Flaring tensions over Jerusalem's Temple Mount have led to the complete structural collapse of the Dome of the Rock. Prophesied for millennia, the final terror is at hand, followed by seven long years of apocalyptic warfare locked in stalemate. And then the war is over. Or so it would seem.

From out of nowhere, and to the cheers of an exhausted globe, a charismatic teacher and mystic calling himself Janus Philio has crowned himself King of kings in Jerusalem. World-healing miracles ensue, but is he the second coming of Jesus Christ-which he refuses to call himself-or another in a seemingly...