REVIEW: Tribulation Force by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins

Tribulation Force is the second book in the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. I cracked this one open and was instantly annoyed at the 3 page prologue that was basically a highlight reel of what happened in the first book. Um, I know all this-I just read the first one and I think even someone who read it quite awhile ago would remember the main points of what happened.

The story does pick up right where Left Behind ended. The Global Community (which is the new name for the UN) which is headed by Nicholae Carpathia (the Antichrist) now controls all the media. He has succeeded in his bid to get the entire world to destroy 90% of their weapons and donate the other 10 to Global Community-a move which the sheep-like populace thinks will bring peace but which really gives him total military control of the entire planet.

Buck, Bruce, Chloe, and Rayford-the Tribulation Force which formed in the first book to spread the word of Jesus and combat the Antichrist and his evil continue their mission. Buck now works as Publisher for one of the newspapers GC has taken over. Rayford now flies Global Community One the plane of Potentate Carpathia. Gerald Fitzhugh, the President of the United States has been reduced to a token role while Nicholae is now really the true leader of the world. President Fitzhugh finally has enough and organizes a revolt along with a few other countries who are disgruntled with Potentate Carpathia's policies. The result is Global Community using nuclear warheads in retaliation-obliterating many major cities around the world and starting World War III.

The highlight of the book had to be the interaction with the two witnesses Moishe and Eli who are called to preach at the Wailing Wall in Israel for 1,260 days. Anyone who tries to interfere suffers incineration from fire breathed from the mouths of one of them. I am learning a lot about end times based on these books. Honestly, I have made several attempts to read the Bible but have never been able to get past so and so begot so and so in Genesis.

I will not say who of the four person team that comprises the Tribulation Force doesn't make it to the end of this book but I will say normally when a character that has featured prominently in previous novels is barely seen in subsequent ones, its a good sign they are not going to make it too much longer. Hence, I knew half way through the book that one of the main characters was going to die soon. A few other things bothered me in this book too. In the previous book Rayford is so distraught that his wife and son were called to Heaven he could barely go on, yet in this book he finds a new love and remarries. I thought the introduction to this new character could have been done better also. It was just too abrupt for me.

This series is at the very least making me want to read the Book of Revelation just to see how closely it is following what is in the Bible. As with the other book, the writing is kind of plain-almost as if it is written for a younger demographic. The story itself is interesting enough though.

My boss also told me that there is a Left Behind movie starring Kirk Cameron. I don't plan to watch it because I've looked it up and the casting doesn't even come close to jiving with what I have in my head for the characters. Might be something others would like to check out though :)



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