“I pray to God the novel you hold in your hands never comes true,” so writes Joel Roenberg in the Author’s Note of his latest novel, “Dead Heat,” just off the press.

Trouble is, the fictional events in all four of his previous books have come true, including his first thriller, “The Last Jihad,” which puts readers inside the cockpit of a hijacked jet, coming in on a kamikaze attack into an American city ... written nine months before Sept. 11, 2001.

After the first week of publication, “Dead Heat” has reached the best-seller list of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and several newpapers.

In the novel, missiles with nuclear warheads have been launched from container ships, wiping out Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Washington, D.C., killing all of the Republicans gathered for their convention and some of the key Democrats who were there preparing for their convention in two weeks. The remaining Democrats in the country are mainly freshmen. The CIA and FBI have been destroyed so intelligence reports are limited. The UN building is no more.

The United States of America has been neutralized — no longer a superpower, limping along with a make-shift government. The U.S. is at war but with whom? China has its missiles pointed at the U.S. because its leaders feel the U.S. thinks China is the enemy. North Korea is set to invade South Korea. Russia and Iran are out of the picture because they were destroyed earlier in the War of Gog and Magog when fire and hailstones rained down from heaven on them, and Israel, standing alone, was supernaturally saved. Now the Iraqi leader has united all of his part of the world into the United States of Eurasia. He is bringing pressure on the secretary-general of the United Nations to keep Israel from building the Third Jewish Temple. Under no circumstances will the Israeli prime minister agree to that. In fact, he is accelerating the construction.

This chilling, gripping novel will have you turning pages late into the night and praying for your nation. As Rosenberg points out in the novel, there is no specific reference in the Scriptures to the United States playing an End Times role. And if America isn’t in the Bible, then what is going to happen to this country? Rosenberg’s “What if” scenario that American is neutralized by a nuclear attack is mind-blowing.

If the events for the End Days set by God are going forward no matter that we pray for our nation, then what can we do? Rosenberg offers a solution in his latest Tom-Clancy style political thriller.