Desecration (Left Behind)

infobox Book |
name = Desecration: Antichrist Takes The Throne


image_caption = The Paperback Cover
author = Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
country = United States
language = English
cover_artist =
genre = Christian, Speculative Fiction, Novel
series = Left Behind Series
publisher = Tyndale House Publishers
release_date = 30 October, 2001
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback) also Audiobook
pages = 432 pp (hardcover edition) & 432 p (paperback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-8423-3226-X (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-8423-3229-4 (paperback edition)
preceded_by = The Mark
followed_by = The Remnant

"Desecration: Antichrist Takes the Throne" is the ninth book in the Left Behind series. It was published in 2001 by Tyndale House.

Plot summary

Nicolae Carpathia stages a gruesome and evil desecration of the temple. Hattie publicly confronts him and is burned to death by Leon, the False Prophet. As millions take the mark of the beast, the first Bowl Judgement rains down as foul and loathsome sores appear on the bodies of all who have taken the mark, including Nicolae's inner circle. When the temple is defiled, millions of Jews and Gentiles rebel against Nicolae and many of them become believers.

The Tribulation Force launches "Operation Eagle" which is a mass exodus of the believers to the refuge city of Petra. Leading them is none other than Dr. Chaim Rozensweig turned into a modern-day Moses, who, calling himself Micah, and along with Buck Williams, confronts Nicolae and leads the faithful to refuge. Meanwhile, David Hassid, who was the first to arrive at Petra, is murdered by two renegade GC soldiers left over from a confrontation between the Trib Force and the GC. The second Bowl Judgement hits as all the oceans and seas turn into blood. It is a disaster of unprecedented magnitude.

In Chicago, Chloe wanders off into the night and finds a group of believers (whom she eventually aids) hiding in a basement near the Safe House. In Greece, the rescue of the two teenagers that Buck helped escape is attempted by the Trib Force's newest man: George Sebastian. The rescue fails, and both kids along with Lukas "Laslos" Miklos are killed at the hands of the GC who ambushed them in an undercover mission. George is captured and taken away. Tsion-Ben-Judah arrives at Petra to address the throng as the Antichrist launches an all-out attack against them.

The book ends with Nicolae hysterical as he believes he is about to wipe out one million believers, Rayford Steele and Tsion Ben-Judah among them. But God has other plans.