A false christ has come to town, showing signs and wonders.

And he’s set up shop near ex-pastor Travis Jordan’s backyard.

This summer, challenge your faith and seek the true Savior for the 25-year anniversary of Frank Peretti’s supernatural thriller The Visitation!

Join the Lorehaven Guild, our castle in the cloud, to explore this book starting Monday, June 3.

Subscribe free here at Lorehaven.com to get your exclusive Guild invitation!

The Visitation (1999), original cover

Book Quest guidance: The Visitation

• Quest guide: E. Stephen Burnett
• Genre: supernatural thriller
• Skill level: age 16 and older

Reading schedule

• June 3–9: chapters 1–8
• June 10–16: chapters 9–15
• June 17–23: chapters 16–22
• June 24–30: chapters 23–30, epilogue

Find the book

• Amazon: audiobook, digital, hardcover, paperback
• Barnes and Noble: audiobook, digital, paperback
• ChristianBook.com: digital, paperback

Lorehaven reviews The Visitation

After readers loved This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness in the 1980s, author Frank E. Peretti followed up with two suspense thrillers in the 1990s. Then for his fifth major release, he chose to get more personal.¹

Twenty-five years after its summer 1999 publication, Peretti’s The Visitation has aged beautifully, pitting one burned-out pastor versus church culture, heretical cults, and the quiet power of the true Christ.

Pentecostal pastor Travis Jordan is suffering ministry burnout. After a mysterious stranger comes to the town of Antioch, Washington, Travis is forced to review his past. After all, this kindly stranger, Brandon Nichols, seems to know all about Travis. Even worse, Nichols claims to be “a new, improved version of Jesus.” He has endless charisma. He can perform real healings. He preaches love and tolerance. Naturally, he soon forms a religious movement that pulls in many believers, excepting Jordan and others.

All along, this “messiah” has a personal mission to ensnare Jordan himself. Nichols is convinced their stories are the same: that they both mistrust the Lord.

Thus begins a series of doctrinal deceptions and battles in a small town, woven with chapter-length flashbacks to Travis’s past struggles and life changes. Travis is forced to wrestle with the teachings of his youth, church authority abuses, why God does and does not heal friends and church members, and most of all, the real Jesus.

Peretti’s heroes confront their own flaws, yet give no ground to false teachings both inside and outside the Church. In fact, unlike other Christian-made novels, this one has named denominations, such as Pentecostals, Baptists, and Lutherans. Without preachiness, yet with grace and gentle humor, Peretti shows these saints’ excesses and where they get things mostly right—a hyper-realized version of the real world.

A great theology book can debunk false doctrines or tell about true ones, such as who Jesus is and why we must follow and worship him. Yet we need great novels to show how the real world challenges one’s faith, and to awaken new and unique passions to know and follow the true Jesus. The Visitation marks one of the best.

Best for: Older teen and adult readers who like suspense with supernatural edges.

Discern: Comedic and serious presentation of charismatic gifts (specifically among Pentecostals), spiritual abuse, fake versus real healings, teen infatuation and romance, false christ with unexplained (demonic?) powers, threats of violence, and unanswered questions about why the real Jesus Christ does what he does.

About the Lorehaven Guild

The Lorehaven Guild serves a community of heroes who gather to celebrate Christian-made fantastical fiction with delight and discernment.

Guild heroes can join monthly Main Quest parties that travel into the fantastical worlds of new books. We will explore these stories’ beauty, goodness, and truth (and opposites!), applying their meanings to the real world of our ultimate Author.

All of our Lorehaven quest guides follow a Sacred Scrolls faith statement.

Every hero must uphold the Code of Honor to respect Jesus and other heroes, avoid vulgar language, celebrate great stories, and keep to the Quest road.

How to join the Guild

1. Subscribe free to Lorehaven! We’ll send you the exclusive invitation link.
2. If you’re already subscribed, search your existing email for that link.
3. Then, use the Discord app or your browser to enter the Lorehaven Guild.