Tim LaHaye isn't exactly a "disinterested party," as his
Amazon bibliography reveals. I suspect this is nothing more than the usual rhetoric. He has a vested interest in perpetuating Christian-centric thinking, as it is that customer base that makes him so financially successful with his
Left Behind fiction series. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with Christian thinking, mind you. But he isn't in the position to be an objective researcher/historian, which is what this kind of topic needs, rather than an airport novel-level sensationalist.