Apollyon: The Destroyer Is Unleashed (Left Behind Series #5)

by Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins

Overview

As the world's thousands of believers gather in Jerusalem for a stadium rally, the Tribulation Force struggles with their own personal crises. Newspaper reporter Buck Williams and his wife, Chloe, question whether or not they should have a child when the future of the world is so uncertain. Meanwhile, Rayford Steele discovers the shocking truth about his wife, Amanda.
Nicolae Carpathia continues his rise to power, forcing believers underground. But Nicolae isn't prepared for a plague of scorpion-like locusts tormenting his followers—with a pain so horrible that men try to kill themselves but aren't allowed to die.
A repackage of the fifth book in the New York Times best-selling Left Behind series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781414334943
Publisher:	Tyndale House Publishers
Publication date:	03/16/2011
Series:	Left Behind Series
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	18,731
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Sometimes, while sitting on airplanes, evangelical preacher Tim LaHaye would ask himself, ¿What if the Rapture occurred on an airplane?" That germ of an idea grew into the phenomenally successful Left Behind series, which LaHaye coauthors with fiction writer Jerry B. Jenkins. The books combine Biblical prophecy with speculative fiction to produce an action-packed thriller about events between the Rapture, when (according to one Christian tradition) the faithful will ascend to heaven, and the Second Coming.

Before the series began, Jenkins had carved out a career writing other people's autobiographies -- he ghostwrote or co-wrote those of Billy Graham, Orel Herschiser, Hank Aaron, and Nolan Ryan, among others -- as well as writing novels and a few inspirational books on marriage and parenting. Tim LaHaye also wrote books on marriage and faith, served as the pastor for a ministry in California, and co-founded The Pre-Trib Research Center, a Bible scholarship group dedicated to the study of end-times prophecy. LaHaye spent several years searching for a coauthor who could take his vision of the earth's last days -- including that intriguing image of passengers vanishing from an airplane -- and spin it into fiction. Finally, LaHaye and Jenkins were introduced by their mutual literary agent at Alive Communications, and Jenkins began writing the story of airline captain Rayford Steele, whose wife and son vanish along with millions of other true believers. Those "left behind" on Earth have a last chance to choose sides in the ensuing battle between good and evil.

The books became a blockbuster hit. Sales of the Left Behind series soared with each successive volume, and by 2001, ABC News reported, 50 million had been sold. "The formula combines Tom Clancy-like suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash and Biblical references," The New York Times wrote, explaining how its authors pulled off "an unparalleled achievement for an evangelical novel." LaHaye and Jenkins were stunned by their own success: "I've been writing for 40 years, with 12 million books in print, but I've never seen anything like this," said LaHaye.

The series has spawned a slew of spinoffs: comic books, calendars, a young adults' series, dramatized audio recordings and a movie based on the first book. It has also generated controversy, both within and without the Christian community, for issues ranging from politics (the U.N. figures into the story as a tool of the Antichrist) to Scriptural interpretation (many New Testament scholars reject LaHaye's belief, first popularized by John Nelson Darby in the 1830s, in a seven-year tribulation period following the Rapture).

But LaHaye and Jenkins are convinced that their message is getting through to their readers. They estimate that more than 2,000 people have converted as a result of reading the Left Behind books. "And needless to say, for us that's more important than bestsellers, or money, or anything else," says Jenkins.

Editorial Reviews

Killer locusts attack humans, livestock, crops. Fatal mystery toxin turns water to blood. One-World Faith leaders tighten security.

“Tell me, Captain Steele. Do you still believe that a man who has been known to raise the dead could actually be the Antichrist?”

With those chilling words, Global Community leader Nicolae Carpathia prepares to unleash a new depth of evil on the world. As thousands of believers gather for a conference in the Holy Land, is Carpathia’s pledge of protection evidence of his much-touted tolerance—or a lie? Pilot Rayford Steele must maintain a charade of loyalty while desperately seeking the truth about his late wife. Was Amanda truly a traitor to the Tribulation Force or the victim of a smear campaign? Meanwhile Buck Williams, now an international fugitive, risks his life to carry out the Trib Force’s top-secret missions in a world rocked by demonic catastrophes.

Apollyon is #5 in the phenomenal New York Times best-selling Left Behind series that rocked the publishing world and made millions think seriously about the future and their places in it.

With special features relating to current events and end-times prophecy.

From the Publisher