Is this faithful to the book?

Overall, it is. The Kirk Cameron version does indeed cover all the main points of the book, the Nicolas Cage version just covers the event of the Rapture and adds many new characters and situations that weren't there before.

In many minor points, both versions don't really match up with the book. For example, the character of Chris the co-pilot commits suicide right after the Rapture in the book. In the Kirk Cameron trilogy, he doesn't and has a role in each movie. In the Nicolas Cage version, they made him a Christian and is Raptured right away.

The authors of the book series, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have come out and said that they prefer the Nicolas Cage version, despite the many changes it made to their story. They thought the Kirk Cameron version was too cheaply made and that the new one matched more closely to their idea of quality that a Left Behind movie should have.

Yes. A lot more and I highly recommend the book. I'm just now rereading. I've only read it once and never finished the whole series which I'm determined to do this time. My husband rarely reads but he read all the Left Behind books and loved them. He also prefers this movie to the remake. I've read up to the first 5 books and from what I remember they were very exciting. Check them out. You get pulled into them rather quickly.

Not sure why the authors are so quick to dismiss this movie, it was actually done a lot better than most movies of this genre are done, not to mention the reviews for this movie are much better than the Nicolas Cage redux.

Which is unfortunate, I had high hopes for the 2014 Left Behind. Are they even going to keep making new movies in that reboot or will they wait 10 years and reboot again?