Good book. I read this over the summer and it was very interesting. A little less action than Left Behind but still a good book. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins are great writers. ( )

Excellent read. This story does seem to move a bit slow, but that's to be expected, I guess, since there are so many books in this series. ( )

Book 2 in the Left Behind series that takes place after the rapture covered in Left Behind. The Tribulation Force consists of Rayford Steele, his daughter Chloe, reporter Buck Williams and Pastor Bruce are meeting regularly to help them and others prepare for what is coming. The world is changing everyones lives are heading for huge changes some are aware, others do not and think all is well. ( )

Ok, I tried, I can't do it.

I was going to do a quick reread of all these Left Behind books over the next few weeks but the gripping story line (which I don't necessarily dispute, to be clear) is not enough to force me to suffer through the horrendous writing style. I was doing ok (to put it graciously) until the 18 month jump ahead in the last quarter of the book. Waaaaay to much info, too fast. Rayford's new wife comes out of nowhere with very little back story (if I remember right, from 20 years ago, this explains itself a bit...several books later) and that's just one of the MANY things to hit the reader at once as the chapters are annoyingly rushed up at the end.

I was also REEEEally irritated with Chloe's overdramatic immature behavior. I have a hard time believing a 31 year old professional guy would have put up with all that but... Maybe the authors have super whiny wives and this is normal female behavior in their eyes.

The "fun" part of these books is reading about all the "high tech" technology that the authors imagined---stuff that has now been outdated a good 8 or 10 years. Chloe left college to come home after the Rapture, yet she needs "Buck the man" to set up her E-mail (capital "e" and hyphen included). The super high tech description of the inside of the futuristic plane: "every seat had its own phone, modem jack, VCR, and TV." The Presidential living quarters had "technology allowing the plane to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world." Wowie!

The world is so different now... Like when the characters are annoyed that they have to find something to do since they've arrived at the airport an hour before their flight takes off. Now we arrive 90 minutes early, at least...and have lots to do.

I may still finish these up over the course of the year, but for now I need a break. ( )

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. ( )