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Apocalypse now: Dallas, the state's mecca of materialism, is the global epicenter of doomsday theology? The end may be nearer than we think.

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The public-relations firm that Dallas recently hired to come with a catchy new slogan for the city probably won't pick "Athens of the Apocalypse." Even so, the only thing that sets Dallas apart from other American cities similarly replete with designer museums, five-star restaurants, and edgy little theatrical troupes is its unique end-of-the-world industry. [paragraph] The city's eschatological infrastructure is perhaps most evident in its great faith factories, like the Prestonwood Baptist megachurch, in the northern suburb of Plano, where the authors of the best-selling Left Behind series, the Reverend Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, were recently taped by 60 Minutes II flogging their latest book beneath the live-action big screens in the arena-like sanctuary. But megachurches where millions anticipate the Rapture--the instant snatching-up of true believers to meet Jesus in the air--are familiar landmarks across a nation where Armageddon has become as American as baseball and apple pie. What distinguishes Dallas is that the end-times culture so avidly consumed there was also created there: The city that gave us America's team holds almost exclusive intellectual property rights to a distinctly American-style apocalypse. What might be called the Parousia Prairie ("Parousia" is Greek for "Second Coming") in and around Dallas is dotted with last-days think tanks, from Mal Couch's Tyndale Biblical Institute, in Fort Worth, to Thomas Ice's LaHaye-financed Pre-Trib Research Center, in Arlington, to the Dallas-based ministry of eschatological televangelist Zola Levitt.

These are only theological upstarts, however, compared with a nineteen-building campus in the heart of Dallas, minutes from downtown's postmodern office towers. Founded in 1924, Dallas Theological Seminary is the Yale of conservative Christianity: DTS graduates preside over dozens of the nation's top Bible institutes, and thousands more DTS alums head prominent churches. The house doctrine...

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