Left Behind

Left Behind tells an apocalyptic story about the ending of Earth (set in the contemporary era) over a period of seven years. The true believers in Jesus Christ have been raptured (taken instantly to heaven), leaving non-believers behind on Earth, now a shattered and chaotic world.{{Cite web |last=Gross |first=Michael Joseph |date=January 2000 |title=The Trials of the Tribulation |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/00jan/001gross.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250125154228/https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/00jan/001gross.htm |archive-date=January 25, 2025 |access-date=August 6, 2023 |website=The Atlantic}} As people scramble for answers, an obscure Romanian politician named Nicolae Jetty Carpathia rises to become secretary-general of the United Nations, promising to restore peace and stability to all nations. What most of the world does not realize is that Carpathia is actually the Antichrist foretold in the Bible. Coming to grips with the truth and becoming born-again Christians, airline pilot Rayford Steele, his daughter Chloe, their pastor Bruce Barnes, and young journalist Cameron "Buck" Williams begin their quest as the Tribulation Force to help save the lost and prepare for the coming Tribulation, in which God will rain down judgment on the world for seven years.

According to James Bielo, it is based on a dispensationalist interpretation of prophecies in the Biblical books of Revelation, Daniel, Isaiah and Ezekiel.{{Cite book |last=Bielo |first=James S. |author-link=James S. Bielo |title=Emerging Evangelicals: Faith, Modernity, and the Desire for Authenticity |publisher=NYU Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0814789551 |pages=141}}

{{main|List of Left Behind characters|l1=List of Left Behind characters}}

LaHaye and Jenkins cite the influence of Russell Doughten, an Iowa-based filmmaker who directed the Thief in the Night series, a series of four low-budget but popular feature-length films in the 1970s and 1980s about the Rapture and Second Coming, starting with 1972's A Thief in the Night.{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Dean A. |date=March 7, 2012 |title=The Original 'Left Behind' |url=https://christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/originalleftbehind.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230806182100/https://christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/originalleftbehind.html |archive-date=August 6, 2023 |access-date=August 6, 2023 |website=Christianity Today}} Indeed, the title Left Behind echoes the refrain of Thief{{'s}} early Christian rock theme song by Larry Norman, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," in which he sings, "There's no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you've been left behind."

The success of Frank Peretti's pioneering Christian spiritual warfare thrillers in the 1980s and 1990s was a significant influence on the authors as well.{{Cite journal |last=Connolly |first=Andrew |date=2020 |title=Masculinity, Political Action, and Spiritual Warfare in the Fictional Ministry of Frank E. Peretti |url=https://www.academia.edu/42605016 |url-status=live |journal=Christianity & Literature |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=60 |doi=10.1353/chy.2020.0003 |issn=2056-5666 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505115505/https://www.academia.edu/42605016/Masculinity_Political_Action_and_Spiritual_Warfare_in_the_Fictional_Ministry_of_Frank_E_Peretti?auto=download |archive-date=2022-05-05 |access-date=2022-05-05}}{{Cite book |last=Silliman |first=Daniel |title=Religion and the Marketplace in the United States |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford Academic |editor-last=Stievermann |editor-first=Jan |edition=Online |location=New York |chapter=Publishers and Profit Motives: The Economic History of left behind |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199361793.003.0008 |editor-last2=Goff |editor-first2=Philip |editor-last3=Junker |editor-first3=Detlef}}

Multiple books in the series have been on the New York Times Bestseller List. Starting in 2000, Books 7 and 8 reached number one on the list followed by book 10, which debuted at number one.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/11/books/best-sellers-june-11-2000.html|work=The New York Times|title=New York Times Bestsellers|date=June 11, 2000|access-date=February 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803133701/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/11/books/best-sellers-june-11-2000.html|archive-date=August 3, 2017|url-status=live}}

In 2016, several books in the series were bestsellers and 65 million copies were sold in various languages.{{Cite web |last=Wilkinson |first=Alissa |date=July 13, 2016 |title=The 'Left Behind' series was just the latest way America prepared for the Rapture |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/07/13/the-left-behind-series-was-just-the-latest-way-america-prepared-for-the-rapture/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201005100421/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2016/07/13/the-left-behind-series-was-just-the-latest-way-america-prepared-for-the-rapture/ |archive-date=October 5, 2020 |website=The Washington Post}}

In 1999, journalist Adam Davidson placed the series in the context of a shift in evangelical views over the last several decades on non-believers. He argues that evangelicals went from "[not yet knowing] who they were in the American public sphere" in the 1960s and early 1970s to a "major shift in evangelical thought which allowed for political and social activism" by the late 1990s, more negative and divisive. Evangelicals, Davidson states, had previously been more separatist, with little interest in attempting to create large-scale religious, moral, and political change. He uses the 1972 Christian end-times film A Thief in the Night as an example of this former approach, with its compassionate view towards unbelievers: "This is a portrait of regular people who don't know what to do and happen to make the wrong choice".{{Cite web |last=Davidson |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Davidson (journalist) |date=April 8, 1999 |title=The Mean Spirit |url=http://www.feedmag.com/deepread/dr200.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000614081304/http://www.feedmag.com/deepread/dr200.shtml |archive-date=June 14, 2000 |access-date=June 1, 2025 |website=Feed Magazine}} In contrast, Left Behind, he contends, has a contemptuous and triumphant view of non-Christians and their suffering in the end times that he sees as symptomatic of a larger change in evangelicalism.

{{Blockquote|text=While predicting the apocalypse may be a constant, the way evangelicals think about it has undergone a massive overhaul. The progression (or regression) is the move from rural towns to the halls of power. It's the expansion of the evangelical sphere of concern from the very local (my friends, my church) to the national and global (my president, my international policy). It's a move from a complex view of the individual to an oversimplification that identifies everyone as either good-believer or bad-heathen. It's also a change in sentiment towards the unbeliever from sadness, caring, and invitation to triumph, judgement, and dismissal. It's a chilling mutation, and has entrenched evangelical Christianity in an antagonism to secular America that borders, at times, on cruelty.}}

While writing that the series fulfills the norms of mass-market fiction, magazine writer Michelle Goldberg also characterized the books as an attack on Judaism and liberal secularism, and suggested that the near-future "end times" in which the books are set seem to reflect the actual worldview of millions of Americans, including many prominent conservative leaders.{{cite news |author=Goldberg |first=Michelle |date=July 29, 2002 |title=Fundamentally unsound |url=http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071214062956/http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind/index.html |archive-date=December 14, 2007 |work=Salon}}

The books are written from an evangelical Protestant viewpoint. Some believe the books are anti-Catholic, noting that many Catholics were not raptured, concluding that no religion is free of false converts{{Cite magazine |last=Olson |first=Carl E. |date=November 2000 |title=No Rapture for Rome |url=http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2000/0011fea2.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070706152802/http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2000/0011fea2.asp |archive-date=July 6, 2007 |website=This Rock |publisher=Catholic Answers |volume=11 |issue=11}} and that the new pope establishes a false religion.{{Cite news |last=Chastain |first=Mary Ann |date=March 31, 2004 |title='Left Behind' Authors Begin Tour of the South |url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2004-03-31-left-behind-authors_x.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121103090813/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2004-03-31-left-behind-authors_x.htm |archive-date=November 3, 2012 |work=USA Today |agency=Associated Press}} While the fictional Pope, John XXIV, was raptured, he is described as "promoting Lutheran reform", and it is implied that he was raptured for this reason.{{Cite book |last=Gribben |first=Crawford |title=Writing the Rapture: Prophecy Fiction in Evangelical America |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199870257 |chapter=6: The Left Behind Phenomenon}} His successor, Pope Peter II, becomes Pontifex Maximus of Enigma Babylon One World Faith, an amalgam of all remaining world faiths and religions. Catholic Answers describes the series as anti-Catholic.{{cite web |last1=Akin |first1=Jimmy |date=2008 |title=False Profit: Money, Prejudice, and Bad Theology in Tim LaHaye's 'Left Behind' Series |url=http://www.catholic.com/library/false_profit.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080711172106/http://www.catholic.com/library/false_profit.asp |archive-date=July 11, 2008 |website=Catholic Answers}}

The co-author of the book, Jerry B. Jenkins, as well as LaHaye, stated that their books are not anti-Catholic and that they have many faithful Catholic readers and friends.{{cite web |last=Olson |first=Carl E. |date=December 2004 |title=Tim LaHaye: The Left Behind Series |url=http://www.catholicleague.org/rer.php?topic=Book+Reviews&id=33 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629105048/http://www.catholicleague.org/rer.php?topic=Book%2BReviews&id=33 |archive-date=June 29, 2007 |access-date=December 31, 2007 |website=Catalyst |publisher=Catholic League |quote=When a reader complained online that Tribulation Force was anti-Catholic, Left Behind co-author Jerry B. Jenkins vehemently insisted that the books are "not anti-Catholic" and that "almost every person in the book who was left behind was Protestant. Astute readers will understand where we're coming from. True believers in Christ, regardless of their church 'brand' will be raptured" (Amazon.com, August 26, 1999). LaHaye responded by insisting that "our books are not anti-Catholic. In fact, we have many faithful Catholic readers and friends" (Religion News Service, June 26, 2003). "The books don't suggest any particular theology," he said, "but try to introduce people to a more personal relationship with Jesus."}} According to LaHaye, "the books don't suggest any particular theology, but try to introduce people to a more personal relationship with Jesus".

Some practicing Christians, evangelical and otherwise, along with non-Christians have shown concern that the social perspectives promoted in the Left Behind series unduly sensationalize the death and destruction of masses of people. Harvey Cox, a professor of divinity at Harvard, says part of the appeal of the books lies in the "lip-licking anticipation of all the blood", and Lutheran theologian Barbara Rossing, author of The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation, said the books glorify violence.{{cite book |author=Rossing |first=Barbara R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mK2fcw-GkMIC |title=The Rapture Exposed |date=March 1, 2007 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-00496-6}}{{Cite web |last=Whitehead |first=John W. |date=July 1, 2004 |title=God So Loved the World that He Gave Us World War III |url=http://www.rutherford.org/oldspeak/Articles/Religion/oldspeak-worldwar3.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112214410/http://www.rutherford.org/oldspeak/Articles/Religion/oldspeak-worldwar3.asp |archive-date=January 12, 2008 |website=The Rutherford Institute |series=OldSpeak}} Additionally, Paul Nuechterlein accused the authors of re-sacralizing violence, adding that "we human beings are the ones who put our faith in superior firepower. But in the Left Behind novels, the darkness of that human, satanic violence is once again attributed to God".{{Cite web |last=Nuechterlein |first=Paul |date=May 18, 2004 |title=Re-Sacralizing Violence in Left Behind |url=http://girardianlectionary.net/res/left_behind_resacralizing_violence.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119140743/http://girardianlectionary.net/res/left_behind_resacralizing_violence.htm |archive-date=November 19, 2007 |access-date=August 6, 2023 |website=Girardian Lectionary}} Time said "the nuclear frights of, say, Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears wouldn't fill a chapter in the Left Behind series. (Large chunks of several U.S. cities have been bombed to smithereens by page 110 of Book 3.)"{{Cite magazine |last=Cloud |first=John |date=June 23, 2002 |title=Meet the Prophet |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020701/books.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202151833/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020701/books.html |archive-date=December 2, 2008 |magazine=TIME}}

David Carlson, a Professor of Religious Studies and a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, wrote that the theology underpinning the Left Behind series promotes a "skewed view of the Christian faith that welcomes war and disaster, while dismissing peace efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere—all in the name of Christ".{{cite web |last=Carlson |first=David |date=2003 |title='Left Behind' and the Corruption of Biblical Interpretation |url=http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/CarlsonPremillenial.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602001404/http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/CarlsonPremillenial.php |archive-date=June 2, 2015 |access-date=May 12, 2015 |website=Orthodoxy Today}}

B. D. Forbes "locates the series in the context of a well-established tradition of American popular culture...that presents the good-evil struggle as 'evil [coming] from the outside' with 'the solution [as] the destruction of the evil-doers".{{Citation |last1=Serazio |first1=Michael |title=Right Behind 'Left Behind': The Conservative Geopolitics of Christian Apocalyptic Entertainment |date=2008 |pages=9 |series=Conference Papers |publisher=International Communication Association |last2=Hardy |first2=Bruce |via=EBSCOhost}}

Several scholars comment on the series' setting in time and relationship to perceived real, future events: religious studies scholar Mark Juergensmeyer argues that the Left Behind books are seen as fictional representations of future events, drawing a connection between the future violence portrayed in the books and "the violence in imagined worlds in the here-and now".{{Cite journal |last=Ingersoll |first=Julie |author-link=Julie Ingersoll |date=2022 |title=America's Holy Trinity: How Conspiracism, Apocalypticism, and Persecution Narratives Set Us up for Crisis |url=https://www.pdcnet.org/jrv/content/jrv_2022_0010_0001_0073_0088 |journal=Journal of Religion and Violence |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=81–82 |doi=10.5840/jrv202281698 |issn=2159-6808 |url-access=subscription}} Similarly, Andrew Strombeck additionally links the books to Derrida's "spectral time": "neither the future nor the present but a kind of ghostly future that haunts the present".{{Cite journal |last=Strombeck |first=Andrew |date=2006 |title=Invest in Jesus: Neoliberalism and the Left behind Novels |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4489261 |journal=Cultural Critique |issue=64 |pages= |issn=0882-4371}} Glenn Shuck also contends that Left Behind "does not...describe an other-worldly dystopia: it provides the shock-value of uncanny recognition of the present in a different form."{{Cite journal |last=Gribben |first=Crawford |date=2007 |title=Review of Marks of the Beast: The Left behind Novels and the Struggle for Evangelical Identity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40006389 |journal=Journal of the American Academy of Religion |volume=75 |issue=2 |pages=455–458 |doi=10.1093/jaarel/lfm020 |issn=0002-7189 |jstor=40006389 |url-access=subscription}} Doris Buss and Didi Herman write, "While there is clearly some element of drama and 'play' to the 'Left Behind' opus...the series remains, at its core, a statement of how the authors and many other conservative Christians believe this world will end and a new one begin. In their detail, the 'Left Behind' 'novels' are indistinguishable from many works of ostensible 'nonfiction' penned by other [Christian right] writers."{{Cite book |last=Buss |first=Doris |title=Globalizing Family Values: the Christian Right in International Politics |last2=Herman |first2=Didi |date=2003 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-9517-1 |location=Minneapolis, MN |chapter=Introduction}}

The series' focus on apocalypticism, totalitarian conspiracies, and militias has been noted by writers including Gershom Gorenberg, Michael Joseph Gross, and Andrew Strombeck. They note themes such as fear of one-world government (in the form of the United Nations led by the Antichrist), global religion, and global currency – fought against by militias "structurally equivalent to Christians". Didi Herman places the series' depiction of the United Nations as an anti-Christian organization intent on implementing globalism, and thereby the New World Order, in the context of Christian right end-times scenarios, along with Pat Robertson's New World Order and Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth.{{Cite book |last=Buss |first=Doris |title=Globalizing Family Values: the Christian Right in International Politics |last2=Herman |first2=Didi |date=2003 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |isbn=978-0-8166-9517-1 |location=Minneapolis |chapter=Constructing the Global}} University of Notre Dame religion scholar Jason Springs regards the series' apocalypticism as one aspect that would later feed into the evangelical adoption of QAnon.{{Cite web |last=Springs |first=Jason |date=2021-06-16 |title=QAnon, Conspiracy, and White Evangelical Apocalypse |url=https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/theorizing-modernities/qanon-evangelical-apocalypse/ |access-date=2024-08-04 |website=University of Notre Dame: Contending Modernities}}

Laurie Goodstein, writing in 1998 for The New York Times, placed what she called the "Left Behind phenomenon" in the calendrical context of the approaching year 2000. Goodstein noted a 'proliferation' of similarly apocalyptic texts appearing at that time, by authors such as Jim Bakker and John Hagee. Goodstein cited the opinion of University of Wisconsin historian Paul Boyer, who described such authors as "cashing in on the public preoccupation with the year 2000".{{cite news |last=Goodstein |first=Laurie |date=October 4, 1998 |title=Fast-Selling Thrillers Depict Prophetic View of Final Days |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/04/us/fast-selling-thrillers-depict-prophetic-view-of-final-days.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131044007/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/04/us/fast-selling-thrillers-depict-prophetic-view-of-final-days.html |archive-date=January 31, 2018 |access-date=January 29, 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times}}

Marisa Ronan places the series in the context of the American Century and American exceptionalism, "proving at the fin-de-siècle that not only was the twentieth century American, it was Christian". Ronan notes that American evangelicals are portrayed as taking center stage in the apocalypse, fighting a spiritual battle against the UN's successor – headed by the Antichrist – which in part seeks to usurp the superpower status of the United States.{{Cite journal |last=Ronan |first=Marisa |date=2015 |title=The American Century and Its Evangelical Christian Fiction Legacy |url=http://op.asjournal.org/the-american-century-and-its-evangelical-christian-fiction-legacy/ |url-status=live |journal=American Studies Journal |series=Occasional Papers |volume=9 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241104055708/http://op.asjournal.org/the-american-century-and-its-evangelical-christian-fiction-legacy/ |archive-date=November 4, 2024 |access-date=January 28, 2025}}

Along with some other rapture fiction novels, the Left Behind series demonstrates a specific interpretation of the Gospel and the Christian life, one with which many have taken issue theologically. The books have not sold particularly well outside of the United States.{{cite web |last1=Boston |first1=Rob |date=February 2002 |title=If Best-Selling End-Times Author Tim LaHaye Has His Way, Church-State Separation Will Be... Left Behind |url=http://www.au.org/church-state/february-2002-church-state/featured/left-behind |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118111636/http://www.au.org/church-state/february-2002-church-state/featured/left-behind |archive-date=November 18, 2011 |access-date=April 1, 2015 |website=Americans United for Separation of Church and State}} Dispensationalism remains a minority view among theologians.{{cite magazine |last1=Dart |first1=John |date=September 25, 2002 |title='Beam me up' theology—The Debate Over 'Left Behind' |url=http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2600 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402123910/http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2600 |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |access-date=April 1, 2015 |magazine=The Christian Century |pages=8–9 |via=Religion Online}} For instance, amillennial and postmillennial Christians do not believe in the same timeline of the Second Coming as premillennialists, while preterist Christians interpret the Book of Revelation as events that have already been fulfilled in the 1st century. Brian McLaren of the Emergent Church compares the Left Behind series to The Da Vinci Code, and states, "What the Left Behind novels do, the way they twist scripture toward a certain theological and political end, I think [Dan] Brown is twisting scripture, just to other political ends."{{cite web |last1=McLaren |first1=Brian |date=May 9, 2006 |title=Brian McLaren on the Da Vinci Code |url=http://forgodsfame.org/2006/05/09/brian-mclaren-on-the-da-vinci-code/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402114248/http://forgodsfame.org/2006/05/09/brian-mclaren-on-the-da-vinci-code/ |archive-date=April 2, 2015 |access-date=April 1, 2015 |website=Grace Fellowship |publisher=Sojourners Magazine}} John Dart, writing in Christian Century, characterized the works as "beam me up theology." Jason Springs argues that evangelical beliefs on the role of the modern state of Israel have been shaped by the books.

One reason cited for the books' popularity is the quick pacing and action, and that they reflect the public's overall concern and fascination with the Apocalypse as portrayed in the biblical book of Revelation. Michelle Goldberg has written that, "On one level, the attraction of the Left Behind books isn't that much different from that of, say, Tom Clancy or Stephen King. The plotting is brisk and the characterizations Manichaean. People disappear and things blow up." The New York Times also compared the series to Clancy's works.{{cite book |author1=LaHaye |first=Tim |url=https://archive.org/details/authorizedleftbe00laha |title=The Authorized Left Behind Handbook |author2=Jenkins |first2=Jerry B. |author3=Swanson |first3=Sandi |date=2005 |publisher=Tyndale House Publishers |isbn=9780842354400 |page=[https://archive.org/details/authorizedleftbe00laha/page/n345 336] |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}} However, those views are not universally shared. Other reviewers have called the series "almost laughably tedious" and "fatuous and boring."{{cite news |author=Dreyfuss |first=Robert |date=January 28, 2004 |title=Reverend Doomsday: According to Tim LaHaye, the Apocalypse is now |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/5939999/reverend_doomsday/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070806102443/http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/5939999/reverend_doomsday/ |archive-date=August 6, 2007 |magazine=Rolling Stone}}{{cite news |author=Haber |first=Gordon |date=August 23, 2004 |title=The Ministry of Fear |url=http://www.nysun.com/article/681 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130134009/http://www.nysun.com/article/681 |archive-date=January 30, 2013 |work=New York Sun}}

Jerry Falwell said about the first book in the series: "In terms of its impact on Christianity, it's probably greater than that of any other book in modern times, outside the Bible."{{cite news |date=February 7, 2005 |title=Tim and Beverly LaHaye |url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207/photoessay/15.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050203012258/http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207/photoessay/15.html |archive-date=February 3, 2005 |access-date=September 8, 2007 |magazine=TIME}}

{{main article|Left Behind: The Kids}}

Left Behind: The Kids is a series of forty novellas written for teenagers. It has the same plot as the adult series, but the main protagonists are teenagers.

Williams professor Glenn Shuck has written the book Marks of the Beast: The Left Behind Novels and the Struggle for Evangelical Identity, published by NYU Press in 2005. He followed this with a collection of original essays co-edited with Jeffrey J. Kripal of Rice University on the Esalen Institute in California, published by Indiana University Press in 2005.

Starting in 2003, the series was expanded upon by Mel Odom with his Apocalypse military series and Neesa Hart with her political thriller series, both taking place concurrently with the main series.

In 2002, a series of graphic novels published by Tyndale House was launched that comprised the first two books in the series, Left Behind and Tribulation Force. The original idea was to release sets of three to five novels (each about 45–50 pages) for each book in the original series.{{Cn|date=August 2024}} However, after the fifth and final novel for Tribulation Force was released, the graphic novel series was discontinued, and the novels that were released are {{As of|2006|December|lc=y}} out of print.{{Update inline|date=August 2024}} A compilation of the graphic novels for the first book was later released as one novel.

{{Main|Left Behind (film series)}}

The success of the Left Behind books has led to the release of five motion pictures based on the series so far. All four have been produced by brothers Paul and Peter LaLonde, and have been released through Cloud Ten Pictures, an independent Canadian-based Christian film studio.

The first, Left Behind: The Movie, was based on the first book of the series and was released in 2000. In a very unusual marketing scheme, the studio released the film on home video, and then theatrically. It fared poorly in theaters.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190524/business|title=Imdb.com: Left Behind (2000) – Box-office/Business|work=IMDb|access-date=October 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140804152913/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190524/business|archive-date=August 4, 2014|url-status=live}} The film starred former Growing Pains star Kirk Cameron as Buck Williams. Cameron, who praised the book series as "inspiring", became a practicing evangelist (and co-host with Ray Comfort on the TV show The Way of the Master).

The sequel, Left Behind II: Tribulation Force, based on the second book, Tribulation Force, was released in 2002. The film debuted at #2 on Nielson's video scan reports, behind Spider-Man,{{Cite web |title=Audition for TV role or be 'Left Behind' |url=http://cityguide.clarionledger.com/fe/Worship/stories/xgram.asp |url-status=dead |website=Clarion-Ledger |access-date=February 9, 2006 |archive-date=July 1, 2001 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20010701190330/http://cityguide.clarionledger.com/fe/Worship/stories/xgram.asp }} and was #1 in terms of overall sales for two days on Amazon.com.{{cite web |date=October 28, 2002 |title=End-Times Thriller Left Behind II: Tribulation Force Ousts Spider-Man Over the Weekend to Become the #1 Selling Video Overall on Amazon.com |url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=2750&item_id=0199-2303250&words=End_Times_Thriller |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201043815/http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-2303250/End-Times-Thriller-Left-Behind.html |archive-date=December 1, 2008 |access-date=October 4, 2014 |work=Goliath}}

The second sequel, World at War, was released first to churches on October 21, 2005, for church theatrical viewings and was released via home media on October 25. Much of the main cast from the previous two films, excluding Clarence Gilyard, reprised their respective roles for World at War. Gilyard, who played Bruce Barnes, was unable to return due to a scheduling conflict with a play in New York.{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} It is based very loosely on the final 50 pages of Tribulation Force and features Louis Gossett Jr. as the President of the United States, Gerald Fitzhugh. The third installment was the least identifiable with events in any of the books. Recognizable events were the marriages of Buck with Chloe Steele, and of Rayford Steele with Amanda White; the death of Bruce Barnes; and President Fitzhugh's heading an attack, resulting in World War III, with Great Britain and Egypt fighting against the Global Community. Major parts, however, were taken from subsequent books; these events include the poisoning of Barnes by GC forces, instead of Nicolae Carpathia himself, and an attempt by Fitzhugh to assassinate Carpathia. Buck's meeting with the President in the books takes a different form in the film.

The film series have been criticized for, among other things, low production values. A Slate reviewer commented that in 2004, Cloud Ten Pictures made a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment to release all of its pictures under their banner and has been doing so ever since.{{cite web |last1=Hendrix |first1=Grady |date=1 December 2005 |title=How to end the world on a budget. |url=https://slate.com/culture/2005/12/how-to-end-the-world-on-a-budget.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126185445/https://slate.com/culture/2005/12/how-to-end-the-world-on-a-budget.html |archive-date=January 26, 2020 |access-date=January 26, 2020 |website=Slate}}

In 2010, Cloud Ten announced that a remake of the Left Behind series was in development, with production set to begin in late 2012 for an October 2014 release date.{{cite web |date=October 13, 2010 |title=Cloud Ten Plans Big Budget Left Behind Remake |url=http://www.cloudtenpictures.com/site2/pdf/Press_Release_LEFT_BEHIND.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027131700/http://www.cloudtenpictures.com/site2/pdf/Press_Release_LEFT_BEHIND.pdf |archive-date=October 27, 2011 |access-date=January 18, 2015 |website=Cloud Ten Pictures}} The reboot, starring Nicolas Cage as Steele and Chad Michael Murray as Buck Williams, was released to theaters October 3, 2014. It focused mainly on the very beginnings of the first book and added much to the plot. The remake focuses on the experiences of the passengers on the plane and partially on Chloe Steele as she comes to terms with her missing family. It earned overwhelmingly negative reviews and flopped at the box office.{{Cite web |last=Whitman |first=Sarah |date=October 8, 2014 |title='Left Behind' flop shows difficulty of mixing preachy, popular in Christian movies |url=https://www.tampabay.com/news/religion/left-behind-flop-shows-difficulty-of-mixing-preachy-popular-in-christian/2201236/ |access-date=February 8, 2025 |website=Tampa Bay Times}}

Vanished – Left Behind: Next Generation, a spin-off film based on the spin-off series Left Behind: The Kids released on September 28, 2016. The film was developed by Tim LaHaye's grandson, Randy LaHaye and was well received by the book author.{{Cite web |last=Ortega Law |first=Jeannie |date=August 13, 2016 |title='Left Behind' Author Tim LaHaye Worked on Gen X Apocalyptic Film 'Vanished' Before His Death |url=http://www.christianpost.com/news/left-behind-author-tim-lahaye-worked-on-gen-x-apocalyptic-film-vanished-before-his-death-167895/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904044700/https://www.christianpost.com/news/left-behind-author-tim-lahaye-worked-on-gen-x-apocalyptic-film-vanished-before-his-death-167895/ |archive-date=September 4, 2022 |access-date=June 1, 2022 |website=Christian Post}}

In November 2021, LaLonde announced the beginning of production on Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist, with Kevin Sorbo directing and replacing Nicolas Cage as Rayford Steele. The film is set six months after the events of the 2014 film and is an adaptation of the rest of book one in the series. The film makes a few small changes to be more relevant for modern times.{{Cite web |last=Barraclough |first=Leo |date=May 12, 2022 |title=Neal McDonough, Corbin Bernsen, Bailey Chase Join Apocalyptic Thriller 'Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist' |url=https://variety.com/2022/film/global/neal-mcdonough-corbin-bernsen-bailey-chase-left-behind-rise-of-the-antichrist-1235265086/ |access-date=February 8, 2025 |website=Variety}}

A video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, (2006) and its three sequels, Left Behind: Tribulation Forces, Left Behind 3: Rise of the Antichrist and Left Behind 4: World at War, were developed by a publicly traded company, Left Behind Games. The games are real-time strategy games wherein the player controls a "Tribulation Forces" team and allows the player to "use the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world." The original game was released in the United States on November 14, 2006, and received mixed reviews. Distribution was initially planned to work through churches and megachurches.{{Cite journal |last=Jacobs |first=Stephen |date=2015 |title=Simulating the Apocalypse. Theology and Structure of the Left Behind Games |url=https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/religions/article/view/18509 |journal=Online – Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet |language=en |volume=7 |doi=10.11588/rel.2015.0.18509 |access-date=June 23, 2022 |archive-date=June 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616233911/https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/religions/article/view/18509 |url-status=live }}

Although the original game was accused of encouraging religious violence,{{cite news |last=Grossman |first=Cathy Lynn |date=December 14, 2006 |title=Critics blast 'Left Behind' |url=https://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2006-12-13-left-behind-controversy_x.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100831031656/http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2006-12-13-left-behind-controversy_x.htm |archive-date=August 31, 2010 |access-date=May 7, 2010 |work=USA Today}} not all reviewers of the game or critics of the Left Behind series shared that view.{{cite web |date=December 19, 2006 |title=Left Behind: Eternal Forces – The Video Game |url=http://www.adl.org/Interfaith/leftbehind.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307185926/http://www.adl.org/Interfaith/leftbehind.asp |archive-date=March 7, 2012 |website=Anti-Defamation League}}{{cite web |last=Butts |first=Steve |date=November 14, 2006 |title=Left Behind: Eternal Forces Review |url=http://pc.ign.com/articles/745/745956p1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617161559/http://pc.ign.com/articles/745/745956p1.html |archive-date=June 17, 2012 |access-date=October 27, 2007 |website=IGN}}{{cite web |last=Kuchera |first=Ben |date=December 14, 2006 |title=Reviews: Games: Left Behind: Eternal Forces |url=https://arstechnica.com/reviews/games/leftbehind.ars |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204091610/http://arstechnica.com/reviews/games/leftbehind.ars |archive-date=December 4, 2008 |access-date=June 14, 2017 |website=Ars Technica}}{{cite web |last=Rausch |first=Allen Delsyn |date=December 7, 2006 |title=Left Behind: Eternal Forces Review |url=http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/left-behind-eternal-forces/749748p1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825050703/http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/left-behind-eternal-forces/749748p1.html |archive-date=August 25, 2012 |access-date=October 27, 2007 |website=GameSpy}} Representatives of the company have responded that the game's message is pacifist, because shooting nonbelievers instead of converting them costs the player "spirit points", which can be recovered by pausing to pray.{{cite news |last=Lelchuk |first=Ilene |date=January 9, 2011 |title='Convert or die' game divides Christians / Some ask Wal-Mart to drop Left Behind |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/12/MNG8TMU1KQ1.DTL |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111018153735/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2006%2F12%2F12%2FMNG8TMU1KQ1.DTL |archive-date=October 18, 2011 |access-date=November 15, 2018 |work=San Francisco Chronicle}} The company also responded to these criticisms in an online newsletter, stating, "There is no violence, only conflict," and, "The most successful way to fight, is through the means of spiritual warfare; PRAYER and WORSHIP. Soldiers and military weaponry are available, but once anyone plays the game, they'll see how difficult it is to succeed by using these less effective means of warfare."{{cite web |last=Lyndon |first=Troy A. |title=LB Games – Newsletter |url=http://www.leftbehindgames.com/pages/newsletter/#_Toc156015125 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011071023/http://leftbehindgames.com/pages/newsletter/#_Toc156015125 |archive-date=October 11, 2007 |access-date=October 27, 2007 |website=Left Behind Games}}

{{Infobox album

| name = People Get Ready

| type = soundtrack

| artist = Various artists

| cover =

| alt =

| released = November 17, 1998

| recorded =

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Christian music

| length =

| label = Forefront

| producer =

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title =

| next_year =

}}

The album People Get Ready: A Musical Collection Inspired by The Left Behind Series was released in 1998.{{Cite web |last=Lang |first=George |date=December 31, 1999 |title=The end is near, or so they sing: Time to party hearty to tunes of doom, gloom, destruction |url=https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/1999/12/31/the-end-is-near-or-so-they-sing-time-to-party-hearty-to-tunes-of-doom-gloom-destruction/62215779007/ |access-date=February 8, 2025 |website=The Oklahoman}}

{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}

• Armageddon
• Christian theology
• Christian Zionism
• Covenantalism
• Futurism
• Hal Lindsey
• Historicism
• Idealism
• The Late Great Planet Earth
• Summary of Christian eschatological differences
• Christian science fiction
• The Leftovers (novel)
• The Leftovers (TV series)

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• DeMar, Gary, Left Behind: Separating Fact from Fiction. Powder Springs, Georgia, 2009. {{ISBN|0-915815-38-9}}
• Eford, James M. Left Behind? What the Bible Really Says about the End Times. Macon, Georgia, Smyth & Helys, 2006. {{ISBN|1-57312-461-3}}
• Forbes, Bruce David and Jeanne Halgren Kilde (eds.), Rapture, Revelation, and the End Times: Exploring the Left Behind Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004. {{ISBN|1-4039-6525-0}}
• Frykholm, Amy Johnson. Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America. Oxford University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0-19-515983-7}}
• {{cite journal | author = Monahan, Torin. | year = 2008 | title = Marketing the Beast: Left Behind and the Apocalypse Industry | journal = Media, Culture & Society | volume = 30 | issue = 6 | pages = 813–830 | url = http://publicsurveillance.com/papers/MOB.pdf | doi = 10.1177/0163443708096095 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.691.2622 | s2cid = 143404910 | access-date = January 28, 2015 | archive-date = August 1, 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190801092713/http://publicsurveillance.com/papers/MOB.pdf | url-status = live }}
• Olson, Carl E. Will Catholics be Left Behind? San Francisco, Ignatius Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-898709-50-4}}
• Standaert, Michael, 2006 Skipping Towards Armageddon: The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire (Soft Skull Press)
• Rossing, Barbara R., The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation, New York: Basic Books, 2004. {{ISBN|0-8133-4314-3}}
• Shuck, Glenn W. Marks Of The Beast: The Left Behind Novels And The Struggle For Evangelical Identity. New York University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0-8147-4005-7}}
• Gribben, Crawford, Rapture Fiction and the Evangelical Crisis. Evangelical Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-85234-610-7}}.
• Snow Flesher, LeAnn, Left Behind? The Facts Behind the Fiction. Valley Forge, Judson Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-8170-1490-X}}
• Tuley, Glenn, Not Left Behind: A Tribulation Survival Manual. Bedford, TX, Burkhart Books, 2015. {{ISBN|978-1-940359-25-0}}

• [http://www.leftbehind.com Official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151201075459/http://www.leftbehind.com/ |date=December 1, 2015 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050323074155/http://www.oneplace.com/special/left_behind/ Archive of Left Behind radio shows] in RealAudio
• [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080102094803/https://www.wels.net/cgi-bin/site.pl?1518&cuTopic_topicID=77&cuItem_itemID=10496 WELS Topical Q&A: Left Behind Series] (a Confessional Lutheran perspective)
• [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/11/05/left-behind-index-the-whole-thing/ Slacktivist blog] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531160604/https://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/11/05/left-behind-index-the-whole-thing/ |date=May 31, 2021 }} analysis and critique of Left Behind
• {{ISFDB series|24141|Left Behind}}

{{Left Behind}}

{{portalbar|Christianity}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Left Behind}}

Category:American post-apocalyptic novels

Category:American Christian novels

Category:American novels adapted into films

Category:Apocalyptic fiction

Category:Book series introduced in 1995

Category:Christian Zionism

Category:Controversies in Christian literature

Category:Dispensationalism

Category:Dystopian novels

Category:Novel series

Category:Rapture

Category:Tyndale House books

Category:LGBTQ-related controversies in literature

Category:Religious controversies in literature

Category:Works based on the Book of Revelation

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