by Tim LaHaye
Rayford signaled Mac to set the chopper down. But as he surveyed the area, Rayford knew. The only prayer for Amanda or for Hattie was that their planes were still in the air when this occurred.
When the blades stopped whirring, Carpathia turned to the other two. “Do either of you have a working phone?”
Rayford was so disgusted he reached past Carpathia and pushed open the door. He slipped out from behind Carpathia’s seat and jumped to the ground. Then he reached in, loosened Carpathia’s belt, grabbed him by the lapels, and yanked him out of the chopper. Carpathia landed on his seat on the uneven ground. He jumped up quickly, as if ready to fight. Rayford pushed him back up against the helicopter.
“Captain Steele, I understand you are upset, but—”
“Nicolae,” Rayford said, his words rushing through clenched teeth, “you can explain this away any way you want, but let me be the first to tell you: You have just seen the wrath of the Lamb!”
Carpathia shrugged. Rayford gave him a last shove against the helicopter and stumbled away. He set his face toward the airport terminal, a quarter mile away. He prayed this would be the last time he had to search for the body of a loved one in the rubble.
EPILOGUE
“When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
“So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”
Revelation 8:1-6
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JERRY B. JENKINS, former vice president for publishing at Moody Bible Institute of Chicago and currently chairman of the board of trustees, is the author of more than 175 books, including the best-selling Left Behind series. Twenty of his books have reached the New York Times Best Sellers List (seven in the number-one spot) and have also appeared on the USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal best-seller lists. Desecration, book nine in the Left Behind series, was the best-selling book in the world in 2001. His books have sold nearly 70 million copies.
Also the former editor of Moody magazine, his writing has appeared in Time, Reader’s Digest, Parade, Guideposts, and dozens of Christian periodicals. He was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in 2004.
His nonfiction books include as-told-to biographies with Hank Aaron, Bill Gaither, Orel Hershiser, Luis Palau, Joe Gibbs, Walter Payton, and Nolan Ryan among many others. The Hershiser and Ryan books reached the New York Times Best Sellers List.
Jerry Jenkins assisted Dr. Billy Graham with his autobiography, Just As I Am, also a New York Times best seller. Jerry spent 13 months working with Dr. Graham, which he considers the privilege of a lifetime.
Jerry owns Jenkins Entertainment, a filmmaking company in Los Angeles, which produced the critically acclaimed movie Midnight Clear, based on his book of the same name. See www.Jenkins-Entertainment.com.
Jerry Jenkins also owns the Christian Writers Guild, which aims to train tomorrow’s professional Christian writers. Under Jerry’s leadership, the guild has expanded to include college-credit courses, a critique service, literary registration services, and writing contests, as well as an annual conference. See www.ChristianWritersGuild.com.
As a marriage-and-family author, Jerry has been a frequent guest on Dr. James Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program and is a sought-after speaker and humorist. See www.AmbassadorSpeakers.com.
Jerry has been awarded four honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Dianna, have three grown sons and four grandchildren.
Check out Jerry’s blog at http://jerryjenkins.blogspot.com.
DR. TIM LAHAYE (www.timlahaye.com), who conceived and created the idea of fictionalizing an account of the Rapture and the Tribulation, is a noted author, minister, and nationally recognized speaker on Bible prophecy. He is the founder of both Tim LaHaye Ministries and The PreTrib Research Center. Presently Dr. LaHaye speaks at many Bible prophecy conferences in the U.S. and Canada, where his current prophecy books are very popular.
Dr. LaHaye holds a doctor of ministry degree from Western Theological Seminary and a doctor of literature degree from Liberty University. For 25 years he pastored one of the nation’s outstanding churches in San Diego, which grew to three locations. It was during that time that he founded two accredited Christian high schools, a Christian school system of ten schools, and San Diego Christian College (formerly known as Christian Heritage College).
Dr. LaHaye has written over 50 nonfiction and coauthored 25 fiction books, many of which have been translated into 34 languages. He has written books on a wide variety of subjects, such as family life, temperaments, and Bible prophecy. His most popular fiction works, the Left Behind series, written with Jerry B. Jenkins, have appeared on the best-seller lists of the Christian Booksellers Association, Publishers Weekly, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the New York Times.
Another popular series by LaHaye and Jenkins is The Jesus Chronicles. This four-book novel series gives readers rich first-century experiences as John, Mark, Luke, and Matthew recount thrilling accounts of the life of Jesus. Dr. LaHaye is coauthor of another fiction series, Babylon Rising. Each of the four titles in this series have debuted in the top 10 on the New York Times Best Sellers List. These are suspense thrillers with thought-provoking messages.
TEST YOUR PROPHECY IQ
Will it be possible for people who have been left behind to still find eternal life in Christ after the Rapture?
See answers at the end of this section.
THE TRUTH BEHIND THE FICTION
THE PROPHECY BEHIND THE SCENES
One of the favorite guessing games among prophecy enthusiasts is the identity of Antichrist. There are many people in the real world who may resemble the charismatic Nicolae Carpathia of the Left Behind series, but only one will make the awful transformation from global hero to Satan-possessed tyrant. In chapter 21 of their nonfiction book Are We Living in the End Times? Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins take a look at the nature of Antichrist.
The Son of Perdition
In The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Merrill C. Tenney says the Semitic phrase “son of perdition” (“man doomed to destruction” in the NIV) suggests “an abandoned character, one utterly lost and given over to evil.” It is applied to only two people in the Bible: Judas Iscariot and the Antichrist.
And while nowhere in Scripture does the Bible ever explicitly say that the Antichrist is indwelt by the devil, a careful reading of Revelation 12 and 13 leads many Bible scholars to believe that after the devil is defeated by the angelic forces and forcibly ejected from heaven at the midpoint of the Tribulation, he enters the body of the Antichrist and in God’s temple declares himself to be God.
The Little Horn
The wicked activities of the Antichrist were first foreseen by the prophet Daniel, who saw him as a “little horn” (see Daniel 7, 9). These passages describe his arrogance, egomania, blasphemy . . . and ultimate destruction.
From Daniel we also see that Antichrist will be a descendant of those who destroyed the Temple (in AD 70). The Left Behind series imagines that the Antichrist, named Nicolae Carpathia, would come from Romania, a former eastern-bloc nation that retains much of its ancient Roman heritage.
In Daniel 9:26-27, we hear for the first time of the “abomination of desolation,” in which Antichrist halts the sacrifices in the rebuilt temple and proclaims himself to be God, thus starting the Great Tribulation.
The Man of Sin
The apostle Paul tells us a little more about the coming Antichrist
. His name for this wicked ruler is “the man of sin” (2 Thessalonians 2). Paul agrees that the Antichrist will sit in the temple of God and there proclaim himself to be God. He also says the demonic influence that will sweep Antichrist to power is “already at work,” although it is being kept in check by the Holy Spirit working through the church. Once the Rapture takes place (and the Holy Spirit is “taken out of the way”), the Antichrist will be revealed to the world. Soon after he will begin to astonish men and women through “lying wonders” and “signs” and “power”—all made possible by “the working of Satan.” Most of the world will be deceived by his counterfeit miracles and will willingly follow and eventually worship the Antichrist. But in the end, the man of sin will be “consumed” with the breath of the Lord and “destroyed” with the brightness of his coming at the end of the Tribulation.
The Beast
The apostle John gives us many more details about the Antichrist in the book of Revelation. John’s special name for this godless world leader is “the Beast,” although he first introduces the Antichrist not as a beast but as a conquering king (Revelation 6:2, 4)
The rider on the first two horses of the Apocalypse is none other than the Antichrist. At first he conquers through diplomacy (the apparent meaning of the bow without arrows). He is a master diplomat and resolves disputes between countries by charisma and tact. But soon he turns his fearsome military machine on his enemies in a horrific World War III, and the result is a catastrophic loss of human life: a quarter of the world’s population is wiped out. Can you see why he is called “the Beast”?
In Revelation 13:2 John makes it plain that the Beast’s power and authority and kingdom are given to him by Satan.
A Poor Imitation
The Antichrist is scheduled to be the last ruler of this world—just before Jesus comes. While the unredeemed people of the world will fall down to worship him during the second half of the Tribulation, by the end of the Tribulation only one name will be worshiped: Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. At his return, the whole world will know it made a gargantuan error by mistaking Satan’s cheap imitation for the Real Thing.
Aren’t you glad that there is no reason for us to make such a colossal error? Even now we can join with the choirs of heaven and sing:
“Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before you.”
Revelation 15:3-4
IN THE MEANTIME . . . since the Left Behind series was first published.
Nicolae was originally published in 1997, in between the two Gulf wars (1991 and 2003) and before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
In a 1999 survey by Time magazine, it was reported that nearly half (49%) of Americans believed there will be an Antichrist, and 19% believed he was on earth then. September 11 marked a transformation in worldview for many people. A survey of Christians by ChristiaNet.com in 2010 revealed that 64% of believers thought the Antichrist was alive at that time.
There has been much speculation about who the Antichrist might be—from dictators like Saddam Hussein in Iraq (before he was captured) and Kim Jong Il in North Korea, to world leaders like U.S. presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama or former British prime minister Tony Blair (especially when he voiced interest in becoming president of the European Union). Such speculation has gone on throughout the church age and will certainly continue until Antichrist himself is revealed.
In a March 2003 article in the Left Behind Prophecy Newsletter (2003–2009) that appeared just before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Mark Hitchcock wrote about “antichrists and Antichrist.” He used Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as an example, though any current subject of speculation could be substituted.
Back in 1991, many people seriously wondered if Saddam Hussein could be the Antichrist. After all, all the world was gathered in the Middle East against him. While that idea has waned significantly in the last twelve years, no one doubts that Saddam is a sinister, sly survivor who has again led the world to the brink of a serious crisis.
Clearly, Saddam is not the Antichrist. The reason I can say this is twofold. First, according to Daniel 9:26, the Antichrist will rise from the reunited Roman empire, probably some nation in Western Europe. Second, the Bible says that the Antichrist will not be unveiled by God until the beginning of the tribulation period, which will be after the rapture. As I always say, “if you ever do figure out who the Antichrist is, I’ve got bad news for you, you’ve been left behind.” So, I believe it is futile and speculative for us to even try to figure out who the Antichrist is before the rapture. The Bible is clear that we are to be looking for Christ, not Antichrist.
However, having said that, vicious, cruel dictators like Saddam do strikingly foreshadow what the Antichrist will be like. Menacing madmen like Saddam do give us a small window into the Antichrist’s character. History is littered with the lives of despotic dictators who prefigure what the final great man of sin will be like. These antichrists (plural with a little “a”) serve as types or examples of what the Antichrist (singular with a big “A”) will be like.
First and Second John are the only two books in the New Testament that use the Greek word antichristos (1 John 2:18, 27; 2 John 7). In these letters there is a clear distinction between antichrists (plural) and the Antichrist (singular). With this in mind, as we look at history, who are some of the men who picture what the Antichrist will be like? Men who are antichrists?
Nimrod (Genesis 10:8-11; 11:1-9)
Alexander the Great (Daniel 8:5-8)
Antiochus Epiphanes (Daniel 8:9-26)
Nero Caesar
Napoleon
Hitler
Stalin
While Saddam clearly was not the Antichrist, he was another in the long line of antichrist-like figures who point toward what the final Antichrist will be like. And just like the Antichrist, his doom is sealed.
Indeed, Saddam Hussein was captured and subsequently executed not long after Mark Hitchcock wrote his article. Since then, who else might find their names added to the list of history’s antichrists, and what does that tell us about the nature of the Antichrist who will be revealed in the Tribulation?
TEST YOUR PROPEHCY IQ—ANSWER
Absolutely, say Left Behind authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. As the next book in the series will demonstrate—based on what they see as overwhelming evidence in the Bible—there will be a Soul Harvest during the Tribulation that could eclipse any evangelistic efforts the world has seen before the Rapture.