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 novels are Christian eschatological narratives expounding LaHaye's dispensationalist interpretation of the New Testament's Book of Revelation. This includes the rapture of Christian believers prior to a tumultuous seven-year period known as the Great Tribulation, the main conflict narrated by the original 12 books. After rising to power, the Antichrist installs a new world order that oppresses Christian converts and forces them into hiding until Jesus's Second Coming, preceding a thousand years of peace.
The series has achieved significant commercial success, with multiple titles reaching the top of The New York Times Best Seller list and over 65 million copies sold worldwide by 2016. Critically, the series has been both influential and controversial, reflecting shifts in American evangelicalism, particularly a move toward political and social activism and a more divisive view of non-Christians. Scholars and critics have noted its triumphalist theology, perceived anti-Catholicism, sensational depictions of violence, and alignment with conspiratorial fears of globalism and one-world government, themes that some link to later movements, including QAnon. While praised by figures such as Jerry Falwell for its religious impact, others have criticized its theology, political messaging, and literary quality, with some viewing it as representative of American exceptionalism and neoliberal values.
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.
Contents
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.
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'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.
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
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". 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 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.
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.
Related series
Left Behind: The Kids series
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.
Spinoff books
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.
Graphic novels
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. 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 December 2006 out of print. A compilation of the graphic novels for the first book was later released as one novel.
Film adaptations
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. 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, and was #1 in terms of overall sales for two days on Amazon.com.
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. 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.
Video game
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.
Although the original game was accused of encouraging religious violence, not all reviewers of the game or critics of the Left Behind series shared that view. 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. 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."
Music
The album People Get Ready: A Musical Collection Inspired by The Left Behind Series was released in 1998.