The Indwelling Essay, Research Paper

Thesis: The major conflict in the novel The Indwelling by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins is God vs. Satan.

The Indwelling is the seventh book in the Left Behind series written by the fiction writer Jerry B. Jenkins and biblical end-times scholar Tim LaHaye. The Left Behind series is about a post-Rapture end-times battle between the believers, the “Tribulation Saints,” and the Antichrist, Nicolae Carpathia. The conflict is God versus Satan. The major theme of the story is that good always wins in the end.

The first example of conflict in The Indwelling is in Tsion Ben-Judah’s dreams of the war in heaven and the falling away of Lucifer 242-248. Lucifer is pleading with God to let him have complete control of mankind so he could form an army like none other:

“‘Abandon them to me, who can fashion them for profit. Even after being called by your name, their natures reek with temporal desires. Allow me to surround myself with these enemies of your cause, and I will marshal them into a force unlike any army you have ever assembled.’

From the throne came a voice of such power and authority that volume was irrelevant: ‘Thou shalt not touch my beloved!’” 245.

Lucifer evolves his pleas into threats, threatening to ascend to a throne above that of God’s. This is the moment in which Archangel Michael chooses to step in. In this fashion, the war in heaven is waged and Satan with a third of the heavenly host is cast down to the earth.

The second example of the God vs. Satan theme is in the killing by incineration of the three regional potentates that oppose Carpathia by Fortunato 350. The reason Fortunato kills the three potentates is that they refuse to bow down and worship the idol of Nicolae Carpathia. The three potentates are believers, which is why they will not bow.

The third example of the major conflict is the resurrection and indwelling of Nicolae Carpathia by Satan himself 366. Everything that Satan does is done to further his cause, which is destroying God. By resurrecting the antichrist and indwelling his body, Satan has the ability to directly project his power onto mankind. Nicolae appoints himself as the object of worship of the Enigma Babylon One World Faith and even goes so far as to quote and claim to be Jesus Christ.

The subject of The Indwelling is spiritual warfare. Throughout the whole Left Behind series, Satan is continually trying to succeed the throne of God.