Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins The Rapture

The Rapture

Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins

Tyndale, June 2006, $25.95, 384 pp.

ISBN 1414305804

The countdown to the Rapture has begin and though he doesn't know it will happen soon, Nicolae Carpathia, is making plans with the help of his spirit guide (Lucifer) to take control of the world. He blackmails the president of Romania using intimidation and threats to his family into stepping down from his post and the outgoing president declares to the people that Carpathia should be the next president. Raymond Steele, enamored of flight attendant Hattie Durham neglects his wife and his young son Jamie, thinking they are fools for being so involved in the church.

Days before Carpathia makes his speech to the United Nations, the Rapture occurs and his sprit guide shows him how to use the disappearances to his advantage. Raymond's wife Irene has almost given up hope that her husband will turn into the man who showered her with love. When the trumpet sounds, Irene and Jamie are lifted into heaven given new bodies and minds. There they are judged for how they lived their life after they received salvation. They see and explore heaven and interact with God and his son. Irene, happy at last still prays that Raymond and Chloe, her daughter, will seek salvation through the Lord.

THE RAPTURE explores in depth the characters of the protagonists and the antagonists of the Left Behind series. It is a fulfilling novel that answers many questions not covered in the other books in the series like why Raymond's first officer committed suicide and how Carpathia persuaded the president of Romania to step down. The authors have written another fascinating and revolutionary work in a series that most readers wish will never end.

Harriet Klausner