List of Left Behind characters
This is a list of characters in the Left Behind novel series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.
Suhail Akbar
Suhail Akbar is a supporting antagonist in the Left Behind series. A native of Pakistan, he is a prominent member of the Global Community. He is hired by Nicolae Carpathia during the last half of the Tribulation period to be his Security and Intelligence chief in control of Peacekeepers and Morale Monitors throughout all the world regions. Jim Hickman was his predecessor. In contrast to the ineptitude of Hickman, upon hearing the appointment of Akbar, David Hassid fears he would be competent enough to stymie the Tribulation Force. Akbar is characterized as a man who is reticent and slow to voice an opinion, but someone who is loyal and effective behind the scenes.In Desecration, he receives the mark of the beast along with his fellow members of the Global Community cabinet – Walter Moon and Viv Ivins – at the Temple Mount a day before Carpathia commits the abomination of desolation. For his mark, he gets a giant black 42 dominating his forehead. Later he is ordered to bomb the gathering of Christians and Jews at Petra, planning for a BLU-82 and a "lance" missile to be dropped on them, but the inhabitants there are unharmed. He has the esteem of the Supreme Potentate that he is entrusted with organizing "the most massive offensive in the history of mankind" to drive the Christians and Jews from Jerusalem and Petra. Carpathia tells Director Akbar that the practically limitless monetary and military resources afforded to him for the endeavor would make every other historical military strategist hang his head in shame. In Glorious Appearing, even though he is entrusted to command the overwhelming forces to overrun Petra and Jerusalem of the Global Community One World Unity Army, Akbar is publicly shamed for daring to mention the destruction of New Babylon in front of Carpathia in his underground bunker in Solomon's Stables. He is later beaten to death on Carpathia's orders by another Unity Army Officer with a rattan rod.
Akbar is loyal to Carpathia, always zealous to carry about his directives, even though the directives come in a pique or at a whim. In Desecration, he sees Carpathia personally murder high-ranking loyal personnel – such as Loren Hut and Walter Moon – for failing to fulfill Carpathia's orders, even though they act competently and give an earnest effort. For those murders, Akbar loans Carpathia his sidearm when Carpathia vehemently requests it. On his own initiative, he also orders the execution of two fighter pilots who fail to incinerate the stronghold of Petra due to divine protection of the inhabitants, even though the pilots hit their targets and the bombs detonate. Akbar ironically dies under similar circumstances for a minor infraction just hours before the Glorious Appearing of Jesus Christ.
Akbar is willing to stand up for competent personnel under him. When one of the pilots attacking Petra seemingly sounds insubordinate while communicating to mission command at the Global Community palace, Akbar defends him when Carpathia is offended by the pilot's tone and Leon Fortunato demands the pilot be reprimanded. However, Akbar has no qualms in killing his pilots when Carpathia expresses his disappointment in their performance and when they pridefully refuse to conform to the Global Community party line.
Akbar is not only loyal to Carpathia, but actually regards him as a divine figure; his attitude is similar to a divine command theorist or a theological voluntarist who regards God's will as constituting the basis for morality or truth. He may comply with Carpathia's directives out of personal and professional expediency instead of sincere reverence; loyalty to Carpathia is what has advanced his career to the point where he becomes Global Community Director of Security and Intelligence. When questioned by Carpathia about whether the execution of two innocent people bothers his conscience, Akbar says that Carpathia is the "father of truth", reiterating Carpathia's remarks after he finishes the lie detector test, where Carpathia reports some obvious falsehoods that are assessed to be truthful replies. When one of the stewards on Carpathia's plane refers to Leon Fortunato as "Mr. Fortunato", Akbar corrects him, saying that it is "Reverend Fortunato"; he does not mind but states the steward should not make that mistake in front of "His Excellency". When the steward replies, "or the Most High Reverend Father", Akbar chuckles. Akbar probably does not hold Fortunato or the role of Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism in high esteem.
In the dramatic audio for the Kids series, during Carpathia's entrance in Jerusalem, Lionel Washington says that while he was in the Morale Monitor program, there was a picture of Akbar present on the wall during meals.
Criticism
Suhail Akbar's portrayal in the novels was criticized for being anti Muslim.Abdullah Smith Ababneh ("Smitty")
Abdullah Ababneh is a former Jordanian fighter pilot, first officer for the Phoenix 216, Royal Jordanian Air Force, Amman. His divorced wife and two children disappear in the Rapture. He is a principal Trib Force pilot assigned to Petra and witnesses the Glorious Appearing. He now resides near the Valley of Jehoshaphat, Israel.Al B. ("Albie")
Albie is a Middle East black-market arms dealer who becomes a believer and a member of the Tribulation Force. He helps Rayford rescue Hattie Durham from a detention center in Colorado in The Mark, using the name Marcus Elbaz. He is killed trying to purchase help from another black market dealer named Mainyu Mazda. He later returns with the resurrected martyrs at the second coming of Jesus.Bruce Barnes
Before the Rapture, Bruce is the associate pastor at New Hope Village Church, serving with the then-senior pastor Vernon Billings. He has doubted the Bible for most of his life; though he has professed faith in Jesus Christ, he has never truly believed in his heart. When the Rapture takes place and his wife and three children are taken to Heaven, Bruce almost falls into depression and total disbelief. Despite his losses, however, he is determined to start anew. He goes to New Hope Village Church that night and meets a few other members who have also been left behind. He finds a video of the pastor explaining the Rapture, from which he learns that it is not too late to be saved, and commits his life to God.Bruce befriends Rayford Steele, whom he supplies with a copy of the video. The two of them are soon joined by Rayford's daughter, Chloe, and Cameron "Buck" Williams, and together they form an inner core group, the Tribulation Force. Their mission is to help the lost find Christ and prepare for God's judgment that is to follow the peace agreement between the Antichrist and Israel. Bruce acts as a spiritual mentor and adviser to the Tribulation Force, explaining the foretold prophecies of what is to come in the final days. Their study reveals that the peace covenant with Israel will mark the beginning of the seven years' war with the Antichrist, known as the Tribulation.
Shortly after returning to the U.S. from a missions trip to India, Bruce is killed when the hospital he is being treated at for an overseas bug gets bombed by the Global Community in order to decimate a nearby rebel compound. He is the first of many casualties the Tribulation Force suffers during the seven-year Tribulation. Even though Bruce is killed relatively early in the Tribulation, the Force he helps establish becomes a driving presence during the global war. It is hinted later in the series that Bruce is poisoned by Nicolae Carpathia's agents and may have died prior to the actual hospital bombing. In the third film based on the books, Left Behind: World at War, Bruce dies from being infected with a virus, and most of the Tribulation Force is at his bedside when he dies.
Bruce is resurrected at the Glorious Appearing. In the Millennium World, he and his wife go on Rayford's missionary trip to Egypt to help spread the gospel. He is present at the final battle of the Millennium, watching from a safe distance in Jerusalem with the rest of the Tribulation Force.
In Left Behind: The Kids, Bruce mentors four teenagers, Judd, Lionel, Ryan, and Vicki, who are left behind at the Rapture.
In the original Left Behind films, Bruce is portrayed by Clarence Gilyard, and Arnold Pinnock. In the remake series, he is played by Lance E. Nichols in the remake, Charles Andrew Payne in Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist and William Gabriel Grier in the spin-off ''Vanished – Left Behind: Next Generation''
Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah
Tsion Ben-Judah, pronounced "Zion", is a Jewish rabbinical scholar and former student of Chaim Rosenzweig. Ben-Judah is commissioned by the Israeli government three years before the Rapture to undertake a study as to how the Jews would recognize the Messiah when he comes. Ben-Judah begins to conclude that Jesus of Nazareth meets the descriptions of prophecy, but has not committed himself when Christ raptures his church.Two weeks later, when United Nations secretary-general and Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia and a host of American and Israeli delegates arrive in Israel to sign a seven-year treaty of peace, and at the behest of Buck Williams, Ben-Judah guides Buck to the Western Wall so that he can speak with the two prophets, Eli and Moishe, men resurrected from biblical times to bear witness to Christ and begin converting 144,000 Jews to become witnesses for Christ.
The meeting with the two witnesses has a profound effect on Ben-Judah, who speaks Nicodemus's words to Jesus, while the two witnesses take turns speaking Jesus' words. Ben-Judah leaves the meeting with much to think and pray about. The next day, Carpathia and the Israelis sign the peace treaty, and shortly after, Ben-Judah makes a one-hour broadcast on GNN International to present his findings. At the end, he proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah and will be coming again soon.
Many Israelis and Jews worldwide are outraged at Ben-Judah, but he begins to teach and meet with Jews all around the world as more and more began to convert to Christ. Eighteen months later, his wife and teenage stepchildren are horribly slaughtered; Ben-Judah, the chief suspect, is forced into hiding. Buck is guided to him with hints from the two witnesses at the Wailing Wall, and secretly conducts Ben-Judah out of Israel by way of Egypt, to be flown back to the United States for exile and sanctuary.
Just before this, the Chicago-based Tribulation Force's own leader and teacher, Bruce Barnes, is killed by the Red Horse of the Apocalypse when World War III breaks out. Bombs hit the hospital where Barnes is hospitalized for a disease that stops his worldwide encouragement of Tribulation Saints. Ben-Judah takes his place to teach, now reaching out to a worldwide cyber-audience. Ben-Judah, believing himself to be protected by God's power, insists on returning to Israel to meet with most of the 144,000 witnesses in order to teach them. Only hours before the Antichrist's resurrection, Ben-Judah has an out-of-body experience where he witnesses the hosts of Heaven, and the archangel Michael battling Lucifer, in dragon form. The Dragon is cast down to Earth near the end of this experience.
He moves to Petra where Nicolae Carpathia drops two bombs and a missile just minutes after his arrival. There he resides until the Battle of Armageddon, when he leaves to help defend the Holy City. There, both he and Buck Williams are killed by Unity Army soldiers. He is resurrected at the Glorious Appearing, after having reunited with his wife and children in Heaven. In Kingdom Come, he and former fellow Trib Force members lead a missionary trip to Egypt, which Ben-Judah renames Osaze, meaning "loved by God" after turning its inhabitants from Ptah worship. At the end of the Millennium, Ben-Judah is welcomed into Heaven with the rest of the believers.