Novel: The Rising

Overview
Jerry B. Jenkins’ 2005 novel The Rising is a prequel in the Left Behind universe that traces the parallel beginnings of two men whose lives will define the series’ end-times canvas: Nicolae Carpathia, bred and groomed to become the Antichrist, and Rayford Steele, the ambitious pilot whose ordinary domestic struggles foreshadow spiritual reckonings to come. Set decades before the Rapture, the book blends political intrigue, family drama, and spiritual menace to show how private choices and hidden machinations prepare the world for crisis.

Nicolae’s Origin and Formation
In communist Romania, Marilena Carpathia longs for significance beyond a bleak marriage and an oppressive state. Her yearning is noticed by a clandestine network of occultists and power brokers who promise her a child of destiny. Through a covert fertility program orchestrated by the suave handler Viv Ivins and bankrolled by Western financiers, Marilena conceives Nicolae under a cloud of ritual and control, signaling that his ascent is meant to be as much spiritual as political. From childhood Nicolae is unsettlingly precocious, fluent in languages, icy in temperament, exquisitely skilled at reading and bending people to his will. Lacking empathy, he treats relationships as levers, staging scenes that enhance his legend while quietly neutralizing threats. The Romanian setting, its surveillance culture, transactional loyalties, and black-market pathways, becomes the perfect incubator for his unique blend of charm and ruthlessness.

As Nicolae moves through school and into early adulthood, Ivins mentors him in finance, media, and geopolitics, introducing him to influential figures who see in the young man a vehicle for their own ambitions. Jenkins depicts Nicolae’s rise not as a single coup but as a series of calculated, almost antiseptic maneuvers: debts called in, rivals outflanked, benefactors flattered and then compromised. Even family bonds are expendable. The portrait that emerges is of a leader manufactured as much as born, with the occult quietly sanctioning what realpolitik enables.

Rayford Steele’s Early Path
Across the ocean, Rayford Steele grows up in the American Midwest, torn between a father’s practical hopes and his own obsession with flight. He pursues athletics and aeronautics with single-minded energy, exulting in performance and control. College leads to flight school, and soon to a commercial cockpit, where competence and confidence quickly become identity. Rayford’s marriage to Irene promises stability, especially with the birth of their daughter, Chloe, but their home shifts when Irene embraces an earnest, Bible-centered faith. Rayford respects her sincerity while bristling at its claims, compartmentalizing belief as one more system to be managed rather than a truth to be faced. Career opportunities multiply; so do temptations, discontent, and the quiet pride of a man convinced he is self-made.

Convergence and Foreshadowing
The Rising keeps these arcs largely separate, letting them echo rather than intersect. Nicolae’s engineered magnetism and growing network hint at a coming global stage; Rayford’s domestic tensions and moral drift hint at a personal reckoning. By the final chapters both men are prepared for the roles readers know await them: Carpathia as the charismatic problem-solver whose solutions will cost the world its soul, and Steele as the skilled, skeptical professional whose competence cannot shield him from events he cannot control. The world around them, jaded by politics, hungry for leadership, and spiritually numb, feels primed for the cataclysm chronicled later in Left Behind.

Themes and Tone
Jenkins frames a contest between power and character. Nicolae’s story explores how a vacuum of conscience paired with structural support can create an inevitable-seeming tyrant. Rayford’s story shows how ordinary neglect of spiritual things can be as consequential as overt rebellion. The novel’s thriller pace and intimate detail serve a larger theological backdrop: unseen forces are at work, but human choices matter. As a prequel, The Rising deepens motivations, clarifies origin points, and casts a long shadow, one that stretches toward global crisis while beginning in living rooms, laboratories, and the quiet calculations of the heart.