Bruce Barnes (Left Behind)
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Bruce Barnes is a fictional character of the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins He is pastor of the New Hope Village Church in Chicago.
Before the Rapture of the world's millions of Christians, Bruce was assistant pastor at New Hope Village Church, serving with the then-senior pastor Vernon Billings. Though Bruce believed with his lips, he didn't truly believe in his heart. Following the Rapture, he found he lost his wife and his three children, Bruce almost fell into depression and disbelief, knowing that he had been weak in his faith. Despite his losses, Bruce was determined to start anew after the very next Sunday's standing-room-only turnout. He finds some new-found friends in Christ, namely Rayford Steele and his daughter Chloe, and Cameron "Buck" Williams, and together they form an inner core group with the name Tribulation Force, supplied by Chloe. Their mission is to help the lost prepare for God's Judgement that would follow the peace between Antichrist and Israel. Bruce acts as a spiritual mentor and advisor to the Tribulation Force, explaining the foretold prophecies of what is to come in the final days. Their study reveal that the peace covenant with Israel would mark the beginning of the seven years' war with Antichrist, known as the Tribulation.
Bruce Barnes dies near the end of the second book of the Left Behind series Tribulation Force, when World War III begins. It is debated among the Tribulation Force whether the bombing of the hospital killed him or the poison that Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia ordered to be given to him that sent him to the hospital in the first place.
In the first two Left Behind films, Bruce was portrayed by Clarence Gilyard, Jr., and by Arnold Pinnock in the third.
