Tim LaHaye (1926–2016)

I knew the book would be preachy, but the narrative became painfully obvious after 150 pages. The main character suddenly believes in God, the Bible, Jesus and the Rapture instantaneously. This after expousing his years and years of total disbelief. After his conversion, he speaks with a priest who wasn't taken (go figure) and just like that, literally within two sentences, he is 100% born again. His daughter Chloe, is skeptical and obviously is meant to be the voice of those who question all things religious.

The priest plays a tape from the pastor who was taken. The tape was made to explain to all who were left behind, just what happened and why. It is on this tape that the pastor warns all viewers of the arrival of the anti-Christ. Lo and behold, 35 pages later, as if on cue, he appears in the form of a Romanian president who is young, charismatic, very smart and who wins over the entire press and all world leaders while giving a speech at the UN. This happens around page 235.

It is at this point in the book that I knew exactly where this story was going, how it would end and how the next book in the series would be setup. And sure as snow is white, it turned out exactly as I predicted.

I was raised Catholic and was curious about the book. I was able to relate to the daughter, who spoke for all of the skeptics of the world. IMHO, like the Bible, this book is a work of fiction. And not very good fiction at that. The writing is geared towards junior high school readers and is very simplistic in structure, dialog and predictability. These problems, along with the fact that it preachers to the reader, I felt to be very demeaning. In short, the message is if you are not a believer, a Born-again Christian, you don't have a chance of getting into the Kingdom of Heaven. As Chloe says, "that's pretty sad for a loving God."

Books like this are not for me and I have no desire to read any of the other books in the series.… (mer)

I decided to read this because the premise was intriguing and it was somewhat internet famous for being awful. I went into it with fairly low expectations, but not quite low enough.
I managed to get through the first 20 or so pages as I enjoyed arguing with every flawed plot point, and then was only able to slog through the rest of the book by imagining how I would have rewrite the novel if given the chance.
The writing is abysmal. The writers have evidently never heard the catchphrase of every writing teacher: "show not tell!" None of the main characters are physically described (aside from Rayford having grey hair) so are difficult to picture. Hattie is apparently physically attractive, but we are never given any further detail or evidence of this fact. Nor are the characters given any real conflict with God (with the possible exception of the pastor Brian, who does have an interesting story). For the main part, they just didn't believe enough for no good reason, missing a brilliant opportunity to show an interesting and moving reconciliation with faith. The supposedly incredible inspirational speeches by Nicolae Carpathia read like a bad high school essay copied from Wikipedia.
Then there's the sexism. For the most part, women appear only to scold or argue with the primary male characters and are then berated into submission (an actual approving quote from the book showed Chloe being "really put in her place" by the pastor Brian). I'm not surprised that both Rayford and Buck are portrayed as being bad with women, since the authors have apparently never met a real one. But they like trying to talk to you pointlessly, going to beauty parlours (result never described) and crying! And don't forget women react positively to being lectured and stalked.
Numerous logical flaws pepper the plot as well. In one particularly galling instance (which made me want to throw the book in the garbage) Hattie complains that her sister has been put out of a job due to abortions no longer being required. Putting aside the ridiculous notion of family planning clinics as businesses, the clinic she works for explicitly also provides pregnancy related counselling, and with every unborn fetus in the world having been raptured, I can only imagine how overrun their crisis counselling services would be!
In all, I am baffled at the book's popularity, and astonished that there was even one sequel, let alone a whole series. Oh well, they couldn't possibly go 12 books without eventually learning to write...right?… (mer)

I make these detailed notes from the book so that later I can come back and compare with the Book of Revelations to see how accurate the authors were, or to compare with today's climate to see where we are at in this whole thing.

We continue to follow these people left behind during the rapture: Bruce, the preacher; Cameron "Buck" Williams, a turned-Christian reporter who works for the Antichrist; and Raymond Steele, a turned-Christian pilot chosen to fly the Antichrist and all his cronies around, and his 20-year-old daughter, Chloe. They all moved from New York to Chicago after Nicolae Carpathia, the Antichrist (Secretary-General of the U.N.) held his first meeting, with Buck in attendance, who witnessed Carpathia murder two United Nations diplomat in that meeting. But, because Buck had recently just been saved in Christ's name, no one remembered him being there. It was like God had closed all their eyes; they all saw what Carpathia told them they saw. Buck was demoted for missing the meeting and transferred to Chicago to write. These four would form "Tribulation Force", a group dedicated to getting the Truth and the Word of God out. Buck and Rayford would become the eyes and ears inside Carpathia's evil regime and eventually meet a few others working on the inside.

Nicolae Carpathia, who comes out of Romania, would make an agreement of protection over Israel, which would signal the start of the seven year tribulation. First would be 18 months of "proclaimed" peace on earth because of the disarmament of all, THEN the real tribulations would begin on earth. During this time, 3/4th's of the world's population will be wiped out by war, famine, plagues, religious beliefs, 1/4 of people destroyed just from the second, third and fourth Seven-Sealed Scroll of judgements mentioned in Revelations and opened upon the earth.

1ST SEAL - Rider on the white horse: the Anti-christ, but he doesn't actually become possessd by Satan, himself, until the second half of the 7 Year Tribulation. The Antichrist in this novel is Nicolae Carpathia. He works very fast and very efficiently. Before anyone knows it, Carpathia has monopolized all media (Television news...CNN being at the top, newspapers and magazines) into one called Global Community News. The Central Banks and all the money is now owned, directed by, and through, Carpathia. He, at first, works as a shadow government, stealing the top position from the U.S. government, which is President Gerald Fitzhugh in this novel, by taking over AIR FORCE ONE and renaming it GLOBAL COMMUNITY ONE and pretty quickly takes over the President's call of power and authority. [NOTE: We are actually seeing that now. Biden has no power. It is a shadow government working through him, directing him what to do.]

In the name of world-wide peace, and lead by the United States of America, ninety percent of guns worldwide are confiscated and 10% given to the U.N. to uphold the peace against Patriots or any other "so-called" insurrectionists. Also, each nation provided the U.N. with a percentage of their soldiers for keeping that "world peace". Because of the overwhelming crime wave that crossed America because of this disarmament gun deal, the President was deemed incompetent and moved into the old Executive Office Building in Washington, and put in charge of enforcing Potentate Carpathia's global disarmament plan in America. Buck was hearing rumors of President Fitzhugh plotting with the militia to oppose the Global Community regime by force and was warned to stay out of the East Coast major cities and out of Washington for the next two months because Egypt, England, and the American Patriot militia were conspiring to take down the globalists before they took over the world before it was too late. President Fitzhugh thought he would be back in the Oval Office within two months...[sounds familiar!]. But, this was all part of the Anti-christ's plan as well and would lead to World War III.

Carpathia commissions the rebuilding of the Temple, which is consecrated and defiled by Muslims, again to be built right over Mount Moriah where it is believed Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son, Isaac, for God, and where they would pickup and continue with sacrificial sacrifices, slaughtering animals. It was built 18 months into the rapture, which signified the end of Carpathia's so-called "world peace". The next three horsemen of the Apocalypse would appear and seventeen more judgements would come quickly, finishing up the 7-Year Tribulation.

Two Apostles (Moses, a.k.a. Moishe and Elijah, a.k.a. Eli) will appear at the Wall in Jerusalem who can and will kill anyone who tries to harm them by blowing fire from their mouths. It is believed that the 144,000 Jewish converts, 12,000 from each tribe, may come from the preaching of these two. They would then go out and convert millions around the world during this time. They also predict no rain in Israel for the following 3-1/2 years.

Eli and Moishe waited until the temple was built, and on opening day with camera crews there and journalists, including Buck, and filled with people inside for the first time shoulder to shoulder, to finally leave the Wall and stand in front of the temple to preach God's words of warning. He told Carpathia that he would be the first to defile the temple, and that their sacrifice of blood would turn to water and their water would turn to blood because the Holy Spirit doesn't dwell inside the temple, It dwells inside the hearts of believers. And sure enough, their words came true, but Carpathia wanted Buck to downplay it in the newspaper.

Meanwhile, a Nike base storing illegal guns and ammo by the militia, and innocent people in the surrounding suburb in Washington DC were annihilated by the World Community Forces for their insurrection. No news was given access to film or cover the story. The public only knew what Carpathia was streaming over the Emergency Broadcast System, which was on every rado and television. Washington DC was obliterated, but no one knew just how bad. Here Bruce, the preacher, had been killed when a bomb hit the hospital. But none of this mattered because Carpathia had already moved US headquarters from Washington DC to the New Babylon in Iraq. He did not care for Washington and had no more use for it. The globalists destroyed the insurrection taking place in the Egyptian desert and fighter planes were blasted out of the air over London. Heathrow Airport was destroyed by a nuclear bomb because of fighter planes ready to takeoff to fight against the globalists. New York was placed on high alert. The Anti-christ would not yet be defeated. The Red Horse of the Apocolypse was on the rampage.

NOTE: The 5th seal costs people their lives who have become believers since the Rapture. The 7th seal is so awesome that when it is revealed in Heaven, there is silence for half an hour. It is revealed after the greatest earthquake in history (the 6th seal), and would be progressively something worse, still a mystery, but initiated by seven Trumpet Judgements as the world is readied for the next seven judgements.

God is moving mountains! We feel it in the air. The Bible reminds us in Luke 8:17: "For nothing is secret that should not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad." (KJV)
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MY PERSONAL NOTE: I'm not sure I agree or like the idea of Raymond Steele, whose saved wife, Irene, and son, Raymie, disappeared during the Rapture, falling in love again with another woman and even marrying her. I feel like he's committing adultery because technically he is still married.… (mer)

In my opinion, there still just wasn’t enough action for what all was going on during the Tribulation. There’s just too much focus on other “stuff”. Instead of you feeling the story, the authors are simply telling the story. I still have no emotions or connections with any of the characters. But, it is interesting to hear their perspective on how these creatures mentioned in Revelations will appear and may come into play during the Tribulation. Now...that...is interesting!
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**spoilers below**

Revelations 9:15-21: "So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision: those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came, fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed-by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths" (p. 91-92).

Thirty-eight months into the Tribulation, these 200 million horsemen were released by four fallen angels, who released them from hell. Only believers of Christ could see them, and it appeared that these horsemen and riders could not see the believers. They only attacked the unbelievers, killing another 1/3 of the world's population.

It wasn’t until Leah and Rayford had to make a run for it from four GC Peace Officers that they realized the horsemen ignored the righteous and attacked the unbelievers. The four GC officers were instantly killed behind them and Leah and Rayford were able to pass through the giant creatures.

The riders on the horse were huge and masculine, at least 10 feet tall. Some of the horses emitted thick yellow, poisonous sulfur smoke from their nostrils and mouth that killed. Their tails were serpent-like with a head on the end, twice the size of a man's fist and powerful enough to throw a man 10 feet like a rag doll. Some blew fire and black smoke from their mouths and instantly incinerated buildings and bodies.

Everyone, including Nicolae, the Antichrist, believed it to be chemical warfare brought on by the religious fanatics, the cult and followers of the prophets, Moishe and Eli, who continued to blast God's words and warnings at the Wailing Wall. Nicolae reassured the people he would get it under control. But, the carnage continued for another 4 months, at which time, signaled the end of the two prophets, according to the Bible, on the 1261st day. Satan and the mark of the beast would soon enter the world.

Nicolae killed the two prophets himself and for three days the crowd drank and danced around their dead and decomposing bodies in over 100 degree temperature. On that third day, the Lord called them back up to Heaven. The crowd watched in horror as they began to move and come back to life and rose above and disappeared into the Heaven. Then, a sudden earthquake hit Jerusalem, destroying and killing 10% of the infrastructure and its people.

On the 5th and last day of festivities several of the Tribulation Force were each secretly planning on taking out the Antichrist. They were scattered throughout the crowd, unbeknownst to the other members, when the fatal shot did sound off. Nicolae lay sprawled out on the stage, but not from the bullet. A ‘trusted' unsuspected follower of the Antichrist, up on stage during Nicolae’s speech, sliced into his head from top to bottom with a homemade blade. He did die. He was dead for three days. The funeral was planned for Sunday. While all the preparations were made for millions to gather in New Babylon for the viewing and funeral of who they believed was the Christ, the believers of the real Christ waited in anticipation for the Antichrist to rise again as proclaimed in the Bible.

Survival will become a full time occupation during the Great Tribulation.

The believers had their seal for Christ on their foreheads, but the day would soon come for the unbelievers to receive their mark of the beast. Anyone to receive this mark will be destined for eternal hell, but they will at least be able to continue to buy and sell in the market place. Anyone who refuses will be forced into hiding, plus they will not be able to buy or sell, but they will at least have eternal life with Jesus and never a worry forever after.

The revival of the Antichrist doesn't occur until the 42nd month into the Tribulation...next book: “The Indwelling” #7.… (mer)