REVIEW: Nicolae by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins

3rd in the Left Behind series, this book picks up directly where our adventures with Buck, Chloe, Rayford and his new wife Amanda left off. World War III has commenced following 18 months of peace ushered in by the deceiving Antichrist Nicolae. In retaliation for an uprising against the Global Community, an organization headed by Nicolae that now controls much of the world, Nicolae orders nuclear weapons unleashed on several major cities of the world including New York, Chicago, and London.


According to the Bible earth now has war, plague, famine and death (ushered in by the four horseman of the Apocalypse) to look forward to. Buck and Rayford continue to work for Nicolae in order to gain as much information as possible. This in itself is dangerous but they must also contend with the total chaos the planet has been thrown into since the onset of the war. Just when things can't get worse Jesus unleashes the 6th judgement in the form of a massive earthquake which kills off 1/4 of the population.


I have to say that I didn't enjoy this book as much as the other two. While I am learning much about the book of Revelations and what the Bible says about end times, I felt that these events that would be truly horrific if they occurred were glossed over in the book. I didn't think the book did a good job of conveying the true suffering everyone would go through. Also even though it has been demonstrated a few times that Nicolae has the power to influence the thoughts of those around him, I had a hard time swallowing that not one person saw a problem with him nuking city after city with gleeful abandon because those naughty countries that defied him needed to be taught a lesson. People were travelling by air within days of these attacks occurring. If the US were attacked by nuclear warheads in real life, I'm pretty sure there would be a halt to air travel indefinitely.


Obviously the whole purpose of this book was to move the story along from the beginning of the war to the next set of judgements and it shows. The most interesting part of this book was Buck's rescue of Rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah who had made many enemies in the last book by proclaiming that only Jesus Christ could be the Messiah. I am hoping the next installment picks up the pace a little but I think I am done with the Left Behind books for a bit.




If the FTC is wondering: This book was loaned to me by a coworker