Book Report: Left BehindCadet Christian Thomas
Book Report: Left Behind
A bored airline pilot Rayford Steele is not happy with his marriage. Having an affair with the beautiful flight attendant, named Hattie Durham is a dream come true. However, fate changes right when the plane takes off for London, almost all of the travelers on the plane strangely vanish into thin air. On earth, mothers run around terrified trying to find their vanished children. Babies are zapped up and pregnant women stomachs suddenly disappear. Yells and screams are heard everywhere as terror takes over the earth. The Rapture has occurred, suddenly driverless cars are colliding everywhere, and the superficial, evil Romanian Nicolae Carpathia, the anti-Christ comes on the scene, deceiving the world with peace. His agenda mislead the world into sin in order to take their souls. Nicolae a political leader decides to use the UN to start a government that is one world and religion. A television reporter, Buck Williams, is trying to understand the unexpected vanishings as he is working on a story about Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig, a scientist from Israel who has invented a procedure that would cause the dirt on earth to develop. On the other hand, Buck starts to wonder if there are some hidden things about Rosenzweig. Things start to change when Buck finds out the physician is in involved with two rich people who plan to negotiate the invention to endorse their own plan of global power. Buck also makes the discovery through the bible that those left behind were the ones that were not born again Christians and those taken up were the ones that were.
I created this project because I am a born-again Christian that is fascinated with the end times. I thought it would be interesting to write about something that actually helped change my life and actually other around me. This project was chosen because bible prophecy is something that has always fascinated me and after reading the book, it really prompted me to explore the subject matter even further by reading the rest of the novels in the Left Behind series.
As a teenage Christian, I found this book to be very intriguing and a little scary at the same time. Reading it really got me to question my relationship with Christ. Am I as close as I think I am? Could I be left behind? After reading the novel, I was left pondering with those thoughts. Reading about Buck and his skepticism really bothered me because it reminded me a lot of who I used to be before I gave my life to Christ. However, Buck Transformation almost brought tears to my eyes because like him, I was once blind but now I see. Reading about Nicolae really brought some fear. I felt as though I was living through those times horrible times but at the same time, I was relieved because I knew these times have not happened yet.
Story Time Line
1.) Rayford Steele an airplane pilot is flying his plane. Suddenly, the world fall apart as millions of people all over the world suddenly disappear. He is terrified as his co-pilot beside him suddenly disappears.
2.) Buck who is journalist wakes up on the same plane and finds out that people have disappeared. He spots the frantic flight attendant Hattie. The only thing that remained was their clothing. Even women that were pregnant, babies were taken and they were left behind. On the ground complete chaos with cars crashing into things and planes colliding into cities.
3.) Buck meets Hattie who is a flight attendant and also the mistress of Rayford Steele. She is distraught over the vanishings. The two exchange numbers and Buck heads off to New York.
4.) Buck finds out from his office that Hattie's family are still living and well. On the other hand, he still does not have any material on his brother and father who are staying out west. He is still confused about the vanishings.
5.) Dirk, who is Buck friend, realizes that something is going on with the world’s currency. He finds out that evil men in power are going to create a one world currency.
6.) Buck finds out that people believe that it was a UFO that was accountable for the disappearance. The world is in awe as they believe aliens from outer space have abducting everyone.
7.) Buck starts working on a story that will uncover the one world government. He realizes that something is wrong and that the bible talks about this type of government. For the first time, Buck begins to learn that the vanishings happened because of the rapture. Buck searches the scripture and realizes that God came back for his Christian people and those that were not had to be left behind because of their unbelief.
8.) Buck phones his father to let him know that he is not dead despite all of the rumors and Chloe explains that those that disappeared were taken up by God through the rapture and that they were not abducted by aliens. She explains that the bible says the “rapture” is when God takes his people from the earth to Heaven.
10.) Buck sets up a meeting with Nicolae who is supposed to be the anti-Christ and also the one pushing the one world order. However, at this time, Buck is unaware that he is the great evil one that the bible talks about.
11.) Buck starts to feel guilty about how he tried to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Hattie and wonders if there is a better way to get his message across to her.
12.) Hattie is well-mannered and pays attention to Rayford's account about his transformation to a Christian, however it is obvious to him that she does not genuinely believe what he says. He does not know that Nicolae’s powers are brainwashing her.
13.) Buck stays in Chicago to watch as Carpathia starts charming the media and talks of his plans for global demobilization.
14.) Buck starts to put the pieces to who the anti-Christ has to be and that are Nicolae. However, Hattie is deceived by Nicolae because he has the ability to deceive people by using his demonic powers.
15.) The last major event of the novel is Nicolae starts a meeting with all of his followers that are brainwashed. Carpathia takes a gun from a soldier and shoots two people in the head. At this point and time Buck realizes the end times is real and this confirms that Nicolae is the Anti-Christ.
Works Cited
LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins & Tim. Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days. New York City: Tyndale House Books, 2005.
