Patrick Rose (renamed Marty Peck in Dramatic Audio) was a doctor, and he worked in a Global Community hospital. He was left on Earth when the Rapture happened because he did not believe in God.
Dr. Rose first appears when Judd Thompson Jr. is trying to find help for his hurt friend, Lionel Washington who had his left arm pinned to a large rock. Thompson first finds Dr. Rose at a Global Community run hospital as he was about to end his shift. Thompson realizes that Dr. Rose has the mark of Carpathia on his forehead. Thompson threatens Dr. Rose to treat his friend, but Rose was willing to help Thompson without much coercion. Rose then takes Thompson to his house, so they can eat and Rose can get some supplies to help Lionel. He expressed disinterest in collecting the reward money for reporting Judd and Lionel, saying that he has no need for it, referring to his well-furnished and amply stocked house. He had many opportunities to turn in Judd and Lionel, but did not do so. Lionel amputated his own arm with a pocket knife (with the on-phone assistance of Nurse Wanda) before Dr. Rose and Judd found him. Lionel was delirious when they found him since he was not able to see Dr. Rose mark as Lionel thought he did not have the mark. They take Lionel back to Dr. Rose's house, and there, he was able to stitch up his left stump and gave him analgesics and antibiotics.
Judd also discovers that Rose's wife Teri was a Christian, and disappeared during the Rapture. Teri's family was also taken during the rapture, and he expressed contempt for their religiosity, calling them "religious wackos". While he does express some appreciation towards Nicolae Carpathia for bringing order to the world, he is quite skeptical of Carpathianism's claims of the divinity and resurrection of Carpathia. Dr. Rose started to realize that Judd was correct about the rapture being God taking away the faithful when he noted the religiosity of his in-laws and Teri. When Thompson tells Rose that he can't see his wife again because of the mark, Rose shoots himself, telling Thompson to see his wife in Heaven for him.
After the Rapture, Patrick Rose kept a small box on his wife's pillow in his bedroom. The box contained a gold chain and a heart-shaped pendant with a diamond in the middle. On the back of the heart read Ich Liebe Dich, which Dr. Rose said means "I love you". Dr. Rose studied in Germany and brought it back as an engagement gift for his wife. When Judd told Dr. Rose his story, he wanted Judd to give the gift to Vicki Byrne. Vicki loved the gift.
He drove a Humvee that took up two parking spaces at the section of the parking lot for hospital staff. Dr. Rose said he had the Humvee for a few months before he encountered Judd. His suicide is actually a fortuitous event for Judd and Lionel, since they traveled from South Carolina to Indiana, through North Carolina, Virginia, and Kentucky, with the intention of arriving in Avery, Wisconsin on foot. Judd commandeered the Humvee and took it to a safe house in Ohio that Chloe Steele suggested to him when Judd used Dr. Rose's computer to communicate with her after he had committed suicide. Judd decided against driving to Avery because it was dangerous to drive near cities during the day. Judd, Lionel, and Vicki eventually rendezvoused at a location between Avery, Wisconsin and the Ohio safe house during the heat plague when it was safe to do so as believers were impervious to the heat. In the Dramatic Audio, Judd drove directly to Avery, Wisconsin with Dr. Rose's Humvee and a recovering Lionel aboard.
Patrick Rose also has a Great Dane named Princess.
In the dramatic audio presentation, Dr. Rose is renamed Marty Peck, but his role is essentially the same.
Character Assessment[]
Dr. Rose ironically may be the best person in the series to exemplify the Good Samaritan, since he treated Lionel Washington out of his good will and without much coercion, much like the Samaritan cared for the injured traveler. As someone who has the mark of Carpathia, Patrick Rose would be expected to be hostile towards the Judah-ites but instead used his craft to compassionately treat someone belonging to an enemy group. Judd had asked him why would endanger himself for helping Judd while receiving no obvious benefit. He justified his reasons for helping Lionel from professional obligation, saying that as a doctor his job is to help anyone he finds who is hurt, and that Judd deserved a chance if he was willing to risk his life to help his friend. Dr. Rose was indifferent to the propaganda of the Global Community and Carpathianism while others who were devoted to Carpathia enthusiastically cheered for the deaths of those who resisted Carpathianism. For example, the crowd chanted "guillotine" during a Z-Van concert in Paris as Perryn Madeleine was about to be executed and at a Miracle Fair in Tel Aviv applauded after Orcus had slew with a sword a Jew who refused to receive the mark of Carpathia.
His despair that led to his suicide can be seen as the "weeping and gnashing of teeth" of those who rejected God's grace and would not be rewarded with eternal life. Even though Dr. Rose performed many meritorious acts and acted out of benevolence, salvation can only be attained by the grace of God, as Judd said to him that "it's not about doing good things."
Unlike the Apostle Paul who was able to reassure the gaoler who was about to commit suicide for fear of being responsible for the prisoners' escape after an earthquake struck (Acts 16:16-40), Judd was not even able to say anything reassuring to Dr. Rose who had came the realization that he faced eternal separation from God and the people he loved. Paul the Apostle, in contrast, was able to evangelize the jailer and get his household baptized, but Judd could not evangelize to people with the mark.
A parallel character in the adult Left Behind series is Vasily Medvedev who suffered a similar predicament, committed suicide, and also appeared in the story the same time during the Tribulation that Dr. Rose did: while the oceans were turned into blood but before the rivers were.
Appearances[]
- 36. Ominous Choices (only appearance, death)
Mentions[]
- 37. Heat Wave
Trivia[]
- Dr. Rose's only appearance was in book 36.
- Dr. Rose is only one of two Carpathianists who was seen helping believers. The other was Krystall Carney, who gave Otto Weser information about Chloe Williams' pending execution in book 38.
- Dr. Rose shares the same last name as Shannon and Leah Rose, but there is no indication that they are related.
- Aside from his regret for taking the mark and realization that his wife and Judd are right, he is one of the few atheists in the series after Carpathia's resurrection, since he expresses skepticism towards his divinity and resurrection.