Left Behind: The Rapture Trivia Quiz

Answer: An enemy from the north will invade Israel with the help of Persia, Libya, and Ethiopia.

Shortly after Buck and Chaim miraculously survive the Russian airstrike, Chaim says that he knows people who have an explanation for how Israel remained unscathed in attack of such great magnitude. These 'people' turn out to be religious scholars who ran across the above prophecy. As cited in "The Rapture," the passages that talk about this prophecy are Ezekiel 38 & 39.

Answer: The Romanian presidency

Nicolae sets his sights on the Romanian presidency shortly after his election to the lower parliament. His election to parliament was superficially legal (that is, he won the majority vote of the people although his methods were far short of ethical).

However, Nicolae is too impatient to wait for the Vasile's term to end, so he decides to force Vasile to step down. He accomplishes this by sending Leon Fortunato to threaten to burn down the barns owned by Vasile's son (which he later did), fake a kidnapping attempt on Vasile's grandchildren, and call in a bomb threat at the grandchildren's school.

After all this harassment, Vasile resigns and nominates Nicolae as his successor.

Answer: Lucinda Washington

Lucinda Washington, who is somewhat of a mother figure to Buck, is mentioned several times as a devout Christian. She is also Buck's superior at 'Global Weekly,' and asks that he meet with her the next time he is in Chicago. She had read his piece on the Russian airstrike and sensed that Buck was poised to become a believer.

However, Buck did not truly become a believer until after the Rapture, at which time Lucinda and her husband vanished along with millions of others.

Answer: Being dumped by her boyfriend Ricky

Not only does Ricky dump her, but he also gets married soon after their breakup. Angry and bitter over her relationship ending, Chloe discloses her unhappiness to her roommate Amy. Amy suggests that Chloe channel her anger into school, so that Chloe could claim to be "someone who conquered the place." As Stanford is one of the top schools in the United States, this would be no easy task.

However, Chloe never accomplishes her goal because of the onset of the Rapture.

Answer: An autographed picture of Rayford in his pilot uniform

Rayford presents Raymie with the picture in the hopes that Raymie will forgive him for being so distant for the last several months. Later, after the Rapture, Rayford sees the picture and realizes how often he had not been there for Raymie. Raymie does like the picture, but what he really wants is to spend more time with his father.

Ever since Raymie joined Irene in her faith, though, Rayford begins to spend less and less time with his son. This distance from his wife and son is one of Rayford's biggest regrets during the Tribulation.

Answer: Pastor Billings, for aid in his leading people to faith

Irene is increasingly troubled over Rayford's indifference towards both going to church and spending time with his son. At one point, she takes out her prayer list, which includes the other three above entries. (Rafe is Irene's occasional nickname for her husband).

Although it seems likely that Irene prayed for Pastor Billings (the pastor at the New Hope Church), his name is not included on her prayer list at any time during the novel.

Answer: By initially refusing it, then saying he would accept only if the people willed it

In the first book of this series, "Left Behind," Buck hears that an unknown politician has been reluctantly elected President of Romania. Marvelling at how such a thing could happen, Buck moves onto worrying about other things. However, in "The Rapture" we learn the real story of how it happened. Nicole threatens and harasses the current president, Vasile, into stepping down from the office.

Then, he has Vasile suggest publicly that Nicolae should be his successor. Finally, Nicolae makes several conditions to his becoming president: having all official successors support him, stating that the next-in-line to the presidency must have no objections, claiming that both houses of Parliament needed to agree on his, and having the populace vote for him in an impromptu election. Because of all these conditions, when Nicolae takes office, the people of Romania are overwhelming convinced that the whole thing is their idea.

Answer: False

Irene and Amanda meet at a Bible study group before the Rapture. Irene is considerably upset over her failure to impress upon Rayford the importance of becoming a believer. Amanda is not yet a believer herself, but takes the initial steps in becoming one.

She does, however, sympathize with Irene's troubles. Irene asks her to make her decision soon, because no one knows how soon the Rapture will come. However, she pushes Amanda too far and thus Amanda is not a believer at the time of the Rapture. (This makes sense, since there is no way Amanda would have been around during the Tribulation if she had been a believer; she would have been raptured with Irene and Raymie.)

Answer: Antonio Salazar, flight attendant

Antonio 'Tony' Salazar is one of the flight attendants working the O'Hare to Heathrow route at the time of the Rapture. He was briefly described as a good-natured person and efficient flight attendant. He had turned down the promotion to senior flight attendant because he was happy with his current position.

As Hattie is searching through the airplane and starting to panic because many passengers were missing, she comes across Tony's neatly folded uniform and becomes hysterical. Rayford and Hattie become main characters of the Left Behind series, so they are clearly not raptured. Christopher Smith also is not raptured, but he commits suicide after learning that his children had been raptured and his wife had passed away.

Answer: Abdullah Ababneh

Abdullah (also known as Smitty later in the series) is the only character in the list above who was Muslim before the Rapture. His wife, Yasmine, had also been Muslim, but converts to Christianity before the Rapture. Abdullah is understandably upset about this conversion, and the two get a divorce. However, Abdullah still loves his wife, and misses his children (who are with their mother). Yasmine pleads with Abdullah to convert, but he remains resolute. On the day of the Rapture, Abdullah goes to Yasmine's house and discovers that she and the children have been taken. Rushing back to his place, Abdullah goes through all their correspondence until he finds the letter referenced above. He becomes a believer immediately after this.

At this point, the story told within the three prequels meets the beginning of the original Left Behind books. All of the believers have been raptured, and the main characters of the Tribulation are in position.