Left Behind

''Left Behind'' is a multimedia franchise of apocalyptic fiction written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, released by Tyndale House Publishers from 1995 to 2007.

The bestselling premillennial novels are Christian eschatological narratives inspired by the New Testament's Book of Revelation. The storyline focuses on a seven-year conflict, the post-rapture Great Tribulation, between an underground network of Christian converts and an oppressive new world order led by the Antichrist. The series expounds a Christian dispensationalist view of the End Times, specifically LaHaye's pretribulation and premillennial eschatology.

The series has been adapted into five films. The original series of three films are '' Left Behind: The Movie'' (2000), '' Left Behind II: Tribulation Force'' (2002), and '' Left Behind: World at War'' (2005). A reboot starring Nicolas Cage, entitled '' Left Behind'', was released in 2014 through Cloud Ten Pictures. A sequel, '' Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist'', directed by and starring Kevin Sorbo, was released in 2023. The series inspired an audio drama as well as the PC game '' Left Behind: Eternal Forces'' (2006) and its several sequels.

Books

Main series

''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. 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.

Characters

Influences on the authors

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''. Indeed, the title ''Left Behind'' echoes the refrain of ''Thief'' 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.

Reception

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.

In 2016, several books in the series were bestsellers and 65 million copies were sold in various languages.

Critical response

Evangelical shift and views on non-Christians

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 " ot yet knowingwho 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". 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.

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.

Anti-Catholicism

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 and that the new pope establishes a false religion. 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. 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.

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. According to LaHaye, "the books don't suggest any particular theology, but try to introduce people to a more personal relationship with Jesus".

Violence and war

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. 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". ''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.)"

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".

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 omingfrom the outside' with 'the solution sthe destruction of the evil-doers".

Relationship to believed prophetic events

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". 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". 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." 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 hristian rightwriters."

Apocalypticism, conspiratorialism, and militias

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''. 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.

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".

American Century and American exceptionalism

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.

End-times theology and premillennial dispensationalism

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. Dispensationalism remains a minority view among theologians. 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 anBrown is twisting scripture, just to other political ends." 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.neoliberalism