Tribulation Force

The second installment in the Left Behind series picks up shortly after the first novel. In that book, millions of people worldwide vanished in an instant, an event believers recognize as the Rapture. Airline captain Rayford Steele and his twenty-year-old daughter Chloe were left behind, along with Cameron "Buck" Williams, a senior writer for Global Weekly magazine. Together with Bruce Barnes, a pastor at New Hope Village Church in suburban Chicago who lost his own family in the Rapture, they formed the Tribulation Force, a small group of new believers determined to oppose evil during the prophesied seven-year Tribulation. They share a dangerous secret: Buck witnessed Nicolae Carpathia, the charismatic Romanian who rapidly ascended to lead the United Nations, commit a double murder and then hypnotically convince every other witness they had seen a suicide. Only Buck, supernaturally protected as a new believer, retained the true memory, and all four believe Carpathia fits the biblical profile of the Antichrist.

As the novel opens, Rayford reads the official cover story of those murders while flying into O'Hare. Bruce convenes an emergency meeting and reveals that Carpathia's latest announcements, including global disarmament, a one-world currency, a treaty with Israel, and the relocation of the U.N. to rebuilt Babylon (renamed New Babylon), all fulfill biblical prophecy. Once Carpathia signs a seven-year covenant with Israel, the Tribulation will officially begin. Bruce predicts the first eighteen months will bring relative peace, followed by devastating judgments that will kill one-fourth of the world's remaining population. He proposes nightly Bible study sessions and an underground shelter connected to the church by a hidden passageway. On Sunday, Bruce delivers a sermon identifying the rider of the white horse from Revelation as the Antichrist, a conqueror who triumphs through diplomacy rather than war.

Buck settles into Chicago, clashing with his new supervisor at the Global Weekly bureau, Verna Zee. The magazine's head in New York, Stanton Bailey, sides with Buck, allowing him to work from his apartment. Buck struggles with his growing feelings for Chloe, trying to convince himself the timing is wrong for romance. A misunderstanding deepens the tension when Chloe visits Buck's condo and sees Alice, a bureau secretary, carrying boxes inside with Buck's key. At the office, Alice mentions her fiancé, and Chloe mistakenly concludes Buck is secretly engaged. Chloe also receives anonymous flowers and, assuming they are a guilty gesture from Buck, throws them in the trash.

Unaware of any of this, Buck flies to New York at Carpathia's summons. Traveling under a false name, he lunches with Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig, the Israeli botanist whose agricultural formula made Israel's deserts bloom. Rosenzweig explains that Israel has licensed the formula to the U.N. in exchange for a seven-year guarantee of military protection and mentions that his former student, Rabbi Tsion Ben-Judah, has completed a three-year study to identify the prophetic qualifications of the Jewish Messiah. In a private meeting, Carpathia probes Buck about the murders, fishing for evidence that Buck's memory was not erased. Buck plays dumb. Carpathia reveals he inherited billionaire Jonathan Stonagal's entire estate and plans to purchase the world's major media outlets, offering Buck the presidency of the Chicago Tribune with extravagant perks. Buck challenges the ethics of a head of state owning media. During the meeting, his thoughts keep turning to Chloe, and he recognizes that God may be planting these feelings to help him resist Carpathia's persuasive power.

Back in Chicago, Rayford's chief pilot, Earl Halliday, reveals that a bogus religious harassment complaint has been filed against Rayford and that the White House wants to recommend a pilot for the new Air Force One. Rayford's name is on the short list. When he confronts Hattie Durham, now Carpathia's personal assistant and romantic partner, at the U.N., she admits the truth: The anonymous flowers sent to Chloe, the fake complaint, and the pilot job were all orchestrated by Carpathia. The scheme was designed to unsettle Rayford about a supposed stalker in Chicago so he would relocate and become Carpathia's personal pilot. Carpathia intends to keep Air Force One permanently, rebranding it Global Community One. When Rayford meets Carpathia, the secretary-general is charming but firm, forbidding proselytizing on the job. Rayford agrees to fly the plane to Israel for the treaty signing and decide afterward.

The misunderstanding between Buck and Chloe resolves when Buck drives to the Steele home and refuses to leave the porch until she talks to him. Alice was simply delivering office equipment, and the flowers came from neither of them. They reconcile. At a Tribulation Force meeting, Bruce surprises everyone by suggesting both men should consider their job offers, arguing that having people near the corridors of power could provide invaluable intelligence.

Buck trades assignments with Global Weekly's religion editor, securing what he considers the most prophetically significant stories. In Israel, Buck and Ben-Judah visit the Wailing Wall, where two witnesses preach in a way that each listener hears in his or her own language. When an armed man charges the witnesses, he hits an invisible barrier and is incinerated by fire from one witness's mouth. That night, the witnesses, who identify themselves as Eli and Moishe, meet Buck and Ben-Judah and re-enact the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus from the Gospel of John, culminating in John 3:16.

The treaty signing takes place at the Knesset, Israel's parliament. Buck privately meets President Fitzhugh, who is furious about Carpathia's manipulations but publicly delivers an effusive endorsement under what Buck senses is Carpathia's supernatural influence. The covenant is signed. At the Wailing Wall, the two witnesses cry out that the last terrible "week" of the Lord has begun, using the prophetic term from the Book of Daniel for the seven-year Tribulation. That afternoon, Ben-Judah delivers a live international broadcast presenting messianic prophecies and concluding that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He reveals he has personally accepted Christ as Savior. Studio executives cut the feed as angry rabbis protest, but the message reaches millions.

The narrative jumps forward eighteen months. Carpathia controls global media and rules from New Babylon under the Global Community, his rebranded United Nations. He has installed a one-world religion called Enigma Babylon One World Faith, headed by Pope Peter, formerly Cardinal Mathews. Rayford has married Amanda White, a woman who came to faith partly through the influence of Rayford's late wife, Irene. Buck has married Chloe in a double ceremony officiated by Bruce and now publishes the renamed Global Community Weekly from New York. Bruce has traveled the world establishing house churches but warns the period of peace is ending. Hattie Durham is pregnant with Carpathia's child, and the Tribulation Force feels guilt over failing to reach her spiritually. The 144,000 Jewish evangelists foretold in Scripture are active worldwide, and millions have become believers.

President Fitzhugh secretly warns Buck that Egypt, England, and American militia forces plan a military strike against Carpathia, urging him to stay away from major East Coast cities. The Tribulation Force plans a reunion in Chicago, but Bruce falls into a coma from a disease contracted overseas. Before they can reach the hospital, global warfare erupts: Washington is destroyed, a former Nike missile base near Chicago is obliterated by Global Community forces with massive civilian casualties, and London's Heathrow Airport is leveled by a nuclear bomb. Rayford uses his security clearance to reach the bombed hospital and finds Bruce among the dead. He collapses to his knees, then carries the news back to his family.

The novel closes with the Tribulation Force reduced to four, their teacher and mentor gone, as the Red Horse of the Apocalypse, the second horseman signifying war, rides across the world.