Left Behind is a Christian novel written by authors Tim La Haye and Jerry B. Jenkins. It is a series of 16 best-selling fictional books on the Christian dispensational End times. The 16 series are The Rising, The Regime, The Rapture, Left Behind Tribulation Force, Nicolae and Soul Harvest. Others are Apollyon, Assassins, The Indwelling, The Mark, Desecration, The Remnant, Armageddon, Glorious Appearing and Kingdom Come. These 16 series were published from 1995 to 2007. It has since been adapted into four films to date. They are Left Behind: The Movie (2000), Left Behind II Tribulation Force (2002), Left Behind: World at War (2005), and Left Behind (2014). Apart from graphic novels, CDs, series written for kids called ‘Left Behind: The Kids, the book also have a video game titled ‘Left Behind: Eternal Force’.
The major character in this novel is a group called ‘The Tribulation Force’. They are a group of underground Post-Rapture Christian converts. The group includes Rayford Steele, Chloe Steele, Cameron ‘’Buck’’ Williams, Tsion Ben-Judah, and Bruce Barnes. Nicolae Carpathia is another great character; he is a politician who represented the foretold Anti-Christ.
Left Behind was based on a dispensationalist interpretation of prophecies in the Biblical books of Revelation, Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. It tells the story of the end, in which true believers in Christ have been ‘’raptured’’ (taking instantly to heaven). The world became shattered and chaotic after this occurrence. It was during this trying period that an obscure Romanian politician named Nicolae Jetty Carpathia rises to become secretary-general of the United Nations. He promises to restore peace and stability to all nations not knowing that he was the Anti-Christ foretold in the Bible. On a rescue mission, an airline pilot, his daughter, their pastor, and a young journalist begin their quest as the Tribulation Force. Their aim is to save the lost and prepare for the coming tribulation, in which God will rain down judgment on the world for seven years.