The Mark

American authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins’s Christian-themed novel The Mark (2000) is the eighth of sixteen novels included in the Left Behind book series, chronicling the rapture and the subsequent rise of the Antichrist, as foretold by Christian Eschatology. Like the previous installments, The Mark became a New York Times Bestseller, remaining on the list for thirty-two weeks.

At the end of the previous book, The Indwelling, the Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia had been killed, resurrected, and possessed spiritually by Satan. After appointing himself the leader of a world government order known as the Global Community, Carpathia makes plans to add lavish additions to his already stately palace, including two extra floors and a glass ceiling on top. He also has statues of himself built all over the world and commands all members of the Global Community to worship him and his statues.

With his evil surrogate aunt, Viv Ivins, at his side, Carpathia calls in his senior staff for a meeting. There, he announces that every human left on Earth must be branded with a "loyalty mark" of 666, the number of the beast according to English Bible translations. If anyone refuses, they will lose their head in a guillotine, which Carpathia euphemistically refers to as a "loyalty enforcement facilitator."



Meanwhile, the born-again Christian David Hassid discovers that his wife, Annie Christopher, died in the lightning storm at Carpathia's funeral and resurrection ceremony, as ordered by Carpathia's powerful and trusted lieutenant, Leon Fortunado. He learns this from Hannah Palemoon, a nurse and fellow born-again Christian who discovered David after the resurrection and nursed him back to health. David recruits Hannah to join his army of believers, known as the Tribulation Force.

The leader of the Tribulation Force is Rayford Steele, the protagonist of the series and an airline pilot who was flying a plane when the rapture occurred. Accompanied by the reformed arms dealer Albie, they arrive at a detention center in Boulder, Colorado where Steele's former flight attendant and love interest Hattie Durham is being held. With the help of physically-disabled believer Steve Plank, Rayford and Albie stage a daring rescue of Hattie, just moments after she tries to hang herself. The dramatic turnaround causes Hattie to finally become a believer.

After Orthodox Christians in Greece refuse to receive the mark of the beast, Carpathia's storm troopers rain down terror on the resisters. The Greek mining magnate-turned-believer Lukas Miklos watches as his whole family and much of his congregation are executed as "subversives." Albie travels to Greece to save more detainees, this time with the help of former news reporter and founding Tribulation Force member Christopher "Buck" Williams. While widespread anti-Christian terror has yet to take hold in the U.S. as in Greece, a number of American subversives are executed by pro-Carpathia shock troops, including the father of Tribulation Force espionage expert, Gustaf Zuckermandel, Jr., or "Zeke."



Near the headquarters of the Global Community in New Babylon, Iraq, David is working undercover on behalf of the Tribulation Force. However, when he refuses to take the mark, he is forced to flee. Prepared to escape into hiding with the help of Hannah, David meets a computer prodigy named Chang Wong, a believer brought to New Babylon by his parents who want their son to obtain a cushy job with the Antichrist. However, before Chang can escape with David and the others, his father drugs and kidnaps him, taking him to the beast mark application center, where he is marked against his will. This poses an opportunity for the Tribulation Force: Chang will replace David as the Christian resistance's mole in the Global Community. All the rest of the escapees must do is fake their own deaths in a fabricated plane crash.

As the book ends, Carpathia announces his plans to occupy the Holy Land, abandoning his palace in New Babylon to set up shop at the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Mark is followed by 2001's Desecration, named for the Antichrist's desecration of the throne in Jerusalem.