Almost a quarter of Americans say the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were predicted by the book of Revelation, a joint poll by Times magazine and CNN has found.
Twenty-three percent say the attacks were predicted in the last book of the Bible. Almost three times that percentage — 64 percent — disagreed.
Seventeen percent of Americans said they believed the end of the world as described in Revelation will occur in their lifetimes, compared to 42 percent who said it would occur “eventually” and 33 percent who said “it will not occur.”
Poll results were released in the June 24 edition of Time, whose cover story is “The Bible & the Apocalypse.” It cites the popularity of the “Left Behind” book series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.
“Since Sept. 11, people from cooler corners of Christianity have begun asking questions about what the Bible has to say about how the world ends,” writes Nancy Gibbs, Time’s editor-at-large. “Even among more secular Americans, there were some who were primed to see an omen.”
She adds: “That is because among the best-selling fiction books of our times- right up there with Tom Clancy and Stephen King- is a series about the ‘End Times,’ written by … LaHaye and… Jenkins, based on… Revelation.”
Since Sept. 11, 36 percent of those surveyed said they have spoken to others about what the Bible says concerning the end of the world.
The survey, conducted by telephone June 19-20, of 1,003 American adults has a margin cf error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
(RNS)
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