The Left Behind novels have sold roughly 50 million copies and continue to gain in popularity. The series was written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, cofounders of the Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell in 1979.

Last month, Rossing, a Northfield native, appeared on 60 Minutes II to debunk the series and its message and was interviewed by Morley Safer for a segment entitled: "The Greatest Story Ever Sold."

Barb Rossing with Morley Safer on the 60 Minutes set.

Rossing is scheduled to speak at 8 p.m. May 19 at St. John's Lutheran Church and will offer a model for viewing Scripture in the power of Jesus' nonviolent, self-giving love for the world.

Northfield roots
In addition to growing up in Northfield, Rossing is a 1976 Carleton College graduate with a major in geology. She is the daughter of Dorothy and Tom Rossing, a former St. Olaf College physics professor. She is the sister of Mary Rossing, a Northfield resident and owner of Present Perfect, a store on Division Street.

Rossing is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and earned a doctorate from Harvard University Divinity School and a masters of divinity degree from Yale University Divinity School. She teaches at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.

Rossing said she was compelled to write the book after delving into the Left Behind novels herself.

"As I went out speaking at Lutheran churches and around the country, more and more people were asking me questions about these novels: ‘What do you say about the fictional scenarios of the end of the world in the Left Behind novels?'"she said. "I needed to answer that question. After I started reading them, I was so alarmed by them that I decided to apply for a grant to give me the time to write a book responding to the novels."

Rossing received a Lilly Endowment grant and spent a year writing the book.

"It took me the full year to research it," she said. "First, I read all the novels and then I went on a trip to the Middle East, where so many of the novels are set in Israel, Palestine and Jordon."

Research and strength
As a result of her research, Rossing said she gained an inner strength and knowledge.

"It was really empowering because I've always been a little intimidated by fundamentalists," she said. "The more I studied the whole origin of this fundamentalist theology, the more I realized this isn't biblical. It was empowering to realize I could stand up to this. There are holes in their system and I need to expose their assumptions. Some of the things they write are not justifiable biblically. Now I feel a lot more confident about critiquing their theology, and I think that's an important kind of confidence."

Rossing explores the image of Jesus as a lamb in Chapter Six, entitled, "Lamb Power."

"I went out in the country where a family was raising lambs and spent some time with the lambs reflecting on what the Bible means if it is casting Jesus in the role of the lamb," she said. "What does that teach us and what does lambness look like in our world? I believe that lamb power is a powerful way of living in the world."

Rossing stressed the importance of hope, particularly in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedy, the war in Iraq and recent events.

"It's hard to live with a sense of hope sometimes, but I do believe that is the bible's message and that God is with us," she said. "More and more, I understand it to be a different set of lenses that can see the hope in the midst of despair."

A message of hope
In the last two chapters of Rossing's book, "Rapture in Reverse" and "The Journey Outward," she uses examples from the natural world to illustrate hope.

She said using the natural world to portray a message of hope was a result, in part, from her connection to nature.

"How the rivers of our world can remind us of the river of life and how we're supposed to see glimpses of God's river of life in the Cannon River, or the trees of our world, like in the Arboretum," she said. "We really are supposed to live with that vision for a world that is renewing and healing and not destructive."

Rossing earned an undergraduate degree in geology at Carleton.

"The Carleton geology department field trips were formative," she said. "We would go on weeklong field trips to the Black Hills and to the Ozarks. You really get this great appreciation for the incredible diversity and wonder of God's creation."

Rossing lives eight blocks from Lake Michigan in Chicago and connects to nature each day.

"Canoeing down a river and glimpsing a Great Blue Heron taking off is the idea of wonder that I want to talk about at St. John's and of the renewal of the world," she said. "The book of Revelation is not God's nightmare for our world, it's God's dream for our world and we see glimpses of that dream of hope for our world. God wants to bring about the healing not the destruction of the world."

Barbara's book is available from many booksellers including Amazon.com.