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====Influences on the authors====
LaHaye and Jenkins cite the influence of [[Russell Doughten]], an Iowa-based filmmaker who directed the [[A Thief in the Night (film series)|''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 (film)|A Thief in the Night]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Dean A. |date=2012-03-07 |title=The Original 'Left Behind' |url=https://christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/originalleftbehind.html |access-date=2023-08-06 |website=ChristianityToday.com |language=en-us |archive-date=August 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230806182100/https://christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/originalleftbehind.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Indeed, the title ''Left Behind'' echoes the refrain of ''Thief''{{'s}} [[Christian rock|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.<ref name=":4">{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>
== Reception ==
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=== Critical response ===
One reason often 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
[[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."<ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101050207/photoessay/15.html|title=Tim and Beverly LaHaye |magazine=TIME|access-date=September 8, 2007 |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}}</ref>
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Laurie Goodstein, writing in 1998 for ''The New York Times'', placed what she called the "''Left Behind'' phenomenon" in the [[calendar|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".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/04/us/fast-selling-thrillers-depict-prophetic-view-of-final-days.html|title=Fast-Selling Thrillers Depict Prophetic View of Final Days|first=Laurie|last=Goodstein|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 4, 1998|access-date=January 29, 2018|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|url-status=live}}</ref>
While writing that the series fulfills the norms of mass-market fiction, as mentioned above, magazine writer [[Michelle Goldberg]] characterized the books as an attack on [[Judaism]] and [[liberalism|liberal]] [[secularism]], and suggested that the near-future "[[Eschatology|end times]]" in which the books are set seem to reflect the actual worldview of millions of Americans, including many prominent [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] leaders.<ref name="Salon">{{dead link|date=June 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind/|title=Salon.com: Fundamentally unsound|date=July 30, 2002 |access-date=October 4, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831214641/http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2002/07/29/left_behind|archive-date=August 31, 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> Similarly, [[Glenn Shuck]] 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."<ref>{{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 |jstor=40006389 |issn=0002-7189}}</ref>
==== Anti-Catholicism ====
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==== End-times theology ====
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.<ref name=boston>{{cite web|last1=Boston|first1=Rob|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|website=[[Americans United for Separation of Church and State]]|access-date=April 1, 2015|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|date=February 2002}}</ref> [[Dispensationalism]] remains a minority view among theologians.<ref name=dart>{{cite web|last1=Dart|first1=John|title='Beam me up' theology—The Debate Over 'Left Behind'|url=http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2600|publisher=Christian Century Foundation|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402123910/http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2600|archive-date=April 2, 2015|date=September 25, 2002|access-date=April 1, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> For instance, [[amillennialism|amillennial]] and [[postmillennialism|postmillennial]] Christians do not believe in the same timeline of the Second Coming as [[premillennialism|premillennialists]], while [[preterism|preterist]] Christians interpret the Book of Revelation as events that have already been fulfilled in the 1st Century. [[Brian McLaren]] of the [[Emerging Church|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|[Dan] Brown]] is twisting scripture, just to other political ends."<ref name=Brian>{{cite web|last1=McLaren|first1=Brian|title=Brian McLaren on the Da Vinci Code|url=http://forgodsfame.org/2006/05/09/brian-mclaren-on-the-da-vinci-code/|website=Grace Fellowship|publisher=Sojourners Magazine|access-date=April 1, 2015|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|url-status=live|date=May 9, 2006}}</ref> John Dart, writing in ''Christian Century'', characterized the works as "[[Beam me up, Scotty#Legacy|beam me up]] theology."<ref name="dart"/> University of Notre Dame religion scholar Jason Springs argues that evangelical beliefs on the role of the modern state of [[Israel]] have been shaped by the books. He also regards the series' apocalypticism as one aspect that would later feed into the evangelical adoption of [[QAnon]].<ref>{{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}}</ref>
==== 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.<ref name="Rossing2007">{{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}}</ref><ref name="cloud"/><ref name="whitehead">John W. Whitehead. "[http://www.rutherford.org/Oldspeak/Articles/Religion/oldspeak-worldwar3.asp God So Loved the World that He Gave Us World War III] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080112214410/http://www.rutherford.org/oldspeak/Articles/Religion/oldspeak-worldwar3.asp |date=2008-01-12 }}". ''OldSpeak''. July 1, 2004.</ref> 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".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Re-Sacralizing Violence in Left Behind |url=http://girardianlectionary.net/res/left_behind_resacralizing_violence.htm |access-date=2023-08-06 |website=girardianlectionary.net |archive-date=November 19, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119140743/http://girardianlectionary.net/res/left_behind_resacralizing_violence.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''[[Time Magazine|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.)"<ref name="cloud">John Cloud and Rancho Mirage. "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,265422,00.html?iid=chix-sphere Meet the Prophet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081201023315/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,265422,00.html?iid=chix-sphere |date=2008-12-01 }}". ''Time''. June 23, 2002.</ref>
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".<ref>{{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}}</ref>
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".<ref name="Carlson">{{cite web|url=http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/CarlsonPremillenial.php|title=Left Behind" and the Corruption of Biblical Interpretation|access-date=May 12, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150602001404/http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/CarlsonPremillenial.php|archive-date=June 2, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>
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".<ref>{{Citation |last1=Serazio |first1=Michael |title=Right Behind 'Left Behind': The Conservative Geopolitics of Christian Apocalyptic Entertainment |date=2008 |pages=9 |publisher=Conference Papers – [[International Communication Association]] |last2=Hardy |first2=Bruce |via=[[EBSCOhost]]}}</ref>
=== ''Left Behind: The Kids'' series ===
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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 (author)|Mel Odom]] with his ''Apocalypse'' military series and [[Neesa Hart]] with her political thriller series, both taking place concurrently with the main series.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
|-
! Author !! Title (
|-
| Mel Odom || ''Apocalypse Dawn: The Battle Begins
|-
| Mel Odom || ''Apocalypse Crucible: The Battle Continues
|-
| Mel Odom || ''Apocalypse Burning: The Battle Lines Are Drawn
|-
| Mel Odom || ''Apocalypse Unleashed: The Battle Rages On
|-
| Neesa Hart || ''End of State: Now All the Rules Have Changed
|-
| Neesa Hart || ''Impeachable Offense: The Conspiracy Grows
|-
| Neesa Hart || ''Necessary Evils: A Time For Treason
|}
===Graphic novels===
In 2002, a series of [[graphic novel]]s 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
==Film adaptations==
{{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 LaLonde|Paul
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.<ref name="Imdb">{{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}}</ref> 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]]'').
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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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cloud Ten Plans Big Budget Left Behind Remake|date=October 13, 2010|url=http://www.cloudtenpictures.com/site2/pdf/Press_Release_LEFT_BEHIND.pdf|access-date=January 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111027131700/http://www.cloudtenpictures.com/site2/pdf/Press_Release_LEFT_BEHIND.pdf|archive-date=October 27, 2011}}</ref> [[Left Behind (2014)|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 [[box office bomb|flopped at the box office]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.movietickets.com/movie/mid/188267|title=Left Behind|access-date=October 4, 2014|archive-date=October 3, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141003014252/http://www.movietickets.com/movie/mid/188267|url-status=live}}</ref>
''[[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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.christianpost.com/news/left-behind-author-tim-lahaye-worked-on-gen-x-apocalyptic-film-vanished-before-his-death-167895/|title='Left Behind' Author Tim LaHaye Worked on Gen X Apocalyptic Film 'Vanished' Before His Death|date=August 13, 2016|access-date=June 1, 2022|archive-date=September 4, 2022|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/|url-status=live}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LB2 Day 1 {{!}} FINALLY!! {{!}} By Left Behind {{!}} Facebook |url=https://www.facebook.com/leftbehindthemovie/videos/lb2-day-1/576412050103706/ |access-date=2023-08-06 |website=www.facebook.com |language=en |archive-date=January 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112235219/https://www.facebook.com/leftbehindthemovie/videos/lb2-day-1/576412050103706/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
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-->
''People Get Ready: A Musical Collection Inspired by The Left Behind Series'' (1998) is "a musical collection inspired by the Left Behind series."{{Quote without source|date=August 2024}}
==See also==
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[[Category:Rapture]]
[[Category:Tyndale House books]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Religious controversies in literature]]
[[Category:Works based on the Book of Revelation]]
[[pl:Dzień zagłady (utwór)]]
[[zh:末日迷蹤]]
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