Plot summary
Just after the Glorious Appearing
In the aftermath of the Glorious Appearing during the 75 Day Interval before the Millennium World, Cameron (formerly known as Buck) and Chloe Williams see their son Kenny playing with other children who were orphaned during the Tribulation. Buck and Chloe form a ministry known as Children of the Tribulation (COT), in the knowledge that these must be brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ before their one-hundredth year, or they shall die and go to hell. At the End of the 75 Day Interval, Christ destroys the rebuilt Temple of Jerusalem with lightning from Heaven. He then constructs a new Temple for the people of the Earth and sets up Levites as his priests and his earthly apostles as civil governors, with a resurrected King David as their chief. Meanwhile, Natural and Glorified Believers (Naturals being believers who lived to see the Glorious Appearing, and will still age slowly until the end of the Millennium, but not die; Glorified being believers who were raptured or died during the Tribulation and received Glorified Bodies, meaning they cannot age or die.) begin building their Houses and Estates for the 1,000 Years.
Ninety-three years into the Millennium
A young woman named Cendrillon dies at age 100, surprising the Williams' and their close friends, who employed her at COT and assumed that she was saved. Rumors surface that she may have had contact with a group called The Other Light (TOL), which defies Christ even after his appearing and is growing in the world outside the Kingdom. This seems confirmed when Kenny Williams speaks to Cendrillon's cousins at the funeral, and sees that they wear garments announcing their dedication to TOL. The former members of the Tribulation Force decide to redouble their efforts in their new ministries, and Kenny Williams joins Raymie Steele and Abdullah's two children to form the Millennium Force, dedicated to share the Gospel to unsaved children before they turn a century old. Meanwhile, Kenny is introduced to a Natural Believer from Greece around his age named Ekaterina Risto, who is employed at COT. The Two strike up a friendship, before beginning a romantic relationship.
Kenny tries to go undercover and infiltrate TOL, but his plans fall through when his older believing friend Abdullah Ababneh mistakenly thinks he is really a member of TOL. This causes Kenny's life to virtually fall apart, as his girlfriend Ekaterina deserts him, all his friends abandon him, and even his own parents can hardly seem to believe him. Ekaterina soon feels guilty and talks to Kenny, and they discover the real infiltrator from TOL, another teenager named Qasim Marid. Qasim is fired and Kenny is reunited with his girlfriend and his family. Kenny eventually marries Ekaterina, and they produced 8 Sons and 6 Daughters and over 80 Grandchildren, before expanding the work of COT to Greece, until they were too old to carry on and went back to Jerusalem towards 3/4 of the way through the Millennium.
Meanwhile, Rayford Steele and his first wife Irene, now in a glorified body, lead a missionary trip to Egypt. Tsion Ben-Judah stands before the Parliament and rebukes the people of that land for continuing to glorify the name of the Egyptian god Ptah in the very name of their country and then renames the country Osaze. They preach the Gospel and lead many to salvation, but Rayford is captured by a pocket of resistance with goals similar to TOL. He experiences firsthand the power of God when an angel descends into the base and rescues him and his fellow prisoners. Rayford also leads a TOL operative named Rehema to salvation.
Near the end of the Millennium, the ministry is taken over mainly by Believers in Glorified Bodies (like Cameron, Chloe, Irene, Raymie, Tsion Ben-Judah and Bruce) as the Naturals from the Beginning of the Tribulation begin to feel the ravages of time. Friends and family gather at COT to celebrate the thousandth birthday of Mac McCullum, and every member of what was once the Tribulation Force makes an appearance. Rayford, who is now more than 1,000 years old, requests a picture of the original Tribulation Force, and is shocked to find how old he looks in contrast to his daughter Chloe, son-in-law Cameron and friend Bruce Barnes (who are all in glorified bodies).
Homecoming
In the final years of the Millennium, the Other Light amasses its armies, a force a thousand times larger than the Global Community Unity Army that were present at the Battle of Armageddon 1,000 years before. All the billions of members of TOL gather all the weapons they can to battle against God, surrounding the city of Jerusalem during the final year of the Millennium where Christ reigns, with Lucifer himself leading their charge during the final day when he is released. However, Jesus comes out to meet them and says, "I Am Who I Am," and the entire opposing army is devoured by fire. Jesus then speaks personally to Lucifer, shaming him for his iniquities and evils. At his final words he opens a hole to the Lake of Fire in spacetime itself in which the Beast (Nicolae Carpathia) and the False Prophet (Leon Fortunato), are seen both writhing in agony and screaming "Jesus is Lord!" Lucifer joins them in their screaming and is thrown into torment with them. All the Believers at the End of the Millennium are then taken to Heaven, with the Naturals finally becoming Glorified. The Great White Throne Judgment takes place and all unbelievers are cast into the lake of fire. The earth is destroyed and reduced to particles by fire from Heaven and from inside the Earth itself. After the Great White Throne Judgement, Jesus instantly creates a new earth, and Heaven (or New Jerusalem) descends down upon it, ushering in a new heaven and a new earth. All the believers are then welcomed into New Jerusalem and New Earth, destined to reign with Christ for all eternity.
Christian eschatology, a major branch of study within Christian theology, deals with "last things". Such eschatology – the word derives from two Greek roots meaning "last" (ἔσχατος) and "study" (-λογία) – involves the study of "end things", whether of the end of an individual life, of the end of the age, of the end of the world, or of the nature of the Kingdom of God. Broadly speaking, Christian eschatology focuses on the ultimate destiny of individual souls and of the entire created order, based primarily upon biblical texts within the Old and New Testaments.
The rapture is an eschatological position held by some Christians, particularly those of American evangelicalism, consisting of an end-time event when all Christian believers who are alive, along with resurrected believers, will rise "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." The origin of the term extends from the First Epistle to the Thessalonians in the Bible, which uses the Greek word harpazo, meaning "to snatch away" or "to seize". This view of eschatology is referred to as premillennial dispensationalism, a form of futurism that considers various prophecies in the Bible as remaining unfulfilled and occurring in the future.
The post-tribulation rapture doctrine is the belief in a combined resurrection and gathering of the saints coming is after the Great Tribulation.
Futurism is a Christian eschatological view that interprets portions of the Book of Revelation, the Book of Ezekiel, and the Book of Daniel as future events in a literal, physical, apocalyptic, and global context.
Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist is the third book in the Left Behind series. It was written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins in 1997 and was published on Wednesday, October 1, of that year. It takes place 18–21 months into the Great Tribulation.
Soul Harvest: The World Takes Sides is the fourth book in the Left Behind series. It was written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins in 1999. It takes place 21–27 months into the Tribulation.
Assassins: Assignment:Jerusalem, Target:Antichrist is the sixth book in the Left Behind series. It was written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins in 1999. It was released in August 1999 and was on The New York Times Best Seller List for 39 weeks. It takes place 38–42 months into the Tribulation.
The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession is the seventh book in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, published in May 2000. It was on The New York Times Best Seller List for 35 weeks. It takes place 42 months into the Tribulation and at the end of the novel 3 days into the Great Tribulation.
The Mark: The Beast Rules the World is the eighth book in the Left Behind series. It was published in November 2000 by Tyndale House. It was on The New York Times Best Seller List for 32 weeks. It takes place 42 months into the Tribulation and 3–25 days into the Great Tribulation.
The Remnant: On the Brink of Armageddon is the tenth book in the Left Behind series written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins and published in July 2002. It was on The New York Times Best Seller List for 19 weeks. It takes place from 43 months to 6 years into the Tribulation and a month to 2+1⁄2 years into the Great Tribulation.
Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages is the 11th novel in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. It was first published in April 2003. It was on The New York Times Best Seller List for 20 weeks. It takes place 6–7 years into the Tribulation, 2+1⁄2 to 3+1⁄2 years into the Great Tribulation, and at the end of the novel the day of the Glorious Appearing.
Glorious Appearing: The End of Days is the 12th book in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Released on Tuesday, March 30, 2004, this book sees the surviving believers awaiting the return of Jesus Christ as the war of Armageddon and the seven-year Tribulation period draws to its climax. It was on The New York Times Best Seller list for 22 weeks.
The Rapture: In the Twinkling of an Eye/Countdown to the Earth's Last Days is the 3rd prequel novel in the Left Behind series, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins in 2006. This book is the final of the three prequels and covers events leading up to the first book Left Behind. The narrative of the novel The Rapture includes events that take place during the first chapters of Left Behind and provides a backdrop story for the book Left Behind. The book was released on Tuesday, June 6, 2006 (6/6/6), which is the Number of the Beast, a concept that plays a large part later in the series. It takes place from 14 months before to the day of the Rapture.
Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind (1996) is the second novel in the Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. It takes place from two weeks after the Rapture to 18 months into the Tribulation.
Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days is a best-selling novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins that starts the Left Behind series. This book and others in the series give narrative form to a specific eschatological reading of the Christian Bible, particularly the Book of Revelation inspired by dispensationalism and premillennialism. It was released on Sunday, December 31, 1995. The events take place the day of the Rapture and the two weeks following.
Apollyon: The Destroyer Is Unleashed is the fifth book in the Left Behind series. It was written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins in 1998. It was published on Monday, February 1, 1999, and was on The New York Times Best Seller List for 20 weeks. It takes place 27–38 months into the Tribulation.
Desecration: Antichrist Takes the Throne is the ninth book in the Left Behind series. It was published on Tuesday, October 30, 2001 by Tyndale House. It was on The New York Times Best Seller List for 19 weeks, and was the best selling novel in the world in 2001. It takes place 42–43 months into the Tribulation and 25 days to a month into the Great Tribulation.
Rayford Steele is a fictional character and the de facto protagonist in the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. He is the leader of the group known as the Tribulation Force, and is the most fully developed character in the series.
Chloe Steele is a fictional character from the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Chloe was a junior at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, during the vanishing of millions of people during the Rapture.
