Emma Grady is with a patient in her Physical Therapy office in New York when her patient suddenly vanishes before her. Elliott Hirsch, a Jewish young man in New York, is in a cemetery attending a funeral when he hears a loud explosion and witnesses graves open and urns overturn, all empty of their contents. Dr. Zerah Adler, a research physician in Jerusalem, Israel, is on his way to a meeting with a colleague when she disappears from behind him. The world is thrown into chaos as millions of people vanish.

Pandemonium prevails in the streets of every nation, and anarchy is rampant. Several theories abound as to what is happening: entomological warfare, a virus or bacteria has consumed these people, alien abductions and more. The military in many countries is debilitated, including the United States, stock markets crash across the globe; there is chaos and looting everywhere. And middle eastern countries begin firing on Israel in an effort to destroy the country.

Emma, Elliott and Zerah all had good friends who are gone. But those friends left impressions on these young people, so they each search for a Bible and seek out the scriptures. They all come to the same conclusion … Jesus has snatched away his true believers from the earth. They each begin to make their way through this new world of uncertainty and give their lives to the Lord in the process. Will they make it through the next day, the next week or the next year? What will life be like for them in a world now filled with hate and disbelief? Will they see the pages of the scriptures they now hold so dear unfold before their very eyes?

Donna VanLiere brings us a riveting fictional account in THE TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE of an event recorded in the Bible. Although this event is not referred to as The Rapture in the scriptures, this is the beginning of the end times of the earth as we know it. Ms. VanLiere’s characters are very realistic and each deal with what has happened in their own way. The story line toggles back and forth from New York to Israel chronicling the lives of the three main characters and describing what is occurring in both countries. It was hard to put this book down, but I was delighted to learn that this is just the first of a series of three novels Ms. VanLiere will write on the topic of Bible prophecy and end times. At the end of the book, she devotes several pages to “Where in the Word?”, giving facts about Bible prophecy, discussing questions and misunderstandings about end times and sighting scripture to back up her fictional story. I can’t wait to read the next installment!