The year is 2050. The U.S. has by choice become a weakened country, viewed as a dangerous, though sluggish giant by the rest of the world. But her president is still considered to be the most powerful man on earth. President Bishop Beckwith shares his vision with his wife as America One accelerates down the runway carrying the first family to the West Coast. "The United States of America is the most blessed nation the earth has ever seen...I still see it...as the land of the free and the home of the brave...I can lead her to a better and nobler future..." As the plane clears the runway, the cabin dissolves in a burst of phosphorescent white flame. In this searing moment, vice president Aristide Luca Therion is catapulted into the presidency. A popular, dedicated nature-worshiper who believes that humankind is the earth's greatest enemy, Therion implements Project Final Unity, an electrical blackout covertly contrived by the German Union allies and Minden Lauer, Therion's spiritualist mistress. The blackout - made possible by a recently developed electricity-eating virus - is soon out of control, shutting down the entire country and bringing about anarchy, chaos, and famine. If this is not the end of the world, it surely must be the end of America. Has God turned away from the nation that once claimed and believed it was "...one nation under God, indivisible..."? Through an array of intriguing characters and locations, The Beginning of Sorrows portrays the hope-filled role believers play as this once God-honoring nation accelerates toward a devasting end.--Back cover