel, there are seven United States, corresponding with the seven New Testament churches in Asia. For example, New York City is Ephesus, the financial port, where Paul saves Demetrius the stockbroker after a suicidal leap, just as the apostle Paul revived a man who fell from a window in Troas.

Jenkins presents Paul’s professional world of rampant materialism, hedonism, and greed in contrast to the unselfish harmony of the Christian believers forced underground. Callous violence, lying, and unchecked sensuousness are shown in the lives of the government workers who, stripped of religious influence, are devoid of real love or humanity. Jenkins suggests that the solution to Paul’s unhappy marriage, eroded by mistrust and selfishness, is not divorce or the replacement of his wife with a new, attractively congenial substitute. Rather, he says that Christian partners will commit to trying to make the other happy in an atmosphere of faith and trust. Through Soon, he shows that there can be no real humanity in a society wholly separated from God, and no ultimate survival without faith.

Sources for Further Study

Butler, Tamara. Review of Soon. Library Journal 128, no. 18 (November, 2003): 64. Very brief review of the novel as a fast-paced thriller likely to please fans.

Gates, David. “The Pop Prophets.” Newsweek 143, no. 21 (May 24, 2004): 45-50. An article on Tim LaHaye and Jenkins’s successful literary partnership combining religion with science fiction, with biographical information on Jenkins.

Lobdell, William. “Writer Alters Landscape of Christian Fiction: A Coauthor of Bestsellers Hopes to Reach an Even Wider Audience with His First Solo Effort.” Los Angeles Times, October 11, 2003, p. B2. A profile of the coauthor of the Left Behind series that examines his beliefs and his motivations for writing Soon.

Lyons, Gene. “The Apocalypse Will Be Televised.” Harper’s Magazine 309, no. 1854 (November, 2004): 85-90. A critical, largely unfavorable discussion of the success of the Left Behind series of thrillers by Jenkins and LaHaye. Lyons objects to depicting the end-times as an action/adventure melodrama.

Thorn, Patti. “Left Behind Author Doesn’t Stray Far.” Review of Soon. Rocky Mountain News, August 29, 2003, p. 28D. Review of Soon that likens the work to the story in the Left Behind series. Brief discussion of author.