Left behind Series

The Left Behind series came to national prominence in the United States in the late 1990s. A sequence of 12 books written by Timothy LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, two popular evangelical writers, it traces the events of the biblical “end times” as they have been interpreted by certain Protestant groups in the United States and England. The story begins with the “rapture,” an event in which Jesus secretly takes all true believers to heaven. For those left behind, the world quickly falls into chaos, and the novels trace the 7 years of a period of suffering, called the “tribulation,” ending with an apocalyptic battle between Satan and Jesus. None of this story is original to LaHaye and Jenkins but instead stems from an approximately 100-year-old tradition of biblical interpretation.

Over the 9 years of the series' publication, it sold 60 million copies, including audiobooks, graphic novels, and a distinct children's series. Its presence on the New York Times bestseller list and its extensive sales in mainstream retail outlets such as Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, and Costco made the series remarkable. While the series was experiencing success in the United States, it was also being translated into several other languages. The first language was Afrikaans, the second Spanish. The series has sold best in Spanish and Chinese. At present, the first book in the series has been translated into 12 languages, with another 16 languages in some stage of preparation. Tyndale House reports sales of more than 1 million copies internationally.

For many evangelical Christians, the international spread of the series is an encouraging sign of church growth. For some critics, it is a cause for concern. The first reason is that the series is accused of American chauvinism. Although converts to Christianity in the series come from every corner of the globe, their leaders are always Americans. Characters from everywhere speak in an American idiom, and the authors have low sensitivity for cultural difference. The other cause for concern is the image of global violence. The series becomes increasingly bloody as it reaches the battle at Armageddon, and the authors have been dismissive of concerns, arguing that the images they are working with are biblical. The question is [Page 699]whether the series has the capacity to incite violence. Some critics have said that reading about global conflict between Christians and all others resonates in one way in Iowa, but it resonates quite differently in international conflict zones between Christians and Muslims.

As Christianity experiences what many scholars have called a global revival, particularly in its charismatic and Pentecostal forms, it will be interesting to see what role, if any, the Left Behind series will play. The rapture is not particularly important in the prosperity gospel theology, but as popular religion, the rapture and tribulation have proven resilient and adaptable.