Book 10 in the 12-book series that has sold over 63 million copies! Read the books that launched a cultural phenomenon! “This is the most successful Christian fiction series ever.” ―Publishers Weekly “Combines Tom Clancy–like suspense with touches of romance, high-tech flash, and biblical references.” ―New York Times “Call it what you like, the Left Behind series . . . now has a label its creators could have never predicted: blockbuster success.” ―Entertainment Are you ready for the moment of truth? Mass disappearances - Political crisis - Economic crisis - Worldwide epidemics - Environmental catastrophe - Military apocalypse And that’s just the beginning . . . of the end of the world. The 12 books in the series by New York Times best-selling authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins cover the events of biblical prophecy surrounding the rapture and the seven-year period known as the tribulation that follows. The Remnant: On the Brink of Armageddon Nicolae Carpathia has his enemies right where he wants them: massed at Petra, a million strong. The Tribulation Force’s aliases and even their safe houses have been compromised, forcing Rayford, Buck, and all the members to flee for their lives while trying to maintain their overt opposition to the Antichrist. All pretense is gone, even on the part of the Antichrist, as the planet hurtles toward the ultimate showdown between good and evil. Lakes and rivers turn to blood. Global life endangered by scorching sun. Darkness blankets Middle East; astronomers baffled. Hordes of Christ-followers seeking refuge in Petra are slated for massacre by Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia’s armies. With key members dead or missing, the Tribulation Force frantically prepares to fight the ultimate battle between good and evil―until their safe house is compromised and they flee for their lives. Will they escape before Carpathia obliterates the city? Most important, will they fulfill their mission as the world hurtles toward Armageddon? The Remnant is #10 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. The Remnant On the Brink of Armageddon By TIM LAHAYE JERRY B. JENKINS TYNDALE HOUSE PUBLISHERS, INC. Copyright © 2002 Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4143-3499-8 Chapter One Rayford Steele had endured enough brushes with death to know that the cliché was more than true: Not only did your life flash before your mind's eye, but your senses were also on high alert. As he knelt awkwardly on the unforgiving red rock of the city of Petra in ancient Edom, he was aware of everything, remembered everything, thought of everything and everybody. Despite the screaming Global Community fighterbombers—larger than any he had ever seen or even read about—he heard his own concussing heart and wheezing lungs. New to the robe and sandals of an Egyptian, he tottered on sore knees and toes. Rayford could not bow his head, could not tear his eyes from the sky and the pair of warheads that seemed to grow larger as they fell. Beside him his dear compatriot, Abdullah Smith, prostrated himself, burying his head in his hands. To Rayford, Smitty represented everyone he was responsible for—the entire Tribulation Force around the world. Some were in Chicago, some in Greece, some with him in Petra. One was in New Babylon. And as the Jordanian groaned and leaned into him, Rayford felt Abdullah shuddering. Rayford was scared too. He wouldn't have denied it. Where was the faith that should have come from seeing God, so many times, deliver him from death? It wasn't that he doubted God. But something deep within—his survival instinct, he assumed—told him he was about to die. For most people , doubt was long gone by now ... there were few skeptics anymore. If someone were not a Christ follower by now, probably he had chosen to oppose God. Rayford had no fear of death itself or of the afterlife. Providing heaven for his people was a small feat for the God who now manifested himself miraculously every day. It was the dying part Rayford dreaded. For while his God had protected him up to now and promised eternal life when death came, he had not spared Rayford injury and pain. What would it be like to fall victim to the warheads? Quick, that was sure. Rayford knew enough about Nicolae Carpathia to know the man would not cut corners now. While one bomb could easily destroy the million people who—all but Rayford, it seemed—tucked their heads as close to between their legs as they were able, two bombs would vaporize them. Would the flashes blind him? Would he hear the explosions? feel the heat? be aware of his body disintegrating into bits? Whatever happened, Carpathia would turn it into political capital. He might not televise the million unarmed sou