On the Brink of Armageddon (Left Behind) - The Remnant

This is my second time through the series. Was traveling and couldn't wait to get to a bookstore or back home so downloaded from the store. Very intense and a realistic view of what is to come as far as we can understand from the scripture in Revelation. Awesome book!

Though this is just as thrilling as the others, it gets rather frustrating at times. I also find it to be not as well planned or perfected as it could be. Too much time is wasted for certain parts. The flow of time is also awkward- for a long time things are taking place all in the same day, but then things start flying.

There are some things in this book that I find questionable, mainly the way people are executed for refusing the mark of the beast. While it is unquestionably true that countless believers will be executed during the tribulation, I highly doubt that it will be simply for refusing the mark, unless they’re openly rebuking it. The Bible says that people without the mark will be unable to buy and sell. But what’s the point of not letting them buy and sell if they’re already dead. And in this book it gets even worse, they have a deadline, and once it’s passed, they start executing anyone who doesn’t have the mark even if they decide to choose it. I highly doubt that this will be the case, at least not until near the end of the tribulation. The devil needs to get as many people on his side as possible, and he’s not going to start refusing them, especially when there’s still 3 years left. There’s also a time where an angel tells someone that they will survive the tribulation. I guess this isn’t contrary to what the Bible says, but I find it highly unlikely.

One major inaccuracy is the amount of people still alive. It says that half of the world’s population has been destroyed, but it would definitely be far more by now. The Bible says that a quarter of the world’s population will die in the 2nd seal judgment, and a third in the 6th trumpet judgment. Together, that comes out to half of the world’s population. And those are just 2 of the plagues. The Bible doesn’t specify how many people die in any of the other plagues, but it will obviously be a lot. By this point in the tribulation probably no more than a third of the world’s population will be left, I think it will be even less.

Like pretty much all the books in the series, good people are killed, which is always sad and frustrating. But there’s one in this book that I find particularly annoying. One of the characters has a medical condition that makes it so that people can’t see the mark. This means that he has a great opportunity, but he basically gives up and lets them kill him. It’s annoying that the authors would do this.

The 10th installment in Left Behind, "The Remnant", moves us ever closer to the final face off between Carpathia & the Tribulation Force. LaHaye this time around shows the build up of the believers in Petra which contains the remnant of the Jewish faith & shows the continual plans to keep trying to convert people into believers. We also see the determined plans of the Carpathia regime to have people worship his image & take the mark of the beast. This novel is a bit more graphic in nature than some of the previous works in the series as we see just how far the Antichrist is willing to go to eliminate his foes & also as watches in glee as people refuse to take the loyalty mark. The series itself remains as fast moving as ever & also toward the end skips a few months as 2 more of the Bowl Judgements are dealt to the citizens of Earth. That skipping in time actually helps to set up the last 2 books as the final fight between good & evil is set to begin.

Read by Jack Sondericker. Excellent narrator. Would have probably been not as hard on the "reverend Mister and alliterative Jerry" had I been listening to his reading of the series. Amazing how a good narrator can actually make something akin chicken salad out of chicken droppings.

Note to self: when I convert to something fervently evangelical AND get born again AND get to lead a band of the righteous rebels AND the seas turn to blood and rot along with all the marine life in them... I must remember NOT to take my Christian Commune to the City of San Diego located on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. Reason: San Diego has one of the longest coastlines of any other city in the US. A large portion of that city's economy is based on that fact. This includes one of the largest commercial harbors on the West Coast, a Naval Base, Sea World Recreation Park, a Marina, and miles and miles of ocean-facing real estate. So, when the oceans turn to blood, all the marine life is dead, and all the seas turn into foul smelling rot, San Diego would probably be the one of the least good places in the World to be.

Though this is just as thrilling as the others, it gets rather frustrating at times. I also find it to be not as well planned or perfected as it could be. Too much time is wasted for certain parts. The flow of time is also awkward- for a long time things are taking place all in the same day, but then things start flying.

There are some things in this book that I find questionable, mainly the way people are executed for refusing the mark of the beast. While it is unquestionably true that countless believers will be executed during the tribulation, I highly doubt that it will be simply for refusing the mark, unless they’re openly rebuking it. The Bible says that people without the mark will be unable to buy and sell. But what’s the point of not letting them buy and sell if they’re already dead. And in this book it gets even worse, they have a deadline, and once it’s passed, they start executing anyone who doesn’t have the mark even if they decide to choose it. I highly doubt that this will be the case, at least not until near the end of the tribulation. The devil needs to get as many people on his side as possible, and he’s not going to start refusing them, especially when there’s still 3 years left. There’s also a time where an angel tells someone that they will survive the tribulation. I guess this isn’t contrary to what the Bible says, but I find it highly unlikely.

One major inaccuracy is the amount of people still alive. It says that half of the world’s population has been destroyed, but it would definitely be far more by now. The Bible says that a quarter of the world’s population will die in the 2nd seal judgment, and a third in the 6th trumpet judgment. Together, that comes out to half of the world’s population. And those are just 2 of the plagues. The Bible doesn’t specify how many people die in any of the other plagues, but it will obviously be a lot. By this point in the tribulation probably no more than a third of the world’s population will be left, I think it will be even less.

Like pretty much all the books in the series, good people are killed, which is always sad and frustrating. But there’s one in this book that I find particularly annoying. One of the characters has a medical condition that makes it so that people can’t see the mark. This means that he has a great opportunity, but he basically gives up and lets them kill him. It’s annoying that the authors would do this.

The 10th installment in Left Behind, "The Remnant", moves us ever closer to the final face off between Carpathia & the Tribulation Force. LaHaye this time around shows the build up of the believers in Petra which contains the remnant of the Jewish faith & shows the continual plans to keep trying to convert people into believers. We also see the determined plans of the Carpathia regime to have people worship his image & take the mark of the beast. This novel is a bit more graphic in nature than some of the previous works in the series as we see just how far the Antichrist is willing to go to eliminate his foes & also as watches in glee as people refuse to take the loyalty mark. The series itself remains as fast moving as ever & also toward the end skips a few months as 2 more of the Bowl Judgements are dealt to the citizens of Earth. That skipping in time actually helps to set up the last 2 books as the final fight between good & evil is set to begin.

Read by Jack Sondericker. Excellent narrator. Would have probably been not as hard on the "reverend Mister and alliterative Jerry" had I been listening to his reading of the series. Amazing how a good narrator can actually make something akin chicken salad out of chicken droppings.

Note to self: when I convert to something fervently evangelical AND get born again AND get to lead a band of the righteous rebels AND the seas turn to blood and rot along with all the marine life in them... I must remember NOT to take my Christian Commune to the City of San Diego located on the shore of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. Reason: San Diego has one of the longest coastlines of any other city in the US. A large portion of that city's economy is based on that fact. This includes one of the largest commercial harbors on the West Coast, a Naval Base, Sea World Recreation Park, a Marina, and miles and miles of ocean-facing real estate. So, when the oceans turn to blood, all the marine life is dead, and all the seas turn into foul smelling rot, San Diego would probably be the one of the least good places in the World to be.

The Remnant, book ten of the Left Behind Series, begins with a miracle reminiscent of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego's story as the million believers gathered at Petra come through a bombing unscathed. Actually, a few among their number are not yet believers but have not taken the mark of the beast. Many accept Christ after they are miraculously saved from the fire.

Tsion, Rayford, and Chaim become the leaders of the largest group of the faithful left on earth. This poses its own problems since each man has only been saved a few years. They pool their collected wisdom to come alongside Tsion as he teaches the remnant all he can about God. I love how beloved teacher Tsion--in the midst of the worst time the world has ever experienced--focuses on God's mercy. He says, "I will let God's justice and judgment and wrath speak for themselves, and I will spend the rest of my time here championing His mercy."

Continuing in this episode, the three main characters, Rayford, Buck, and Chloe, are in three different locations for most of the story. They struggle with worrying over and missing each other. In a harrowing development, Chloe and Kenny's safe house in Chicago is endangered. By the end of the story, that city has been bombed off the face of the map by Carpathia's forces.

The Remnant also follows the ordeals of several believers in key locations (Chang, David, etc.) as they do their part to fight the Antichrist. Some survive, and, sadly, some do not. Though they are small cogs in the giant flywheel as far as the world is concerned, their deaths are precious in the sight of their fellow Tribulation Saints.

By this point in the timeline, I found myself comparing this series to other books and movies. I would say these books have the espionage and technical complexity of a Bourne movie combined with the sweeping scope of a worldwide good vs. evil saga like The Lord of the Rings. I commend the authors for their attempt to capture the majesty and awesomeness of this future time.

"The Remnant: On the Brink of Armageddon," the 10th installment of the "Left Behind" series, begins with those who have not received the mark of the beast taking revenge in Petra, including the 144,000 saints. Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia sends both ground and air forces to attack the area, but God protects the remnant time and time again.
After seeing the miracles of God, Nicolae desires to send out his own "messiahs" to create miracles and to draw out the undecided.
Tsion begins teaching in Petra, reminding the people that 16 judgments have passed, with five still to come.
Much of the book also focuses on a rescue mission in Greece, featuring Chloe, Hannah and Mac attempting to rescue a new Tribulation Force member as well as protect the underground church, which is eventually decimated.
Also, the Tribulation Force must leave its latest safe house and break up into smaller groups.
Angels play a huge part in this book as they make many appearances, providing protection and assistance. One character is guaranteed by a heavenly messenger to make it to the Glorious Appearing.
Judgments dealt with in this book include oceans turning to blood, fresh water bodies turning to blood, and darkness with itching and pain.
An interesting read, but not as fast paced and exciting as some of the others. Four stars out of five.

"The Remnant" is the tenth in the series of fiction books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins chronicling the events that take place in the world during the end times. The books follow several main characters as they fight for their lives and for their faith as the world makes its way to the last days.

In this book, one million believers of the world are assembled at Petra, and Nicolae is ecstatic as he prepares to destroy them all while they are in one place. But God has his hand on Petra, and Nicolae's attempts at destruction are miraculously thwarted.

The earth is physically reeling from the judgments that have been unleashed, making life continually unbearable for those who have taken the mark.

All pretenses on the part of Nicolae and the Tribulation Force are now gone as the forces of good and evil prepare for the battle to come: Armageddon.

This book is setting up for the ultimate battle that will be fought against good and evil. It has its exciting parts as there are miracles occurring and daring rescues being attempted. But it also has its sad parts as many believers are killed.

I especially enjoyed the situations that took place at Petra during this book: the miracles, the teachings of Tsion Ben-Judah, and the stories of those who took refuge at Petra but had not yet decided whose side they were on.

This series of novels is a fictionalized account of the events of the end times. I enjoyed the whole series. While this book is geared towards Christians, there is enough action and depth to it that should appeal to all. The characters are well done, and it is easy to follow the many plots that are going on within these books.

Thank goodness this book picked up the speed of the passage of time. Considering that the last several books only covered a few DAYS each I was beginning to believe that there was no hope of this series ever being finished before a rapture occurs. If the authors really believe what they are saying, and their aim is to "save souls" they might want to pick up the pace a bit. After all what are all of the "unbelievers" going to do if the authors leave us behind before the series is complete?
It is obvious that Jenkins and LeHaye are struggling with their own fundamentalism in writing larger parts for the women. Chloe finally gets an assignment - but it would have been more believeable and on target if it had to do with something for the cooperative of which she is the "CEO". Show us the inner workings of how she coordinates things. Leah, a woman with an opinion and a mind of her own is almost entirely missing from the storyline, I guess that is what happens to an annoying woman without a husband to keep her in line.
And Ming Toy... Well now, that's a woman's place - give her a romance. They missed a delightful humorous opportunity in Ming's cross-dressing disguise. They could have had the pilot fall in love with Ming(the man) and then have her save his soul by "curing him of his homosexuality." He'd have the object he lusted for, and it would be "a holy love". My, my, my.

Even though my theology is far more liberal than the authors, I will keep reading this series through to the end, and I am quite sure I am one that the authors would have killed off in the bombing of San Fransisco. Now that everyone else in the world is suffering while believers can move about freely, why don't Jenkins and LeHaye have the characters start doing good for other people, rather than the showy high drama rescues? Wasn't the message of Jesus built on loving the unlovable? Jesus didn't spend all of his time with people that already knew him and understood his message. Maybe the characters could start walking the walk. Go and convert those undecideds!

I have read each book in the "Left Behind" series, and I feel this one lacked a little of the suspense and action of the eariler volumes. In "The Remnant", the Jews gathered in Petra have been attacked by Carpathia's forces. Miracuously, the Judah-ites survive after having two bombs and a missile fired at them. Carpathia of course blames the pilots when in reality, God was protecting his chosen people.
The story moves on to the rescue of Sebastian by Chloe and Mac, which, in my opinion, took up too much space in the book. Jenkins and LaHaye must have dragged this episode out for well over 100 pages. I wish this incident could have been wrapped up more quickly and more time spent on other events.
I also had a hard time keeping track of all of the characters, old and new. I would hate to guess how many different ones there are now. Hopefully, not too many more will be introduced in the following volumes.
In the last 2 chapters (38 pages), the authors cover approximately 1 year of time. I felt this was too much time to cover accurately in such a short space. As I stated earlier, they devoted approximately 100 pages to the rescue of Sebastian which took nowhere near 1 year. I wish they would have spaced things out a little more evenly. The last judgements are just touched upon and they are not allowed much detail. The authors should have spent a little more time and a few more pages with this part of the book.
Overall, I did enjoy this book. I have come to like LaHaye's and Jenkins' style of story telling very much. Although I do recommend this book, I hope the ones to follow are a little better laid out than this one was.

This the tenth book in the Left Behind series kept me turning pages. This book is actually filled with action. Though the characters are still two dimensional, the writing very simple, and the text font large. It was a page-turner and the best book of this series so far. The first have of this book is suspenseful. But is not carried through to the end.

We begin with the attack on Petra, two large bombs and a nuclear missile. Which explodes with great conflagration, but does not harm the True believers. The million at Petra are free from harm and are provided manna daily for food and fresh water from a spring that seemed to be Gods answer to launching the missile.

While in Greece we have a couple members of the Tribulation Force trying to rescue the pilot George from Global Community Forces. The Tribulation Force members have taken on credible covers of high ranking GC officers...the only problem is the local commander is friends with the head of Internal Security at the Palace, and is planning a trap for the Trip Force.

And the Global Community think that something is going on in Chicago, so they plan to send missiles at it and level the city. Easier then doing a sweep of a city when they have so few men left in the world.

The Tribulation Force uses the Co-op to set up a large trade of wheat from South America and Water from India. It is interesting to read the protection placed upon even the believers in their aircraft as the Anti-Christ's Air Force tries to knock them out of the air.

In general I have been enjoying this series, but this one seemed kind of like the authors just threw it together. In many of the other books, the time was drawn out (perhaps too much in some places), and one book might cover a few days or a few months. This one spans several years and tends to abruptly jump around in time. Every few chapters, you get an update: "Four years into the tribulation..." "Five years into the tribulation..." "Six months later..." and so on.

What I like about the Left Behind series is that it makes the book of Revelation easier to understand. I tried reading it, but much of it went in one side of my brain and out the other, mostly because I couldn't make an logical connection between the symbolism and the impact on the earth. Left Behind, even if it isn't the best interpretation of Scripture (and I know it's not), makes it easier to understand. I also somewhat admire the way the authors are able to portray the Antichrist. I wouldn't be able to come up with someone so evil as Nicolae Carpathia. They clearly put a lot of thought behind his character.

There are around 1 million people at a place called Petra. God has led these people there and promised them safety, food, and water. In addition, He has also promised them that their clothes will never have to be cleaned, repaired, or replaced. Which is a good thing since I'm sure more than one of them soiled themselves as they looked at two huge bombs dropping down on top of them!
"The Remnant" picks up where Desecration left off, and proceeds to steamroll ahead. Unlike the last few books, where the books only covered a very short time span, this book starts at month 43 and continues until month 72 (6 years) of the Tribulation. This should please the many people who had begun to feel like the series was dragging on way too long (however, I have been a fan of all the books, whether they covered two years or two days).
Nicolae Carpathia has a blood-thirst that just cannot be quenched. No matter how many people he kills or has killed, it's not enough for him. He wants more. Unfortunately those pesky little Bowl judgments keep throwing kinks into his plan. To make matters worse, even those who have taken the mark of loyalty (otherwise known as the mark of the beast) are regretting having done so. Many of them realize who they have pledged themselves to, as well as the fact that they cannot undo what they have done. Even those who don't see Carpathia as the anti-Christ tire of his rule and have begun to openly disobey.
If you were put off be the previous three books, this book should be enough to bring you back into the fold. The writing is better than it has been, all of the characters, both new and old, are flushed out a little more, and the suspense from one chapter to the next is still there.

I got hooked into this series grudgingly, but found myself enjoying the early books in the series, especially the first 5. Since then, the quality of writing has gone steadily downhill, and the authors tend to simply rehash most of the conversations and actions we've already seen. After reading this book, I felt all the authors did was take money out of my pocket and put it in theirs. This series could have been easily written in 4 books without compromising the characters or their actions. Those of us raised on authors like Clancy, Grisham, and Ludlum will feel very cheated by the way this series has been stretched like old Silly Putty.
Not much in the way of new plot developments. The heroes still are pretty much doing what they want, while Carpathia and his minions are fodder for each new tribulation. The bad guys show greater ineptness as time goes on, and it's amazing that Carpathia got this far with henchmen that make Moe & Curly look like Albert Einstein and Steven Hawking.
Do yourself a favor and don't bother with this edition, unless you feel compelled to complete your set (heck, you've made it this far in the series, what's one more, right?)

THE REMNANT is every bit as exciting, fluid, and even inspiring as fans of the spectacular Left Behind series have come to expect these books to be. Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia leaves no stone unturned in his ongoing attempt to dominate every human on the planet and wipe out the believers assembled at Petra. Somehow God's own remain beyond his grasp, and angels appear to proclaim the gospel and protect defenseless believers. Despite the obvious hand of God moving upon the world, many remain unaccountably stubborn and refuse to submit to Christ, sealing their own regrettable but inevitable fate. The Tribulation Force is forced to evaluate whether or not there really is such a thing as a "safe house" anymore, and George Sebastian struggles to escape a seemingly impenetrable GC trap in one of the most thrilling episodes of the whole series. Though engaging on almost every level, THE REMNANT does have some flaws. The authors take a couple of unfortunate digs at non-evangelical Christians, at one point implying that even Jesus wouldn't want to go to their churches. There's still a lot of jetting around in the series' ongoing over-reliance on airborne escapes, and Chloe Williams continues to annoy with her adolescent desire to never miss out on any of the "action" even though it's clear she's of greatest benefit as head of the international co-op. And Carpathia's ruling cadre (and most of the rest of the GC) is composed of so many hapless dunderheads that it defies credulity. No organization handled with such incompetency could ever even survive, let alone conquer the world. Despite these shortcomings, THE REMNANT flies along at a rapid clip highlighted by fun dialogue and breakneck action. The characters are for the most part likeable and you can't help but pull for them. The basic message remains pertinent and urgent as ever, even if one disagrees with some of the details. Overall yet another easy-to-recommend entry in this astonishing series.