Book Review of Racing Toward Armageddon

The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World

Sep 20, 2009

Michael Baigent's latest book is disturbing and thought provoking, questioning the motives and goals of the three great world religions and their role in Armageddon.

Best selling author Michael Baigent is known for his incisive speculative writing centering on religion and long held belief systems. He was raised in New Zealand in a religious Catholic family. In college, he majored in science, then switched to comparative religion and philosophy. He eventually earned his bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in mysticism and religious experience.. He is a Freemason, and a Grand Officer of the United Grand Lodge of England, and has edited the magazine Freemasonry Today for many years.

Books by Michael Baigent

In London, he met Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln, with whom he wrote the New York Times bestselling book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Some of his ideas in this book are reflected in The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. He has written several other books on esoteric speculative histories, including The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History, and now, his latest, Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World.

Although the themes in Brown’s and Baigent’s books may be similar, Brown’s are written as fiction adventures, whereas Baigent’s are written as nonfiction. Baigent’s writings are often placed in the category of conspiracies, yet he insists that he is not a conspiracy theorist. In an article published on MSNBC by the Associated Press in 2006, Michael Baigent proclaims, “I’m in the business of raising questions. I’m not in the business of providing answers.”

Raising questions is exactly what he does in the book, Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World. He claims that world leaders are working to bring about the end of the world, Armageddon.

Baigent examines Christian Reconstructionist beliefs that the Christian religion is divinely empowered to control all world governments with biblical law. He looks at the Islamic fundamentalist views that world dominion by a caliph is their right and divinely guided mission. He writes about certain Jewish leaders who wish to rebuild the Temple and remove all Islamic buildings. The three divergent worldviews, in Baigent’s opinion, can only lead to an apocalyptic clash resulting in Armageddon.

As evidence of his views, he points to high-ranking leaders and politicians as guiding these movements and working to bring about the end of the world. He refers to the Chalcedon Foundation, sharia law, and faith force multipliers. He points a finger at powerful businesses and even the United Nations as having supporters of these religious agendas. He punctuates his commentary with scriptural quotations and references from all three religions. He encourages readers to question beliefs that may have been indoctrinated since childhood.

Michael Baigent’s book, Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World, will undoubtedly raise a great deal of controversy between those that agree with the suspicions he raises, and those that oppose them. The author’s goal is to open the conversation, raise awareness, and begin the search for answers to the questions raised in this book. If it does nothing else, it will make the reader think.

Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World, by Michael Baigent, HarperOne, September 2009

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