Book Review: The Rising: Before They Were Left Behind

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Rising: Before They Were Left Behind     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Tim LaHaye , Jerry B. Jenkins
Class/Genre:   SF AND Fantasy   Fiction   Apocalyptic Fiction   Religious Fiction   Christianity
Series: Left Behind Prequel
Tyndale, March 2005, $25.95, 380 pp.

Marilena Carpathia is a dowdy unfeminine woman who is more interested in the intellect than in looking attractive. She is married to Sarin who, like her, is a professor at the University of Bucharest in Romania. Their relationship is platonic, a mating of the minds, and she is satisfied until the day comes that she wants a child, something Sarin doesn’t want. She meets and becomes involved with Viv Ivins, a spiritualist who worships Lucifer.

She tells Marlena that Lucifer will grant her a child if she promises to raise him to worship him. Both Lucifer and Christ contact her; the former promises her the child while the latter offers her nothing but salvation. She chooses Viv’s god and gives birth to Nicolae who grows up to be a brilliant, cunning, and manipulative man who promises to worship Lucifer as his god in return for becoming ruler of the Earth.

Readers of the Left Behind series get to see how Nicolae came into being, how Viv entered his life and how Lucifer controlled events to make Nicolae the perfect Antichrist who would obey him. Surprisingly, hearts will go out to Marilena who realized she made a Faustian bargain and lived to regret it. The audience also learns how Rafe Steel becomes the man he grew up to be prior to the Rapture. THE RISING is a fantastic work that only master writers like Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins can produce.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner