With the release of the 12th and final book of the Left Behind series (though a prequel and sequel are scheduled), the phenomenon has once again shocked media elites. The nearly two million print-run sold out before the book even went on sale prompting news coverage. Newsweekput the writing duo of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins on its cover. The series is almost ten years old, however, and Christianity Today and its sister publications have been following it for some time.
Left Behind: The Book Series
Our original review of Left Behind: The Bible Study at the End of the World | Recent novels by evangelical leaders say more about popular American Christianity than about the end times (Sept. 1, 1997)
Newsweek catches up to Left Behind | What more can be said about the Left Behind series? Not much, though this week's Newsweek cover story tries to go for one less-played angle Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted May 20, 2004
Weblog: Time's Up? | Have You Heard About the Left Behind Book Series? Time Apparently Hadn't Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted May 20, 2004
No Longer Left Behind | An insider's look at how Christian books are agented, acquired, packaged, branded, and sold in today's marketplace. By Steve Rabey | posted April 12, 2002
Bible Prophecy Sales Boom | Whether scholarship or fiction, prophetic books are top sellers after September 11. By Mark A. Kellner | posted Oct. 28, 2001
Apocalyptic Sales Out of This World | With its fast-paced plots and high-velocity sales, the Left Behind fiction series has popularized pretribulational premillennialism much as Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness interested readers in spiritual warfare in the 1980s By Steve Rabey | March 1, 1999
Left Behind: The Films
Few Flashes of Creativity Enliven Left Behind 2 | Tribulation Force will satisfy those who feel the movies are meant to explicitly preach the gospel. By Douglas LeBlanc | posted Nov. 14, 2002
'The End Is Not Yet' | The president of Dallas Theological Seminary says there will be an increase in wars and rumors of wars before the end times, but date setting should not be a priority for evangelicals. An interview with Mark Bailey | posted March 27, 2003
The Iraq War Has Little Effect on the Rapture Index | The founder of an online end times "speedometer" says that other current events are more connected to biblical prophecy. An interview with Todd Strandberg | posted March 27, 2003
Christian History Corner: Zion Haste | Does the passion of a few nineteenth-century Chicagoans still influence American policy in the Middle East? By Elesha Coffman | posted Feb. 1, 2002
The Revelation Will Be Televised | "Apocalypse!," tonight's episode of PBS's Frontline, gets better after its biblical criticism By Elesha Coffman | posted November 22, 1999
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Is Revelation Prophecy or History? | Some events described in Revelation occurred contemporaneously with the prophecies themselves By David S. Dockery | October 25, 1999
Apocalypse Now | Worried about the future? Revelation says more about church life today than about how the world will end. By J. Nelson Kraybill | October 25, 1999
Stop the Dating Game | Don't do what Jesus said can't be done. By Vernard Eller | October 25, 1999
The Millennial Book Awards | A review of end-times books with only a wee, little bit of Y2K hype thrown in By Mark Galli | October 25, 1999
Before Left Behind | It's not easy to say something new about the end of the world. by Crawford Gribben | Books & Culture, July/August 2003
Left Behind: Stronger Than Fiction | Nearly 3,000 people have written to say they accepted Christ after reading the Left Behind series Today's Christian, November/December 2002
Take Five: Jerry Jenkins | An interview with the Left Behind coauthor—and our magazine's first editor Today's Christian Woman, November/December 2000
The End | What Christians have believed about the Second Coming for 2,000 years Christian History, Winter 1999
While we pray for peace, we need moral clarity about this war.
As my doubts about his teachings grew, so did a secret fascination with Jesus.
We must always be people of the Word, but we’ll have to reimagine deep engagement with Scripture.
