One must die so others may live

The Last Sacrifice by Hank Hanegraaff and Sigmund Brouwer is the second novel in the "Last Disciple" trilogy. "The Last Disciple" trilogy is a different look at Revelation, from the perspective that most of it happened in the first century during the reign of Nero and the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans.

The story follows a multitude of characters (sometimes it's hard to keep track of all of them!) but the main character is Vitas, a prominent Roman who used to be part of Nero's inner circle until his fall from grace due to the scheming of two of Nero's other members of the inner circle, the ruthless Helius and the savage Tigellinus, resulted in his being a fugitive. He escaped the arena when another man posed as him and died in his place, echoing the tagline of the book, One must die so others may live. (This can also be echoed by Christ's sacrifice on the cross, Christ died so we could live.) In this novel, Vitas is on his way to Alexandria with none other than John, Jesus' beloved disciple. Nero is up to no good torturing his people and proclaiming himself a god and persecuting Christians, with Helius leading the slaughter and encouraging Nero's insanity.

Meanwhile, Maglorius, a former gladiator and Christian, is in Jerusalem, hunting down his charges, Valeria and Quintus. Valeria is posing as a Greek boy and Quintus is living with an old blind woman in order to hide from the people who want to kill them, who killed and betrayed their father (although they believe it's Maglorius who killed him).

As the fall of Jerusalem approaches, we become more and more interested - who will escape Jerusalem, who will reach Alexandria, who will overthrow Nero (my bet is on Sporus) and the most touching question - will Vitas ever become a Christian and reunite with Sophia?