History Literature / LeftBehind

* VillainBall: Several minor bad guys seem to do their evil business the old-fashioned way, ignoring the opportunities the Rapture presents. Like the burglar who robs Steele's house instead of one of the many abandoned homes where the families where Raptured, and stealing a child's bike (every child on the planet has vanished, remember?). Or the SupremeCouncilOfVagueness who stages a [[NeverSuicide faked suicide]] when killing [[HeKnowsTooMuch Buck's insider]]. This is within two days tops since more than a billion people worldwide vanished without a trace, which suggest a much better way to cover up the murder.

* ShoutOut: Mac [=McCullum=] comments in ''Glorious Appearing'' that Nicolae Carpathia would be DerivativeWorks/{{Zorro}} if he added a hat and mask to the ensembler he wore at the battle of Armageddon.

[[TropeCodifier The one that]] made [[CaughtUpInTheRapture the Rapture]] common knowledge.

While not quite the first -- Salem Kirban's more out-there ''666'' was published over 20 years earlier -- ''Left Behind'' is ''the'' Christian End Times series as far as public recognition goes, at least in America. Written over the course of a decade by Creator/TimLaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, ''Left Behind'' and its sequels offer a fictionalized version of future history and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the dramatic end of the world]], as understood by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism Premillennial]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism Dispensationalist]] Christian tradition. TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, millions of Christians suddenly disappear without a trace, as the ancient cosmic war between Good and Evil speeds toward its culmination, and a new regime [[{{Dystopia}} unlike any other]] seizes power over the globe. Of those [[TitleDrop left behind]] in a world of descending darkness, who will succumb, and who will struggle for the light?

While not quite the first -- the ''Literature/ChristCloneTrilogy'' was around earlier, and Salem Kirban's more out-there ''666'' before that -- ''Left Behind'' is ''the'' Christian End Times series as far as public recognition goes, at least in America. Written over the course of a decade by Creator/TimLaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, ''Left Behind'' and its sequels offer a fictionalized version of future history and [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the dramatic end of the world]], as understood by the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism Premillennial]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism Dispensationalist]] Christian tradition. TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, millions of Christians suddenly disappear without a trace, as the ancient cosmic war between Good and Evil speeds toward its culmination, and a new regime [[{{Dystopia}} unlike any other]] seizes power over the globe. Of those [[TitleDrop left behind]] in a world of descending darkness, who will succumb, and who will struggle for the light?

* ShoutOut: Mac [=McCullum=] comments in ''Glorious Appearing'' that Nicolae Carpathia would be {{Literature/Zorro}} if he added a hat and mask to the ensembler he wore at the battle of Armageddon.

* SmugSnake: Nicolae is pretty clearly supposed to be seen as a purely evil but still scarily charismatic and competent [[TheChessmaster Chessmaster]] (not unlike StarWars' Emperor), but he ''actually'' comes off as trying too hard without really knowing what he's doing. His subordinates, namely Leon and Peter Matthews, are more deliberate {{Smug Snake}}s.

** Subverted big time with Sorin and Marilena Carpathia, as their marriage was one of convenience. Marilena wanted kids. Sorin didn't, which made her easy pickings for [[TheDarkChick Viviana Ivansova - the future Viv Ivins.]]