A few years ago, Americans were asked, “What is your favorite book of all time?” Two of the top five books include a vision of the end of the world: #1 the Bible, and #5 The Stand by Stephen King. Before reading The Stand, I would have said that’s crazy—#5? Now it kind of makes sense.

It took me a year to finish the book, and I’m glad I stuck with it. The apocalyptic novel was homework for my upcoming Great White Throne. I draw a lot from the Bible’s vision of how the world will end, as recounted in my blogs on Revelation, so I was struck by the common themes in Stephen King’s story.

Warning: a few spoilers from The Stand are below. But I bet most of you won’t mind—you’ve either already read the 500,000-word tome or you’ll just consider this a preview for the upcoming movie starring Matthew McConaughey. Three surprising spiritual truths await.

I’ll admit it, I was starting to doubt Amazon. I’d read the recent author success stories, and I’d followed their advice: write good books, publish exclusively with Amazon, and let the algorithms steer your work to readers who will love it.

Four novels in, I had quality stories and great reviews, but no breakout sales. Then, like lightning striking in the night, Amazon delivered. Over the past couple weeks, my sales have quadrupled.

This post is my best guess as to how it happened.

With over a dozen books, the sweeping Left Behind series has sold over sixty million copies. It has spawned movies. Even a recent Nic Cage sighting!

But the books aren’t just a story. They’re based on author Tim LaHaye’s premillennial view. Many have embraced that view after reading the books. That’s the power of story. The thing is, there are other stories to tell. Lots of them.

Revelation draws competing theories (check out my first and second posts on this wild old book). It also draws stories. And even if no human will ever get it right, these stories can help us.