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** It also happens in ''Assassins'', where Buck realizes that Nicolae Carpathia had just hypnotized the audience into not caring about the coming announcement of Pope Peter the Second's death at the Global Gala.
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*** The pilot of a Concorde, bound for the US from France, reports that his flight "lost nearly fifty" passengers in the Rapture. Concorde carried exactly 100 passengers. As Fred Clark [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2003/12/10/lb-concorde-calling/ puts it]], "LaHaye and Jenkins would have us believe that nearly 50 born-again, evangelical Christian millionaires were visiting Paris and were willing and able to spare no expense to return to New York City as fast, and in as much luxury, as humanly possible."
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*** The pilot of a Concorde, bound for the US from France, reports that his flight "lost nearly fifty" passengers in the Rapture. Concorde carried exactly 100 passengers. As Fred Clark [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2003/12/10/lb-concorde-calling/ puts it]], "LaHaye "[=LaHaye=] and Jenkins would have us believe that nearly 50 born-again, evangelical Christian millionaires were visiting Paris and were willing and able to spare no expense to return to New York City as fast, and in as much luxury, as humanly possible."
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* SuperSenses: Being Born Again gives Buck a kind of Truth-O-Vision at the end of the first book/movie; he, and he alone, can see through the Antichrist's veil of deceit with the shooting incident at the United Nations, and knows what ''really'' happened.
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*** Thirdly, no mention of God setting up any "concentration camps" like Nicolae eventually did for the Jews outside Israel in the latter half of the Tribulation.
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*** Thirdly, no mention of God setting up any "concentration camps" like Nicolae eventually did for the Jews among the prison populations outside Israel in the latter half of the Tribulation.
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*** Thirdly, no mention of God setting up any "concentration camps" like Nicolae eventually did for the Jews outside Israel in the latter half of the Tribulation.
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There is [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/tag/left-behind/ a blog]] which has been doing an in-depth analysis and criticism of the books and authors, practically page-by-page (beginning [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/2011/08/07/left-behind-index-i-posts-1-50/ here]]).
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There is [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/tag/left-behind/ a blog]] which has been doing an in-depth analysis and criticism of the books and authors, practically page-by-page (beginning [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/2011/08/07/left-behind-index-i-posts-1-50/ here]]).
here]]). Though this anaylsis is not the only focus of the blog, it has been going on for nigh-on ten years, occupies 28 pages of blog all by itself, and ''is only on book three''.
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** Lampshaded when Rosenzweig points out he is a botanist, not a physicist, when asked to explain the sudden decrease of solar intensity.
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** Even squickier when one realizes that this "argument" involved Rayford [[spoiler:somehow presciently being aware that Buck is not, in fact, engaged.]]
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* ItsNotPornItsArt: Guy Blod, a sculptor working for the Global Community, decides an appropriate memorial for the late Antichrist would be an enormous, highly-detailed metal nude. He reacts this way to "Tribulation Saints" who find the statue unsettling. (No one else cares — by this point in the series, all television is either porn or {{Gorn}}. Even the news.)
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* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Chloe's comment to Buck trying to explain the reason for his calling a car by a girl's name in ''The Mark''.
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** Also any scene where the heroes have to talk with Nicolae arguely counts, or at least it is treated with the same degree of dread by the act of conversing with such an prime agent of evil.
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** Also any scene where the heroes have to talk with Nicolae arguely arguably counts, or at least it is treated with the same degree of dread by the act of conversing with such an prime agent of evil.
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* BeingEvilSucks: You're pretty much boned if [[HeelFaceDoorSlam you take the mark of loyalty and worship the image of the Antichrist.]] Not to mention that you will be subject to God's retribution in the form of his bowl judgements.
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* BeingEvilSucks: You're pretty much boned if [[HeelFaceDoorSlam you take the mark of loyalty and worship the image of the Antichrist.]] Not to mention that you will be subject to God's retribution in the form of his bowl judgements.judgments.
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* DrivenToSuicide: From the Rapture to the end of the Tribulation...most of them were unbelievers or those who backed the Global Community, particularly more so when [[HeelFaceDoorSlam they've taken the Mark Of The Beast only to realize it's a point of no return]].
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* DrivenToSuicide: From the Rapture to the end of the Tribulation... most of them were unbelievers or those who backed the Global Community, particularly more so when [[HeelFaceDoorSlam they've taken the Mark Of The Beast only to realize it's a point of no return]].
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** Also played straight with the [[PathOfInspiration Enigma Babylon One World Faith]], a global religion engineered by the {{Antichrist}}. Essentially, anyone who is does not hold to the "true" Christian faith gets rolled into one big spiritual group, and does so willingly. [[BellisariosMaxim Nevermind that]] there are a variety of traditional, theological, and dogmatic differences between these groups which would be irreconcilable with regard to joining together into one diverse-but-united faith under a central authority.
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** Also played straight with the [[PathOfInspiration Enigma Babylon One World Faith]], a global religion engineered by the {{Antichrist}}. Essentially, anyone who is does not hold to the "true" Christian faith gets rolled into one big spiritual group, and does so willingly. [[BellisariosMaxim Nevermind Never mind that]] there are a variety of traditional, theological, and dogmatic differences between these groups which would be irreconcilable with regard to joining together into one diverse-but-united faith under a central authority.
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* EasyLogistics: A literary example. TheAntiChrist's plan involves forming a OneWorldGovernment, redistributing governing districts from nation-states to several arbitrary regional divisions, mashing all global religions into OneTrueFaith, turning all public and private media worldwide into a single PropagandaMachine, disarming the nations of the world by retiring ninety percent of their armed forces and the destruction of ninety percent of their equipment, turning the remaining ten percent over to the command of the new Global Community, relocating the UnitedNations from [[BigAppleSauce New York]] to a newly established and rapidly developed city in the Iraqi desert, and rebuilding the temple in {{Jerusalem}}. This plan is begun, implimented, and accomplished in only a few years, administrated by only a few people, despite the mind-boggling complexity that such global re-organizing would involve.
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* EasyLogistics: A literary example. TheAntiChrist's plan involves forming a OneWorldGovernment, redistributing governing districts from nation-states to several arbitrary regional divisions, mashing all global religions into OneTrueFaith, turning all public and private media worldwide into a single PropagandaMachine, disarming the nations of the world by retiring ninety percent of their armed forces and the destruction of ninety percent of their equipment, turning the remaining ten percent over to the command of the new Global Community, relocating the UnitedNations from [[BigAppleSauce New York]] to a newly established and rapidly developed city in the Iraqi desert, and rebuilding the temple in {{Jerusalem}}. This plan is begun, implimented, implemented, and accomplished in only a few years, administrated by only a few people, despite the mind-boggling complexity that such global re-organizing would involve.
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** To quote Jesus speaking to Asharoth, Baal, and Cankerworm from the Dramatic Audio:
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** To quote Jesus speaking to Asharoth, Astaroth, Baal, and Cankerworm from the Dramatic Audio:
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* InstantCultured[=/=]InstantExpert: Once the protagonists, and for that matter the horde of unnamed new worshipers at their church, convert they seem to become instantly knowledgeable about the authors' beliefs regarding the Bible and how Christians should act. While this is justified in the case of Rev. Bruce and perhaps Rayford (who both have at least tangental prior exposure to such religious communities,) it's rather odd to see Buck out-debating a [[StrawmanPolitical bishop]] using Bible-quotes, not to mention him and Chloe 'dating'. These two people were supposed to be a globe-trotting jetset reporter and a secular Stanford student a week ago, yet they treat handholding as a deeply intimate act that should not be rushed.
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* InstantCultured[=/=]InstantExpert: Once the protagonists, and for that matter the horde of unnamed new worshipers at their church, convert they seem to become instantly knowledgeable about the authors' beliefs regarding the Bible and how Christians should act. While this is justified in the case of Rev. Bruce and perhaps Rayford (who both have at least tangental tangential prior exposure to such religious communities,) it's rather odd to see Buck out-debating a [[StrawmanPolitical bishop]] using Bible-quotes, not to mention him and Chloe 'dating'. These two people were supposed to be a globe-trotting jetset jet-set reporter and a secular Stanford student a week ago, yet they treat handholding hand-holding as a deeply intimate act that should not be rushed.
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*** United Great Britan States (Britain, Ireland, Scotland and Wales)
*** United Eutopean States: (Most of the countries in Europe, save for Britain)
*** United Eutopean States: (Most of the countries in Europe, save for Britain)
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*** United Great Britan Britain States (Britain, Ireland, Scotland and Wales)
*** UnitedEutopean European States: (Most of the countries in Europe, save for Britain)
*** United
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*** United Asian States (China, the Koreas, Japan and Mongolia)
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*** United Asian States (China, the Koreas, Korean Peninsula, Japan and Mongolia)
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*** United Pacific States (Austrailia, Oceania and Hawaii)
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*** United Pacific States (Austrailia, (Australia, Oceania and Hawaii)
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** Rayford is actually supposed to be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, but his treatment of Hattie Durham is quite jarring. Seriously, he's committing emotional abuse, not to mention ruthless evangelism.
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** Rayford is actually supposed to be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, but his treatment of Hattie Durham is quite jarring. Seriously, jarring; seriously, he's committing emotional abuse, not to mention ruthless evangelism.
** To be fair, the nukes failed to strike though...
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*** Although to God's credit, He does allow the Other Light to have their own religion, despite the fact that it's totally in error and that the [[DeathsHourglass 100-year age limit for unbelievers]] is in place. Carpathia, on the other hand, outlawed all religions except for Carpathianism by the midpoint of the Tribulation, forcing people to either take the MarkOfTheBeast or die, and sometimes just outrightly killing them after they have taken the mark.
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*** Although to God's credit, He does allow the Other Light to have their own religion, despite the fact that it's totally in error and that the [[DeathsHourglass 100-year age limit for unbelievers]] is in place. Carpathia, on the other hand, outlawed all religions except for Carpathianism by the midpoint of the Tribulation, forcing people to either take the MarkOfTheBeast or die, and sometimes just outrightly outright killing them after they have taken the mark.
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* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The Tribulation Force is supposed to be [[LaResistance the Resistance]] to Carpathia's [[TheEmpire One World Government]]. Their track record after seven years is precisely ''one'' assasination attempt, not counting Hattie and Chaim. Buck and Rayford's rolls as {{Reverse Mole}}s in Carpathia's organization serve only [[TheWatson a narrative function as witnesses for the audience]] to the global events of the tribulation rather than any particular kind of functional espionage.
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* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The Tribulation Force is supposed to be [[LaResistance the Resistance]] to Carpathia's [[TheEmpire One World Government]]. Their track record after seven years is precisely ''one'' assasination assassination attempt, not counting Hattie and Chaim. Buck and Rayford's rolls as {{Reverse Mole}}s in Carpathia's organization serve only [[TheWatson a narrative function as witnesses for the audience]] to the global events of the tribulation rather than any particular kind of functional espionage.
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* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Portrayed very sympathetically as they are apparently the only people in the entire world, aside from the Tribulation Force, to think that One World Government and Religion is a bad thing. Note that the first book was released less than 7 months after the Oklahoma City bombing.
* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Most of humanity dies in various disasters, including actual giant rocks falling out of the sky. Many get sent to Hell, y'know.
* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Most of humanity dies in various disasters, including actual giant rocks falling out of the sky. Many get sent to Hell, y'know.
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* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Portrayed very sympathetically as they are apparently the only people in the entire world, aside from the Tribulation Force, to think that One World Government and Religion is a bad thing. Note that the first book was released less than 7 seven months after the Oklahoma City bombing.
* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Most of humanity dies in various disasters, including actual giant rocks falling out of thesky. Many sky; many of them get sent to Hell, y'know.Hell.
* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Most of humanity dies in various disasters, including actual giant rocks falling out of the
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* TheScourgeOfGod: Seal Judgements, Trumpet Judgements, Bowl Judgements...take your pick.
** The Bowl Judgements affect those who took the mark of loyalty and worshipped the Antichrist's image.
** The Bowl Judgements affect those who took the mark of loyalty and worshipped the Antichrist's image.
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* TheScourgeOfGod: Seal Judgements, Judgments, Trumpet Judgements, Judgments, Bowl Judgements...Judgments...take your pick.
** The BowlJudgements Judgments affect those who took the mark of loyalty and worshipped worshiped the Antichrist's image.
** The Bowl
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* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Party:]] The Global Gala, located in Jerusalem.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Stadium:]] The meeting of the 144,000 witnesses at Teddy Kollek Stadium, organized by Eli and Moishe.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Temple:]] The dedication of the rebuilt Temple in ''Kingdom Come.''
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Western Wall:]] Buck and Tsion's meeting with Eli and Moishe. [[BilingualDialogue Buck is hearing them speak in English, whereas Tsion is hearing them in Hebrew.]]
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Stadium:]] The meeting of the 144,000 witnesses at Teddy Kollek Stadium, organized by Eli and Moishe.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Temple:]] The dedication of the rebuilt Temple in ''Kingdom Come.''
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Western Wall:]] Buck and Tsion's meeting with Eli and Moishe. [[BilingualDialogue Buck is hearing them speak in English, whereas Tsion is hearing them in Hebrew.]]
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* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet Meet]]
** At TheParty:]] Party: The Global Gala, located in Jerusalem.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet ** At The Stadium:]] Stadium: The meeting of the 144,000 witnesses at Teddy Kollek Stadium, organized by Eli and Moishe.
*[[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Temple:]] Temple: The dedication of the rebuilt Temple in ''Kingdom Come.''
*[[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Western Wall:]] Wall: Buck and Tsion's meeting with Eli and Moishe. [[BilingualDialogue Buck is hearing them speak in English, whereas Tsion is hearing them in Hebrew.]]
** At The
*
*
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* [[ButNotTooForeign But Not Too Sinful]]: The original members of the Tribulation Force are all people who, prior to the Rapture, did not have the proper set of beliefs to be taken up by it, and hence they are [[TitleDrop left behind]], only coming to believe after the event has happened. However, they are all only "sinful" in very minor ways which require little repentance. For example, Buck, despite being a highly successful go-getting globe-trotting IntrepidReporter, remained a virgin until his marriage well into his thirties despite not having any particular reason to remain casually celibate before hand. Rayford on the other hand was married and had a faithful wife, but harbored a crush on a co-worker, though he never acted on it. Presumably this is to make these characters more comfortable to the target demographic of church-going families who might feel threatened by someone "too sinful" before their conversion.
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A reboot of the film franchise has also been announced, directed by Vic Armstrong and starring NicolasCage, Ashley Tisdale, and Chad Michael Murray.
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* KarmaHoudini: Russia fires all its nukes at Israel and is ''not'' blasted to obliviob by the USA and pals.
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* KarmaHoudini: Russia fires all its nukes at Israel and is ''not'' blasted to obliviob oblivion by the USA and pals.
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* KarmaHoudini: Russia fires all its nukes at Israel and is ''not'' blasted to obliviob by the USA and pals.
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* ActorAllusion: In the third movie, President Fitzhugh is played by Louis Gossett, Jr. His other presidential role was that of [[http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadat_(film) Anwar Sadat.]]
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* InformedAbility: ''All'' of Buck's characteristics. He is billed as an amazing reporter but all of the examples of his writing are clumsy analogies. He is (we're told) an investigative reporter, who neither investigates nor reports anything; he's supposed to be worldly wise (before his conversion), but he's a 30-year-old virgin; he's your actual globetrotting journalist, "among the top 3% of air travelers in the world", but washes his underwear in the sink because he doesn't realize hotels provide laundry service; he's a sophisticated world traveler -- who happens to be headquartered in New York, the international-cuisine capital of the planet -- but can't order in a restaurant in Tel Aviv because he cannot begin to imagine what an Israeli restaurant might have available.
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* InformedAbility: InformedAbility:
** ''All'' of Buck's characteristics. He is billed as an amazing reporter but all of the examples of his writing are clumsy analogies. He is (we're told) an investigative reporter, who neither investigates nor reports anything; he's supposed to be worldly wise (before his conversion), but he's a 30-year-old virgin; he's your actual globetrotting journalist, "among the top 3% of air travelers in the world", but washes his underwear in the sink because he doesn't realize hotels provide laundry service; he's a sophisticated world traveler -- who happens to be headquartered in New York, the international-cuisine capital of the planet -- but can't order in a restaurant in Tel Aviv because he cannot begin to imagine what an Israeli restaurant might have available.
** ''All'' of Buck's characteristics. He is billed as an amazing reporter but all of the examples of his writing are clumsy analogies. He is (we're told) an investigative reporter, who neither investigates nor reports anything; he's supposed to be worldly wise (before his conversion), but he's a 30-year-old virgin; he's your actual globetrotting journalist, "among the top 3% of air travelers in the world", but washes his underwear in the sink because he doesn't realize hotels provide laundry service; he's a sophisticated world traveler -- who happens to be headquartered in New York, the international-cuisine capital of the planet -- but can't order in a restaurant in Tel Aviv because he cannot begin to imagine what an Israeli restaurant might have available.
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* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: Generally played straight, but [[ZigZaggingTrope kind of inconsistently]] too. Much of the action in the books operates like reality, but sometimes ignores other postulates the book has already set up which would affect them. For example, the TrainsRunOnTime despite the global rapture after an very brief initial panic, or the AntiChrist takes control of all world media, business, and nations, yet these things still seem to run as though they were still independent organizations. It is a big source of FridgeLogic for the series.
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* AuthorTract
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* AuthorTractAuthorTract: The books are a narrative way of the authors communicating their end-times theology, wrapped up in an AirportFantasy package.
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* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The Tribulation Force is supposed to be [[LaResistance the Resistance]] to Carpathia's [[TheEmpire One World Government]]. Their track record after seven years is precisely ''one'' assasination attempt, not counting Hattie and Chaim. Buck and Rayford's rolls as {{ReverseMole}}s in Carpathia's organization serve only [[TheWatson a narrative function as witnesses for the audience]] to the global events of the tribulation rather than any particular kind of functional espionage.
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* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The Tribulation Force is supposed to be [[LaResistance the Resistance]] to Carpathia's [[TheEmpire One World Government]]. Their track record after seven years is precisely ''one'' assasination attempt, not counting Hattie and Chaim. Buck and Rayford's rolls as {{ReverseMole}}s {{Reverse Mole}}s in Carpathia's organization serve only [[TheWatson a narrative function as witnesses for the audience]] to the global events of the tribulation rather than any particular kind of functional espionage.
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** If there is a heroic inversion of this trope, then the main characters often play it, (see ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything above.) A lot of their resistance consists of observing Nicolae and internally disapproving, or little gestures designed to embarrass on inconvenience him rather than disrupt his plans or harm him. It would come across as petty, except, you know, they are doing it to the ''TheAntichrist''.
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* PublicExecution: The Global Community televises the execution of Chloe Williams, although Caleb the angel interferes with its broadcast by blanking out the screen at the time of her execution.
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* TakeYourTime: In book 3, Buck is on the phone with Chloe when the latter wrecks her car and the line goes dead. Buck still has time to faff about taking calls from his father and other inconsequential things before he finally rushes off to find her.
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* PokeThePoodle: While Nicolae Carpathia in the LeftBehind books does eventually commit evil such as ordering London nuked and demanding the executions of those who refuse to worship him as god, he gets only passing mention to such atrocities and instead focus on his PokeThePoodle moments such as him dating the hero's former love interest and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous treating her with respect]]. As Fred Clark on his slacktivist page states:
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* PokeThePoodle: While Nicolae Carpathia in the LeftBehind books does eventually commit evil such as ordering London nuked and demanding the executions of those who refuse to worship him as god, he gets only passing mention to such atrocities and instead focus on his PokeThePoodle moments such as him dating the hero's former love interest and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous [[FelonyMisdemeanor treating her with respect]]. As Fred Clark on his slacktivist page states:
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* ChekhovsGun: The Rapture Tape Pastor Billings made '''three years''' before the Rapture. It would be instrumental in bringing about Rayford and Chloe's salvation.
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* ChekhovsGun: ChekhovsGun:
** The Rapture Tape Pastor Billings made '''three years''' before the Rapture. It would be instrumental in bringing about Rayford and Chloe's salvation.
** The Rapture Tape Pastor Billings made '''three years''' before the Rapture. It would be instrumental in bringing about Rayford and Chloe's salvation.
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* ChekhovsGunman: Ken Ritz. Most people don't know that [[BadassBookworm he graduated Saluatorian in his high school class, or studied at the London School of Economics,]] or the ideas he had would eventually become the International Commodity Co-Op, or the fact that [[SecretlyWealthy he stashed at least 80 percent of his earnings at Palwaukee Airport, thus making him a virtual millionaire.]] Rayford's reaction to this little revelation is priceless.
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** Chaim Rosenzweig is seen working on a pet project to make the world's sharpest handmade blade in ''Assassins.'' [[spoiler:Turns out this is the murder weapon that does in Nicolae.]]
*ChekhovsGunman: ChekhovsGunman:
** Ken Ritz. Most people don't know that [[BadassBookworm he graduatedSaluatorian Salutatorian in his high school class, or studied at the London School of Economics,]] or the ideas he had would eventually become the International Commodity Co-Op, or the fact that [[SecretlyWealthy he stashed at least 80 percent of his earnings at Palwaukee Airport, thus making him a virtual millionaire.]] Rayford's reaction to this little revelation is priceless.
*
** Ken Ritz. Most people don't know that [[BadassBookworm he graduated
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* DifferentWorldDifferentMovies: The books apparently take place in a world where almost nobody has heard of the Rapture (since nobody outside the protagonists and a tiny handful of people like them even mention the resemblance), which means that they take place in a world where they were never written.
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* DifferentWorldDifferentMovies: The books apparently take place in a world where almost nobody has heard of the Rapture (since nobody outside the protagonists and a tiny handful of people like them even mention the resemblance), which means that they take place in a world where they were never written.written, or at least where they failed to attain the same success.
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* DifferentWorldDifferentMovies: The books apparently take place in a world where almost nobody has heard of the Rapture (since nobody outside the protagonists and a tiny handful of people like them even mention the resemblance), which means that they take place in a world where they were never written.
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** The aforementioned Slacktivist got a lot of comedy mileage out of the scene where Buck calmly buys a land rover (from an equally calm dealer) in the surburbs of Chichago--a few hours after the ''atom bombing'' of downtown Chichago.
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** The aforementioned Slacktivist got a lot of comedy mileage out of the scene where Buck calmly buys a land rover Land Rover (from an equally calm dealer) in the surburbs of Chichago--a Chicago--a few hours '''minutes''' after the ''atom bombing'' of downtown Chichago.Chicago.
** Nicolae Carpathia is a clear reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceau%C8%99escu Nicolae Ceausescu]], the last Romanian dictator.
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* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Portrayed very sympathetically as they are apparently the only people in the entire world, aside from the Tribulation Force, to think that One World Government and Religion is a bad thing.
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* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Portrayed very sympathetically as they are apparently the only people in the entire world, aside from the Tribulation Force, to think that One World Government and Religion is a bad thing. Note that the first book was released less than 7 months after the Oklahoma City bombing.
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** Which has absolutely nothing on Russia launching ''every single nuclear and conventional weapon it had'' against Israel, a country which (in real life) is smaller than Massachusetts.
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* BeatStillMyHeart: In the Dramatic Audio version of the book ''Armageddon'', Nicolae Carpathia holds the still-beating heart of a Global Community loyalist that he personally murdered for [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu calling him "impotent"]].
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** In ''Armageddon'', a Global Community loyalist calls Nicolae "impotent" for not having the stones to kill him himself for speaking his mind, and Nicolae responds by personally ripping out his heart.
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* APlagueOnBothYourHouses: According to T.M. Delanty, upon finding out that his brother Samuel was killed while escorting Hattie Durham, Bo Hansen got wasted in a bar, pulled out a gun, cursed Nicolae, God and the world, [[DrivenToSuicide and killed himself.]]
* DyingCurse: According to T.M. Delanty, upon finding out that his brother Samuel was killed while escorting Hattie Durham, Bo Hansen got wasted in a bar, pulled out a gun, cursed Nicolae, God and the world, [[DrivenToSuicide and killed himself.]]
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* HeroicBSOD: Tsion Ben-Judah, Chaim Rosenzweig, Buck Williams and Rayford Steele each experience this during the Tribulation. Subverted with Bo Hansen, [[APlagueOnBothYourHouses as his case was lethal.]]
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* HeroicBSOD: Tsion Ben-Judah, Chaim Rosenzweig, Buck Williams and Rayford Steele each experience this during the Tribulation. Subverted with Bo Hansen, [[APlagueOnBothYourHouses as his case was lethal.]]
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->''For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. [[BackFromTheDead And the dead in Christ will rise first]]. [[CaughtUpInTheRapture Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air]]. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.''
-->-- '''[[Literature/TheBible 1st Thessalonians]] 4:16,17 ''(NKJV)'''''
A series of religious novels by Tim [=LaHaye=] and Jerry Jenkins about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism Premillennial]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism Dispensationalist]] version of [[CaughtUpInTheRapture the Rapture]]. Despite criticism for hewing closely to a specific sect's interpretation of Literature/{{Revelation}} (or perhaps because of said hewing), it has gained a strong following among many religious people.
The good guys are a rotating group (due to the inherent high mortality rate associated with living in the End Times and fighting the Prince of Darkness) of 4-5 who call themselves the [[TheSomethingForce Tribulation Force]]. The bad guy is [[LouisCypher Nicolae Carpathia]], TheAntichrist, the most evil of all {{Evil Overlord}}s.
The original Tribulation Force consists of: Rayford Steele, the unofficial leader and a pilot who planned on cheating on his wife (Irene) with a flight attendant (Hattie) because of how his wife's preaching annoyed him; Chloe, Ray's college-age daughter; Cameron "Buck" Williams, an adventurous, street savvy newspaper reporter who eventually marries Chloe; and Bruce, the pastor who brings them all together.
Together, they launch a crusade to convert the world and protect the converts while waiting through seven years of judgments between the Rapture and the Glorious Appearing of Christ at the end of the world.
The series currently consists of sixteen novels; three are prequels dealing with the birth of the Anti-Christ, the various signs leading up to the Rapture, and the Rapture itself.
* ''The Rising: Antichrist is Born'' (2005)
* ''The Regime: Evil Advances'' (2005)
* ''The Rapture: In the Twinkling of an Eye'' (2006)
* ''Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days'' (1995)
* ''Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind'' (1996)
* ''Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist'' (1997)
* ''Soul Harvest: The World Takes Sides'' (1999)
* ''Apollyon: The Destroyer is Unleashed'' (1999)
* ''[[ColonCancer Assassins: Assignment: Jerusalem, Target: Antichrist]]'' (1999)
* ''The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession'' (2000)
* ''The Mark: The Beast Rules the World'' (2000)
* ''Desecration: Antichrist Takes the Throne'' (2001)
* ''The Remnant: On the Brink of Armageddon'' (2002)
* ''Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages'' (2003)
* ''Glorious Appearing: The End of Days'' (2004)
* ''Kingdom Come: The Final Victory'' (2007)
Has been made into three direct-to-video films, the first of which saw a brief theatrical release the week ''after'' the video hit the stores. It's also spun off into graphic novels, a series of young adult novels (with teen protagonists experiencing these events in their own way), and even a PC game, which has a sequel due out soon.
There is [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/tag/left-behind/ a blog]] which has been doing an in-depth analysis and criticism of the books and authors, practically page-by-page (beginning [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/2011/08/07/left-behind-index-i-posts-1-50/ here]]).
----
!!Provides examples of:
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Potentate Carpathia, meet Chaim Rosenzweig's [[SharpenedToASingleAtom uber-sharp blade]]. Unfortunately, Carpathia gets better... and things get a hell of a lot worse from there.
* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: Subverted big time with Floyd Charles. He contracts the poison used to kill Hattie's baby from Hattie herself and later dies from it.
* AChatWithSatan: In ''Glorious Appearing'', Satan has to remind Nicolae Carpathia who is the boss when the Antichrist gets a bit big for his britches.
-->'''Satan:''' You dare suggest you have anything to offer me besides your pathetic frame?! You are drunk with a power whose source is far beyond your own! You are merely a vessel, a tool, a jar of clay for my purposes, and yet you parade yourself as if you had a shred of value!
** Also any scene where the heroes have to talk with Nicolae arguely counts, or at least it is treated with the same degree of dread by the act of conversing with such an prime agent of evil.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Blond-haired Chloe Steele, Buck Williams, and Nicolae Carpathia in the books get darker hair in the films.
* AfterTheEnd: ...well, after the first end. The second end is still a while away. And not really an ending.
* AGodAmI: Nicolae Carpathia fancies himself this after Satan takes control.
* AirForceOne: Plays a big role in the story, centering around the hiring of Rayford Steele as the primary pilot, and the president giving it to Nicolae Carpathia so he can fly around in it as the leader of the [[OneWorldGovernment Global Community]]. Several elements of its purpose and function[[hottip:*: (such as the fact that its pilots will always be Air Force personnel rather than civilian hires, the fact that if a President is not aboard it will never use the callsign "Air Force One", or the President confiding in Buck about how upset he is by ceding it to Carpathia when in fact the President always has at least two identical planes which can serve as Air Force One in case one of them is unavailable)]] are handily overlooked for [[DanBrowned the sake of the story]].
* AllLoveIsUnrequited Floyd Charles and Hattie Durham. Also David Hassid and Hannah Palemoon.
* AlphabetNewsNetwork: Global News Network in the movies, Global Community Cable News Network in the books.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Guy Blod sounds a tad bit fruity in the Dramatic Audio of ''The Indwelling.''
** A ''tad''? The gay practically drips off the pages of the actual books every time he talks to David Hayseed, er, ''Hassid''.
* AnAssKickingChristmas: Tsion Ben-Judah gets to witness [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+12&version=NIV Revelation chapter 12]] being played out in full detail in the heavens in ''The Indwelling''.
* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: At the end of the first novel, Buck confirms to Bruce, Rayford and Chloe that Nicolae Carpathia is in fact the Antichrist foretold.
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: The Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'' has the sound of a crowd cheering wildly as Michael locks Satan away in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. However, Satan does get out in time for the FinalBattle.
** Prior to that, in the middle of the Tribulation, there were 3 1/2 days of rejoicing when the two witnesses were killed by Nicolae at the start of the Global Gala, which abruptly ended when they were resurrected and taken to heaven in a cloud, according to [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]].
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: In the prequel novel ''The Rising'', Marilena Carpathia wishes to become a mother. Enter Viviana Ivansova (Viv Ivins), who makes the following proposal to her: join our group and swear loyalty to [[{{Satan}} her lord]], and she will have the baby she so desperately desire. [[TheAntiChrist Marilena should have read the fine print about what her son will become in the future.]]
* AntiClimax: The Other Light battle versus Jesus Christ in ''Kingdom Come''. It took less time in that book to be over than the Battle of Armageddon in ''Glorious Appearing''. Chaim Rosenzweig even {{Lampshades}} this fact.
* AnyoneCanDie: Except for one person, [[spoiler:Rayford Steele]], all of the people we get to know end up dying in various painful and/or messy ways.
* APlagueOnBothYourHouses: According to T.M. Delanty, upon finding out that his brother Samuel was killed while escorting Hattie Durham, Bo Hansen got wasted in a bar, pulled out a gun, cursed Nicolae, God and the world, [[DrivenToSuicide and killed himself.]]
* ApocalypseHow: a level 1 (global DepopulationBomb) followed by a level X-4 (the annihilation of the entire ''physical'' universe or 'World', as opposed to the 'Kingdom of Heaven').
* ArabIsraeliConflict: Ended bloodlessly in the prologue. Israel, thanks to a chemical Super Miracle-Gro has bought the good will of its neighbors to the extent where they apparently have no problem with it absorbing Syria and a large chunk of Iraq.
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: You have to be in a ''very'' specific branch of Christianity to agree with the author's interpretation of Literature/TheBible.
** In-universe, the Christian denominations that don't hold to that particular teaching of the end times gets left behind. However, there are some surprising exceptions, like the Catholic congregation in South America whose priest believes in the Rapture.
** Combined with ArtisticLicenseLinguistics, in ''The Rising'', the authors have a curious etymology for Lucifer's name, from Latin lux, or lucis (light) and ferrum (iron) -- in other words, Iron (or Iron-hard) Light. They may have the language and "light" part right, but, in fact, most Christian scholars can tell you that Lucifer actually came from lucem ferre -- Light-Bearer. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer See here]].
* ArchangelGabriel / ArchangelMichael: Be it giving [[AnAssKickingChristmas Tsion Ben-Judah a front-row seat of the War In Heaven between Satan and God]], or strong-arming the Antichrist and his False Prophet, the two archangels are ready to do their Lord's bidding.
* ArcNumber: Carpathia sure has a thing for 216.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
** After Chloe is captured by the GC, among the things the GCNN report is that she was expelled from her university for making threats against the faculty, aborted two fetuses (with another daughter dying under unknown circumstances), and naming her son Jesus Savior Williams.
** Tsion Ben-Judah. Earned the ire of his fellow Israelis by declaring that Jesus is the Messiah, wanted in the murders of his wife and stepchildren, and accused of "fleecing his flock" millions of Nicks.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Applies to anyone [[CaughtUpInTheRapture who was raptured]] or martyred, as you are given a glorified body. Of course, this means that [[ChasteHero in your glorified state, you cannot fall in love, neither sire or have children.]] But for those who have been raptured and been with the Lord during the Tribulation, [[BetterThanSex nothing else]] [[LivingForeverIsAwesome quite compares to it]].
** By the end of the Millennium, all naturals who are believers are given glorified bodies.
* {{Asexuality}}: The relationship of the "glorifieds" with "naturals" and with each other in ''Kingdom Come'', mostly due to the nature of their new bodies and minds.
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The ideas for non-American names leave something to be desired. A Chinese woman named Ming Toy? An Amerindian woman named Hannah Palemoon? (Google "Princess Palemoon" to see the problem...) A Jewish man named Tsion ben-Judah? And of course, "Nicolae Carpathia", which veers into self-parody.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Bible verses aplenty.
* TheAtoner: Anyone who was left behind following the Rapture who became a Christian.
* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: The GC Unity Army is primed and ready to attack both Petra and Jerusalem in ''Armageddon''. Then Jesus arrives. Cue CurbStompBattle.
* AttemptedRape: In ''Kingdom Come'' with an unbelieving under-100 "natural" (who was part of [[LaResistance The Other Light]]) and a female "glorified" in the hopes of siring a child that may be able to [[DeathsHourglass live past 100 years of age without becoming a believer]]. God foiled the attempt by having the would-be rapist die in her arms and then incinerated. Given that "glorifieds" are [[ImmortalProcreationClause not able to sire or have children]], this would have proved to be pointless.
* AudioAdaptation: Gap Digital produced Dramatic Audio presentations of the twelve main books in the series.
* AuthorAvatar: Two of them, one for each author, although it's worth mentioning that it's more severe with Buck, since Buck is Jenkins' avatar, and Jenkins is the one who does the actual writing.
* AuthorFilibuster: The authors are not afraid of parashooting a 30 page sermon into the plot
* AuthorTract
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: [[spoiler: Jesus rewarding the Tribulation Martyrs with a martyrs' crown.]]
* BackFromTheDead: The resurrection of the dead for the final judgment.
** Carpathia resurrecting Fortunato (with a cool biblical allusion to boot), Eli and Moishe being resurrected by God, and Carpathia resurrecting himself (actually being indwelt by Satan).
---> '''Carpathia''': FORTUNATO, '''COME FORTH!'''
* BadassBeard: [[spoiler: Take a wild guess.]]
* BadassBookworm: By the end of the series, Abdullah Smith is quite the bookworm indeed. Ken Ritz is also one.
* BadassFamily: The Steeles as the Tribulation goes on, and by extension, Cameron Williams.
* BadassGrandpa: Rayford gradually grows into this role following Kenny's birth.
* BadassIsraeli: Tsion ben-Judah, David Hassid and Chaim Rosenzweig.
* BadassPreacher: Tsion Ben-Judah in ''Armageddon'' when he decides to help defend Jerusalem and preach to the Jews about Jesus Christ during the Battle of Armageddon
** Eli and Moishe also qualify.
* BadBoss: The climax of the first book centers around [[spoiler:Nicolae shooting two of his subordinates for the sole purpose of demonstrating his "power." He then brainwashes everyone in the room into forgetting what they just saw.]]
** FridgeLogic: Then why would he do it in the first place?
*** [[spoiler:He has a legitimate motive (though it seems secondary at the time) in removing them from the picture, and as it is revealed in the next book, taking over their assets. However, the "power" display itself that he touts so much is still mystifying.]]
*** [[spoiler:It's possible he did it in order to "smoke out" anyone in the room who was immune to his power (i.e., Christians). According to the first book's mythology, anyone converted to Christianity would see "the truth" behind Carpathia's magical mystical hypnotic suggestions, and would probably still be freaking out while the "true Carpathia believers" sat calmly like nothing had happened.]]
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Why did Russia ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Ethiopia]]) attack Israel? Because it was written that they would. Why would they world agree to suddenly follow one religion after so much bloody strife? It's written that they would. Not even a {{handwave}} that TheAntichrist is using mind control powers to make it happen. These people do these things solely because it's been foretold.
* BeingEvilSucks: You're pretty much boned if [[HeelFaceDoorSlam you take the mark of loyalty and worship the image of the Antichrist.]] Not to mention that you will be subject to God's retribution in the form of his bowl judgements.
* BigApplesauce: Since the Antichrist's plan so heavily involves the UN, New York is a major setting, which is made all the more jarring given the [[YouFailGeographyForever glaring errors]] written about it. In the first book, Buck (who is described as being "in great shape"), has to walk a bit through Manhattan. The journey is described like the Bataan Death March, when in reality it's less than two miles.
** He walks until he's ready to collapse from exhaustion and then he finds an abandoned bike and considers it a sign from God. In ''less than two miles''.
* BigBad: Nicolae Carpathia, throughout much of the book series.
* BigGood: God and Jesus, naturally. Jesus turns up in person at the end of the twelfth book.
* BigNo: In the Dramatic Audio of ''Glorious Appearing'', Leon Fortunato utters this (half-screaming, half-crying, actually) as he is hauled to the pit which will send him and Carpathia to the Lake of Fire.
* BilingualDialogue: While Buck is at the Wailing Wall for the first time with Tsion watching Eli and Moishe preach, Buck and Tsion hear them in their respective languages. Buck later confirms this with Tsion after asking around the crowd. One man says that they are speaking Spanish, while another says they are speaking German, and a third person hears them in Dutch.
** Played straight with Jesus Himself, as the believers hear him speak to them in their own languages; Rayford, in English, Chaim in Hebrew, Chang Wong in Mandarin Chinese, Abdullah in Arabic with Mac jokingly saying that Jesus "worked a bit of West Texan...the language of Heaven."
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: As an example, the character list in the third book lists characters as being either part of the "The Believers", "The Enemies", or "The Undecided". [[TakeAThirdOption Taking a Third Option]] in morality is not something that happens here.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: In the third Left Behind movie, Bruce Barnes bites the big one. Fitzhugh is the last to go.
** In the novels, T.M. Delanty is the first black dude to die.
* BlackMarket: Inverted with the International Commodity Co-Op, which caters to underground Christians, helping them survive the final years of the Tribulation.
* BlandNameProduct: The movies have Buck Williams working for [[CableNewsNetwork Global News Network (GNN)]].
* BondingOverMissingParents: The lead characters of ''Left Behind: The Kids'' bond together when their parents were either raptured or killed.
* {{Brainwashed}}: The Antichrist's preferred method of gaining allies and resources.
* BottomlessPit: At the end of ''Glorious Appearing'', Satan [[SealedEvilInACan gets chained up and tossed into one]]. [[ThousandYearReign He will remain there for the duration of the Millennial Kingdom.]]
* BriarPatching: Rayford pulls this off with the Potentate at the end of ''Nicolae''. Carpathia knows that Rayford is a believer and wishes to be at the meeting of the 144,000 at Teddy Kolleck Stadium. But Rayford convinces him that showing up would be to his advantage.
-->'''Rayford:''' The enemy has been known to imitate miracles. Imagine the audience in Israel if you were to do something like that. Here are people of faith coming together for inspiration. If you are God, if you could be the Messiah, wouldn't they be thrilled to meet you?
-->'''Carpathia:''' If you are suggesting that it only makes sense that the Global Community Potentate bestow upon those guests a regal welcome second to none, you may have a point...Captain Steele, schedule that flight.
* BrokenBird: Prior to becoming the head nurse at Brigham Young Hospital, Leah Rose had quite the checkered past. From a broken household to a teenage drug addict who slept around, aborted a pregnancy [[BungledSuicide and nearly killed herself several times]] before she finally cleaned herself up, got her GED and after getting married, her husband put her through nursing school and the pair adopted two boys. After their children were taken in the Rapture, she and her husband tried to kill themselves. Her husband succeeded. She didn't. In the end, she became a believer.
** Abdullah Ababaneh (Smith) gets the honorable mention. He starts off as a Muslim, but when his wife Yasmine and their two children, Bahira and Zaki become Christians, they leave him following one argument too many. This drives Abdullah into a state of depression, where he loses himself in booze and women, eventhough he wants his family back.
* BrokenPedestal: Nicolae Carpathia increasingly becomes this to those who once believed him to be a noble character, showing more and more [[EvilAllAlong what an evil sot he really is]]. Even Jesus calls him out on it, saying that all his God-given abilities could have been used for good, but he chose to use them all for serving Satan.
* [[BrosBeforeHoes Brothers Before Lovers]]: Rayford invokes this against ''his own daughter,'' when he sides with her boyfriend Buck in an argument.
* BuryYourGays: Within a few pages of (accidentally) outing herself, Verna Zee is squashed by the "Wrath of the Lamb" earthquake.
** In the prequel novels, Nicolae Carpathia has [[HasTwoMommies his two biological fathers]] killed off.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: From ''Desecration'', the exchange with Carpathia and Fortunato.
-->'''Fortunato:''' (re: Hattie's death) Holiness, I called down fire on your enemy just yesterday.
-->'''Carpathia:''' You cooked a harmless woman with a big mouth.
* [[ButICantBePregnant But She Can't Be Pregnant!:]] Buck's reaction upon finding out that ''Mother Doe'' is in fact Chloe...and that she is pregnant with their child.
* ButThouMust: In ''Desecration'', it's Hattie's confrontation with Carpathia and Fortunato.
* ButtMonkey: TheAntichrist's [[TheDragon Dragon]] has at least one moment per book where he looks like a stupendous idiot.
** Hattie Durham counts as well.
* CaliforniaDoubling: Toronto as New York for the movie, if you look closely, the international flags displayed at the UN are actually those of Canadian provinces.
* CallingYourAttacks: In ''Desecration'', Carpathia asks Morale Monitor head Loren Hut on how would he deal with dissidents. When Hut responds that he would shoot them in the head or chest, Carpathia insists that he empty his nine-round clip into the offender, starting with both hands, feet, knees, and shoulders. When they finally declare that Carpathia is indeed God, they should be executed with the [[BoomHeadshot final bullet to the head]], followed by the [[OffWithHisHead immediate beheading of the head from the body.]]
** IronicEcho: Carpathia later executes Walter Moon this way when Moon fails to have Tsion Ben-Judah removed from the GC networks.
* TheCameo: In the end of ''Kingdom Come'', we see The Beast (Nicolae Carpathia) and the False Prophet (Leon Fortunato) in the Lake of Fire screaming "JESUS IS LORD! JESUS IS LORD!"
** In the films, Christian music artists Bob Carlisle and Rebecca St. James appear as Global News Network studio workers, while the Christian music band Jake appears as United Nations security guards along with Clay Crosse. There's also John and Diana Hagee as well as Jack and Rexella Van Impe who appear as passengers on board Rayford's plane that have vanished, and T.D. Jakes who appears as Vernon Billings.
* CaughtUpInTheRapture: Kicks off the plot.
* TheCavalry: Or as one character puts it, the "Calvary cavalry", which is Jesus Christ leading His army of saints from heaven in ''Glorious Appearing''. However, Jesus does all the fighting with only the [[Literature/TheBible Word Of God]] as His weapon while the army following Him does all the praising.
* CelestialBureaucracy: A pretty effective one in ''Kingdom Come.'' Jesus is the proverbial head of state, the Levite priests oversee the rebuilt Temple, and the 11 apostles act as the civil governors with King David as their leader.
* CharacterShilling
* ChasteHero: Raymie Steele in ''Kingdom Come''. His being a "glorified" renders him permanently unable to seek any sort of sexual relationship. In fact, any child that was CaughtUpInTheRapture will end up coming back as a ChasteHero.
* ChekhovsGun: The Rapture Tape Pastor Billings made '''three years''' before the Rapture. It would be instrumental in bringing about Rayford and Chloe's salvation.
** In the prequel novel ''The Regime'', it's Chaim Rosenzweig's synthetic fertilizer (The Eden Project). Later, in ''Tribulation Force'', [[DealWithTheDevil it is used to secure a seven-year peace treaty with Israel.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: Ken Ritz. Most people don't know that [[BadassBookworm he graduated Saluatorian in his high school class, or studied at the London School of Economics,]] or the ideas he had would eventually become the International Commodity Co-Op, or the fact that [[SecretlyWealthy he stashed at least 80 percent of his earnings at Palwaukee Airport, thus making him a virtual millionaire.]] Rayford's reaction to this little revelation is priceless.
--> '''Rayford:''' Did I mention the annual dues for being a member of the Tribulation Force?
** Tsion Ben-Judah. No one would '''ever''' think that the former student of Chaim Rosenzweig would convert, or that his cyber-classes on the Messiah would lead thousands to Christ.
** Cendrillion Jospin, as it is through her death that the believers discover her connections to The Other Light.
** Irene Steele is a minor example. [[IWarnedYou She DID warn Rayford about the Rapture.]]
** Viv Ivins in the prequel novels. She did convince Marilena to become mother to the Antichrist.
* ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive: As seen in promotional shots for the movie, Gordon Currie seems to be [[HamAndCheese enjoying himself]].
* ContinuityReboot: Cloud Ten Pictures is aiming to reboot the entire film series, starting with the first book.
* CommandRoster:
** The Tribulation Force consists of:
*** TheCaptain: Rayford Steele
*** NumberTwo: Cameron "Buck" Williams
*** [[TheChick The CEO:]] Chloe Steele
*** TheMentor: Bruce Barnes, later Tsion Ben-Judah
*** TeamMom: Loretta
*** [[TheMedic The Medics]]: Floyd Charles, Hannah Palemoon and Leah Rose
*** [[ThePilot The Pilots]]: Ken Ritz, Mac [=McCullum=], Abdullah Ababaneh (Smith), Lionel Whalum, Ree Woo, and T.M. Delanty
*** [[TeenGenius Teen Geinuses]]: Chang Wong and Naomi Tiberias
*** [[TheSmartGuy The Smart Guys]]: Donny Moore originally, David Hassid, Gustaf Zuckermandel, Jr.
*** SixthRanger: Chaim Rosenzweig
** Representing the Global Community...
*** [[TheAntiChrist Antichrist / The Beast:]] Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia
*** [[TheDragon The False Prophet:]] Most High Reverend Leonardo Fortunato
*** TheRival: Pontifex Maximus Peter the Second (Peter Matthews)
*** TheDarkChick / TeamMom: Viv Ivins
*** [[NumberTwo Supreme Commander:]] Jim Hickman, Walter Moon and Suhail Akbar
*** TheSmartGuy: Aurelio Sequoia Figueroa
*** SixthRanger: Guy Blod, Loren Hut, Jock Ashmore
** Last, The Other Light
*** [[BigBad The Founder:]] Mudawar
*** [[TheDragon Co-Dragons:]] Ignace and Lothair Jospin
*** NumberTwo: Sarsour
*** TheMole: Quasim Marid
*** TheDarkChick: Nicolette
* ConspiracyTheorist: Buck Williams' informant Dirk Burton is played as one in both the novels and the movies.
* CorruptChurch: Arguably Enigma Babylon One World Faith, which consists of the Roman Catholic Church combined with other sects of Christianity that would not hold to fundamentalist doctrine as well as other religions.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Joshua Todd-Cothran and Jonathan Stonagal...until Nicolae executes the both of them. Prior to becoming the President of Romania, Carpathia himself personified this trope, as anyone who stood in his way were killed or bribed into submission.
* CozyCatastrophe: Crashed airlines, mass disappearances, and political upheaval ''everywhere'', but the trash is still getting collected, [[TheTrainsRunOnTime airline flights are uninterrupted]], and it's safe to walk the streets at night.
** The aforementioned Slacktivist got a lot of comedy mileage out of the scene where Buck calmly buys a land rover (from an equally calm dealer) in the surburbs of Chichago--a few hours after the ''atom bombing'' of downtown Chichago.
** It arguably gets more cozy right on the day of Jesus' second coming, at least for the believers. Conveniently, the world's economic system crashes with the destruction of New Babylon on the same day that Jesus comes. Everyone on Carpathia's side, who isn't in Carpathia's Unity Army and isn't so determined to go forward with destroying the Christians and Jews in Petra and Jerusalem, is in a world-wide panic.
*** This ultimately leads to [[ScrewTheWarWerePartying Screw the War, We're Praising the Lord]], when the people in Petra end up paying little attention to the Global Community Unity Army completely surrounding them and more to Jesus coming from the sky to [[CurbStompBattle slay all their enemies]] with [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]].
* CrapsaccharineWorld: The viewpoint of Christ's Millennial Reign within the Other Light faction, given the [[DeathsHourglass 100 years of age limit]] imposed on unbelieving "naturals".
* CrapsackWorld: Descends into this, but later gets turned around.
** It degenerates back into this during the Millennial Kingdom with the rise of The Other Light.
* CreatorProvincialism: Plenty. If the authors describe anyone who isn't a PMD Christian, expect a [[WarOnStraw Strawman]], a FoxNewsLiberal, this, or a combination thereof.
* CrisisOfFaith: Irene Steele experiences this before switching to New Hope Baptist Church.
* CurbStompBattle: When Jesus comes into the scene and slaughters Global Community troops en masse just by speaking [[Literature/TheBible the Word of God]], it's a total GameBreaker. He's also unstoppable, as evidenced in the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'' where the Antichrist armies launch rockets at Him with no success.
** The Satan's army vs. God battle in ''Kingdom Come'' was over in an instant. All that preparation and the Other Light gets smoked into ashes in seconds!
* DanBrowned: The authors go to great lengths to assert that these books are accurate predictions of things that ''will'' happen once the rapture hits according to a strict interpretation of Literature/TheBible. However, the books also demonstrate not just several {{Critical Research Failure}}s in many areas, but also a lot of implausible reactions on the part of people in the setting that undermines the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. To quote The Slacktivist:
--> "Here's where a semi-competent hack like DanBrown, author of ''TheDaVinciCode'', would be preferable to wholly incompetent hacks like Tim [=LaHaye=] and Jerry Jenkins."
* TheDanza: Kirk '''Cameron''' playing '''Cameron''' "Buck" Williams.
* DawsonCasting: In the first Left Behind film (which came out in 2000), Chelsea Noble was in her mid-thirties, playing 27-year-old Hattie Durham. Janaya Stephens was 27-years-old at the time, playing 20-year-old Chloe Steele. Gordon Currie was also in his mid-thirties at the time, playing 33-year-old Nicolae Carpathia. Played almost straight with Brad Johnson, who was 41-years-old playing 42-year-old Rayford Steele. Dead-on with Kirk Cameron, who was 30 at the time playing Buck Williams, also 30 years of age.
* TheDayOfReckoning: Final day of the Great Tribulation sees [[CurbStompBattle the destruction of the Unity Army]], the deaths of Baal, Ashtaroth and Cankerworm, Carpathia and Fortunato's Angel-assisted swan dive into the Lake of Fire, [[SealedEvilInACan and Satan chained up and tossed into the bottomless pit for 1,000 years.]]
** Final day of the Millennial Kingdom has Satan released from his prison, where he joins up with [[LaResistance The Other Light forces]] which had surrounded Jerusalem. Jesus emerges from the Temple and [[CurbStompBattle simply says "I AM WHO I AM" and instantly incinerates the invaders]]. With Satan effectively humbled for the final time, Jesus [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech chastises Satan for his iniquities from time immemorial]], and ultimately sends him to join [[TheAntiChrist The Beast]] and the [[TheDragon False Prophet]] in Hell.
* DeadpanSnarker: Plenty to go around, especially from the protagonists. Ken Ritz and Mac [=McCullum=] top the list. Nicolae Carpathia (post-indwelling) can snark with the best of them.
* DealWithTheDevil: The signing of the treaty that allows the Global Community to have licensed use of Chaim Rosenzweig's synthetic fertilizer formula for seven years in exchange for peace among the nations for Israel in ''Tribulation Force'' is seen as the very thing that initiates the seven-year Tribulation period, which according to Eli and Moishe is the final "week" of Daniel's "70 weeks" prophecy.
--> '''Eli and Moishe:''' Thus begins the [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Dan%209:27&version=KJV last terrible week of the Lord]]!
* [[DeadGuyOnDisplay Dead Guys On Display:]] Eli and Moishe, after Carpathia gun the both of them down during the Global Gala. Three and a half days later, both prophets are resurrected and taken to heaven.
* DeathsHourglass: While lacking the actual timepiece, citizens of the Millennial Kingdom know that "naturals" who stay unbelievers by the time they reach 100 will instantly die and go to Hell. This fate can only be averted by [[ReligionIsRight accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.]] The Other Light faction sees GodIsEvil because of this and has prepared for that contingency by having their teachings passed down to the next generation of its converts so that the generation that [[FinalBattle gets to confront God and Jesus by the end of the Millennium]] will be "assured victory" when [[SealedEvilInACan Satan is released]]. [[CurbStompBattle Unfortunately for them,]] [[YouCantFightFate it didn't go as they hoped.]]
* DefiantToTheEnd: Carpathia is this when he stands before Jesus...until Jesus cast Satan out of him.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Not really historical, but for what it's worth, the GodIsEvil view of the Other Light faction in regards to His 100 years of age limit for unbelievers, which is why they're working hard to win converts with [[DeathsHourglass each generation of unbelievers that passes away at 100]] so they could potentially [[FinalBattle overthrow Him at the end of the Millennium]] when [[SealedEvilInACan Satan is released]]. [[CurbStompBattle Guess how that turned out!]]
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The following line may not have seemed quite so redundant in 1996 when ''Tribulation Force'' was written, but certainly does today:
-->"Buck...had secretly studied the feasibility of producing an anti-Global Community Web site on the Internet."
* DespairEventHorizon: From the Rapture to the fall of New Babylon, those who lost the will to live usually end up committing suicide.
* DeusExMachina: {{justified|Trope}} -- after all, the whole series is basically ''about'' God causing stuff to happen.
* DevilInPlainSight: Literally.
* TheDevilIsALoser: Carpathia pre-indwelling manages to be calm, collected, and careful in his quest to bring the world under Satan's palm. ''Post''-indwelling, with Satan actually present, he rapidly spirals down into maniacal spite and general loopiness.
** Not to mention [[SarcasmMode his brilliant overall strategy]] of using the Biblical prophecies to know where and when Jesus will appear for him to fight, then bringing the exact army to the table that those same prophecies claim Jesus will [[CurbStompBattle mop the floor with]].
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu - Happens in the sixth book when a believer tells the False Prophet off to his face, and he not long after lampshades this trope. It later turns in a delayed DoNotTauntCthulhu when [[spoiler: the guy who did it and his wife are killed.]]
** [[spoiler: Since this means he gets to ride out the rest of the Tribulation in the comfort of heaven before coming back with Jesus anyway, this might qualify as a ThanatosGambit.]]
** In the fifth book, Chaim Rosenzweig does this to the aforementioned False Prophet during the meeting of the 144,000 Jews. When Fortunato demands to be addressed by his proper title, Chaim responds by calling the Supreme Commander 'Supreme Nincompoop,' and gets away with it.
* DiscOneFinalBoss, although more of a fake Dragon in Peter Mathews vs. Leon Fortunato.
* DisneyDeath: Honestly, who among the heroes will stay dead, given that Jesus will resurrect them? The Other Light can only assume that's what Satan is going to do if they [[KillTheGod succeed in defeating God and Jesus]] [[FinalBattle at the end of the Millennium.]]
** Unfortunately averted with some minor nonbeliever characters who help the heroes in this story. They only get resurrected to face the final judgment.
* DirtyCoward: Despite all of his showboating, Leon Fortunato shows his true colors when Jesus arrives on the scene. He tries to [[HeelFaithTurn plead his case to Jesus.]] It does not work.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Russia attacked Israel because it was hogging the new agricultural super growth formula they'd developed, and they try to get it by launching a massive nuclear strike at Israel. Why not just have a spy steal it (which is what most nations do in RealLife when they want to take an innovation another side has developed
* DistressedDamsel: With as many times Hattie has been captured by the GC, she could give Princess Peach a run for her money.
* DoNotTauntCthulhu: Or rather, Do Not Piss Carpathia Off.
* [[DoomedHometown Doomed City:]] So long, New Babylon.
** Also DoomedHometown, as members of The Place flee Chicago before it gets nuked.
* DoubleStandard: A combination of the author's strong support for 'Traditional gender roles' and ValuesDissonance with a lot of people means you can expect quite a bit of this. But there are a few cases that are bad even by those standards. Buck and Bruce have several conversations about Hattie and Steve, both of whom work for the Antichrist. Hattie is declared not worth the risk of trying to save her from the Antichrist, since going was 'her choice' and she's possibly banging him already, the filthy slut! Steve is considered a trusted friend despite that he, unlike Hattie, admitted he knows his boss is involved in the murder of another journalist ''and'' went suspiciously silent when Buck mentioned his boss might have something to do with the Biblical endtimes.
* DraggedOffToHell: The fate of both Nicolae Carpathia and Leon Fortunato as they are pushed by Michael the archangel into the Lake Of Fire in the book ''Glorious Appearing''.
* TheDragon: Leon Fortunato
** Viv Ivins also has a minor role.
** Jonathan Stonagal and Joshua Todd-Cothran start out as this at first, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness until Carpathia executes the both of them.]]
** Ironically, this is one of Satan's many aliases.
* DrivenToSuicide: From the Rapture to the end of the Tribulation...most of them were unbelievers or those who backed the Global Community, particularly more so when [[HeelFaceDoorSlam they've taken the Mark Of The Beast only to realize it's a point of no return]].
** Following the destruction of New Babylon, those who lost their fortunes commit suicide in droves.
** Steve Plank's assistant commits suicide when Plank decides to become a martyr.
** Jim Hickman's likely fate when he accidentally caused his co-worker Ramon Santiago to be killed by Nicolae by spilling the beans about what was overheard from Carpathia's offices.
* DrunkWithPower: Post-indwelling, Carpathia is one step away from being Murdock-level insane...[[AChatWithSatan until Lucifer, of all people, call him out on that during the battle of Armageddon.]]
* DyingLikeAnimals: Pretty much everyone on the planet and they're quite a zoo.
** Those killed in the destruction caused by the initial rapture would qualify as termites, wiped out before they even had a chance to know what was going on.
** Most of the human race fall into bats, sheep, wasps, or lemmings, unaware of what's going on and either oblivious or brainwashed.
** The Trib Force themselves would be lambs, depending on {{God}} to do the real work since YouCantFightFate.
** And one of the later books involves a group of boars trying to assassinate the Antichrist, but FailureIsTheOnlyOption.
* EarthIsYoung: The movie version of Left Behind uses plain simple Type A. The Bible is literal truth, nothing to argue about. Critical thinking doesn't exist in this setting, and it works both ways. Protagonists who spent their entire lives with a secular world-view doesn't seem to feel any need for any explanation of how young earth creationism can possibly be true. In return, the rapture actually happening doesn't seem to give anyone else the idea that evangelical Christianity might be true after all.
* EarthquakesCauseFissures: God and Jesus' natural disaster of choice. If you want to kill a ton of condemned and unbelievers en masse, or cause massive property damage, earthquakes are the way to go.
** During the battle of Armageddon, one particular earthquake renders the entire Earth flat, while at the same time, causing the city of Jerusalem to rise 300 feet from the ground.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: What takes place at the end of ''Kingdom Come'' when the old earth passes away.
* EasilyForgiven: In ''Kingdom Come'', Kenny's friends, family, and girlfriend, who ''know'' that he plans to secretly infiltrate The Other Light, believe, on specious evidence, including the word of a known traitor and liar, that he had really left the faith. They all turn against him. When the matter is resolved, everything immediately returns to ''status quo ante'', complete with Kenny picking up where he left off with his girlfriend.
** [[EasilyForgiven I Forgive You:]] Carpathia (post-indwelling) publicly forgives his assassin. [[LoopholeAbuse Since Chaim Rosenzweig has been officially declared dead (his body was not found when his staff was gunned down), that allows any GC to kill him without penalty from Carpathia.]]
* EasyEvangelism: Played straight with the Tribulation Force, but subverted with just about everyone else. Rayford's decidedly haughty attempt at evangelism to his copilot in book 2 is a prime example of the latter. One third of the population of the Earth disappears, specifically including ''all'' children without exception, and the possibility that divine intervention might have been involved is just [[FlatEarthAtheist completely out of the question]].
** Also played straight with the [[PathOfInspiration Enigma Babylon One World Faith]], a global religion engineered by the {{Antichrist}}. Essentially, anyone who is does not hold to the "true" Christian faith gets rolled into one big spiritual group, and does so willingly. [[BellisariosMaxim Nevermind that]] there are a variety of traditional, theological, and dogmatic differences between these groups which would be irreconcilable with regard to joining together into one diverse-but-united faith under a central authority.
** Also played straight with the believers in the Millennial Kingdom, to the point where one would have to be a complete idiot to not see that (1) [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom God and Jesus Christ are pretty much real]] and (2) [[DeathsHourglass any "natural" who remains an unbeliever by the time they reach 100 years of age will instantly die and go to Hell]]. It's the Other Light faction that has to work hard to convince people of their beliefs.
* EasyLogistics: A literary example. TheAntiChrist's plan involves forming a OneWorldGovernment, redistributing governing districts from nation-states to several arbitrary regional divisions, mashing all global religions into OneTrueFaith, turning all public and private media worldwide into a single PropagandaMachine, disarming the nations of the world by retiring ninety percent of their armed forces and the destruction of ninety percent of their equipment, turning the remaining ten percent over to the command of the new Global Community, relocating the UnitedNations from [[BigAppleSauce New York]] to a newly established and rapidly developed city in the Iraqi desert, and rebuilding the temple in {{Jerusalem}}. This plan is begun, implimented, and accomplished in only a few years, administrated by only a few people, despite the mind-boggling complexity that such global re-organizing would involve.
* {{Egopolis}}: United Carpathian States and a minor example, Carpathia Standard Time.
** Not to say that God and Jesus are not entirely guilty of this trope. Valley of Jehoshaphat, Ozase.
* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: The presence of God and Jesus Christ in the Millennial Kingdom for the Only Light believers, and pretty much for anyone born and/or raised in the Millennial Kingdom.
* EliteMooks: The Morale Monitors for the Global Community, The Only Light for The Other Light.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: The Antichrist's full name is Nicolae Jetty Carpathia. ''Jetty''. This might explain what drove him to evil. This was discussed in one of the prequels as referring to "[[DarkIsEvil jet black]]".
** This is also an example of a MeaningfulName, as if you assign each letter a value according to the standard A=1, B=2 scale, they add up to 216, which is 6 cubed (6*6*6).
* EmptyPilesOfClothing: What people in the book series find at the time the Rapture takes place.
* EndlessDaytime: In the Millennial Kingdom in the book ''Kingdom Come'', there's still a morning and an evening, but the only difference is that the evening sun is less brighter than the morning sun.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Which the characters don't want to prevent, but pray will come soon, given the CrapsackWorld they're currently in.
* EscortMission: In ''Desecration'', George Sebastian is assigned to Greece to get Georgiana Stavros and Marcel Papadopoulos out of there. [[spoiler: The mission goes FUBAR when Georgiana turns out to be a GC decoy, who kills Marcel, Lukas Miklos, and Kronos, while capturing Sebastian.]]
* EtTuBrute: In the Dramatic Audio, we hear Pope Peter the Second get stabbed to death by the 10 subpotentates.
* EurekaMoment: Played straight with both Rayford Steele and Buck Williams, who recognize the signs which leads to the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake...which leads into an OhCrap moment.
** Rayford gets a second one when he notices what he originally thought was a smudge on Mac's forehead is in fact an image of a three-dimensional cross - the Seal of God, which identifies one believer from another, despite the fact that one cannot see it on their own forehead.
** At the end of ''Assassins'', David Hassid has one when upon watching a surveillance video that Rayford '''was not''' the one who murdered Carpathia.
** After Chloe gets captured in ''Armageddon'', she reminds her father about the trip to Red Rocks in Colorado. Rayford is stumped, [[HintDropping but it's Mac who realizes the hidden meaning behind Chloe's words.]] She is telling them that the San Diego safehouse is compromised and that the believers there should relocate to Petra.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Nicolae turns this trope on its head when he and Viv orchestrate the murder of Nicolae's mother...before he was ten.
** It could be argued that Nicolae wasn't involved in that, since Viv Ivins had to inform him of her death. However, his apathy toward the situation is astounding. "How does that make you feel?" "Hungry."
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Carpathia's relationship with Viv Ivins. She did basically raise him after he orchestrated his mother's death. But Viv did piss Carpathia off [[DoNotTauntCthulhu by sitting on his throne in Descecration.]] Fortunately, Carpathia let her slide on that offense.
** In the Dramatic Audio of ''Glorious Appearing'', though, Viv Ivins [[RocksFallEveryoneDies gets killed by a hailstone]], and [[DullSurprise Nicolae just casually shrugs off her death.]]
-->'''Fortunato:''' (after Viv gets splattered by said hailstone) Excellency...I am so sorry.
-->'''Carpathia:''' Yes. Terrible loss.
** And he was on the verge of directing an intruder to take her instead of him in The Rising.
* EverythingIsOnline: The Tribulation Force always has at least one living [[TheSmartGuy Smart Guy]] who can erase any incriminating records, falsify any reports, and hack into anything digital, even security cameras in a condemned building halfway across the world.
* EvilAllAlong: In-universe, nobody but those in the Tribulation Force and those who once have been in Nicolae Carpathia's close circle of associates really know just how evil Nicolae really is, and that he is working for his "father" Satan. Of course, after Nicolae is indwelt by Satan, the facade slowly cracks and everyone gets to see the true Nicolae underneath his original public persona.
* EvilEmpire: The Global Community. In the minds of the Other Light in ''Kingdom Come'', Christ's Millennial Reign.
* EvilMentor: Of the spiritual variety. Carpathia, Fortunato and Viv Ivins share the same spiritual guide - Satan himself.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: The assumption made of God by the Other Light faction in their ''If It's True'' manifesto by His [[DeathsHourglass not allowing "naturals" to live past 100 years of age]] as unbelievers.
* EvilVersusEvil: Even the Global Community is not immune to rebellion among its own ranks, as Enigma Babylon leader Peter Mathews plots against Nicolae Carpathia and the United African States ends up attempting to secede from the one-world government. It all gets straightened out by the battle of Armageddon, and Carpathia's Unity Army still gets [[CurbStompBattle seriously owned by Jesus]].
* ExaltedTorturer: Arguably God, given that he sets all events in motion, [[BecauseDestinySaysSo forges all destinies]], and that even the things the ostensible villains do are ultimately his responsibility. After all is said and done, he tortures everyone who is not a specific denomination of Christian, regardless of those people's potential virtues, [[DisproportionateRetribution in a lake of fire for eternity]]. Not that God or Jesus Christ enjoy it, as Jesus sadly watches the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and all those who rejected Him throughout the ages go to their appointed doom.
** Speaking of those "potential virtues", the Bible does say that there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end thereof is death.
** To quote Jesus speaking to Asharoth, Baal, and Cankerworm from the Dramatic Audio:
--> "Like My Father, with whom I am One, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but justice must be served, and death is your sentence."
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: The aforementioned EurekaMoment regarding Buck Williams in the Dramatic Audio of ''Nicolae.''
-->'''Buck:''' Can't uh...the wind...you think...(cue EurekaMoment) Oh, no! (drives off)
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Any believer who becomes a martyr in the Tribulation.
* FaithHeelTurn: The mob of remnants who visited a GC-backed Miracle Worker outside the safety of Petra. Many end up taking the MarkOfTheBeast in order to save their own lives [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes against an incoming swarm of poisonous vipers]], but [[ILied the false teacher kills them all anyway.]]
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Attempts to assassinate the Antichrist in the book series result in this due to [[Literature/TheBible the Word of God]] stating that [[OnlyICanKillHim only Jesus Christ is able to defeat him]].
* FakingTheDead: In ''The Mark'', Mac [=McCullum=], David Hassid, Hannah Palemoon and Abdullah Smith pull this off by [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident crashing a plane via remote control overloaded with guillotines and biochip injectors]] in order to avoid taking the [[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty.]]
** In ''The Mark'', Hattie comes close to killing herself, but is rescued by Rayford and Albie. She ends up ultimately faking her death to escape the Global Community.
* FamilyBusiness: Rayford's dad wants his son to follow in his footsteps. Rayford, however, has other plans.
* FamousNamedForeigner: Jenkins has said in his book, "Writing for the Soul", that one of his tried-and-true ways to create a foreign character's name is to take the given name of some historically important native and append the name of a notable geographical area as a family name. One little problem: Romania doesn't use family names terribly much. Instead, you usually see patronymics. Guess what "Carpathia" ''isn't?''
* FantasticRacism: Mostly among the "naturals" against the "glorifieds" in the Millennial Kingdom, particularly among those who belong to the Other Light faction. Not that they can directly act upon those beliefs through violent means due to UnfortunateImplications. However, one of them did [[AttemptedRape foolishly try to rape a female "glorified" and got killed by God in the attempt]].
* FatalFamilyPhoto: Subverted, as it is not a fatal photo. In ''Kingdom Come'', Rayford requests a picture of the original Tribulation Force at an end-of-the-Millennium party. He is the only member out of the core group who is a natural, while Bruce, Cameron and Chloe are glorifieds. Even Rayford is as shocked as to how old he is.
* FauxActionGirl: Ming Toy. When she is introduced, a lot is made of her experience as a prison guard with combat skills -- but from then on, she pretty much divides her time between office work and babysitting.
* FidelityTest: Inverted with Rayford, as Irene does not test his faithfulness. He was more than willing to cheat with Hattie while away in London. [[CaughtUpInTheRapture God, however, decided to wreck those plans.]]
* TheFilmOfTheBook: A mixed bag. While not exactly great cinema -- its reception was overwhelmingly negative, while the books were successful -- it deals with some of the novel's plot inconsistencies, as well as unrealistic character behavior. It also, out of the sheer fact of being a movie, avoids one of the pitfalls of the series' writing: the stupendous lack of descriptions ''anywhere''.
* FinalBattle: The anti-climactic Satan's Other Light army versus God battle near the end of ''Kingdom Come''. It only takes a few pages as God just smokes Satan's entire army into ashes in seconds. At least during the Battle of Armageddon in ''Glorious Appearing'' Jesus allowed His enemies to fire their guns uselessly at Him before He just killed them by speaking [[Literature/TheBible the Word of God]].
* [[FinalSpeech Final Confession:]] After Jesus casts Satan out of Carpathia, the defeated Antichrist acknowledges that Jesus is indeed Lord.
-->'''Carpathia:''' You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who died for the sins of the world and rose again the third day as the Scriptures predicted...I confess that my life was a waste. Worthless. A mistake. I rebelled against the God of the universe, whom I now know loved me.
** He ''still'' gets [[HeelFaceDoorSlam tossed into the Lake of Fire]].
* [[FinalGirl Final Guy:]] [[spoiler: Rayford Steele survives the Tribulation by the skin of his teeth.]]
* FinalSolution: Nicolae Carpathia's reference to the battle of Armageddon in ''Armageddon'' being one for dealing with the Jews in Israel.
** Arguably, fitting in with what Literature/TheBible teaches, this could also apply to God's judgments and the FinalBattle.
* [[DeathFromAbove Fire From Above:]] Aside from earthquakes, Jesus also can use fire to decimate and destroy. [[DoomedHometown It is also how New Babylon met its fate.]]
** [[TheDragon Leon Fortunato]] is also quite fond of using fire to kill those who [[DoNotTauntCthulhu don't recognize Carpathia as God]], as Hattie found out the hard way.
* FiveBadBand:
** TheBigBad: Nicolae Carpathia (pre and post-indwelling)
** TheDragon: Leonardo Fortunato
** EvilGenius / TheRival Pontifex Maximus Matthews
** TheBrute: Varies, since whoever is in this post ends up pissing Carpathia off ends up dead by his hand. Suhail Akbar is the longest-serving brute under Carpathia's command.
** TheDarkChick: Viv Ivins
* FixFic: [[http://exharpazo.blogspot.com/ Right Behind]] has a whole community of them.
* FlatEarthAtheist: This affects almost everyone on the planet and it isn't at all PlayedForLaughs. The authors seriously suggest that the majority of the world's population won't really care about all the explicit miracles.
** It helps to consider that in fundamentalism, the usual conceit is that knowledge that God (a) exists, (b) is all-powerful, and (c) deserves infinite glory and fealty, is hardwired into every human being. ''Only'' NayTheist-level spitefulness can account for such heavy unwillingness to follow him, even after apprisal of the [[ScareEmStraight threat of perdition.]] (Whether dystheism can be animated ''by'' anything besides spite doesn't seem to enter the picture.)
** It's also worth noting that Jesus warned that, "If they would not listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not listen even to a man come back from the dead." Thus, to those in hardened moral rebellion, no sign will convince them, because they don't want to believe.
** By the time of the Millennial Reign, ''[[ElephantInTheLivingRoom nobody has any excuse]]'' for not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And [[DeathsHourglass those that choose not to believe in Him won't live past 100!]]
* FourManBand: The core group of the Tribulation Force
** TheHero: Rayford Steele
** TheLancer: Buck Williams
** TheMentor: Bruce Barnes
** TheChick: Chloe Steele
*** And the core group of the Millennium Force:
** TheHero: Kenny Bruce Williams
** TheMentor: Raymie Steele
** TheLancer: Zaki Ababaneh
** TheChick: Bahira Ababaneh
* ForegoneConclusion: It can be a bit tough to care particularly about the deaths of the protagonists when it's made explicitly clear from the start that at the end of the tribulation, the Antichrist will lose and [[DisneyDeath they'll all come back to Earth anyway]]. Also in ''Kingdom Come'', the Other Light attempts to [[LaResistance build a resistance force]] in order to overthrow Christ at the end of the Millennium when Satan is loosed from imprisonment, despite that Scripture says it will end in failure...as it eventually does by the end of the book.
** And a bit of FridgeLogic occurs when the characters who earnestly believe this, and see the evidence before their eyes, are still so worried about dying. Like Buck, who worries so much that Nicolae might kill him if he speaks against or associates with him, even after his conversion. Given that he also knows that there's seven years of plagues and disasters coming up if he isn't killed, he'd be better off taunting the Anti-Christ.
*** Well, here's a way to look at it: you can survive all the way as a believer through the Tribulation and enter into the Millennium as a "natural" who ages slowly and is still able to have children up until the Millennium ends, where as a believer you will have your glorified body and enter the "new heavens and new earth"...or you can be a martyr and be resurrected in a body that remains in a constant adult state that never ages, with the tradeoff that you'll never be able to fall in love with anyone else, get or stay married, or even have children. It's a tough choice to make, and sometimes God may end up deciding your fate.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Book two opens by telling us "''The odds are, only one of the four members of the Tribulation Force will survive the next seven years.''" Guess what happens. Go on, guess.
** One character, Verna Zee, is depicted in her initial appearance (in Book 1) as wearing "sensible shoes", which is [[HaveAGayOldTime UK slang for being a lesbian]]. She is later described off-hand (in Book 2) as militant. Guess which character comes out as a lesbian in Book 3?
** Moishe tells Carpathia that "a sword shall pierce your head, and you shall surely die." Guess how the world leader gets whacked?
** At the end of ''Kingdom Come'', Chaim tells Rayford that when the time comes for the FinalBattle to take place between God and [[LaResistance The Other Light]], that God will not need an army to fight. [[CurbStompBattle Take a wild guess as to how Lucifer and The Other Light made out.]]
* ForgotICouldChangeTheRules: Nicolae Carpathia is an expert in this trope. Case in point; in ''Descecration'' after negotiating with Micah (Chaim Rosenzweig) in lifting Bowl Judgement No.1 (the plague of sores on those who took the mark), he sends the GC after the Jewish Remnant.
* ForTheEvulz: World War III breaks out as a simultaneous but ultimately ineffectual attempt at rebellion against the [[OneWorldGovernment Global Community]]. After the initial retaliation, Carpathia orders several [[NukeEm nuclear bombings]] of various cities, seemingly at random, for no particular discernible reason except because he can and he has an excuse. There might be an element of BecauseDestinySaysSo (because [=WWIII=] is prophesied to happen) but has little other than general evilness to motivate it outside of that.
* ForYourOwnGood: Mr. Wong is so determined for Chang to 'make proud,' that he even goes as far as to conspire with Walter Moon to have his son drugged and taken to the mark application site where Chang is given the MarkOfTheBeast. Fortunately for Chang, he was a believer and [[GiveMeASign still had the Mark of God on his head.]]
* FoxNewsLiberal: We get the occasional sympathetically intended character who aren't [=WASPs=] steeped in the PMD culture. But in case of conflict between their own supposed culture and belief systems and the believes of PMD Christians, they always agree with the PMD's. Tsion Ben-Judah, the PMD-Jew, is probably the worst offender.
* FromACertainPointOfView: In ''Desceration'', Nicolae undergoes a polygraph test, with Suhail Akbar overseeing the questioning. When it is obvious that Carpathia had blatantly lied throughout the test, he tells Suhail that "the truth is what I say it is...I am the father of truth."
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Nicolae Jetty Carpathia, natch. He started out as a businessman running his own import-export business. Then he gets into politics, serving in the Lower House of Parliament, and ascends to President of Romania (thanks to Leon Fortunato, who had blackmailed Carpathia's predecessor to step down). After the Rapture, he is tapped to become the Secretary General of the United Nations, which he will change into the Global Community, with himself as the Supreme Potentate and ultimately, [[TheAntiChrist The Beast]].
** Leonardo Fortunato also fits this trope. Former businessman/kingmaker to Nicolae Carpathia, later the Supreme Commander of the Global Community. After Carpathia's resurrection, he is made the Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism, ultimately becoming [[TheDragon the False Prophet]] that The Bible has foretold.
* TheFundamentalist: The protagonists, played totally straight.
* GenreSavvy: To be fair, there are some nice traces of this occasionally.
* GiveMeASign:
** The Seal of God, which identifies the believers from one another. Once you become a believer, you are pretty much safe for eternity.
** The Sign of The Son of Man, which is a cross made out of lightning, and has the ability to heal the sick and injured.
* GlobalCurrency: The Nick is introduced as the standard global currency during the Tribulation until it gets replaced by the cashless "mark of loyalty" system, which is the MarkOfTheBeast. Nothing is mentioned in ''Kingdom Come'' about what the Millennial Reign residents use for currency.
* GodInHumanForm: Jesus, only here He returns in his [[TrueSelf true form]]. Nicolae Carpathia only claims to be this in the second half of the Tribulation, but is really indwelt by Satan.
* GoodGunsBadGuns: the game Eternal Forces depict the Tribulation Forces being armed with M16/M4s, while the GC peacekeepers are armed with [=AKs=].
* GoodbyeCruelWorld: Said verbatim by Mac while he discusses the plan to escape New Babylon with David and Hannah to avoid taking the [[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty]].
--> '''Mac:''' "...Well, forgive the painful subject, but we recently lost our cargo chief. She would have prohibited that much weight on that particular plane, but me bein' a veteran, I thought it would handle it. Flyin' it remote and also broadcasting from it remote, I start hollerin' about a weight shift, cargo rolling, hard to control, Mayday, mayday, goodbye cruel world."
* {{Gorn}}: Several deaths have a hefty amount of detail, and this goes into UpToEleven territory when [[spoiler: Jesus shows up and his very words cause entire armies to explode in rivers of gore.]]
* GovernmentConspiracy
* [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Gratuitous Hebrew:]] What everyone is speaking in ''Kingdom Come'', though for the sake of the readers it's all translated into whatever language the book is published in.
* HappilyEverAfter: How the series ends for the believers. Everyone else goes to Hell.
* HappilyMarried: Buck and Chloe Williams may have their disagreements, but they are very happy together.
** The marriage is now platonic as both Buck and Chloe are glorifieds in ''Kingdom Come.''
*** This goes along with what Jesus said in Scripture that those who are worthy of the resurrection "will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like the angels in heaven".
*** Their relationship ''pre''-marriage was largely platonic as well, with neither party seeming interested in physical intimacy of any significant degree beyond occasionally holding hands or sharing cookies.
** For the short time they were married, Rayford and Amanda were very happy.
** 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.]]
* HasTwoDaddies / HasTwoMommies: Nicolae Carpathia had two biological fathers who were both gay, and was raised mostly by his mother and Viv Ivins until Nicolae and Viv had the mother disposed of. Later on in his life, [[BuryYourGays Nicolae had his two fathers disposed of as well.]] And in the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'', [[RocksFallEveryoneDies Viv Ivins gets killed by a giant hailstone.]]
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Once you've accepted the MarkOfTheBeast, you're doomed no matter what.
** Averted in one instance where a believer had the mark forced upon him while he was drugged, but still had the seal of God.
** Possibly played straight with Nicolae's mother Marilena in ''The Rising'', as she dies of poisoning and asks God to forgive her of what she's done.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Chaim Rozensweig is torn between his friendship with Tsion Ben-Judah and his loyalties to Nicolae Carpathia. It is only after assassinating Carpathia and fleeing Israel that Chaim puts his faith in God.
* HeelFaceTurn: Aplenty.
** But see above.
* HeelFaithTurn: Leon Fortunato attempts this to Jesus after both he and Carpathia are captured in an act of self-preservation. Unfortunately for the False Prophet, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam Jesus considers him long since sold out to Satan and Fortunato is "sentenced to eternity in the lake of fire."]]
* HeKnowsTooMuch: At the climax of the first book, Nicolae executes his two co-conspirators right in front of a UN meeting, with Buck present. He then brainwashes everyone to imagine that it was a murder-suicide by one of them, and that Buck was never there. This should send up alarms in the heads of normal men, as the last reporter to cross Nicolae only took the ferry halfway to Staten Island. But when Buck is called before Nicolae to explain himself, [[TooDumbToLive he acts like a petulant child]] ([[PlotArmor and gets away with it]]).
* {{Hell}}: Where the undecided, the condemned (i.e., those who decided to follow Satan and the Antichrist), and those who come against the Jews and Israel during the Tribulation end up.
* HellSeeker: Hattie Durham is one briefly, after deciding that she does believe in God and the Bible, but doesn't believe she deserves to go to Heaven. She comes around eventually.
* HeroicBSOD: Tsion Ben-Judah, Chaim Rosenzweig, Buck Williams and Rayford Steele each experience this during the Tribulation. Subverted with Bo Hansen, [[APlagueOnBothYourHouses as his case was lethal.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: Aplenty, but it's somewhat negated when the victims know they won't be gone for long. The most admirable characters are those willing to hold out during prolonged suffering.
* HeyItsThatGuy: In the movies, [[MelrosePlace Dominic O'Malley]], his daughter [[{{Flashpoint}} Sophie Lane]], [[GrowingPains Mike Seaver and Kate MacDonald]], and [[WalkerTexasRanger Jimmy Trivette]] / [[LifeWithDerek Paul Greebie]] find themselves left behind. [[PuppetMaster Rick Meyers]] is the Antichrist seeking to conquer the world and [[AnOfficerAndAGentleman Gunny Sergeant Foley]] is an unwitting pawn in his scheme. [[NeroWolfe Fritz Brenner]] designed the Eden Formula and [[K19TheWidowmaker Dr. Gavril]] proclaimed that Jesus, not Carpathia was the Messiah.
* HideYourChildren: Every child under 12 or so ''vanishes'' in The Rapture. In a better-written book, even if nothing else happened, the trauma from this alone would probably cause the collapse of every government on Earth.
** This also extends to ''children in the womb.'' The description of a mother's stomach suddenly flattening is quite creepy.
*** RealityIsUnrealistic -- rapturing a fetus wouldn't cause the mother's belly to instantly flatten any more than giving birth would. It takes weeks for the stretched uterus to return to normal size after giving birth.
*** [[AWizardDidIt A wizard who is "I Am" did it]]. Besides, exactly how many fetuses have we observed [[CaughtUpInTheRapture being raptured?]]
* HighPriest: Enigma Babylon Pontifex Maximus Peter the Second was the first. He was then replaced by [[TheDragon Leon Fortunato]], who became the Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism.
* HollywoodAtheist
* HumiliationConga: Mostly within ''Glorious Appearing'', where Carpathia finds himself [[CurbStompBattle unable to prevail against Jesus Christ]] in the battle of Armageddon, and is only further humiliated when he is forced to [[KneelBeforeZod kneel before the Lord]] before he gets sent to the Lake of Fire. Of course, the believers are basically surprised that Jesus is more sad than dancing with unbridled glee at having the Antichrist at His mercy.
** In Mac's case, however, he would be [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech sticking it]] to Carpathia were he was in Jesus' place.
--> Not such a big man now, are you? Where's the sword? Where's the army? Where's the cabinet, the sub-potentates? Now you're only the supreme impotentate, aren't you?
* ICallItVera: The Saber Handgun Rayford acquires from Albie. Carpathia later uses a Saber to gun down the Two Witnesses.
** In the ''Left Behind'' movie, Chaim Rosenzweig's super fertilizer is known as The Eden project.
* IChooseToStay: Ming Toy undergoes a dangerous mission to rescue her and Chang's parents in her native China. She finds her mother, but sadly Mr. Wong died as a martyr. Mrs. Wong decides to remain behind while in China. She does get some reassurance from an angel, saying that her mother will survive the Tribulation.
* IfYouDieICallYourStuff: In ''Apollyon'', Bo Hansen and Ernie attempt to steal Ken Ritz's wealth he had stashed at Palwaukee Airport following Ritz's death. Their attempt at robbery was thwarted [[TheScourgeOfGod by the arrival of the horde of demonic locusts]]. [[GiveMeASign Only Rayford and T.M. Delanty were spared because they were believers.]]
** After executing both Todd-Cothran and Stonagal, Nicolae is the sole inheritor of both their estates. When the children of both men dispute the claim, Nicolae simply pays them off under the condition that they do not contest the will.
* IHaveManyNames: Both Jesus and Satan have plenty of those.
* IllTakeThatAsACompliment: The following exchange between Rayford and Ken in the Dramatic Audio of ''Apollyon'' after refusing to take Hattie with them:
-->'''Ken:''' Little spitfire hung up on me. Gotta like her spunk, though. She is a gorgeous thing, ain't she?
-->'''Rayford:''' (chuckles) Ritz, you've got to be on the feminists' Top 10 Most Wanted List.
-->'''Ken:''' Really? Hey, save me a copy when that comes out. I want to send that to Mom.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Subverted slightly with Chaim Rosenzweig's driver, Jacov. In ''Apollyon'', Jacov is known to fall off the wagon. Chaim even fired him at one point, but rehired him out of pity. He becomes a believer at the [[YouAllMeetInAnInn meeting at the 144,000 Jews]], and is later found inside a bar. Instead of getting drunk, he is instead preaching to the patrons inside when Chaim and Buck find him afterward. After Jacov proved to his boss that he wasn't getting drunk, Chaim's response is very deadpan, but hilarious.
-->'''Chaim:''' Oy. I wish you ''were'' drunk.
* IWarnedYou: Rayford can't say that Irene didn't warn him about the Rapture. However, after surviving the Tribulation and reuniting with his wife, Rayford tells her (and Raymie in the Dramatic Audio) that she is permitted [[spoiler: "one cosmic-I-told-you-so."]]
* ImmortalProcreationClause: Goes beyond this with the "glorifieds" in ''Kingdom Come'', since they won't even have the desire for sexual intercourse.
* ImmuneToBullets: Petra and its inhabitants are supernaturally protected from the GC. Rockets and missiles fired by the GC literally go through the believers' choppers and other aircraft to the point that it's routine for the believers.
** In ''Glorious Appearing'', with The Sign of the Son of Man during the Battle of Armageddon, the believers are nigh invunerable to bullets...and everything else. [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Rayford and the other believers defending Petra have some fun with this, goading the Unity Army into attacking them, but with no success from the latter.]]
** In the same book, Mac's chopper is rigged with grenades. Mac's faith pretty much saved both him and his chopper when the grenades go boom.
** Jesus Christ Himself is also immune to whatever the Unity Army throws at Him and the army of saints...'''especially''' missiles.
* ImprobableAntidote: The wine used for the communion shared by Rayford, Buck, and Chloe near the end of ''Left Behind: World At War'' becomes an antidote for the anthrax poisoning contracted by both Bruce and Chloe. Unfortunately, they don't find this out until after Bruce passes away.
* IncessantMusicMadness: "Hail Carpathia" becomes musical torture for Chloe Williams when she is held in custody by the Global Community in the book ''Armageddon''. She counters this somewhat by singing [[TheVillainSucksSong "Fail Carpathia"]].
** Chloe gets even in this area when she sings a bunch of Christian hymns in her solitary confinement cell, which annoys the GC guard.
** Any Christian believer that goes to the chopping block in the latter half of the Tribulation that [[FaceDeathWithDignity Faces Death With Dignity]] by singing hymns unto God, much to the irritation of Nicolae Carpathia and the GC forces.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Jesus Christ, the angels, those with glorified bodies.
* InformedAbility: ''All'' of Buck's characteristics. He is billed as an amazing reporter but all of the examples of his writing are clumsy analogies. He is (we're told) an investigative reporter, who neither investigates nor reports anything; he's supposed to be worldly wise (before his conversion), but he's a 30-year-old virgin; he's your actual globetrotting journalist, "among the top 3% of air travelers in the world", but washes his underwear in the sink because he doesn't realize hotels provide laundry service; he's a sophisticated world traveler -- who happens to be headquartered in New York, the international-cuisine capital of the planet -- but can't order in a restaurant in Tel Aviv because he cannot begin to imagine what an Israeli restaurant might have available.
** Now, on the subject of Carpathia, we're told he's a great speaker, but though his speech at the U.N. does get a lot of applause it is clear to the reader that his speech, which consists of reciting a lot of uninteresting trivia about the U.N. and also reciting a list of ''every member nation'', has nothing to gain people's enthusiasm since it doesn't contain any actual opinion that people might agree with, apart from a general "Peace is good, mkay?"
* InformedFlaw: TV or narrations keep telling us that after all the good Christians have been raptured, crime has risen spectacularly among the remaining godless hordes. Yet we never really see any of that (Rayford and Chloe's house is burgled once, but that's about it), the characters never act like they don't feel safe, and the entirety of humanity is unbelievably enthusiastic and accepting of Nicolae's message of peace, unity and brotherhood.
* InstantCultured[=/=]InstantExpert: Once the protagonists, and for that matter the horde of unnamed new worshipers at their church, convert they seem to become instantly knowledgeable about the authors' beliefs regarding the Bible and how Christians should act. While this is justified in the case of Rev. Bruce and perhaps Rayford (who both have at least tangental prior exposure to such religious communities,) it's rather odd to see Buck out-debating a [[StrawmanPolitical bishop]] using Bible-quotes, not to mention him and Chloe 'dating'. These two people were supposed to be a globe-trotting jetset reporter and a secular Stanford student a week ago, yet they treat handholding as a deeply intimate act that should not be rushed.
* IntrepidReporter: Subverted, but only by accident (see InformedAbility).
* IstanbulNotConstantinople: In ''Glorious Appearing'', the Valley of Jehoshaphat (also called the Valley Where Jehovah Judges), formerly known as the Mount of Olives. Also in ''Kingdom Come'', the country of Osaze (meaning 'Loved by God') is the new name for Egypt.
** The reformed world under the Global Community (formerly known as the United Nations):
*** United North American States (North and Central America, Greenland and the Caribbeans)
*** United South American States (South America)
*** United Great Britan States (Britain, Ireland, Scotland and Wales)
*** United Eutopean States: (Most of the countries in Europe, save for Britain)
*** United African States (Africa)
*** United Carpathian States (formerly United Holy Land States, consisting of the Middle East)
*** United Indian States (The Indian Subcontinent, half of Southeast Asia)
*** United Asian States (China, the Koreas, Japan and Mongolia)
*** United Russian States (Russia)
*** United Pacific States (Austrailia, Oceania and Hawaii)
* ItWontTurnOff: One of God's angels takes over the airwaves in the book ''Desecration'' to deliver a message from [[Literature/TheBible Revelation 14:9-13]] to those who have taken the MarkOfTheBeast and worshiped Carpathia's image.
* IvyLeagueForEveryone
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Elena and her GC buddies pull this several times on George Sebastian. But George is ex-military and is capable of taking the pain.
* {{Jerkass}}: Buck Williams and Rayford Steele, again due to ValuesDissonance.
** Rayford is actually supposed to be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, but his treatment of Hattie Durham is quite jarring. Seriously, he's committing emotional abuse, not to mention ruthless evangelism.
** Don't forget Buck having sport at the expense of [[BuryYourGays Verna Zee]]. A mere two weeks after global disaster! And unlike Rayford, he never tries to warn anybody of the Apocalypse.
** Also Rayford's behavior towards Bo in Assassins. Thankfully T calls him out.
* {{Jerusalem}}: One of the major locations in the series. It also serves as the world capital in ''Kingdom Come.''
* JesusSaves: The rest of the world takes ''material universe obliterating'' damage.
* KarmicDeath: Loren Hut, the leader of the Morale Monitors. After failing to kill Chaim Rosenzweig (who was going by the name Micah), simply because Chaim was protected by God, Carpathia guns Hut down, but not before [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Hut tells Carpathia off.]]
* KillEmAll: The character turnover rate is so high that, by them end, only two of the original characters are still alive. One fun thing to do is comparing the Dramatis Personae in front of each book and seeing how many people died in the past volume.
* KillTheGod: Pretty much the aim and goal of both the battle of Armageddon and the FinalBattle with Satan and the Other Light army in the book series. [[CurbStompBattle Neither of them turned out as the ones with those goals had hoped.]]
* KillItWithFire: Try to harm the Two Witnesses of the Most High, this is the end result.
** The Other Light army at the end of the Millennium in ''Kingdom Come'' get instantly smoked by God pouring down fire from the heavens.
* [[KneelBeforeZod Kneel Before God]]: Nicolae Carpathia's humiliated bow before Jesus Christ in ''Glorious Appearing''. Of course, Nicolae is left powerless to resist after Lucifer is cast out of him. Lucifer, on the other hand...
* [[KneelBeforeZod Kneel Before Satan]]: In the prequel novels, Satan takes Nicolae to the desert, where he remains for 40 days and 40 nights without food and water. Unlike Jesus, who resisted the temptations (i.e., turning stones into bread, throwing himself from the highest building and bowing down to Lucifer), Carpathia falls to all three temptations.
* KungFuJesus: Jesus Himself. He just speaks [[Literature/TheBible The Word]] and people die.
* LaResistance: First the Tribulation Force, then the Other Light in the last book. The Other Light rebels against God because they [[GodIsEvil see Him as evil]] for not letting "naturals" to [[DeathsHourglass live past 100 years of age]] as unbelievers.
* LargeHam: Everyone has their moments in the Dramatic Audio, but Nicolae Carpathia (post-indwelling) takes the cake when he executes Walter Moon for failing to get Tsion Ben-Judah off the air in Desecration.
-->'''Carpathia:''' '''(BLAM)''' Hold out your other hand, Walter. '''(BLAM)''' Ah, the foot. '''(BLAM)''' The other foot. '''(BLAM)''' The knee. '''(BLAM)''' Is Ben-Judah still on the screen? Oh, why, yes he is. '''(BLAM)''' Still there! '''(BLAM)''' Oh look Walter, he's still there! '''(BLAM)''' Walter...you have many times stated your devotion to me. I can only assume that the appearance of Ben-Judah on our network must certainly be causing you as much discomfort as it is to me. Therefore, I want to do you a favor. '''(BLAM)'''
** Honorable mention goes to once again, Carpathia (pre-indwelling) as he [[BackFromTheDead resurrects Leon Fortunato]] following the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake in reference to Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
--> '''Carpathia:''' Leonardo Fortunato...you have served me well. And you will continue to serve and give testimony to the power of Nicolae Carpathia. Leonardo Fortunato, you have served me well, and you will continue to serve me. Leonardo Fortunato, you will sleep NO LONGER! You will...arise! LEONARDO...LEONARDO, COME FORTH! LEONARDO...COME FORTH! LEONARDO...I COMMAND YOU...COME FORTH!
* LargeHamTitle: His Excellency, Global Community Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia. What a mouthful.
** Supreme Commander, and later, Most High Reverend of Carpathianism, Leonardo Fortunato
** Pontifex Maximus Peter Matthews, aka Peter the Second. Counts as a MeaningfulName, as no Catholic Pope has not taken the name Peter, as according to Catholic belief that Peter was the first pope of the church.
** Both Jesus and Satan [[IHaveManyNames have some pretty interesting titles.]]
*** Jesus: Some of which include Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Root of David, Faithful and True, I AM, Wonderful, Counselor, Bright Morning Star
*** Satan: He has less titles than Jesus. His titles are Lucifer, The Devil, God Of This World/Age, Prince Of The Power Of The Air, The Serpent Of Old, The Dragon.
* LaserGuidedKarma:
** An early example occurs in the first book, when Rayford refuses to ride on a bus the airline sent to pick up the pilots from the plane to the terminal, because he couldn't accept such a favor while his passengers have to walk maybe a mile at most. Rayford's co-pilot does accept and very slightly mocks Rayford for refusing. He dies so soon afterwards, Rayford has barely had the time to accept, without question or hesitation, two other privileges the airline gives to pilots: Avoiding the line for the pay-phones, when everyone wants to call their families to see if they didn't vanish, and a helicopter ride home to avoid the total gridlock on the roads that the book describes to such detail.
* LastVillainStand: [[TheAntichrist Carpathia]], [[TheDragon Fortunato]], and The Unity Army does this in Jerusalem...until [[ArchangelMichael Michael]] catches up to them. Cue OhCrap from the two bad guys.
* LeftHanging: The fates of a dozen or so minor characters from the beginning of the book onward, though considering where those characters were, they could be summarized by the major events that took place. The destruction of New York City, for example, took care of the fates of those who have worked for Global Weekly. The fate of Viv Ivins, a major supporting character in the later books, is not mentioned, though given what happens in ''Glorious Appearing'', she obviously doesn't live to enter into the Millennium.
** Viv Ivin's fate is mentioned in the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'', as she is [[RocksFallEveryoneDies killed by a giant hailstone]].
* LightIsNotGood: Lucifer, when he takes on his pure form after departing from Nicolae Carpathia. The Other Light faction also see God in the same...uh, [[IncrediblyLamePun light]] as the Christians see Lucifer, hence the name of their group.
* LiteraryAgentHypothesis
* LivingStatue: Carpathia's massive image, which is heated by onionskin paper.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Arguably the second reason, besides the FlatEarthAtheist infestation, why EasyEvangelism is averted. The main protagonists have a detailed step-by-step prophecy of what will happen in the next seven years, but whenever they can be bothered to try to convert someone, they tend to use the same speeches as evangelists do now. They don't say the next 4 things their divine prophecy predicts, and then come back after those things have happened.
** And then there is Hattie. Buck wanted to impress her, so he offered to introduce her to Nicolae. When she actually seems more impressed by Nicolae, Buck explicitly loses interest in her. After learning Nicolae is the AntiChrist, Buck tries to persuade Hattie not to go on a date with him... by telling her he thinks she's [[MyGirlIsNotASlut "not that kind of girl"]]. You'd think that telling her Nicolae is the devil (or at least into murder and corruption) might be more persuasive.
* [[SatanIsGood Lucifer Is Good]]: The viewpoint of the Other Light faction in ''Kingdom Come'', claiming in their manifesto that God unfairly treated one of His angels and befouled his name and reputation by casting him out of His presence.
* MadonnaWhoreComplex: The view of females in the series.
* TheManBehindTheMan: {{Satan}}
* ManlyTears: Rayford literally breaks down in tears in front of Jesus as He tells Rayford all about his faults and triumphs.
* MarkOfTheBeast: Featuring a variant in which the numbers of each region of the Global Community are based on a mathematical equation involving three sixes.
* MassOhCrap: During the 'sheep and goats' judgement, the reactions of the unsaved and those who had taken the MarkOfTheBeast when Jesus condemns them to the Lake of Fire for not caring for "the least of My brethren", referring to Israel. Basically saying that if you're not a friend to Israel and the Jews during the Tribulation, you're going to Hell.
--> '''Jesus Christ:''' Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and you did not take Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me. Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. You will go away into everlasting punishment.
* MeaningfulName: Jenkins has a thing for them. The heroes have super-manly names like Buck Williams and Rayford Steele. How good he is at this lies with the reader...
** Verna Zee, Buck's theoretically-snippy boss, can be shortened to Ms. Zee -- "Missy".
** Jonathan Stonagal's name ("Stone-a-gal") is a play on Rockefeller.
** Carpathia's other Dragon aside from Leon Fortunato, Viv Ivins. Remove the "n-s" and you have Viv Ivi, or VI VI VI, the roman numerals for 666. This one being notable in that VI VI VI isn't the Roman-numeralish for 666, it's the Roman-numeralish for "six six six". The Number of the Beast isn't "six six six", it's (per Revelation 13:18) "six hundred sixty six" -- which in Roman numerals would be DCLXVI. Thus, a more fitting name might be Declan Xavier.
** More of a Meaningful Number, but Carpathia's obsession with the number 216 comes from 6 x 6 x 6 = 216. Also in a later book, each of the Ten Kingdoms is assigned a number and while the numbering system is never explained, each number can come from some mathematical combination of three sixes.
* TheMeddlingKidsAreUseless: Buck and Rayford get into danger, but they don't affect the actual events or main plot much at all, given that they've been prophesied to happen in one specific way.
* MillenniumBug: Timothy [=LaHaye=] and Jerry Jenkins expected the [=Y2K=] bug to trigger global economic chaos, which the Antichrist would use to rise to power. As the big day approached, they, like other doomsayers, backpedaled. It's a good thing, since they released a spate of books from 2000 till present.
* MillionMookMarch: Jesus' army of saints, surprisingly.
* TheMole: Carpathia had conducted a smear campaign against Amanda White-Steele, showing her that she was in fact on the GC's payroll. Hattie, however, tells Rayford that his late wife was not a mole and that she truly loved him.
* TheMoralSubstitute: To other AirportFantasy books.
* MotiveRant: Carpathia confesses to Leon and the 10 subpotentates that he '''is''' the Antichrist in ''Armageddon''.
--> '''Carpathia:''' Am I Antichrist? Well, if he is Christ, then yes! Yes! I am against the Christ who was falsely crowned by the pretend creator. I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will be like the Most High! ([[AGodAmI ...for I AM THE MOST HIGH!]])
* MurderByCremation: Suhail Akbar sends the two pilots who bombed Petra (which had failed due to God protecting the city and the people) to be incinerated '''alive'''. He does sedate them before barbecuing both men.
** Subverted by Carpathia's attempt to barbecue the Jewish Remnant in Petra, as they were protected by God.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Tsion Ben-Judah's reaction in ''Desecration'' when he realizes he has given away the location of where the Israeli Jews would flee to according to what the book of Revelation says about the matter (the deserted city of Petra), fearing that he has messed up God's plan. He gets some reassurance from one of the Tribulation Force members that God ''may have intended'' for Tsion to let slip the location of where the Jews would flee to in order to lure Nicolae Carpathia's forces into a trap God has set up for them, which is all according to the Word of God.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast[=/=]UnfortunateNames: Nicolae is the first name of a Romanian dictator, and {{Dracula}} being associated with the Carpathian Mountains.
** Not to mention that "Old Nick" is one of Satan's nicknames.
** If you're part of the Global Community, Jesus Christ certainly qualifies...although it won't do you any good.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: How Rayford feels about Irene after the Rapture.
** Also counts with Hannah Palemoon and David Hassid.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Every time the heroes' backs are against the wall with no way out, all that needs to happen is for them to pray and God will grant them whatever ability is needed to extract them from their predicament.
** In the first book, Buck manages to escape Carpathia's hypnosis at the UN by praying to God, who also conveniently rewrites Carpathia's memory to erase any instance of Buck not behaving exactly as intended.
** In a particularly blatant (albeit funny) example, Rayford is granted temporary immunity from physical harm. While in Carpathia's ElaborateUndergroundBase. While '''mocking''' Carpathia, [[TheDragon Leon Fortunato]], and a squad of crack Global Community soldiers to their faces. They are forced to more or less go about their business trying to ignore him because not only can he not be harmed, but he can't be touched.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nice job getting the Greek Co-Op wiped out, George!
* NightmareFace: Steve Plank, post-Wrath of the Lamb. Yeesh.
* NoisyShutUp: Attempted and failed with Nicolae Carpathia in the Dramatic Audio version of ''Glorious Appearing'' when Jesus just goes on and on speaking [[Literature/TheBible The Word Of God]] while the Unity Army troops die.
--> '''Nicolae Carpathia:''' And someone SHUT HIM UP!!!
* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Averted, painfully.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat:
** Steve Plank survived the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake...although [[NightmareFace he ended up terribly mangled in the process.]]
** Inverted with Leon Fortunato, as he ''did not'' survive said quake. Carpathia, however, has other plans.
** Gerald Fitzhugh survives a plunge from a high-rise office in ''Left Behind: World At War''.
* NotSoDifferent: Detractors of the series claim that the books' Jesus comes off as the true Antichrist.
** Hardly surprising, considering the world just switches one God-Emperor for another.
*** Although to God's credit, He does allow the Other Light to have their own religion, despite the fact that it's totally in error and that the [[DeathsHourglass 100-year age limit for unbelievers]] is in place. Carpathia, on the other hand, outlawed all religions except for Carpathianism by the midpoint of the Tribulation, forcing people to either take the MarkOfTheBeast or die, and sometimes just outrightly killing them after they have taken the mark.
*** Also notable is that God doesn't use the media as a PropagandaMachine, as Nicolae Carpathia had when he owned the media. Dissenters in the Millennial Kingdom were allowed to have their say regardless of how much in error they really are in contesting God's Word.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Chloe goes over to Buck's apartment and sees his Global Weekly office co-worker Alice outside it talking on the phone to her fiancee while delivering stuff to Buck's apartment. Chloe assumes from that that Buck is Alice's fiancee and was playing her for her affections all along. It takes a private talk between Buck and Chloe to straighten the whole matter out.
** This also gets carried over into the bouquet of flowers that Chloe assumed Buck had sent her, which she then threw into the trash after witnessing the previously-mentioned assumption. It turns out that the flowers were sent to Chloe by Hattie Durham as a joke.
** Kenny Bruce Williams goes through this in ''Kingdom Come'' when he was secretly infiltrating the Other Light faction to see what they were planning to do, with an Other Light plant working at the Children of the Tribulation daycare center planting false evidence about Kenny to frame him as a traitor.
* TheNudifier: Hinted at in the first book when people are removed from their clothes during the Rapture.
* NukeEm: So long, London and D.C. Bye-bye, Chicago.
* ObiWanMoment: Any believer who decides to become a martyr. Overlaps with FaceDeathWithDignity.
* OddlySmallOrganization: The Tribulation Force itself, and also the "[[http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2010/07/tf-gang-of-four.html Gang of Four]]" conspiring to set up the One-World Government.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Steele's first landing at O'Hare during the Rapture is built up immensely, but actually occurs between chapters.
* OffWithHisHead: Done through guillotines (referred to as "loyalty enforcement facilitators") on the general populace to enforce the law of taking the "[[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty]]" during the Tribulation.
* OhCrap: Plenty from both sides. The EurekaMoment regarding Buck and Rayford in regards to the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake is one major example.
** Rayford's reaction in which The Rapture hits, and the realization that [[IWarnedYou Irene was right.]]
** Leah Rose's reaction in regards to the 200 million demonic horsemen which slays the unbelievers.
** Buck's reaction when he sees Hattie confront both Carpathia and Fortunato in ''Desecration''.
** In the Dramatic Audio of ''Glorious Appearing'', the reactions of Fortunato and Carpathia when the Archangel Michael corners them.
** In the first ''Left Behind'' movie, the look on Buck and Chaim's faces when Russia sneak attacks Israel.
** In the third Left Behind film, the look on Carpathia's face when he sees an incoming missile heading for his tower. Fitzhugh dies, but Carpathia survives.
** ''Assassins'' has Leon Fortunato recognizing that he was set up by Sub-Potentate Rehoboth.
** The mother of all Oh Craps comes from Lucifer himself in ''Kingdom Come''. [[CurbStompBattle After Jesus decimates The Other Light on the final day of the Millennial Kingdom]], Lucifer "looked about him and slowly lowered his sword. He appeared to had something to say and even drew breath to say it, but fell silent." Even he knows that he is oh so very screwed.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Once the Millennium starts in ''Kingdom Come'', all the naturals who enter this time period (either believers or children of believers) experience decreased aging similar to the first several generations of mankind in the book of Genesis, with the children becoming young adults by the time they reach 100. However, [[DeathsHourglass naturals who remain unbelievers by the time they reach 100 will instantly die and go to Hell]]. It's not explained how those who were already adults, including those who were already at advanced age, experience this decreased aging at the same rate as the children who enter the Millennium. By the end of the Millennium, however, the longest-living naturals (who at that point are all believers) end up really showing their age.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig. Specifically in the movie where he helps strategize against the oncoming Russians. He's a botanist for crying out loud!
* {{Omniglot}}: Carpathia.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: God, of course.
* [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Hebrew Chanting]]: The demonic locusts chanting "Abaddon." Very creepy in the Dramatic Audio.
* OneHourWorkWeek: Buck spends zero time actually doing his job.
* OneWorldOrder
* OneHitPolyKill: Carpathia kills [[spoiler:Stonagal and Todd-Cothran]] with one bullet.
** This despite the fact that the bullet in question is described several times as a hollow point, which explodes on impact and could not travel through one skull to another, even if it weren't just .38 ammo. .38's aren't that big and do not have that much firing power, a far cry from the hand cannon described in the book. That... and there is literally no way a hollow point bullet could kill two people.
** Doesn't happen in the movie. Carpathia shoots twice, with the idea being that it was a murder-suicide.
*** Jesus using [[Literature/TheBible the Word of God]] to slay the Global Community army en masse certainly qualifies as this.
* OneTrueFaith: There's the pantheistic mishmash of all world religions called Enigma Babylon One World Faith as the official one-world religion, but there's also Christianity (as defined by the books' authors and the Tribulation Force characters), Judaism, and Islam (which in the book series ends up being a minority religion), which all become illegal to practice even when Enigma Babylon is replaced by the Luciferian-type state religion of Carpathianism around the midway point of the Tribulation. In the Millennial Kingdom, Christianity becomes the official one-world religion, though dissidents are permitted to practice the beliefs of the Other Light despite the fact that (1) it's totally in error when it comes to believing Satan is going to defeat God and Jesus by the end of the Millennium and (2) those who remain unbelievers in God and Jesus Christ by the time they reach 100 will instantly die and go to Hell.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Tsion, Buck and Rayford are grievously injured in the Battle of Armageddon. Rayford survives. Tsion and Buck are not as lucky.
* OnlyICanKillHim: More like Only I Am Can Kill Him, as nobody can defeat Satan and the Antichrist except for Jesus Christ, as [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]] dictates.
** Both Rayford and Hattie obsess over killing Carpathia for reasons of their own. Chaim succeeds in doing the deed, but Satan has other plans.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Albie, the black arms dealer who later becomes a believer. Also Razor.
* TheOtherDarrin: In the first two movies, Bruce Barnes was played by Clarence Gilyard, Jr., before being replaced by Arnold Pinnock.
** Due to scheduling conflicts, Gilyard was unable to reprise his role as Bruce in the third movie. That and since Gilyard is a Roman Catholic, his priest was slightly peeved about him taking the role, given the series' stance on premillennial rapturist theology, and was very happy when Gilyard did not reprise the role.
* OverprotectiveDad: Subverted. Rayford sides with Buck when his daughter is in tears because it [[NotWhatItLooksLike looked like Buck was two-timing]]. Rayford's silent cheering when Buck raises his voice against Chloe, who's practically in tears, helps you realize there are worse things than a straight OverprotectiveDad.
* PapaWolf / MamaBear: Buck and Chloe Williams in regards to Kenny.
* [[PassThePopcorn Praise The Lord And Pass The Popcorn]]: In the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'', Rayford Steele plus the entire population of believers in Petra, who was now made near-invulnerable by God during the battle of Armageddon, were like this when they were watching the Antichrist's armies getting decimated by Jesus Christ. Rayford even mentions that all he needs now is the popcorn.
** And due to their beliefs about the Rapture, the series' intended audience believe they'll be sitting back in Heaven and enjoying the show while all this goes down.
*** Biblically speaking, that's what some Old Testament battles Israel had with other nations ended up turning into with God taking over the battles.
* PersonaNonGrata: In the eyes of the Global Community, it's Rayford and Chloe Steele, Buck Williams, Tsion Ben-Judah and Chaim Rosenzweig.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Jesus, who can kill many people at the same time just by speaking [[Literature/TheBible The Word Of God]].
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The Tribulation Force is supposed to be [[LaResistance the Resistance]] to Carpathia's [[TheEmpire One World Government]]. Their track record after seven years is precisely ''one'' assasination attempt, not counting Hattie and Chaim. Buck and Rayford's rolls as {{ReverseMole}}s in Carpathia's organization serve only [[TheWatson a narrative function as witnesses for the audience]] to the global events of the tribulation rather than any particular kind of functional espionage.
** Buck and Rayford each have a cushy job working for the Antichrist. They virtually never try to exploit this fact. Worst Freedom Fighters ''ever''.
*** More like The Pirates That Won't Do Anything Unless The Lord Directs Them To. Not that it has stopped some from trying to do their own thing, like Rayford's assassination attempt.
*** Also justified in the fact that [[YouCantFightFate they can't fight fate]]: what's going to happen in the Tribulation according to [[Literature/TheBible The Word Of God]] [[BecauseDestinySaysSo is going to happen regardless of what anybody does]]; all they can pretty much do is help new people become believers and to help existing believers stay alive until Jesus comes or their time comes.
**** They don't do much to advance those goals, either.
* PlaceOfProtection: The city of Petra during the latter half of the Tribulation, due to God's protection from Global Community forces.
* PlayingSick: Chaim Rosenzweig pulls this off beautifully. He fakes having a stroke, and gets around in a wheelchair, all in order to assassinate Nicolae.
* PointOfNoReturn: Take the [[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty and worship The Beast's image]], [[HeelFaceDoorSlam you find yourself vulnerable to the Bowl/Vial Judgments and ultimately your soul is condemned to Hell.]] Become a believer in Christ, [[GiveMeASign your place in Heaven is assured. Survive the Tribulation, you can live until the end of the Millenial Kingdom.]]
** Getting saved during the Millennium [[DeathsHourglass prior to your 100th birthday]] also guarantees that you'll live to the end of the Millennium.
* [[PlotRelevantAgeUp Plot Relevant Age Leveling]]: In the third prequel, when the elect are raptured, their glorified bodies are all the same age, 33, no matter where on the -0.75 through +969 spectrum they were in their Earthly lives. This comes from Augustine's claim that one's glorified body will be just like one's 33-year-old body was or would have been, barring anything crippling and/or hideous. It derives from Jesus being 33 when ''he'' was crucified.
* PokeThePoodle: While Nicolae Carpathia in the LeftBehind books does eventually commit evil such as ordering London nuked and demanding the executions of those who refuse to worship him as god, he gets only passing mention to such atrocities and instead focus on his PokeThePoodle moments such as him dating the hero's former love interest and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous treating her with respect]]. As Fred Clark on his slacktivist page states:
--> So far, though, it's hard to take him seriously. He's bumblingly through the first stages of his master plan, getting himself hopelessly bogged down in details that seem less evil than simply arbitrary and weird. For example, Nicolae plans to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. That might be considered evil if he were doing it just to desecrate the Islamic holy site currently sitting there in an effort to start a deadly war, but instead he's carefully negotiated an amicable (if ridiculously implausible) solution to this age-old conflict. [snip] Or consider Nicolae's grand scheme of relocating the United Nations headquarters to an as-yet-unbuilt city in the Iraqi desert. That's capricious and foolish, but not so much evil as just terribly wasteful and inconvenient.
* PreMortemOneLiner: In the Dramatic Audio, George Sebastian delivers one to Elena right before the coup de grâce. Double points for George as he delivered it GoodNewsBadNews style.
--> '''George:''' "Well, Elena, [[GoodNewsBadNews the good news is...I'm not dead. The bad news is...you are!]]" '''(SNAP)'''
** At the end of ''Kingdom Come,'' Jesus does this to the invading TOL forces.
--> '''Satan:''' CHARGE!
--> '''Jesus:''' I AM WHO I AM. (cue [[CurbStompBattle epic pwnage]] of the TOL forces via firestorm)
* PrinciplesZealot: The protagonists refuse to lie, even to the Anti-Christ. It's a bit undermined by several cases of them telling falsehoods due to bad writing, divine interventions that prevent any negative consequences of not lying, and liberal use of FromACertainPointOfView.
* PropagandaMachine: The Global Community-controlled media and press, leading to the creation of Buck Williams' VoiceOfTheResistance publication ''The Truth''.
** Notably averted in the Millennial Kingdom, when dissenters were allowed to have their say regardless of how much in error they are in saying Satan will defeat God at the FinalBattle.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: In the Left Behind universe, "good" is defined as "consistent with God's will" (or, to put the same thing another way, God's will is by definition always good).
** [[http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2010/09/tf-reaching-for-the-cookie-sack.html This blog post]] gives us an idea of how incidental characters might view the main characters.
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Interesting variant: The authors believe the prophecy used in these books is also completely true in the real world. Which makes the characters' praises of how everything in this story is happening exactly as predicted by the prophecy (which is the exact thing the authors believe in and used for writing the story) [[AuthorAppeal all the more smug]].
** Except for when reality intervenes, and the Y2K bug doesn't cause the Anti-Christ to show up as they predicted.
* PursuedProtagonist: The Tribulation Force, both the core group and the later members.
** Also count for the rest of the believers.
* RaceLift: Bruce Barnes and Vernon Billings were both Caucasian in the novels while the movies both men were African-American.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Enoch Dumas and his flock of street-wise urban dwellers.
* RaisedByGrandparents: In the prequel novels, Rayford's parents are old enough to be his grandparents, as someone mistakes his parents for being his godparents, so this is a subversion of this trope. Slightly subverted again when Rayford helps raise Kenny during the Tribulation.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Jesus to Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet in ''Glorious Appearing''.
** Jesus does this to Satan yet again in ''Kingdom Come'', right before sending him into the Lake of Fire.
** In ''Assassins'', Carpathia himself does this to Eli and Moishe before gunning them down during the Global Gala.
* RealLifeRelative: Inverted, as Kirk Cameron (Buck Williams) and Chelsea Noble (Hattie Durham) are married in real life, having met on the set of ''Growing Pains.''
** Ironically, Kirk Cameron admitted that his wife had pictured a movie adaptation in her mind with the both of them as Buck and Hattie respectively shortly after completing the first book. Several weeks later, Cameron was notified of the movie adaptation and was tapped for the role of Buck Williams. He got the part of Buck, while Chelsea Noble claimed the role of Hattie.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: President Gerald Fitzhugh. He sees that Carpathia is a threat once he loses his power to the American Subpotentate and teams up with his English and Egyptian counterparts to force Carpathia out of office. It does not work, and Fitzhugh winds up getting killed.
** In ''Left Behind: World At War'', Fitzhugh futilely [[TakingYouWithMe attempts to take Carpathia down with him]] when he has a guided missile head straight for the Global Community office.
* [[RecruitTeenagersWithAttitude Recruit Under-100ers With Attitude]]: The members of The Other Light are all physically teenagers and young adults recruiting others of the same age range.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: No pun intended.
* RedHerring: Several of them, though not necessarily intentional on the part of the author, who writes as a "[[http://www.leftbehind.com/03_authors_testimonials/viewAuthorInteractions.asp?pageid=828&channelID=79 process of discovery]]" meaning that he throws in elements he thinks might be interesting and sees where they lead. This can land in some WhatHappenedToTheMouse moments among those which do not pan out. He believes that this makes for a more organic and believable story-telling experience, though whether it enhances or detracts from the quality of the writing is a matter of some debate and taste.
* ReignOfTerror: What the world reverts to with the [[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty system]].
* ReligionIsRight: Arguably the [[AnAesop Aesop]] of the series. [[{{Anvilicious}} If you do not accept Christ as your Lord and Savior]], you will be [[TitleDrop left behind]] to suffer the Tribulation on Earth, followed by an eternity of damnation if you die during the Tribulation without accepting Christ then.
** In ''Kingdom Come'', it's accept Jesus Christ and you'll get to live past 100 years of age and straight to the end of the Millennium; deny Him [[DeathsHourglass when you reach 100, and you'll die and go to Hell]].
* ReluctantRuler: Since Fortunato taught him out to feign humility, Carpathia offers token resistance to the role of Secretary-General of the U.N. Only when he accepts does things go downhill.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Steve Plank, thought to have been killed during the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake, is pretty much alive...yet horribly disfigured, and going by the name Pinkerton Stephens.
** Buck says this in the Dramatic Audio when people see that he is still alive.
* ResignationsNotAccepted: Carpathia exploits Rayford's relationship with Hattie by [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness attempting to have the both of them killed when he meets up with her once again.]] However, Buck had taken Rayford's place when it became clear that Rayford wasn't going to arrive in time and rescues Hattie, killing a GC mook in the process and making a fast getaway with Ken behind the wheel.
* ReverseMole
* RightfulKingReturns: The whole point of Jesus' second coming in the book series.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Portrayed very sympathetically as they are apparently the only people in the entire world, aside from the Tribulation Force, to think that One World Government and Religion is a bad thing.
* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Most of humanity dies in various disasters, including actual giant rocks falling out of the sky. Many get sent to Hell, y'know.
* RomanceInducingSmudge: This happens early in the series, when Chloe is eating a cookie and has a bit of chocolate on her cheek. Buck leans over and wipes it off with his thumb, then eats it on impulse. Since the two have become hilariously repressed fundamentalist Christians, this is treated as a huge sexual milestone in their relationship. (Third base comes with chocolate.) Cookies later become a romantic symbol for them, almost to the point of creepy ridiculousness.
** Almost?
* {{Satan}}: In this series, the devil is a bad guy. No doubt about that. But God [[NotSoDifferent doesn't come off as much better]]. It's unintentional.
* TheScapegoat: Thanks to Leon Fortunato, Rayford Steele is pinned for Carpathia's murder, despite evidence from Walter Moon showing that Chaim Rosenzweig was the real assassin.
* TheScourgeOfGod: Seal Judgements, Trumpet Judgements, Bowl Judgements...take your pick.
** The Bowl Judgements affect those who took the mark of loyalty and worshipped the Antichrist's image.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Feebly attempted by Buck when Nicolae offers him a job in his inner circle, based on Buck's out-of-nowhere concern for journalistic ethics. Of course, Buck denies Nicolae in person, having been flown from Chicago to New York first class, driven to the meeting in a limousine, and having had lunch at an exclusive Manhattan yacht club, all on Nicolae's dime. Subverted when after all the posturing he takes the job anyway.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Nicolae Carpathia, full stop.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Again, Nicolae Carpathia, post-indwelling.
** Josuha Todd-Cothran gives a real sinister example when he is confronted by Alan Tompkins in the first novel. From the Dramatic Audio:
--> '''Todd-Cothran:''' Captain Sullivan, if one of your men was to come to my office and harass me about anything, what should I do?
--> '''Sullivan:''' Mr. Todd-Cothran, sir, you do whatever you need to do.
--> '''Todd-Cothran:''' What if I was to...kill him where he sits?
--> '''Sullivan:''' Sir, I'm sure it would be justifiable homicide.
--> '''Todd-Cothran:''' What if his name happened to be Alan Tompkins?
--> '''Sullivan:''' Uh...I...I'd come over there and dispose of the body myself.
* [[ScrewTheWarWerePartying Screw The War, We're Praising The Lord!]]: In the book ''Glorious Appearing'', the people in Petra were like this when the Global Community Unity Army has them completely surrounded and ready to overrun the place. Somewhat justified in that God has made them nigh-invulnerable to enemy fire at that point...and also in that Jesus was going to come and [[CurbStompBattle turn the entire Global Community army into bird food!]]
* ScrewYourUltimatum: In ''Armageddon'', Carpathia issues the following to the defenders of Jerusalem: [[YouWillBeSpared by the count of three, if there is silence for fifteen seconds, then that means that the defenders will surrender to the GC.]] The defenders' response: [[FiringInTheAirALot shooting their guns into the air, Tsion and Buck included.]]
* SealedEvilInACan: Satan during the Millennial Reign. Some people who are part of the Other Light subsect The Only Light believe that Satan purposely sealed himself away so that he will be powerful enough to overthrow God (whom the Only Light members believe don't exist despite visible evidence to the contrary) and those that will follow Him. As keeping with what the book of Revelation says, Satan does get released to lead the Other Light army at the end of the Millennium, only for his entire army to be [[CurbStompBattle smoked to ashes by God in seconds]], and for Satan to be cast into the Lake of Fire.
* SecondComing: It's all about Jesus' return.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: {{Satan}} knows of the same Biblical prophecies as the protagonists do, and is actively trying to do the things he's prophecised to do to trigger the SecondComing so he can have his fight with Jesus. That those same prophecies say [[YouCantFightFate Jesus is going to easily win that fight no matter what]] doesn't seem to bother him.
* SharpenedToASingleAtom: Chaim Rosenzweig's blade, which he uses to skewer Carpathia's head with while PlayingSick in ''Asssassins''.
* ShiningCity: The New Jerusalem at the end of ''Kingdom Come''.
* ShowDontTell: Just look at [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/2007/01/19/lb-boutros-boutros-carpathia-2/ this excerpt]], for instance. We are ''told'' that Nicolae Carpathia "spoke earnestly, with passion, with a frequent smile, and with occasional, appropriate humor", not shown this. We are ''told'' that it is a "touching scene", rather than shown why. We are ''told'' that Carpathia has a "grasp of history" and "photographic memory of dates and places". We are ''told'' that he spoke "with electricity and power". It should be noted that two-thirds of Carpathia's speech is simply ''reading out the names of every country in the United Nations'', before then proceeding to name all the UN agencies and random facts about them. Instead of actually writing a speech that was genuinely captivating and inspiring, the authors simply resorted to TakeOurWordForIt.
* SignificantAnagram: Chaim Rosenzweig as his alter ego Micah, which really is an anagram of Chaim.
* SomeCallMeTim: Buck's real name is Cameron Williams, of which he goes by in ''Kingdom Come'', and Mac [=McCullum=] first name is Montgomery. Also, Gustaf Zuckermandel Sr. and Jr. go by Big Zeke and Zeke respectively. Annie Christopher's real name is Angela and Hattie's short for Harriet
* TheSomethingForce: The Tribulation Force in the main book series, the Millennium Force in ''Kingdom Come''.
* StealthPun: The cellular phone implant during the Millennium in ''Kingdom Come''. It gives new meaning to the term [[spoiler:"a ringing in your ears."]]
* StrawFeminist: Verna Zee, who is also a lesbian. The authors mean for her to come over as such. But she doesn't really display much feministic behavior, she just doesn't adore Buck like everyone else seems to. [[AuthorAvatar Which is a death sentence of course.]]
** Also Chloe in the first book, before she changes.
-->'''RAYFORD:''' ...I want to see when Hattie can join us for dinner. That's all right with you, isn't it?"
-->'''CHLOE:''' As long as you don't expect me to cook or something sexist and domestic like that."
* StrawmanPolitical: Particularly HollywoodAtheist; also abortionists.
* SuperSpeed: In ''Glorious Appearing'', the Remnant in Petra make a divine-assisted mad dash from Petra to Jerusalem. Hilarious in the Dramatic Audio as both Rayford and Mac joke about Abdullah being passed by pedestrians on foot.
* SweetAndSourGrapes: Two of the main protagonists are offered jobs by the Antichrist, jobs that, were they offered by anyone else would seem like dream jobs. The characters are reluctant to take those jobs, rightly seeing them as tests of temptation before them. After some initial reluctance, they take the jobs anyway, as they feel that taking them was "God's will."
** In any other story, the following rationalization would be {{Foreshadowing}} of some kind of FaceHeelTurn, even if we didn't already know that the BigBad was capable of mind control. In this story, it's considered valid.
--> His job was ferrying Nicolae Carpathia wherever he wanted to go, and for some reason, Rayford felt compelled to sublimate his wishes, his desires, his will, and his logic. God had laid this in his lap for some reason, and as long as he didn’t have to live a lie, at least for now he would do it.
* TakeOverTheWorld
* TakingYouWithMe: Near the end of ''Left Behind: World At War'', President Gerald Fitzhugh attempts to take down Nicolae Carpathia by having a missile being fired directly toward him while he was meeting Carpathia in his office. Unfortunately, Carpathia survives.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: You can tell how old the earlier books are by their lack of cell phones and their ilk. In the written-in-2005-and-2006 prequels, though...
* TeenGenius: Chang Wong, computer nerd recruited by the bad guys (but used as the good guys' mole) before he is even done with high school.
** Naomi Tiberias, Chang's romantic interest is also a whiz in her own right, as she runs the Petra tech center.
* TextualCelebrityResemblance: Carpathia looks like a young Robert Redford.
* ThereAreNoGlobalConsequences: God miraculously destroying Russia's military and vacuuming up 20% of the global population has absolutely NO effect on day-to-day life after the first few hours of panic.
** Interestingly, this is both averted ''and'' exaggerated in the same series. The books seem to claim that only a tiny fraction of adults have the necessary beliefs to be raptured, but then exaggerates the consequences as if they represented a huge chunk of society. Entire parking garages full of abandoned cars, planes falling out of the sky (the entire crew was evangelical?), and most amusingly, a completely abandoned row of cabs at O'Hare airport. Of all the stereotypes they hit in this book, the foreign Sikh/Hindu/Muslim cabbie is the one they avoid.
*** The sheer number of plane crashes that blocked runways is especially odd. Rayford's flight to London is diverted to Chicago, despite the fact there are crashed airliners (plural) on that airport's runways. That a large number of flights are still diverted to this airport suggest all other airports are worse. It's as if every PMD-Christian pilot was trying to land his plane at the exact time of the rapture.
*** The pilot of a Concorde, bound for the US from France, reports that his flight "lost nearly fifty" passengers in the Rapture. Concorde carried exactly 100 passengers. As Fred Clark [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2003/12/10/lb-concorde-calling/ puts it]], "LaHaye and Jenkins would have us believe that nearly 50 born-again, evangelical Christian millionaires were visiting Paris and were willing and able to spare no expense to return to New York City as fast, and in as much luxury, as humanly possible."
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: A couple of thermobaric missiles and a 'daisy cutter' is indeed overkill, as said payload is dropped onto Petra on Carpathia's orders. Too bad it doesn't work out the way he had hoped.
* ThousandYearReign: What ''Kingdom Come'' is all about.
* ThrowingOutTheScript: In ''Apollyon'', when Chaim Rosenzweig is asked to appear on TV to give his explanation for the sun giving out only one-third of its sunlight due to one of the Trumpet Judgments taking place (though Chaim isn't convinced that it is the hand of God at work), he is given a script by the Global Community that has him parrot the party line's explanation of some scientific cosmic disturbance that even Rosenzweig as a botanist can see through. He chooses to appear on TV but speaks his own mind instead, almost directing people to Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah's website before being pulled off the air.
* TimeSkip: A few of them right in ''Kingdom Come''. It starts off at the beginning of the Millennium, then jumps to 93 years later where it stays for most of the story, then it jumps right to the end of the Millennium.
** Several time jumps are evident in the main storyline and prequel novels.
* TitleDrop: Plenty.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Both sides, but most notably the villains competence is kept at a far lower level than the protagonists, barring a few exceptions.
* TotallyRadical: Some of the lingo used by the characters reveals the eras that the authors grew up in.
-->"Well, sir, I don’t know what to tell you, but it is a pity you’re not getting the services of the new pilot. I know him and he’s tops."
* TrilogyCreep: Was originally planned to be one novel, then was changed to a trilogy, and ultimately ended up being thirteen books, not counting prequels or spin-offs.
* TrashTheSet: The Abomination of Desolation (Carpathia defiling the rebuilt Temple with pig's blood and placing his image and throne inside the rebuilt Temple) in ''Desecration''.
** God Himself destroying the desecrated Temple in ''Kingdom Come''.
* TryNotToDie: In the Dramatic Audio of Apollyon, after going through the escape plan to get Tsion, Chloe and Buck out of Israel, Rayford asks for some more advice from Mac. Mac's response: "Don't get shot."
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: No specific year is given, emphasizing the "It could happen any minute" message. The first few books are [[{{Zeerust}} still dated by the lack of cell phones and widespread internet access]], though.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Carpathia seems to be promising this, and this ''is'' God's motivation for every last thing he does.
* {{Veganopia}}: In the Millennium Kingdom, everyone is a vegetarian. It was only at the wedding feast at the beginning of the Millennium that the meat restriction was lifted for that event.
* 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.
* VillainOverride: The Indwelling.
* VillainSong: Nicolae Carpathia's own self-indulgent national anthem "Hail Carpathia", which gets twisted by Buck Williams into TheVillainSucksSong "Fail Carpathia".
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Carpathia has the entire world eating out of his hands from Day One.
* VoiceOfTheResistance: Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah himself and Buck Williams' online publication ''The Truth'' during the Tribulation; The Other Light's ''If It's True'' manifesto during the Millennial Reign.
* WagTheDirector: As mentioned on the trope page, Kirk Cameron did not grow out of this after ''GrowingPains''.
* WeAllLiveInAmerica: When Chang Wong meets an elder, he is reprimanded for wearing a hat in the elder's presence. He apologizes, saying that he is covering up a disgrace (the Mark of the Beast he was forced to take). However, in China, it is disrespectful ''not'' to be wearing a hat in the presence of an elder or at a formal occassion.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We're told that Russia emptied their arsenals at Israel. We're told that the attack failed completely. We're ''not'' told how things went for Russia afterwards, now that they had shown their willingness to use nuclear force and were unable to retaliate to attacks.
* WhatTheHellHero: When it comes to anything Hattie-related, Rayford does some very reckless things. Leah Rose and Albie call him out on that.
* WhereAreTheyNow: In ''Kingdom Come'', we see the fates of the extended members of the Tribulation Force.
* WickedCultured: Attempted (not particularly successfully) with Nicolae Carpathia.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Carpathia, hands down.
* WithUsOrAgainstUs: Ultimately, it comes down to two choices - join God or the Global Community.
* WordsCanBreakMyBones: Jesus' words when He arrives at the Battle of Armageddon, consisting of proclaiming who He is and reciting Bible verses, [[CurbStompBattle slays all his enemies at once]]. Then again, what do you expect from the One who is called The Word Of God?
* WorldHealingWave: A rather slow one, as God and Jesus spend a few months restoring the earth to its former beauty following the end of the Tribulation to make it new for the Millennial Kingdom.
** Also possibly played straight in ''Glorious Appearing'', when a nearly devastated Jerusalem is instantly restored and void of any dead bodies littering the streets after Jesus gets rid of the Global Community.
* WorldWarIII: Plays a major part in the series, as it is part of prophecy. New York, Washington, D.C., London and parts of Egypt are destroyed in the process.
* WorstNewsJudgmentEver: Every child on the planet has just disappeared, along with a great many Christians. The planet is plagued by horrific plane crashes and car accidents as a result. ThePope himself is gone, and the Catholic church has fallen into disarray. What stories do ''Global Weekly'' consider the most important to cover? A convention of Jews in New York, and a recent recall election in Romania. This stuff wouldn't be front page material on a ''slow'' news day.
** There is apparently a throwaway line that {{retcon}}s that those events were covered in the previous issue (as if they wouldn't still be news a week later).
** Apparently, the fact that AirForceOne is getting a new pilot is big news.
* XanatosRoulette, subverted: {{God}} is in control of everything, and the [[{{Satan}} Antichrist]] thinks ''he'' is.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Party:]] The Global Gala, located in Jerusalem.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Stadium:]] The meeting of the 144,000 witnesses at Teddy Kollek Stadium, organized by Eli and Moishe.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Temple:]] The dedication of the rebuilt Temple in ''Kingdom Come.''
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Western Wall:]] Buck and Tsion's meeting with Eli and Moishe. [[BilingualDialogue Buck is hearing them speak in English, whereas Tsion is hearing them in Hebrew.]]
-->'''Eli:''' I am Eli. This is Moishe.
-->'''Buck:''' (to Tsion, whispering) English?
-->'''Tsion:''' (to Buck, whispering) Hebrew.
* YouCantFightFate: {{Inverted|Trope}} in that ''the bad guys'' are prophesied in the Bible to lose, and that every knee must bow before Jesus and every tongue must declare Him as Lord.
** The Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'' turns the humiliation of the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and their demonic cohorts into a KneelBeforeZod moment.
** One of the most jarring, unrealistic aspects of the series is how not one person in the world ''even tries'' to fight fate. In fact, just the opposite: the protagonists voluntarily go to work for the Antichrist and ''help bring about his goals'' because they believe the Antichrist has to win (in the short term) for their prophesied end to occur.
* [[YouAreInCommandNow You Are In Charge Now:]] After Chloe [[OffWithHisHead is executed by guillotine]], Lionel Whalum takes over running the Co-Op until the [[SecondComing Glorious Appearing]].
** At the end of the Millennial Period in ''Kingdom Come'', Jesus returned the Kingdom to His Father and became "subject to Him (God) that subjected all things under His (Jesus) feet."
* YouCouldHaveUsedYourPowersForGood: What Jesus pretty much says to the Antichrist in His TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to him before he is sentenced to the Lake of Fire: every blessing God gave him was wasted for serving Satan. This was a point of contention by certain readers since Jesus pretty much berated him from [[YouCantFightFate what God destined him to function as]].
* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: After Satan indwells Carpathia at the end of The Indwelling, he makes the following promise:
--> '''Carpathia:''' There are those among you, however, who have referred overtly to me personally as the Antichrist and this period of history as the Tribulation. You may take the following as my personal pledge...the word tribulation will not begin to describe what is in store for you. If the last three and a half years are your idea of tribulation, wait until you endure the Great Tribulation.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: In the prequel books, Marilena Carpathia, the mother of Nicolae Carpathia, was killed off when Nicolae, still a child, was old enough to be cared for by his mentor Viv Ivins. His [[HasTwoDaddies two biological fathers]], who were living together off payments from the corporation that funded the genetic project that brought forth Nicolae, were [[BuryYourGays later killed off]].
** Also pretty much applies to anyone in Nicolae's circle of advisers in the Global Community.
** Carpathia tries to pull this on Rayford and Hattie. It does not work.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Plenty in the series.
** Nicolae threatens to kill Tsion Ben-Judah during the meeting of the 144,000 after his bottle of water turns to blood, but is stopped by the arrival of Eli and Moishe.
** Carpathia kills the Two Witnesses at the midpoint of the Tribulation, but God revived them and returned them to heaven.
** Chaim assassinates Carpathia soon thereafter... for all the good it ultimately does.
* ZipMode: In ''Glorious Appearing'', Jesus does this on a massive scale to what's left of the human population, transporting them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for the Sheep and Goats judgment.
----
-->-- '''[[Literature/TheBible 1st Thessalonians]] 4:16,17 ''(NKJV)'''''
A series of religious novels by Tim [=LaHaye=] and Jerry Jenkins about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism Premillennial]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism Dispensationalist]] version of [[CaughtUpInTheRapture the Rapture]]. Despite criticism for hewing closely to a specific sect's interpretation of Literature/{{Revelation}} (or perhaps because of said hewing), it has gained a strong following among many religious people.
The good guys are a rotating group (due to the inherent high mortality rate associated with living in the End Times and fighting the Prince of Darkness) of 4-5 who call themselves the [[TheSomethingForce Tribulation Force]]. The bad guy is [[LouisCypher Nicolae Carpathia]], TheAntichrist, the most evil of all {{Evil Overlord}}s.
The original Tribulation Force consists of: Rayford Steele, the unofficial leader and a pilot who planned on cheating on his wife (Irene) with a flight attendant (Hattie) because of how his wife's preaching annoyed him; Chloe, Ray's college-age daughter; Cameron "Buck" Williams, an adventurous, street savvy newspaper reporter who eventually marries Chloe; and Bruce, the pastor who brings them all together.
Together, they launch a crusade to convert the world and protect the converts while waiting through seven years of judgments between the Rapture and the Glorious Appearing of Christ at the end of the world.
The series currently consists of sixteen novels; three are prequels dealing with the birth of the Anti-Christ, the various signs leading up to the Rapture, and the Rapture itself.
* ''The Rising: Antichrist is Born'' (2005)
* ''The Regime: Evil Advances'' (2005)
* ''The Rapture: In the Twinkling of an Eye'' (2006)
* ''Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days'' (1995)
* ''Tribulation Force: The Continuing Drama of Those Left Behind'' (1996)
* ''Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist'' (1997)
* ''Soul Harvest: The World Takes Sides'' (1999)
* ''Apollyon: The Destroyer is Unleashed'' (1999)
* ''[[ColonCancer Assassins: Assignment: Jerusalem, Target: Antichrist]]'' (1999)
* ''The Indwelling: The Beast Takes Possession'' (2000)
* ''The Mark: The Beast Rules the World'' (2000)
* ''Desecration: Antichrist Takes the Throne'' (2001)
* ''The Remnant: On the Brink of Armageddon'' (2002)
* ''Armageddon: The Cosmic Battle of the Ages'' (2003)
* ''Glorious Appearing: The End of Days'' (2004)
* ''Kingdom Come: The Final Victory'' (2007)
Has been made into three direct-to-video films, the first of which saw a brief theatrical release the week ''after'' the video hit the stores. It's also spun off into graphic novels, a series of young adult novels (with teen protagonists experiencing these events in their own way), and even a PC game, which has a sequel due out soon.
There is [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/tag/left-behind/ a blog]] which has been doing an in-depth analysis and criticism of the books and authors, practically page-by-page (beginning [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/2011/08/07/left-behind-index-i-posts-1-50/ here]]).
----
!!Provides examples of:
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Potentate Carpathia, meet Chaim Rosenzweig's [[SharpenedToASingleAtom uber-sharp blade]]. Unfortunately, Carpathia gets better... and things get a hell of a lot worse from there.
* AcquiredPoisonImmunity: Subverted big time with Floyd Charles. He contracts the poison used to kill Hattie's baby from Hattie herself and later dies from it.
* AChatWithSatan: In ''Glorious Appearing'', Satan has to remind Nicolae Carpathia who is the boss when the Antichrist gets a bit big for his britches.
-->'''Satan:''' You dare suggest you have anything to offer me besides your pathetic frame?! You are drunk with a power whose source is far beyond your own! You are merely a vessel, a tool, a jar of clay for my purposes, and yet you parade yourself as if you had a shred of value!
** Also any scene where the heroes have to talk with Nicolae arguely counts, or at least it is treated with the same degree of dread by the act of conversing with such an prime agent of evil.
* AdaptationDyeJob: Blond-haired Chloe Steele, Buck Williams, and Nicolae Carpathia in the books get darker hair in the films.
* AfterTheEnd: ...well, after the first end. The second end is still a while away. And not really an ending.
* AGodAmI: Nicolae Carpathia fancies himself this after Satan takes control.
* AirForceOne: Plays a big role in the story, centering around the hiring of Rayford Steele as the primary pilot, and the president giving it to Nicolae Carpathia so he can fly around in it as the leader of the [[OneWorldGovernment Global Community]]. Several elements of its purpose and function[[hottip:*: (such as the fact that its pilots will always be Air Force personnel rather than civilian hires, the fact that if a President is not aboard it will never use the callsign "Air Force One", or the President confiding in Buck about how upset he is by ceding it to Carpathia when in fact the President always has at least two identical planes which can serve as Air Force One in case one of them is unavailable)]] are handily overlooked for [[DanBrowned the sake of the story]].
* AllLoveIsUnrequited Floyd Charles and Hattie Durham. Also David Hassid and Hannah Palemoon.
* AlphabetNewsNetwork: Global News Network in the movies, Global Community Cable News Network in the books.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Guy Blod sounds a tad bit fruity in the Dramatic Audio of ''The Indwelling.''
** A ''tad''? The gay practically drips off the pages of the actual books every time he talks to David Hayseed, er, ''Hassid''.
* AnAssKickingChristmas: Tsion Ben-Judah gets to witness [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+12&version=NIV Revelation chapter 12]] being played out in full detail in the heavens in ''The Indwelling''.
* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: At the end of the first novel, Buck confirms to Bruce, Rayford and Chloe that Nicolae Carpathia is in fact the Antichrist foretold.
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: The Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'' has the sound of a crowd cheering wildly as Michael locks Satan away in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. However, Satan does get out in time for the FinalBattle.
** Prior to that, in the middle of the Tribulation, there were 3 1/2 days of rejoicing when the two witnesses were killed by Nicolae at the start of the Global Gala, which abruptly ended when they were resurrected and taken to heaven in a cloud, according to [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]].
* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: In the prequel novel ''The Rising'', Marilena Carpathia wishes to become a mother. Enter Viviana Ivansova (Viv Ivins), who makes the following proposal to her: join our group and swear loyalty to [[{{Satan}} her lord]], and she will have the baby she so desperately desire. [[TheAntiChrist Marilena should have read the fine print about what her son will become in the future.]]
* AntiClimax: The Other Light battle versus Jesus Christ in ''Kingdom Come''. It took less time in that book to be over than the Battle of Armageddon in ''Glorious Appearing''. Chaim Rosenzweig even {{Lampshades}} this fact.
* AnyoneCanDie: Except for one person, [[spoiler:Rayford Steele]], all of the people we get to know end up dying in various painful and/or messy ways.
* APlagueOnBothYourHouses: According to T.M. Delanty, upon finding out that his brother Samuel was killed while escorting Hattie Durham, Bo Hansen got wasted in a bar, pulled out a gun, cursed Nicolae, God and the world, [[DrivenToSuicide and killed himself.]]
* ApocalypseHow: a level 1 (global DepopulationBomb) followed by a level X-4 (the annihilation of the entire ''physical'' universe or 'World', as opposed to the 'Kingdom of Heaven').
* ArabIsraeliConflict: Ended bloodlessly in the prologue. Israel, thanks to a chemical Super Miracle-Gro has bought the good will of its neighbors to the extent where they apparently have no problem with it absorbing Syria and a large chunk of Iraq.
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: You have to be in a ''very'' specific branch of Christianity to agree with the author's interpretation of Literature/TheBible.
** In-universe, the Christian denominations that don't hold to that particular teaching of the end times gets left behind. However, there are some surprising exceptions, like the Catholic congregation in South America whose priest believes in the Rapture.
** Combined with ArtisticLicenseLinguistics, in ''The Rising'', the authors have a curious etymology for Lucifer's name, from Latin lux, or lucis (light) and ferrum (iron) -- in other words, Iron (or Iron-hard) Light. They may have the language and "light" part right, but, in fact, most Christian scholars can tell you that Lucifer actually came from lucem ferre -- Light-Bearer. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer See here]].
* ArchangelGabriel / ArchangelMichael: Be it giving [[AnAssKickingChristmas Tsion Ben-Judah a front-row seat of the War In Heaven between Satan and God]], or strong-arming the Antichrist and his False Prophet, the two archangels are ready to do their Lord's bidding.
* ArcNumber: Carpathia sure has a thing for 216.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
** After Chloe is captured by the GC, among the things the GCNN report is that she was expelled from her university for making threats against the faculty, aborted two fetuses (with another daughter dying under unknown circumstances), and naming her son Jesus Savior Williams.
** Tsion Ben-Judah. Earned the ire of his fellow Israelis by declaring that Jesus is the Messiah, wanted in the murders of his wife and stepchildren, and accused of "fleecing his flock" millions of Nicks.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Applies to anyone [[CaughtUpInTheRapture who was raptured]] or martyred, as you are given a glorified body. Of course, this means that [[ChasteHero in your glorified state, you cannot fall in love, neither sire or have children.]] But for those who have been raptured and been with the Lord during the Tribulation, [[BetterThanSex nothing else]] [[LivingForeverIsAwesome quite compares to it]].
** By the end of the Millennium, all naturals who are believers are given glorified bodies.
* {{Asexuality}}: The relationship of the "glorifieds" with "naturals" and with each other in ''Kingdom Come'', mostly due to the nature of their new bodies and minds.
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The ideas for non-American names leave something to be desired. A Chinese woman named Ming Toy? An Amerindian woman named Hannah Palemoon? (Google "Princess Palemoon" to see the problem...) A Jewish man named Tsion ben-Judah? And of course, "Nicolae Carpathia", which veers into self-parody.
* AsTheGoodBookSays: Bible verses aplenty.
* TheAtoner: Anyone who was left behind following the Rapture who became a Christian.
* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: The GC Unity Army is primed and ready to attack both Petra and Jerusalem in ''Armageddon''. Then Jesus arrives. Cue CurbStompBattle.
* AttemptedRape: In ''Kingdom Come'' with an unbelieving under-100 "natural" (who was part of [[LaResistance The Other Light]]) and a female "glorified" in the hopes of siring a child that may be able to [[DeathsHourglass live past 100 years of age without becoming a believer]]. God foiled the attempt by having the would-be rapist die in her arms and then incinerated. Given that "glorifieds" are [[ImmortalProcreationClause not able to sire or have children]], this would have proved to be pointless.
* AudioAdaptation: Gap Digital produced Dramatic Audio presentations of the twelve main books in the series.
* AuthorAvatar: Two of them, one for each author, although it's worth mentioning that it's more severe with Buck, since Buck is Jenkins' avatar, and Jenkins is the one who does the actual writing.
* AuthorFilibuster: The authors are not afraid of parashooting a 30 page sermon into the plot
* AuthorTract
* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: [[spoiler: Jesus rewarding the Tribulation Martyrs with a martyrs' crown.]]
* BackFromTheDead: The resurrection of the dead for the final judgment.
** Carpathia resurrecting Fortunato (with a cool biblical allusion to boot), Eli and Moishe being resurrected by God, and Carpathia resurrecting himself (actually being indwelt by Satan).
---> '''Carpathia''': FORTUNATO, '''COME FORTH!'''
* BadassBeard: [[spoiler: Take a wild guess.]]
* BadassBookworm: By the end of the series, Abdullah Smith is quite the bookworm indeed. Ken Ritz is also one.
* BadassFamily: The Steeles as the Tribulation goes on, and by extension, Cameron Williams.
* BadassGrandpa: Rayford gradually grows into this role following Kenny's birth.
* BadassIsraeli: Tsion ben-Judah, David Hassid and Chaim Rosenzweig.
* BadassPreacher: Tsion Ben-Judah in ''Armageddon'' when he decides to help defend Jerusalem and preach to the Jews about Jesus Christ during the Battle of Armageddon
** Eli and Moishe also qualify.
* BadBoss: The climax of the first book centers around [[spoiler:Nicolae shooting two of his subordinates for the sole purpose of demonstrating his "power." He then brainwashes everyone in the room into forgetting what they just saw.]]
** FridgeLogic: Then why would he do it in the first place?
*** [[spoiler:He has a legitimate motive (though it seems secondary at the time) in removing them from the picture, and as it is revealed in the next book, taking over their assets. However, the "power" display itself that he touts so much is still mystifying.]]
*** [[spoiler:It's possible he did it in order to "smoke out" anyone in the room who was immune to his power (i.e., Christians). According to the first book's mythology, anyone converted to Christianity would see "the truth" behind Carpathia's magical mystical hypnotic suggestions, and would probably still be freaking out while the "true Carpathia believers" sat calmly like nothing had happened.]]
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Why did Russia ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Ethiopia]]) attack Israel? Because it was written that they would. Why would they world agree to suddenly follow one religion after so much bloody strife? It's written that they would. Not even a {{handwave}} that TheAntichrist is using mind control powers to make it happen. These people do these things solely because it's been foretold.
* BeingEvilSucks: You're pretty much boned if [[HeelFaceDoorSlam you take the mark of loyalty and worship the image of the Antichrist.]] Not to mention that you will be subject to God's retribution in the form of his bowl judgements.
* BigApplesauce: Since the Antichrist's plan so heavily involves the UN, New York is a major setting, which is made all the more jarring given the [[YouFailGeographyForever glaring errors]] written about it. In the first book, Buck (who is described as being "in great shape"), has to walk a bit through Manhattan. The journey is described like the Bataan Death March, when in reality it's less than two miles.
** He walks until he's ready to collapse from exhaustion and then he finds an abandoned bike and considers it a sign from God. In ''less than two miles''.
* BigBad: Nicolae Carpathia, throughout much of the book series.
* BigGood: God and Jesus, naturally. Jesus turns up in person at the end of the twelfth book.
* BigNo: In the Dramatic Audio of ''Glorious Appearing'', Leon Fortunato utters this (half-screaming, half-crying, actually) as he is hauled to the pit which will send him and Carpathia to the Lake of Fire.
* BilingualDialogue: While Buck is at the Wailing Wall for the first time with Tsion watching Eli and Moishe preach, Buck and Tsion hear them in their respective languages. Buck later confirms this with Tsion after asking around the crowd. One man says that they are speaking Spanish, while another says they are speaking German, and a third person hears them in Dutch.
** Played straight with Jesus Himself, as the believers hear him speak to them in their own languages; Rayford, in English, Chaim in Hebrew, Chang Wong in Mandarin Chinese, Abdullah in Arabic with Mac jokingly saying that Jesus "worked a bit of West Texan...the language of Heaven."
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: As an example, the character list in the third book lists characters as being either part of the "The Believers", "The Enemies", or "The Undecided". [[TakeAThirdOption Taking a Third Option]] in morality is not something that happens here.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: In the third Left Behind movie, Bruce Barnes bites the big one. Fitzhugh is the last to go.
** In the novels, T.M. Delanty is the first black dude to die.
* BlackMarket: Inverted with the International Commodity Co-Op, which caters to underground Christians, helping them survive the final years of the Tribulation.
* BlandNameProduct: The movies have Buck Williams working for [[CableNewsNetwork Global News Network (GNN)]].
* BondingOverMissingParents: The lead characters of ''Left Behind: The Kids'' bond together when their parents were either raptured or killed.
* {{Brainwashed}}: The Antichrist's preferred method of gaining allies and resources.
* BottomlessPit: At the end of ''Glorious Appearing'', Satan [[SealedEvilInACan gets chained up and tossed into one]]. [[ThousandYearReign He will remain there for the duration of the Millennial Kingdom.]]
* BriarPatching: Rayford pulls this off with the Potentate at the end of ''Nicolae''. Carpathia knows that Rayford is a believer and wishes to be at the meeting of the 144,000 at Teddy Kolleck Stadium. But Rayford convinces him that showing up would be to his advantage.
-->'''Rayford:''' The enemy has been known to imitate miracles. Imagine the audience in Israel if you were to do something like that. Here are people of faith coming together for inspiration. If you are God, if you could be the Messiah, wouldn't they be thrilled to meet you?
-->'''Carpathia:''' If you are suggesting that it only makes sense that the Global Community Potentate bestow upon those guests a regal welcome second to none, you may have a point...Captain Steele, schedule that flight.
* BrokenBird: Prior to becoming the head nurse at Brigham Young Hospital, Leah Rose had quite the checkered past. From a broken household to a teenage drug addict who slept around, aborted a pregnancy [[BungledSuicide and nearly killed herself several times]] before she finally cleaned herself up, got her GED and after getting married, her husband put her through nursing school and the pair adopted two boys. After their children were taken in the Rapture, she and her husband tried to kill themselves. Her husband succeeded. She didn't. In the end, she became a believer.
** Abdullah Ababaneh (Smith) gets the honorable mention. He starts off as a Muslim, but when his wife Yasmine and their two children, Bahira and Zaki become Christians, they leave him following one argument too many. This drives Abdullah into a state of depression, where he loses himself in booze and women, eventhough he wants his family back.
* BrokenPedestal: Nicolae Carpathia increasingly becomes this to those who once believed him to be a noble character, showing more and more [[EvilAllAlong what an evil sot he really is]]. Even Jesus calls him out on it, saying that all his God-given abilities could have been used for good, but he chose to use them all for serving Satan.
* [[BrosBeforeHoes Brothers Before Lovers]]: Rayford invokes this against ''his own daughter,'' when he sides with her boyfriend Buck in an argument.
* BuryYourGays: Within a few pages of (accidentally) outing herself, Verna Zee is squashed by the "Wrath of the Lamb" earthquake.
** In the prequel novels, Nicolae Carpathia has [[HasTwoMommies his two biological fathers]] killed off.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: From ''Desecration'', the exchange with Carpathia and Fortunato.
-->'''Fortunato:''' (re: Hattie's death) Holiness, I called down fire on your enemy just yesterday.
-->'''Carpathia:''' You cooked a harmless woman with a big mouth.
* [[ButICantBePregnant But She Can't Be Pregnant!:]] Buck's reaction upon finding out that ''Mother Doe'' is in fact Chloe...and that she is pregnant with their child.
* ButThouMust: In ''Desecration'', it's Hattie's confrontation with Carpathia and Fortunato.
* ButtMonkey: TheAntichrist's [[TheDragon Dragon]] has at least one moment per book where he looks like a stupendous idiot.
** Hattie Durham counts as well.
* CaliforniaDoubling: Toronto as New York for the movie, if you look closely, the international flags displayed at the UN are actually those of Canadian provinces.
* CallingYourAttacks: In ''Desecration'', Carpathia asks Morale Monitor head Loren Hut on how would he deal with dissidents. When Hut responds that he would shoot them in the head or chest, Carpathia insists that he empty his nine-round clip into the offender, starting with both hands, feet, knees, and shoulders. When they finally declare that Carpathia is indeed God, they should be executed with the [[BoomHeadshot final bullet to the head]], followed by the [[OffWithHisHead immediate beheading of the head from the body.]]
** IronicEcho: Carpathia later executes Walter Moon this way when Moon fails to have Tsion Ben-Judah removed from the GC networks.
* TheCameo: In the end of ''Kingdom Come'', we see The Beast (Nicolae Carpathia) and the False Prophet (Leon Fortunato) in the Lake of Fire screaming "JESUS IS LORD! JESUS IS LORD!"
** In the films, Christian music artists Bob Carlisle and Rebecca St. James appear as Global News Network studio workers, while the Christian music band Jake appears as United Nations security guards along with Clay Crosse. There's also John and Diana Hagee as well as Jack and Rexella Van Impe who appear as passengers on board Rayford's plane that have vanished, and T.D. Jakes who appears as Vernon Billings.
* CaughtUpInTheRapture: Kicks off the plot.
* TheCavalry: Or as one character puts it, the "Calvary cavalry", which is Jesus Christ leading His army of saints from heaven in ''Glorious Appearing''. However, Jesus does all the fighting with only the [[Literature/TheBible Word Of God]] as His weapon while the army following Him does all the praising.
* CelestialBureaucracy: A pretty effective one in ''Kingdom Come.'' Jesus is the proverbial head of state, the Levite priests oversee the rebuilt Temple, and the 11 apostles act as the civil governors with King David as their leader.
* CharacterShilling
* ChasteHero: Raymie Steele in ''Kingdom Come''. His being a "glorified" renders him permanently unable to seek any sort of sexual relationship. In fact, any child that was CaughtUpInTheRapture will end up coming back as a ChasteHero.
* ChekhovsGun: The Rapture Tape Pastor Billings made '''three years''' before the Rapture. It would be instrumental in bringing about Rayford and Chloe's salvation.
** In the prequel novel ''The Regime'', it's Chaim Rosenzweig's synthetic fertilizer (The Eden Project). Later, in ''Tribulation Force'', [[DealWithTheDevil it is used to secure a seven-year peace treaty with Israel.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: Ken Ritz. Most people don't know that [[BadassBookworm he graduated Saluatorian in his high school class, or studied at the London School of Economics,]] or the ideas he had would eventually become the International Commodity Co-Op, or the fact that [[SecretlyWealthy he stashed at least 80 percent of his earnings at Palwaukee Airport, thus making him a virtual millionaire.]] Rayford's reaction to this little revelation is priceless.
--> '''Rayford:''' Did I mention the annual dues for being a member of the Tribulation Force?
** Tsion Ben-Judah. No one would '''ever''' think that the former student of Chaim Rosenzweig would convert, or that his cyber-classes on the Messiah would lead thousands to Christ.
** Cendrillion Jospin, as it is through her death that the believers discover her connections to The Other Light.
** Irene Steele is a minor example. [[IWarnedYou She DID warn Rayford about the Rapture.]]
** Viv Ivins in the prequel novels. She did convince Marilena to become mother to the Antichrist.
* ClaspYourHandsIfYouDeceive: As seen in promotional shots for the movie, Gordon Currie seems to be [[HamAndCheese enjoying himself]].
* ContinuityReboot: Cloud Ten Pictures is aiming to reboot the entire film series, starting with the first book.
* CommandRoster:
** The Tribulation Force consists of:
*** TheCaptain: Rayford Steele
*** NumberTwo: Cameron "Buck" Williams
*** [[TheChick The CEO:]] Chloe Steele
*** TheMentor: Bruce Barnes, later Tsion Ben-Judah
*** TeamMom: Loretta
*** [[TheMedic The Medics]]: Floyd Charles, Hannah Palemoon and Leah Rose
*** [[ThePilot The Pilots]]: Ken Ritz, Mac [=McCullum=], Abdullah Ababaneh (Smith), Lionel Whalum, Ree Woo, and T.M. Delanty
*** [[TeenGenius Teen Geinuses]]: Chang Wong and Naomi Tiberias
*** [[TheSmartGuy The Smart Guys]]: Donny Moore originally, David Hassid, Gustaf Zuckermandel, Jr.
*** SixthRanger: Chaim Rosenzweig
** Representing the Global Community...
*** [[TheAntiChrist Antichrist / The Beast:]] Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia
*** [[TheDragon The False Prophet:]] Most High Reverend Leonardo Fortunato
*** TheRival: Pontifex Maximus Peter the Second (Peter Matthews)
*** TheDarkChick / TeamMom: Viv Ivins
*** [[NumberTwo Supreme Commander:]] Jim Hickman, Walter Moon and Suhail Akbar
*** TheSmartGuy: Aurelio Sequoia Figueroa
*** SixthRanger: Guy Blod, Loren Hut, Jock Ashmore
** Last, The Other Light
*** [[BigBad The Founder:]] Mudawar
*** [[TheDragon Co-Dragons:]] Ignace and Lothair Jospin
*** NumberTwo: Sarsour
*** TheMole: Quasim Marid
*** TheDarkChick: Nicolette
* ConspiracyTheorist: Buck Williams' informant Dirk Burton is played as one in both the novels and the movies.
* CorruptChurch: Arguably Enigma Babylon One World Faith, which consists of the Roman Catholic Church combined with other sects of Christianity that would not hold to fundamentalist doctrine as well as other religions.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Joshua Todd-Cothran and Jonathan Stonagal...until Nicolae executes the both of them. Prior to becoming the President of Romania, Carpathia himself personified this trope, as anyone who stood in his way were killed or bribed into submission.
* CozyCatastrophe: Crashed airlines, mass disappearances, and political upheaval ''everywhere'', but the trash is still getting collected, [[TheTrainsRunOnTime airline flights are uninterrupted]], and it's safe to walk the streets at night.
** The aforementioned Slacktivist got a lot of comedy mileage out of the scene where Buck calmly buys a land rover (from an equally calm dealer) in the surburbs of Chichago--a few hours after the ''atom bombing'' of downtown Chichago.
** It arguably gets more cozy right on the day of Jesus' second coming, at least for the believers. Conveniently, the world's economic system crashes with the destruction of New Babylon on the same day that Jesus comes. Everyone on Carpathia's side, who isn't in Carpathia's Unity Army and isn't so determined to go forward with destroying the Christians and Jews in Petra and Jerusalem, is in a world-wide panic.
*** This ultimately leads to [[ScrewTheWarWerePartying Screw the War, We're Praising the Lord]], when the people in Petra end up paying little attention to the Global Community Unity Army completely surrounding them and more to Jesus coming from the sky to [[CurbStompBattle slay all their enemies]] with [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]].
* CrapsaccharineWorld: The viewpoint of Christ's Millennial Reign within the Other Light faction, given the [[DeathsHourglass 100 years of age limit]] imposed on unbelieving "naturals".
* CrapsackWorld: Descends into this, but later gets turned around.
** It degenerates back into this during the Millennial Kingdom with the rise of The Other Light.
* CreatorProvincialism: Plenty. If the authors describe anyone who isn't a PMD Christian, expect a [[WarOnStraw Strawman]], a FoxNewsLiberal, this, or a combination thereof.
* CrisisOfFaith: Irene Steele experiences this before switching to New Hope Baptist Church.
* CurbStompBattle: When Jesus comes into the scene and slaughters Global Community troops en masse just by speaking [[Literature/TheBible the Word of God]], it's a total GameBreaker. He's also unstoppable, as evidenced in the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'' where the Antichrist armies launch rockets at Him with no success.
** The Satan's army vs. God battle in ''Kingdom Come'' was over in an instant. All that preparation and the Other Light gets smoked into ashes in seconds!
* DanBrowned: The authors go to great lengths to assert that these books are accurate predictions of things that ''will'' happen once the rapture hits according to a strict interpretation of Literature/TheBible. However, the books also demonstrate not just several {{Critical Research Failure}}s in many areas, but also a lot of implausible reactions on the part of people in the setting that undermines the WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. To quote The Slacktivist:
--> "Here's where a semi-competent hack like DanBrown, author of ''TheDaVinciCode'', would be preferable to wholly incompetent hacks like Tim [=LaHaye=] and Jerry Jenkins."
* TheDanza: Kirk '''Cameron''' playing '''Cameron''' "Buck" Williams.
* DawsonCasting: In the first Left Behind film (which came out in 2000), Chelsea Noble was in her mid-thirties, playing 27-year-old Hattie Durham. Janaya Stephens was 27-years-old at the time, playing 20-year-old Chloe Steele. Gordon Currie was also in his mid-thirties at the time, playing 33-year-old Nicolae Carpathia. Played almost straight with Brad Johnson, who was 41-years-old playing 42-year-old Rayford Steele. Dead-on with Kirk Cameron, who was 30 at the time playing Buck Williams, also 30 years of age.
* TheDayOfReckoning: Final day of the Great Tribulation sees [[CurbStompBattle the destruction of the Unity Army]], the deaths of Baal, Ashtaroth and Cankerworm, Carpathia and Fortunato's Angel-assisted swan dive into the Lake of Fire, [[SealedEvilInACan and Satan chained up and tossed into the bottomless pit for 1,000 years.]]
** Final day of the Millennial Kingdom has Satan released from his prison, where he joins up with [[LaResistance The Other Light forces]] which had surrounded Jerusalem. Jesus emerges from the Temple and [[CurbStompBattle simply says "I AM WHO I AM" and instantly incinerates the invaders]]. With Satan effectively humbled for the final time, Jesus [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech chastises Satan for his iniquities from time immemorial]], and ultimately sends him to join [[TheAntiChrist The Beast]] and the [[TheDragon False Prophet]] in Hell.
* DeadpanSnarker: Plenty to go around, especially from the protagonists. Ken Ritz and Mac [=McCullum=] top the list. Nicolae Carpathia (post-indwelling) can snark with the best of them.
* DealWithTheDevil: The signing of the treaty that allows the Global Community to have licensed use of Chaim Rosenzweig's synthetic fertilizer formula for seven years in exchange for peace among the nations for Israel in ''Tribulation Force'' is seen as the very thing that initiates the seven-year Tribulation period, which according to Eli and Moishe is the final "week" of Daniel's "70 weeks" prophecy.
--> '''Eli and Moishe:''' Thus begins the [[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Dan%209:27&version=KJV last terrible week of the Lord]]!
* [[DeadGuyOnDisplay Dead Guys On Display:]] Eli and Moishe, after Carpathia gun the both of them down during the Global Gala. Three and a half days later, both prophets are resurrected and taken to heaven.
* DeathsHourglass: While lacking the actual timepiece, citizens of the Millennial Kingdom know that "naturals" who stay unbelievers by the time they reach 100 will instantly die and go to Hell. This fate can only be averted by [[ReligionIsRight accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.]] The Other Light faction sees GodIsEvil because of this and has prepared for that contingency by having their teachings passed down to the next generation of its converts so that the generation that [[FinalBattle gets to confront God and Jesus by the end of the Millennium]] will be "assured victory" when [[SealedEvilInACan Satan is released]]. [[CurbStompBattle Unfortunately for them,]] [[YouCantFightFate it didn't go as they hoped.]]
* DefiantToTheEnd: Carpathia is this when he stands before Jesus...until Jesus cast Satan out of him.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Not really historical, but for what it's worth, the GodIsEvil view of the Other Light faction in regards to His 100 years of age limit for unbelievers, which is why they're working hard to win converts with [[DeathsHourglass each generation of unbelievers that passes away at 100]] so they could potentially [[FinalBattle overthrow Him at the end of the Millennium]] when [[SealedEvilInACan Satan is released]]. [[CurbStompBattle Guess how that turned out!]]
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The following line may not have seemed quite so redundant in 1996 when ''Tribulation Force'' was written, but certainly does today:
-->"Buck...had secretly studied the feasibility of producing an anti-Global Community Web site on the Internet."
* DespairEventHorizon: From the Rapture to the fall of New Babylon, those who lost the will to live usually end up committing suicide.
* DeusExMachina: {{justified|Trope}} -- after all, the whole series is basically ''about'' God causing stuff to happen.
* DevilInPlainSight: Literally.
* TheDevilIsALoser: Carpathia pre-indwelling manages to be calm, collected, and careful in his quest to bring the world under Satan's palm. ''Post''-indwelling, with Satan actually present, he rapidly spirals down into maniacal spite and general loopiness.
** Not to mention [[SarcasmMode his brilliant overall strategy]] of using the Biblical prophecies to know where and when Jesus will appear for him to fight, then bringing the exact army to the table that those same prophecies claim Jesus will [[CurbStompBattle mop the floor with]].
* DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu - Happens in the sixth book when a believer tells the False Prophet off to his face, and he not long after lampshades this trope. It later turns in a delayed DoNotTauntCthulhu when [[spoiler: the guy who did it and his wife are killed.]]
** [[spoiler: Since this means he gets to ride out the rest of the Tribulation in the comfort of heaven before coming back with Jesus anyway, this might qualify as a ThanatosGambit.]]
** In the fifth book, Chaim Rosenzweig does this to the aforementioned False Prophet during the meeting of the 144,000 Jews. When Fortunato demands to be addressed by his proper title, Chaim responds by calling the Supreme Commander 'Supreme Nincompoop,' and gets away with it.
* DiscOneFinalBoss, although more of a fake Dragon in Peter Mathews vs. Leon Fortunato.
* DisneyDeath: Honestly, who among the heroes will stay dead, given that Jesus will resurrect them? The Other Light can only assume that's what Satan is going to do if they [[KillTheGod succeed in defeating God and Jesus]] [[FinalBattle at the end of the Millennium.]]
** Unfortunately averted with some minor nonbeliever characters who help the heroes in this story. They only get resurrected to face the final judgment.
* DirtyCoward: Despite all of his showboating, Leon Fortunato shows his true colors when Jesus arrives on the scene. He tries to [[HeelFaithTurn plead his case to Jesus.]] It does not work.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Russia attacked Israel because it was hogging the new agricultural super growth formula they'd developed, and they try to get it by launching a massive nuclear strike at Israel. Why not just have a spy steal it (which is what most nations do in RealLife when they want to take an innovation another side has developed
* DistressedDamsel: With as many times Hattie has been captured by the GC, she could give Princess Peach a run for her money.
* DoNotTauntCthulhu: Or rather, Do Not Piss Carpathia Off.
* [[DoomedHometown Doomed City:]] So long, New Babylon.
** Also DoomedHometown, as members of The Place flee Chicago before it gets nuked.
* DoubleStandard: A combination of the author's strong support for 'Traditional gender roles' and ValuesDissonance with a lot of people means you can expect quite a bit of this. But there are a few cases that are bad even by those standards. Buck and Bruce have several conversations about Hattie and Steve, both of whom work for the Antichrist. Hattie is declared not worth the risk of trying to save her from the Antichrist, since going was 'her choice' and she's possibly banging him already, the filthy slut! Steve is considered a trusted friend despite that he, unlike Hattie, admitted he knows his boss is involved in the murder of another journalist ''and'' went suspiciously silent when Buck mentioned his boss might have something to do with the Biblical endtimes.
* DraggedOffToHell: The fate of both Nicolae Carpathia and Leon Fortunato as they are pushed by Michael the archangel into the Lake Of Fire in the book ''Glorious Appearing''.
* TheDragon: Leon Fortunato
** Viv Ivins also has a minor role.
** Jonathan Stonagal and Joshua Todd-Cothran start out as this at first, [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness until Carpathia executes the both of them.]]
** Ironically, this is one of Satan's many aliases.
* DrivenToSuicide: From the Rapture to the end of the Tribulation...most of them were unbelievers or those who backed the Global Community, particularly more so when [[HeelFaceDoorSlam they've taken the Mark Of The Beast only to realize it's a point of no return]].
** Following the destruction of New Babylon, those who lost their fortunes commit suicide in droves.
** Steve Plank's assistant commits suicide when Plank decides to become a martyr.
** Jim Hickman's likely fate when he accidentally caused his co-worker Ramon Santiago to be killed by Nicolae by spilling the beans about what was overheard from Carpathia's offices.
* DrunkWithPower: Post-indwelling, Carpathia is one step away from being Murdock-level insane...[[AChatWithSatan until Lucifer, of all people, call him out on that during the battle of Armageddon.]]
* DyingLikeAnimals: Pretty much everyone on the planet and they're quite a zoo.
** Those killed in the destruction caused by the initial rapture would qualify as termites, wiped out before they even had a chance to know what was going on.
** Most of the human race fall into bats, sheep, wasps, or lemmings, unaware of what's going on and either oblivious or brainwashed.
** The Trib Force themselves would be lambs, depending on {{God}} to do the real work since YouCantFightFate.
** And one of the later books involves a group of boars trying to assassinate the Antichrist, but FailureIsTheOnlyOption.
* EarthIsYoung: The movie version of Left Behind uses plain simple Type A. The Bible is literal truth, nothing to argue about. Critical thinking doesn't exist in this setting, and it works both ways. Protagonists who spent their entire lives with a secular world-view doesn't seem to feel any need for any explanation of how young earth creationism can possibly be true. In return, the rapture actually happening doesn't seem to give anyone else the idea that evangelical Christianity might be true after all.
* EarthquakesCauseFissures: God and Jesus' natural disaster of choice. If you want to kill a ton of condemned and unbelievers en masse, or cause massive property damage, earthquakes are the way to go.
** During the battle of Armageddon, one particular earthquake renders the entire Earth flat, while at the same time, causing the city of Jerusalem to rise 300 feet from the ground.
* EarthShatteringKaboom: What takes place at the end of ''Kingdom Come'' when the old earth passes away.
* EasilyForgiven: In ''Kingdom Come'', Kenny's friends, family, and girlfriend, who ''know'' that he plans to secretly infiltrate The Other Light, believe, on specious evidence, including the word of a known traitor and liar, that he had really left the faith. They all turn against him. When the matter is resolved, everything immediately returns to ''status quo ante'', complete with Kenny picking up where he left off with his girlfriend.
** [[EasilyForgiven I Forgive You:]] Carpathia (post-indwelling) publicly forgives his assassin. [[LoopholeAbuse Since Chaim Rosenzweig has been officially declared dead (his body was not found when his staff was gunned down), that allows any GC to kill him without penalty from Carpathia.]]
* EasyEvangelism: Played straight with the Tribulation Force, but subverted with just about everyone else. Rayford's decidedly haughty attempt at evangelism to his copilot in book 2 is a prime example of the latter. One third of the population of the Earth disappears, specifically including ''all'' children without exception, and the possibility that divine intervention might have been involved is just [[FlatEarthAtheist completely out of the question]].
** Also played straight with the [[PathOfInspiration Enigma Babylon One World Faith]], a global religion engineered by the {{Antichrist}}. Essentially, anyone who is does not hold to the "true" Christian faith gets rolled into one big spiritual group, and does so willingly. [[BellisariosMaxim Nevermind that]] there are a variety of traditional, theological, and dogmatic differences between these groups which would be irreconcilable with regard to joining together into one diverse-but-united faith under a central authority.
** Also played straight with the believers in the Millennial Kingdom, to the point where one would have to be a complete idiot to not see that (1) [[ElephantInTheLivingRoom God and Jesus Christ are pretty much real]] and (2) [[DeathsHourglass any "natural" who remains an unbeliever by the time they reach 100 years of age will instantly die and go to Hell]]. It's the Other Light faction that has to work hard to convince people of their beliefs.
* EasyLogistics: A literary example. TheAntiChrist's plan involves forming a OneWorldGovernment, redistributing governing districts from nation-states to several arbitrary regional divisions, mashing all global religions into OneTrueFaith, turning all public and private media worldwide into a single PropagandaMachine, disarming the nations of the world by retiring ninety percent of their armed forces and the destruction of ninety percent of their equipment, turning the remaining ten percent over to the command of the new Global Community, relocating the UnitedNations from [[BigAppleSauce New York]] to a newly established and rapidly developed city in the Iraqi desert, and rebuilding the temple in {{Jerusalem}}. This plan is begun, implimented, and accomplished in only a few years, administrated by only a few people, despite the mind-boggling complexity that such global re-organizing would involve.
* {{Egopolis}}: United Carpathian States and a minor example, Carpathia Standard Time.
** Not to say that God and Jesus are not entirely guilty of this trope. Valley of Jehoshaphat, Ozase.
* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: The presence of God and Jesus Christ in the Millennial Kingdom for the Only Light believers, and pretty much for anyone born and/or raised in the Millennial Kingdom.
* EliteMooks: The Morale Monitors for the Global Community, The Only Light for The Other Light.
* EmbarrassingMiddleName: The Antichrist's full name is Nicolae Jetty Carpathia. ''Jetty''. This might explain what drove him to evil. This was discussed in one of the prequels as referring to "[[DarkIsEvil jet black]]".
** This is also an example of a MeaningfulName, as if you assign each letter a value according to the standard A=1, B=2 scale, they add up to 216, which is 6 cubed (6*6*6).
* EmptyPilesOfClothing: What people in the book series find at the time the Rapture takes place.
* EndlessDaytime: In the Millennial Kingdom in the book ''Kingdom Come'', there's still a morning and an evening, but the only difference is that the evening sun is less brighter than the morning sun.
* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Which the characters don't want to prevent, but pray will come soon, given the CrapsackWorld they're currently in.
* EscortMission: In ''Desecration'', George Sebastian is assigned to Greece to get Georgiana Stavros and Marcel Papadopoulos out of there. [[spoiler: The mission goes FUBAR when Georgiana turns out to be a GC decoy, who kills Marcel, Lukas Miklos, and Kronos, while capturing Sebastian.]]
* EtTuBrute: In the Dramatic Audio, we hear Pope Peter the Second get stabbed to death by the 10 subpotentates.
* EurekaMoment: Played straight with both Rayford Steele and Buck Williams, who recognize the signs which leads to the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake...which leads into an OhCrap moment.
** Rayford gets a second one when he notices what he originally thought was a smudge on Mac's forehead is in fact an image of a three-dimensional cross - the Seal of God, which identifies one believer from another, despite the fact that one cannot see it on their own forehead.
** At the end of ''Assassins'', David Hassid has one when upon watching a surveillance video that Rayford '''was not''' the one who murdered Carpathia.
** After Chloe gets captured in ''Armageddon'', she reminds her father about the trip to Red Rocks in Colorado. Rayford is stumped, [[HintDropping but it's Mac who realizes the hidden meaning behind Chloe's words.]] She is telling them that the San Diego safehouse is compromised and that the believers there should relocate to Petra.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Nicolae turns this trope on its head when he and Viv orchestrate the murder of Nicolae's mother...before he was ten.
** It could be argued that Nicolae wasn't involved in that, since Viv Ivins had to inform him of her death. However, his apathy toward the situation is astounding. "How does that make you feel?" "Hungry."
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Carpathia's relationship with Viv Ivins. She did basically raise him after he orchestrated his mother's death. But Viv did piss Carpathia off [[DoNotTauntCthulhu by sitting on his throne in Descecration.]] Fortunately, Carpathia let her slide on that offense.
** In the Dramatic Audio of ''Glorious Appearing'', though, Viv Ivins [[RocksFallEveryoneDies gets killed by a hailstone]], and [[DullSurprise Nicolae just casually shrugs off her death.]]
-->'''Fortunato:''' (after Viv gets splattered by said hailstone) Excellency...I am so sorry.
-->'''Carpathia:''' Yes. Terrible loss.
** And he was on the verge of directing an intruder to take her instead of him in The Rising.
* EverythingIsOnline: The Tribulation Force always has at least one living [[TheSmartGuy Smart Guy]] who can erase any incriminating records, falsify any reports, and hack into anything digital, even security cameras in a condemned building halfway across the world.
* EvilAllAlong: In-universe, nobody but those in the Tribulation Force and those who once have been in Nicolae Carpathia's close circle of associates really know just how evil Nicolae really is, and that he is working for his "father" Satan. Of course, after Nicolae is indwelt by Satan, the facade slowly cracks and everyone gets to see the true Nicolae underneath his original public persona.
* EvilEmpire: The Global Community. In the minds of the Other Light in ''Kingdom Come'', Christ's Millennial Reign.
* EvilMentor: Of the spiritual variety. Carpathia, Fortunato and Viv Ivins share the same spiritual guide - Satan himself.
* TheEvilsOfFreeWill: The assumption made of God by the Other Light faction in their ''If It's True'' manifesto by His [[DeathsHourglass not allowing "naturals" to live past 100 years of age]] as unbelievers.
* EvilVersusEvil: Even the Global Community is not immune to rebellion among its own ranks, as Enigma Babylon leader Peter Mathews plots against Nicolae Carpathia and the United African States ends up attempting to secede from the one-world government. It all gets straightened out by the battle of Armageddon, and Carpathia's Unity Army still gets [[CurbStompBattle seriously owned by Jesus]].
* ExaltedTorturer: Arguably God, given that he sets all events in motion, [[BecauseDestinySaysSo forges all destinies]], and that even the things the ostensible villains do are ultimately his responsibility. After all is said and done, he tortures everyone who is not a specific denomination of Christian, regardless of those people's potential virtues, [[DisproportionateRetribution in a lake of fire for eternity]]. Not that God or Jesus Christ enjoy it, as Jesus sadly watches the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and all those who rejected Him throughout the ages go to their appointed doom.
** Speaking of those "potential virtues", the Bible does say that there's a way that seems right to a man, but its end thereof is death.
** To quote Jesus speaking to Asharoth, Baal, and Cankerworm from the Dramatic Audio:
--> "Like My Father, with whom I am One, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but justice must be served, and death is your sentence."
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: The aforementioned EurekaMoment regarding Buck Williams in the Dramatic Audio of ''Nicolae.''
-->'''Buck:''' Can't uh...the wind...you think...(cue EurekaMoment) Oh, no! (drives off)
* FaceDeathWithDignity: Any believer who becomes a martyr in the Tribulation.
* FaithHeelTurn: The mob of remnants who visited a GC-backed Miracle Worker outside the safety of Petra. Many end up taking the MarkOfTheBeast in order to save their own lives [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes against an incoming swarm of poisonous vipers]], but [[ILied the false teacher kills them all anyway.]]
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Attempts to assassinate the Antichrist in the book series result in this due to [[Literature/TheBible the Word of God]] stating that [[OnlyICanKillHim only Jesus Christ is able to defeat him]].
* FakingTheDead: In ''The Mark'', Mac [=McCullum=], David Hassid, Hannah Palemoon and Abdullah Smith pull this off by [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident crashing a plane via remote control overloaded with guillotines and biochip injectors]] in order to avoid taking the [[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty.]]
** In ''The Mark'', Hattie comes close to killing herself, but is rescued by Rayford and Albie. She ends up ultimately faking her death to escape the Global Community.
* FamilyBusiness: Rayford's dad wants his son to follow in his footsteps. Rayford, however, has other plans.
* FamousNamedForeigner: Jenkins has said in his book, "Writing for the Soul", that one of his tried-and-true ways to create a foreign character's name is to take the given name of some historically important native and append the name of a notable geographical area as a family name. One little problem: Romania doesn't use family names terribly much. Instead, you usually see patronymics. Guess what "Carpathia" ''isn't?''
* FantasticRacism: Mostly among the "naturals" against the "glorifieds" in the Millennial Kingdom, particularly among those who belong to the Other Light faction. Not that they can directly act upon those beliefs through violent means due to UnfortunateImplications. However, one of them did [[AttemptedRape foolishly try to rape a female "glorified" and got killed by God in the attempt]].
* FatalFamilyPhoto: Subverted, as it is not a fatal photo. In ''Kingdom Come'', Rayford requests a picture of the original Tribulation Force at an end-of-the-Millennium party. He is the only member out of the core group who is a natural, while Bruce, Cameron and Chloe are glorifieds. Even Rayford is as shocked as to how old he is.
* FauxActionGirl: Ming Toy. When she is introduced, a lot is made of her experience as a prison guard with combat skills -- but from then on, she pretty much divides her time between office work and babysitting.
* FidelityTest: Inverted with Rayford, as Irene does not test his faithfulness. He was more than willing to cheat with Hattie while away in London. [[CaughtUpInTheRapture God, however, decided to wreck those plans.]]
* TheFilmOfTheBook: A mixed bag. While not exactly great cinema -- its reception was overwhelmingly negative, while the books were successful -- it deals with some of the novel's plot inconsistencies, as well as unrealistic character behavior. It also, out of the sheer fact of being a movie, avoids one of the pitfalls of the series' writing: the stupendous lack of descriptions ''anywhere''.
* FinalBattle: The anti-climactic Satan's Other Light army versus God battle near the end of ''Kingdom Come''. It only takes a few pages as God just smokes Satan's entire army into ashes in seconds. At least during the Battle of Armageddon in ''Glorious Appearing'' Jesus allowed His enemies to fire their guns uselessly at Him before He just killed them by speaking [[Literature/TheBible the Word of God]].
* [[FinalSpeech Final Confession:]] After Jesus casts Satan out of Carpathia, the defeated Antichrist acknowledges that Jesus is indeed Lord.
-->'''Carpathia:''' You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, who died for the sins of the world and rose again the third day as the Scriptures predicted...I confess that my life was a waste. Worthless. A mistake. I rebelled against the God of the universe, whom I now know loved me.
** He ''still'' gets [[HeelFaceDoorSlam tossed into the Lake of Fire]].
* [[FinalGirl Final Guy:]] [[spoiler: Rayford Steele survives the Tribulation by the skin of his teeth.]]
* FinalSolution: Nicolae Carpathia's reference to the battle of Armageddon in ''Armageddon'' being one for dealing with the Jews in Israel.
** Arguably, fitting in with what Literature/TheBible teaches, this could also apply to God's judgments and the FinalBattle.
* [[DeathFromAbove Fire From Above:]] Aside from earthquakes, Jesus also can use fire to decimate and destroy. [[DoomedHometown It is also how New Babylon met its fate.]]
** [[TheDragon Leon Fortunato]] is also quite fond of using fire to kill those who [[DoNotTauntCthulhu don't recognize Carpathia as God]], as Hattie found out the hard way.
* FiveBadBand:
** TheBigBad: Nicolae Carpathia (pre and post-indwelling)
** TheDragon: Leonardo Fortunato
** EvilGenius / TheRival Pontifex Maximus Matthews
** TheBrute: Varies, since whoever is in this post ends up pissing Carpathia off ends up dead by his hand. Suhail Akbar is the longest-serving brute under Carpathia's command.
** TheDarkChick: Viv Ivins
* FixFic: [[http://exharpazo.blogspot.com/ Right Behind]] has a whole community of them.
* FlatEarthAtheist: This affects almost everyone on the planet and it isn't at all PlayedForLaughs. The authors seriously suggest that the majority of the world's population won't really care about all the explicit miracles.
** It helps to consider that in fundamentalism, the usual conceit is that knowledge that God (a) exists, (b) is all-powerful, and (c) deserves infinite glory and fealty, is hardwired into every human being. ''Only'' NayTheist-level spitefulness can account for such heavy unwillingness to follow him, even after apprisal of the [[ScareEmStraight threat of perdition.]] (Whether dystheism can be animated ''by'' anything besides spite doesn't seem to enter the picture.)
** It's also worth noting that Jesus warned that, "If they would not listen to Moses and the prophets, they would not listen even to a man come back from the dead." Thus, to those in hardened moral rebellion, no sign will convince them, because they don't want to believe.
** By the time of the Millennial Reign, ''[[ElephantInTheLivingRoom nobody has any excuse]]'' for not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And [[DeathsHourglass those that choose not to believe in Him won't live past 100!]]
* FourManBand: The core group of the Tribulation Force
** TheHero: Rayford Steele
** TheLancer: Buck Williams
** TheMentor: Bruce Barnes
** TheChick: Chloe Steele
*** And the core group of the Millennium Force:
** TheHero: Kenny Bruce Williams
** TheMentor: Raymie Steele
** TheLancer: Zaki Ababaneh
** TheChick: Bahira Ababaneh
* ForegoneConclusion: It can be a bit tough to care particularly about the deaths of the protagonists when it's made explicitly clear from the start that at the end of the tribulation, the Antichrist will lose and [[DisneyDeath they'll all come back to Earth anyway]]. Also in ''Kingdom Come'', the Other Light attempts to [[LaResistance build a resistance force]] in order to overthrow Christ at the end of the Millennium when Satan is loosed from imprisonment, despite that Scripture says it will end in failure...as it eventually does by the end of the book.
** And a bit of FridgeLogic occurs when the characters who earnestly believe this, and see the evidence before their eyes, are still so worried about dying. Like Buck, who worries so much that Nicolae might kill him if he speaks against or associates with him, even after his conversion. Given that he also knows that there's seven years of plagues and disasters coming up if he isn't killed, he'd be better off taunting the Anti-Christ.
*** Well, here's a way to look at it: you can survive all the way as a believer through the Tribulation and enter into the Millennium as a "natural" who ages slowly and is still able to have children up until the Millennium ends, where as a believer you will have your glorified body and enter the "new heavens and new earth"...or you can be a martyr and be resurrected in a body that remains in a constant adult state that never ages, with the tradeoff that you'll never be able to fall in love with anyone else, get or stay married, or even have children. It's a tough choice to make, and sometimes God may end up deciding your fate.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Book two opens by telling us "''The odds are, only one of the four members of the Tribulation Force will survive the next seven years.''" Guess what happens. Go on, guess.
** One character, Verna Zee, is depicted in her initial appearance (in Book 1) as wearing "sensible shoes", which is [[HaveAGayOldTime UK slang for being a lesbian]]. She is later described off-hand (in Book 2) as militant. Guess which character comes out as a lesbian in Book 3?
** Moishe tells Carpathia that "a sword shall pierce your head, and you shall surely die." Guess how the world leader gets whacked?
** At the end of ''Kingdom Come'', Chaim tells Rayford that when the time comes for the FinalBattle to take place between God and [[LaResistance The Other Light]], that God will not need an army to fight. [[CurbStompBattle Take a wild guess as to how Lucifer and The Other Light made out.]]
* ForgotICouldChangeTheRules: Nicolae Carpathia is an expert in this trope. Case in point; in ''Descecration'' after negotiating with Micah (Chaim Rosenzweig) in lifting Bowl Judgement No.1 (the plague of sores on those who took the mark), he sends the GC after the Jewish Remnant.
* ForTheEvulz: World War III breaks out as a simultaneous but ultimately ineffectual attempt at rebellion against the [[OneWorldGovernment Global Community]]. After the initial retaliation, Carpathia orders several [[NukeEm nuclear bombings]] of various cities, seemingly at random, for no particular discernible reason except because he can and he has an excuse. There might be an element of BecauseDestinySaysSo (because [=WWIII=] is prophesied to happen) but has little other than general evilness to motivate it outside of that.
* ForYourOwnGood: Mr. Wong is so determined for Chang to 'make proud,' that he even goes as far as to conspire with Walter Moon to have his son drugged and taken to the mark application site where Chang is given the MarkOfTheBeast. Fortunately for Chang, he was a believer and [[GiveMeASign still had the Mark of God on his head.]]
* FoxNewsLiberal: We get the occasional sympathetically intended character who aren't [=WASPs=] steeped in the PMD culture. But in case of conflict between their own supposed culture and belief systems and the believes of PMD Christians, they always agree with the PMD's. Tsion Ben-Judah, the PMD-Jew, is probably the worst offender.
* FromACertainPointOfView: In ''Desceration'', Nicolae undergoes a polygraph test, with Suhail Akbar overseeing the questioning. When it is obvious that Carpathia had blatantly lied throughout the test, he tells Suhail that "the truth is what I say it is...I am the father of truth."
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Nicolae Jetty Carpathia, natch. He started out as a businessman running his own import-export business. Then he gets into politics, serving in the Lower House of Parliament, and ascends to President of Romania (thanks to Leon Fortunato, who had blackmailed Carpathia's predecessor to step down). After the Rapture, he is tapped to become the Secretary General of the United Nations, which he will change into the Global Community, with himself as the Supreme Potentate and ultimately, [[TheAntiChrist The Beast]].
** Leonardo Fortunato also fits this trope. Former businessman/kingmaker to Nicolae Carpathia, later the Supreme Commander of the Global Community. After Carpathia's resurrection, he is made the Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism, ultimately becoming [[TheDragon the False Prophet]] that The Bible has foretold.
* TheFundamentalist: The protagonists, played totally straight.
* GenreSavvy: To be fair, there are some nice traces of this occasionally.
* GiveMeASign:
** The Seal of God, which identifies the believers from one another. Once you become a believer, you are pretty much safe for eternity.
** The Sign of The Son of Man, which is a cross made out of lightning, and has the ability to heal the sick and injured.
* GlobalCurrency: The Nick is introduced as the standard global currency during the Tribulation until it gets replaced by the cashless "mark of loyalty" system, which is the MarkOfTheBeast. Nothing is mentioned in ''Kingdom Come'' about what the Millennial Reign residents use for currency.
* GodInHumanForm: Jesus, only here He returns in his [[TrueSelf true form]]. Nicolae Carpathia only claims to be this in the second half of the Tribulation, but is really indwelt by Satan.
* GoodGunsBadGuns: the game Eternal Forces depict the Tribulation Forces being armed with M16/M4s, while the GC peacekeepers are armed with [=AKs=].
* GoodbyeCruelWorld: Said verbatim by Mac while he discusses the plan to escape New Babylon with David and Hannah to avoid taking the [[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty]].
--> '''Mac:''' "...Well, forgive the painful subject, but we recently lost our cargo chief. She would have prohibited that much weight on that particular plane, but me bein' a veteran, I thought it would handle it. Flyin' it remote and also broadcasting from it remote, I start hollerin' about a weight shift, cargo rolling, hard to control, Mayday, mayday, goodbye cruel world."
* {{Gorn}}: Several deaths have a hefty amount of detail, and this goes into UpToEleven territory when [[spoiler: Jesus shows up and his very words cause entire armies to explode in rivers of gore.]]
* GovernmentConspiracy
* [[GratuitousForeignLanguage Gratuitous Hebrew:]] What everyone is speaking in ''Kingdom Come'', though for the sake of the readers it's all translated into whatever language the book is published in.
* HappilyEverAfter: How the series ends for the believers. Everyone else goes to Hell.
* HappilyMarried: Buck and Chloe Williams may have their disagreements, but they are very happy together.
** The marriage is now platonic as both Buck and Chloe are glorifieds in ''Kingdom Come.''
*** This goes along with what Jesus said in Scripture that those who are worthy of the resurrection "will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like the angels in heaven".
*** Their relationship ''pre''-marriage was largely platonic as well, with neither party seeming interested in physical intimacy of any significant degree beyond occasionally holding hands or sharing cookies.
** For the short time they were married, Rayford and Amanda were very happy.
** 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.]]
* HasTwoDaddies / HasTwoMommies: Nicolae Carpathia had two biological fathers who were both gay, and was raised mostly by his mother and Viv Ivins until Nicolae and Viv had the mother disposed of. Later on in his life, [[BuryYourGays Nicolae had his two fathers disposed of as well.]] And in the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'', [[RocksFallEveryoneDies Viv Ivins gets killed by a giant hailstone.]]
* HeelFaceDoorSlam: Once you've accepted the MarkOfTheBeast, you're doomed no matter what.
** Averted in one instance where a believer had the mark forced upon him while he was drugged, but still had the seal of God.
** Possibly played straight with Nicolae's mother Marilena in ''The Rising'', as she dies of poisoning and asks God to forgive her of what she's done.
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Chaim Rozensweig is torn between his friendship with Tsion Ben-Judah and his loyalties to Nicolae Carpathia. It is only after assassinating Carpathia and fleeing Israel that Chaim puts his faith in God.
* HeelFaceTurn: Aplenty.
** But see above.
* HeelFaithTurn: Leon Fortunato attempts this to Jesus after both he and Carpathia are captured in an act of self-preservation. Unfortunately for the False Prophet, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam Jesus considers him long since sold out to Satan and Fortunato is "sentenced to eternity in the lake of fire."]]
* HeKnowsTooMuch: At the climax of the first book, Nicolae executes his two co-conspirators right in front of a UN meeting, with Buck present. He then brainwashes everyone to imagine that it was a murder-suicide by one of them, and that Buck was never there. This should send up alarms in the heads of normal men, as the last reporter to cross Nicolae only took the ferry halfway to Staten Island. But when Buck is called before Nicolae to explain himself, [[TooDumbToLive he acts like a petulant child]] ([[PlotArmor and gets away with it]]).
* {{Hell}}: Where the undecided, the condemned (i.e., those who decided to follow Satan and the Antichrist), and those who come against the Jews and Israel during the Tribulation end up.
* HellSeeker: Hattie Durham is one briefly, after deciding that she does believe in God and the Bible, but doesn't believe she deserves to go to Heaven. She comes around eventually.
* HeroicBSOD: Tsion Ben-Judah, Chaim Rosenzweig, Buck Williams and Rayford Steele each experience this during the Tribulation. Subverted with Bo Hansen, [[APlagueOnBothYourHouses as his case was lethal.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: Aplenty, but it's somewhat negated when the victims know they won't be gone for long. The most admirable characters are those willing to hold out during prolonged suffering.
* HeyItsThatGuy: In the movies, [[MelrosePlace Dominic O'Malley]], his daughter [[{{Flashpoint}} Sophie Lane]], [[GrowingPains Mike Seaver and Kate MacDonald]], and [[WalkerTexasRanger Jimmy Trivette]] / [[LifeWithDerek Paul Greebie]] find themselves left behind. [[PuppetMaster Rick Meyers]] is the Antichrist seeking to conquer the world and [[AnOfficerAndAGentleman Gunny Sergeant Foley]] is an unwitting pawn in his scheme. [[NeroWolfe Fritz Brenner]] designed the Eden Formula and [[K19TheWidowmaker Dr. Gavril]] proclaimed that Jesus, not Carpathia was the Messiah.
* HideYourChildren: Every child under 12 or so ''vanishes'' in The Rapture. In a better-written book, even if nothing else happened, the trauma from this alone would probably cause the collapse of every government on Earth.
** This also extends to ''children in the womb.'' The description of a mother's stomach suddenly flattening is quite creepy.
*** RealityIsUnrealistic -- rapturing a fetus wouldn't cause the mother's belly to instantly flatten any more than giving birth would. It takes weeks for the stretched uterus to return to normal size after giving birth.
*** [[AWizardDidIt A wizard who is "I Am" did it]]. Besides, exactly how many fetuses have we observed [[CaughtUpInTheRapture being raptured?]]
* HighPriest: Enigma Babylon Pontifex Maximus Peter the Second was the first. He was then replaced by [[TheDragon Leon Fortunato]], who became the Most High Reverend Father of Carpathianism.
* HollywoodAtheist
* HumiliationConga: Mostly within ''Glorious Appearing'', where Carpathia finds himself [[CurbStompBattle unable to prevail against Jesus Christ]] in the battle of Armageddon, and is only further humiliated when he is forced to [[KneelBeforeZod kneel before the Lord]] before he gets sent to the Lake of Fire. Of course, the believers are basically surprised that Jesus is more sad than dancing with unbridled glee at having the Antichrist at His mercy.
** In Mac's case, however, he would be [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech sticking it]] to Carpathia were he was in Jesus' place.
--> Not such a big man now, are you? Where's the sword? Where's the army? Where's the cabinet, the sub-potentates? Now you're only the supreme impotentate, aren't you?
* ICallItVera: The Saber Handgun Rayford acquires from Albie. Carpathia later uses a Saber to gun down the Two Witnesses.
** In the ''Left Behind'' movie, Chaim Rosenzweig's super fertilizer is known as The Eden project.
* IChooseToStay: Ming Toy undergoes a dangerous mission to rescue her and Chang's parents in her native China. She finds her mother, but sadly Mr. Wong died as a martyr. Mrs. Wong decides to remain behind while in China. She does get some reassurance from an angel, saying that her mother will survive the Tribulation.
* IfYouDieICallYourStuff: In ''Apollyon'', Bo Hansen and Ernie attempt to steal Ken Ritz's wealth he had stashed at Palwaukee Airport following Ritz's death. Their attempt at robbery was thwarted [[TheScourgeOfGod by the arrival of the horde of demonic locusts]]. [[GiveMeASign Only Rayford and T.M. Delanty were spared because they were believers.]]
** After executing both Todd-Cothran and Stonagal, Nicolae is the sole inheritor of both their estates. When the children of both men dispute the claim, Nicolae simply pays them off under the condition that they do not contest the will.
* IHaveManyNames: Both Jesus and Satan have plenty of those.
* IllTakeThatAsACompliment: The following exchange between Rayford and Ken in the Dramatic Audio of ''Apollyon'' after refusing to take Hattie with them:
-->'''Ken:''' Little spitfire hung up on me. Gotta like her spunk, though. She is a gorgeous thing, ain't she?
-->'''Rayford:''' (chuckles) Ritz, you've got to be on the feminists' Top 10 Most Wanted List.
-->'''Ken:''' Really? Hey, save me a copy when that comes out. I want to send that to Mom.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Subverted slightly with Chaim Rosenzweig's driver, Jacov. In ''Apollyon'', Jacov is known to fall off the wagon. Chaim even fired him at one point, but rehired him out of pity. He becomes a believer at the [[YouAllMeetInAnInn meeting at the 144,000 Jews]], and is later found inside a bar. Instead of getting drunk, he is instead preaching to the patrons inside when Chaim and Buck find him afterward. After Jacov proved to his boss that he wasn't getting drunk, Chaim's response is very deadpan, but hilarious.
-->'''Chaim:''' Oy. I wish you ''were'' drunk.
* IWarnedYou: Rayford can't say that Irene didn't warn him about the Rapture. However, after surviving the Tribulation and reuniting with his wife, Rayford tells her (and Raymie in the Dramatic Audio) that she is permitted [[spoiler: "one cosmic-I-told-you-so."]]
* ImmortalProcreationClause: Goes beyond this with the "glorifieds" in ''Kingdom Come'', since they won't even have the desire for sexual intercourse.
* ImmuneToBullets: Petra and its inhabitants are supernaturally protected from the GC. Rockets and missiles fired by the GC literally go through the believers' choppers and other aircraft to the point that it's routine for the believers.
** In ''Glorious Appearing'', with The Sign of the Son of Man during the Battle of Armageddon, the believers are nigh invunerable to bullets...and everything else. [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Rayford and the other believers defending Petra have some fun with this, goading the Unity Army into attacking them, but with no success from the latter.]]
** In the same book, Mac's chopper is rigged with grenades. Mac's faith pretty much saved both him and his chopper when the grenades go boom.
** Jesus Christ Himself is also immune to whatever the Unity Army throws at Him and the army of saints...'''especially''' missiles.
* ImprobableAntidote: The wine used for the communion shared by Rayford, Buck, and Chloe near the end of ''Left Behind: World At War'' becomes an antidote for the anthrax poisoning contracted by both Bruce and Chloe. Unfortunately, they don't find this out until after Bruce passes away.
* IncessantMusicMadness: "Hail Carpathia" becomes musical torture for Chloe Williams when she is held in custody by the Global Community in the book ''Armageddon''. She counters this somewhat by singing [[TheVillainSucksSong "Fail Carpathia"]].
** Chloe gets even in this area when she sings a bunch of Christian hymns in her solitary confinement cell, which annoys the GC guard.
** Any Christian believer that goes to the chopping block in the latter half of the Tribulation that [[FaceDeathWithDignity Faces Death With Dignity]] by singing hymns unto God, much to the irritation of Nicolae Carpathia and the GC forces.
* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Jesus Christ, the angels, those with glorified bodies.
* InformedAbility: ''All'' of Buck's characteristics. He is billed as an amazing reporter but all of the examples of his writing are clumsy analogies. He is (we're told) an investigative reporter, who neither investigates nor reports anything; he's supposed to be worldly wise (before his conversion), but he's a 30-year-old virgin; he's your actual globetrotting journalist, "among the top 3% of air travelers in the world", but washes his underwear in the sink because he doesn't realize hotels provide laundry service; he's a sophisticated world traveler -- who happens to be headquartered in New York, the international-cuisine capital of the planet -- but can't order in a restaurant in Tel Aviv because he cannot begin to imagine what an Israeli restaurant might have available.
** Now, on the subject of Carpathia, we're told he's a great speaker, but though his speech at the U.N. does get a lot of applause it is clear to the reader that his speech, which consists of reciting a lot of uninteresting trivia about the U.N. and also reciting a list of ''every member nation'', has nothing to gain people's enthusiasm since it doesn't contain any actual opinion that people might agree with, apart from a general "Peace is good, mkay?"
* InformedFlaw: TV or narrations keep telling us that after all the good Christians have been raptured, crime has risen spectacularly among the remaining godless hordes. Yet we never really see any of that (Rayford and Chloe's house is burgled once, but that's about it), the characters never act like they don't feel safe, and the entirety of humanity is unbelievably enthusiastic and accepting of Nicolae's message of peace, unity and brotherhood.
* InstantCultured[=/=]InstantExpert: Once the protagonists, and for that matter the horde of unnamed new worshipers at their church, convert they seem to become instantly knowledgeable about the authors' beliefs regarding the Bible and how Christians should act. While this is justified in the case of Rev. Bruce and perhaps Rayford (who both have at least tangental prior exposure to such religious communities,) it's rather odd to see Buck out-debating a [[StrawmanPolitical bishop]] using Bible-quotes, not to mention him and Chloe 'dating'. These two people were supposed to be a globe-trotting jetset reporter and a secular Stanford student a week ago, yet they treat handholding as a deeply intimate act that should not be rushed.
* IntrepidReporter: Subverted, but only by accident (see InformedAbility).
* IstanbulNotConstantinople: In ''Glorious Appearing'', the Valley of Jehoshaphat (also called the Valley Where Jehovah Judges), formerly known as the Mount of Olives. Also in ''Kingdom Come'', the country of Osaze (meaning 'Loved by God') is the new name for Egypt.
** The reformed world under the Global Community (formerly known as the United Nations):
*** United North American States (North and Central America, Greenland and the Caribbeans)
*** United South American States (South America)
*** United Great Britan States (Britain, Ireland, Scotland and Wales)
*** United Eutopean States: (Most of the countries in Europe, save for Britain)
*** United African States (Africa)
*** United Carpathian States (formerly United Holy Land States, consisting of the Middle East)
*** United Indian States (The Indian Subcontinent, half of Southeast Asia)
*** United Asian States (China, the Koreas, Japan and Mongolia)
*** United Russian States (Russia)
*** United Pacific States (Austrailia, Oceania and Hawaii)
* ItWontTurnOff: One of God's angels takes over the airwaves in the book ''Desecration'' to deliver a message from [[Literature/TheBible Revelation 14:9-13]] to those who have taken the MarkOfTheBeast and worshiped Carpathia's image.
* IvyLeagueForEveryone
* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: Elena and her GC buddies pull this several times on George Sebastian. But George is ex-military and is capable of taking the pain.
* {{Jerkass}}: Buck Williams and Rayford Steele, again due to ValuesDissonance.
** Rayford is actually supposed to be a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, but his treatment of Hattie Durham is quite jarring. Seriously, he's committing emotional abuse, not to mention ruthless evangelism.
** Don't forget Buck having sport at the expense of [[BuryYourGays Verna Zee]]. A mere two weeks after global disaster! And unlike Rayford, he never tries to warn anybody of the Apocalypse.
** Also Rayford's behavior towards Bo in Assassins. Thankfully T calls him out.
* {{Jerusalem}}: One of the major locations in the series. It also serves as the world capital in ''Kingdom Come.''
* JesusSaves: The rest of the world takes ''material universe obliterating'' damage.
* KarmicDeath: Loren Hut, the leader of the Morale Monitors. After failing to kill Chaim Rosenzweig (who was going by the name Micah), simply because Chaim was protected by God, Carpathia guns Hut down, but not before [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu Hut tells Carpathia off.]]
* KillEmAll: The character turnover rate is so high that, by them end, only two of the original characters are still alive. One fun thing to do is comparing the Dramatis Personae in front of each book and seeing how many people died in the past volume.
* KillTheGod: Pretty much the aim and goal of both the battle of Armageddon and the FinalBattle with Satan and the Other Light army in the book series. [[CurbStompBattle Neither of them turned out as the ones with those goals had hoped.]]
* KillItWithFire: Try to harm the Two Witnesses of the Most High, this is the end result.
** The Other Light army at the end of the Millennium in ''Kingdom Come'' get instantly smoked by God pouring down fire from the heavens.
* [[KneelBeforeZod Kneel Before God]]: Nicolae Carpathia's humiliated bow before Jesus Christ in ''Glorious Appearing''. Of course, Nicolae is left powerless to resist after Lucifer is cast out of him. Lucifer, on the other hand...
* [[KneelBeforeZod Kneel Before Satan]]: In the prequel novels, Satan takes Nicolae to the desert, where he remains for 40 days and 40 nights without food and water. Unlike Jesus, who resisted the temptations (i.e., turning stones into bread, throwing himself from the highest building and bowing down to Lucifer), Carpathia falls to all three temptations.
* KungFuJesus: Jesus Himself. He just speaks [[Literature/TheBible The Word]] and people die.
* LaResistance: First the Tribulation Force, then the Other Light in the last book. The Other Light rebels against God because they [[GodIsEvil see Him as evil]] for not letting "naturals" to [[DeathsHourglass live past 100 years of age]] as unbelievers.
* LargeHam: Everyone has their moments in the Dramatic Audio, but Nicolae Carpathia (post-indwelling) takes the cake when he executes Walter Moon for failing to get Tsion Ben-Judah off the air in Desecration.
-->'''Carpathia:''' '''(BLAM)''' Hold out your other hand, Walter. '''(BLAM)''' Ah, the foot. '''(BLAM)''' The other foot. '''(BLAM)''' The knee. '''(BLAM)''' Is Ben-Judah still on the screen? Oh, why, yes he is. '''(BLAM)''' Still there! '''(BLAM)''' Oh look Walter, he's still there! '''(BLAM)''' Walter...you have many times stated your devotion to me. I can only assume that the appearance of Ben-Judah on our network must certainly be causing you as much discomfort as it is to me. Therefore, I want to do you a favor. '''(BLAM)'''
** Honorable mention goes to once again, Carpathia (pre-indwelling) as he [[BackFromTheDead resurrects Leon Fortunato]] following the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake in reference to Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
--> '''Carpathia:''' Leonardo Fortunato...you have served me well. And you will continue to serve and give testimony to the power of Nicolae Carpathia. Leonardo Fortunato, you have served me well, and you will continue to serve me. Leonardo Fortunato, you will sleep NO LONGER! You will...arise! LEONARDO...LEONARDO, COME FORTH! LEONARDO...COME FORTH! LEONARDO...I COMMAND YOU...COME FORTH!
* LargeHamTitle: His Excellency, Global Community Supreme Potentate Nicolae Carpathia. What a mouthful.
** Supreme Commander, and later, Most High Reverend of Carpathianism, Leonardo Fortunato
** Pontifex Maximus Peter Matthews, aka Peter the Second. Counts as a MeaningfulName, as no Catholic Pope has not taken the name Peter, as according to Catholic belief that Peter was the first pope of the church.
** Both Jesus and Satan [[IHaveManyNames have some pretty interesting titles.]]
*** Jesus: Some of which include Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Root of David, Faithful and True, I AM, Wonderful, Counselor, Bright Morning Star
*** Satan: He has less titles than Jesus. His titles are Lucifer, The Devil, God Of This World/Age, Prince Of The Power Of The Air, The Serpent Of Old, The Dragon.
* LaserGuidedKarma:
** An early example occurs in the first book, when Rayford refuses to ride on a bus the airline sent to pick up the pilots from the plane to the terminal, because he couldn't accept such a favor while his passengers have to walk maybe a mile at most. Rayford's co-pilot does accept and very slightly mocks Rayford for refusing. He dies so soon afterwards, Rayford has barely had the time to accept, without question or hesitation, two other privileges the airline gives to pilots: Avoiding the line for the pay-phones, when everyone wants to call their families to see if they didn't vanish, and a helicopter ride home to avoid the total gridlock on the roads that the book describes to such detail.
* LastVillainStand: [[TheAntichrist Carpathia]], [[TheDragon Fortunato]], and The Unity Army does this in Jerusalem...until [[ArchangelMichael Michael]] catches up to them. Cue OhCrap from the two bad guys.
* LeftHanging: The fates of a dozen or so minor characters from the beginning of the book onward, though considering where those characters were, they could be summarized by the major events that took place. The destruction of New York City, for example, took care of the fates of those who have worked for Global Weekly. The fate of Viv Ivins, a major supporting character in the later books, is not mentioned, though given what happens in ''Glorious Appearing'', she obviously doesn't live to enter into the Millennium.
** Viv Ivin's fate is mentioned in the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'', as she is [[RocksFallEveryoneDies killed by a giant hailstone]].
* LightIsNotGood: Lucifer, when he takes on his pure form after departing from Nicolae Carpathia. The Other Light faction also see God in the same...uh, [[IncrediblyLamePun light]] as the Christians see Lucifer, hence the name of their group.
* LiteraryAgentHypothesis
* LivingStatue: Carpathia's massive image, which is heated by onionskin paper.
* LockedOutOfTheLoop: Arguably the second reason, besides the FlatEarthAtheist infestation, why EasyEvangelism is averted. The main protagonists have a detailed step-by-step prophecy of what will happen in the next seven years, but whenever they can be bothered to try to convert someone, they tend to use the same speeches as evangelists do now. They don't say the next 4 things their divine prophecy predicts, and then come back after those things have happened.
** And then there is Hattie. Buck wanted to impress her, so he offered to introduce her to Nicolae. When she actually seems more impressed by Nicolae, Buck explicitly loses interest in her. After learning Nicolae is the AntiChrist, Buck tries to persuade Hattie not to go on a date with him... by telling her he thinks she's [[MyGirlIsNotASlut "not that kind of girl"]]. You'd think that telling her Nicolae is the devil (or at least into murder and corruption) might be more persuasive.
* [[SatanIsGood Lucifer Is Good]]: The viewpoint of the Other Light faction in ''Kingdom Come'', claiming in their manifesto that God unfairly treated one of His angels and befouled his name and reputation by casting him out of His presence.
* MadonnaWhoreComplex: The view of females in the series.
* TheManBehindTheMan: {{Satan}}
* ManlyTears: Rayford literally breaks down in tears in front of Jesus as He tells Rayford all about his faults and triumphs.
* MarkOfTheBeast: Featuring a variant in which the numbers of each region of the Global Community are based on a mathematical equation involving three sixes.
* MassOhCrap: During the 'sheep and goats' judgement, the reactions of the unsaved and those who had taken the MarkOfTheBeast when Jesus condemns them to the Lake of Fire for not caring for "the least of My brethren", referring to Israel. Basically saying that if you're not a friend to Israel and the Jews during the Tribulation, you're going to Hell.
--> '''Jesus Christ:''' Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and you did not take Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me. Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me. You will go away into everlasting punishment.
* MeaningfulName: Jenkins has a thing for them. The heroes have super-manly names like Buck Williams and Rayford Steele. How good he is at this lies with the reader...
** Verna Zee, Buck's theoretically-snippy boss, can be shortened to Ms. Zee -- "Missy".
** Jonathan Stonagal's name ("Stone-a-gal") is a play on Rockefeller.
** Carpathia's other Dragon aside from Leon Fortunato, Viv Ivins. Remove the "n-s" and you have Viv Ivi, or VI VI VI, the roman numerals for 666. This one being notable in that VI VI VI isn't the Roman-numeralish for 666, it's the Roman-numeralish for "six six six". The Number of the Beast isn't "six six six", it's (per Revelation 13:18) "six hundred sixty six" -- which in Roman numerals would be DCLXVI. Thus, a more fitting name might be Declan Xavier.
** More of a Meaningful Number, but Carpathia's obsession with the number 216 comes from 6 x 6 x 6 = 216. Also in a later book, each of the Ten Kingdoms is assigned a number and while the numbering system is never explained, each number can come from some mathematical combination of three sixes.
* TheMeddlingKidsAreUseless: Buck and Rayford get into danger, but they don't affect the actual events or main plot much at all, given that they've been prophesied to happen in one specific way.
* MillenniumBug: Timothy [=LaHaye=] and Jerry Jenkins expected the [=Y2K=] bug to trigger global economic chaos, which the Antichrist would use to rise to power. As the big day approached, they, like other doomsayers, backpedaled. It's a good thing, since they released a spate of books from 2000 till present.
* MillionMookMarch: Jesus' army of saints, surprisingly.
* TheMole: Carpathia had conducted a smear campaign against Amanda White-Steele, showing her that she was in fact on the GC's payroll. Hattie, however, tells Rayford that his late wife was not a mole and that she truly loved him.
* TheMoralSubstitute: To other AirportFantasy books.
* MotiveRant: Carpathia confesses to Leon and the 10 subpotentates that he '''is''' the Antichrist in ''Armageddon''.
--> '''Carpathia:''' Am I Antichrist? Well, if he is Christ, then yes! Yes! I am against the Christ who was falsely crowned by the pretend creator. I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will be like the Most High! ([[AGodAmI ...for I AM THE MOST HIGH!]])
* MurderByCremation: Suhail Akbar sends the two pilots who bombed Petra (which had failed due to God protecting the city and the people) to be incinerated '''alive'''. He does sedate them before barbecuing both men.
** Subverted by Carpathia's attempt to barbecue the Jewish Remnant in Petra, as they were protected by God.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Tsion Ben-Judah's reaction in ''Desecration'' when he realizes he has given away the location of where the Israeli Jews would flee to according to what the book of Revelation says about the matter (the deserted city of Petra), fearing that he has messed up God's plan. He gets some reassurance from one of the Tribulation Force members that God ''may have intended'' for Tsion to let slip the location of where the Jews would flee to in order to lure Nicolae Carpathia's forces into a trap God has set up for them, which is all according to the Word of God.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast[=/=]UnfortunateNames: Nicolae is the first name of a Romanian dictator, and {{Dracula}} being associated with the Carpathian Mountains.
** Not to mention that "Old Nick" is one of Satan's nicknames.
** If you're part of the Global Community, Jesus Christ certainly qualifies...although it won't do you any good.
* NeverGotToSayGoodbye: How Rayford feels about Irene after the Rapture.
** Also counts with Hannah Palemoon and David Hassid.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Every time the heroes' backs are against the wall with no way out, all that needs to happen is for them to pray and God will grant them whatever ability is needed to extract them from their predicament.
** In the first book, Buck manages to escape Carpathia's hypnosis at the UN by praying to God, who also conveniently rewrites Carpathia's memory to erase any instance of Buck not behaving exactly as intended.
** In a particularly blatant (albeit funny) example, Rayford is granted temporary immunity from physical harm. While in Carpathia's ElaborateUndergroundBase. While '''mocking''' Carpathia, [[TheDragon Leon Fortunato]], and a squad of crack Global Community soldiers to their faces. They are forced to more or less go about their business trying to ignore him because not only can he not be harmed, but he can't be touched.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Nice job getting the Greek Co-Op wiped out, George!
* NightmareFace: Steve Plank, post-Wrath of the Lamb. Yeesh.
* NoisyShutUp: Attempted and failed with Nicolae Carpathia in the Dramatic Audio version of ''Glorious Appearing'' when Jesus just goes on and on speaking [[Literature/TheBible The Word Of God]] while the Unity Army troops die.
--> '''Nicolae Carpathia:''' And someone SHUT HIM UP!!!
* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: Averted, painfully.
* NoOneCouldSurviveThat:
** Steve Plank survived the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake...although [[NightmareFace he ended up terribly mangled in the process.]]
** Inverted with Leon Fortunato, as he ''did not'' survive said quake. Carpathia, however, has other plans.
** Gerald Fitzhugh survives a plunge from a high-rise office in ''Left Behind: World At War''.
* NotSoDifferent: Detractors of the series claim that the books' Jesus comes off as the true Antichrist.
** Hardly surprising, considering the world just switches one God-Emperor for another.
*** Although to God's credit, He does allow the Other Light to have their own religion, despite the fact that it's totally in error and that the [[DeathsHourglass 100-year age limit for unbelievers]] is in place. Carpathia, on the other hand, outlawed all religions except for Carpathianism by the midpoint of the Tribulation, forcing people to either take the MarkOfTheBeast or die, and sometimes just outrightly killing them after they have taken the mark.
*** Also notable is that God doesn't use the media as a PropagandaMachine, as Nicolae Carpathia had when he owned the media. Dissenters in the Millennial Kingdom were allowed to have their say regardless of how much in error they really are in contesting God's Word.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Chloe goes over to Buck's apartment and sees his Global Weekly office co-worker Alice outside it talking on the phone to her fiancee while delivering stuff to Buck's apartment. Chloe assumes from that that Buck is Alice's fiancee and was playing her for her affections all along. It takes a private talk between Buck and Chloe to straighten the whole matter out.
** This also gets carried over into the bouquet of flowers that Chloe assumed Buck had sent her, which she then threw into the trash after witnessing the previously-mentioned assumption. It turns out that the flowers were sent to Chloe by Hattie Durham as a joke.
** Kenny Bruce Williams goes through this in ''Kingdom Come'' when he was secretly infiltrating the Other Light faction to see what they were planning to do, with an Other Light plant working at the Children of the Tribulation daycare center planting false evidence about Kenny to frame him as a traitor.
* TheNudifier: Hinted at in the first book when people are removed from their clothes during the Rapture.
* NukeEm: So long, London and D.C. Bye-bye, Chicago.
* ObiWanMoment: Any believer who decides to become a martyr. Overlaps with FaceDeathWithDignity.
* OddlySmallOrganization: The Tribulation Force itself, and also the "[[http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2010/07/tf-gang-of-four.html Gang of Four]]" conspiring to set up the One-World Government.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Steele's first landing at O'Hare during the Rapture is built up immensely, but actually occurs between chapters.
* OffWithHisHead: Done through guillotines (referred to as "loyalty enforcement facilitators") on the general populace to enforce the law of taking the "[[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty]]" during the Tribulation.
* OhCrap: Plenty from both sides. The EurekaMoment regarding Buck and Rayford in regards to the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake is one major example.
** Rayford's reaction in which The Rapture hits, and the realization that [[IWarnedYou Irene was right.]]
** Leah Rose's reaction in regards to the 200 million demonic horsemen which slays the unbelievers.
** Buck's reaction when he sees Hattie confront both Carpathia and Fortunato in ''Desecration''.
** In the Dramatic Audio of ''Glorious Appearing'', the reactions of Fortunato and Carpathia when the Archangel Michael corners them.
** In the first ''Left Behind'' movie, the look on Buck and Chaim's faces when Russia sneak attacks Israel.
** In the third Left Behind film, the look on Carpathia's face when he sees an incoming missile heading for his tower. Fitzhugh dies, but Carpathia survives.
** ''Assassins'' has Leon Fortunato recognizing that he was set up by Sub-Potentate Rehoboth.
** The mother of all Oh Craps comes from Lucifer himself in ''Kingdom Come''. [[CurbStompBattle After Jesus decimates The Other Light on the final day of the Millennial Kingdom]], Lucifer "looked about him and slowly lowered his sword. He appeared to had something to say and even drew breath to say it, but fell silent." Even he knows that he is oh so very screwed.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Once the Millennium starts in ''Kingdom Come'', all the naturals who enter this time period (either believers or children of believers) experience decreased aging similar to the first several generations of mankind in the book of Genesis, with the children becoming young adults by the time they reach 100. However, [[DeathsHourglass naturals who remain unbelievers by the time they reach 100 will instantly die and go to Hell]]. It's not explained how those who were already adults, including those who were already at advanced age, experience this decreased aging at the same rate as the children who enter the Millennium. By the end of the Millennium, however, the longest-living naturals (who at that point are all believers) end up really showing their age.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Dr. Chaim Rosenzweig. Specifically in the movie where he helps strategize against the oncoming Russians. He's a botanist for crying out loud!
* {{Omniglot}}: Carpathia.
* OmniscientMoralityLicense: God, of course.
* [[OminousLatinChanting Ominous Hebrew Chanting]]: The demonic locusts chanting "Abaddon." Very creepy in the Dramatic Audio.
* OneHourWorkWeek: Buck spends zero time actually doing his job.
* OneWorldOrder
* OneHitPolyKill: Carpathia kills [[spoiler:Stonagal and Todd-Cothran]] with one bullet.
** This despite the fact that the bullet in question is described several times as a hollow point, which explodes on impact and could not travel through one skull to another, even if it weren't just .38 ammo. .38's aren't that big and do not have that much firing power, a far cry from the hand cannon described in the book. That... and there is literally no way a hollow point bullet could kill two people.
** Doesn't happen in the movie. Carpathia shoots twice, with the idea being that it was a murder-suicide.
*** Jesus using [[Literature/TheBible the Word of God]] to slay the Global Community army en masse certainly qualifies as this.
* OneTrueFaith: There's the pantheistic mishmash of all world religions called Enigma Babylon One World Faith as the official one-world religion, but there's also Christianity (as defined by the books' authors and the Tribulation Force characters), Judaism, and Islam (which in the book series ends up being a minority religion), which all become illegal to practice even when Enigma Babylon is replaced by the Luciferian-type state religion of Carpathianism around the midway point of the Tribulation. In the Millennial Kingdom, Christianity becomes the official one-world religion, though dissidents are permitted to practice the beliefs of the Other Light despite the fact that (1) it's totally in error when it comes to believing Satan is going to defeat God and Jesus by the end of the Millennium and (2) those who remain unbelievers in God and Jesus Christ by the time they reach 100 will instantly die and go to Hell.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Tsion, Buck and Rayford are grievously injured in the Battle of Armageddon. Rayford survives. Tsion and Buck are not as lucky.
* OnlyICanKillHim: More like Only I Am Can Kill Him, as nobody can defeat Satan and the Antichrist except for Jesus Christ, as [[Literature/TheBible The Word of God]] dictates.
** Both Rayford and Hattie obsess over killing Carpathia for reasons of their own. Chaim succeeds in doing the deed, but Satan has other plans.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Albie, the black arms dealer who later becomes a believer. Also Razor.
* TheOtherDarrin: In the first two movies, Bruce Barnes was played by Clarence Gilyard, Jr., before being replaced by Arnold Pinnock.
** Due to scheduling conflicts, Gilyard was unable to reprise his role as Bruce in the third movie. That and since Gilyard is a Roman Catholic, his priest was slightly peeved about him taking the role, given the series' stance on premillennial rapturist theology, and was very happy when Gilyard did not reprise the role.
* OverprotectiveDad: Subverted. Rayford sides with Buck when his daughter is in tears because it [[NotWhatItLooksLike looked like Buck was two-timing]]. Rayford's silent cheering when Buck raises his voice against Chloe, who's practically in tears, helps you realize there are worse things than a straight OverprotectiveDad.
* PapaWolf / MamaBear: Buck and Chloe Williams in regards to Kenny.
* [[PassThePopcorn Praise The Lord And Pass The Popcorn]]: In the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'', Rayford Steele plus the entire population of believers in Petra, who was now made near-invulnerable by God during the battle of Armageddon, were like this when they were watching the Antichrist's armies getting decimated by Jesus Christ. Rayford even mentions that all he needs now is the popcorn.
** And due to their beliefs about the Rapture, the series' intended audience believe they'll be sitting back in Heaven and enjoying the show while all this goes down.
*** Biblically speaking, that's what some Old Testament battles Israel had with other nations ended up turning into with God taking over the battles.
* PersonaNonGrata: In the eyes of the Global Community, it's Rayford and Chloe Steele, Buck Williams, Tsion Ben-Judah and Chaim Rosenzweig.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Jesus, who can kill many people at the same time just by speaking [[Literature/TheBible The Word Of God]].
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The Tribulation Force is supposed to be [[LaResistance the Resistance]] to Carpathia's [[TheEmpire One World Government]]. Their track record after seven years is precisely ''one'' assasination attempt, not counting Hattie and Chaim. Buck and Rayford's rolls as {{ReverseMole}}s in Carpathia's organization serve only [[TheWatson a narrative function as witnesses for the audience]] to the global events of the tribulation rather than any particular kind of functional espionage.
** Buck and Rayford each have a cushy job working for the Antichrist. They virtually never try to exploit this fact. Worst Freedom Fighters ''ever''.
*** More like The Pirates That Won't Do Anything Unless The Lord Directs Them To. Not that it has stopped some from trying to do their own thing, like Rayford's assassination attempt.
*** Also justified in the fact that [[YouCantFightFate they can't fight fate]]: what's going to happen in the Tribulation according to [[Literature/TheBible The Word Of God]] [[BecauseDestinySaysSo is going to happen regardless of what anybody does]]; all they can pretty much do is help new people become believers and to help existing believers stay alive until Jesus comes or their time comes.
**** They don't do much to advance those goals, either.
* PlaceOfProtection: The city of Petra during the latter half of the Tribulation, due to God's protection from Global Community forces.
* PlayingSick: Chaim Rosenzweig pulls this off beautifully. He fakes having a stroke, and gets around in a wheelchair, all in order to assassinate Nicolae.
* PointOfNoReturn: Take the [[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty and worship The Beast's image]], [[HeelFaceDoorSlam you find yourself vulnerable to the Bowl/Vial Judgments and ultimately your soul is condemned to Hell.]] Become a believer in Christ, [[GiveMeASign your place in Heaven is assured. Survive the Tribulation, you can live until the end of the Millenial Kingdom.]]
** Getting saved during the Millennium [[DeathsHourglass prior to your 100th birthday]] also guarantees that you'll live to the end of the Millennium.
* [[PlotRelevantAgeUp Plot Relevant Age Leveling]]: In the third prequel, when the elect are raptured, their glorified bodies are all the same age, 33, no matter where on the -0.75 through +969 spectrum they were in their Earthly lives. This comes from Augustine's claim that one's glorified body will be just like one's 33-year-old body was or would have been, barring anything crippling and/or hideous. It derives from Jesus being 33 when ''he'' was crucified.
* PokeThePoodle: While Nicolae Carpathia in the LeftBehind books does eventually commit evil such as ordering London nuked and demanding the executions of those who refuse to worship him as god, he gets only passing mention to such atrocities and instead focus on his PokeThePoodle moments such as him dating the hero's former love interest and [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous treating her with respect]]. As Fred Clark on his slacktivist page states:
--> So far, though, it's hard to take him seriously. He's bumblingly through the first stages of his master plan, getting himself hopelessly bogged down in details that seem less evil than simply arbitrary and weird. For example, Nicolae plans to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. That might be considered evil if he were doing it just to desecrate the Islamic holy site currently sitting there in an effort to start a deadly war, but instead he's carefully negotiated an amicable (if ridiculously implausible) solution to this age-old conflict. [snip] Or consider Nicolae's grand scheme of relocating the United Nations headquarters to an as-yet-unbuilt city in the Iraqi desert. That's capricious and foolish, but not so much evil as just terribly wasteful and inconvenient.
* PreMortemOneLiner: In the Dramatic Audio, George Sebastian delivers one to Elena right before the coup de grâce. Double points for George as he delivered it GoodNewsBadNews style.
--> '''George:''' "Well, Elena, [[GoodNewsBadNews the good news is...I'm not dead. The bad news is...you are!]]" '''(SNAP)'''
** At the end of ''Kingdom Come,'' Jesus does this to the invading TOL forces.
--> '''Satan:''' CHARGE!
--> '''Jesus:''' I AM WHO I AM. (cue [[CurbStompBattle epic pwnage]] of the TOL forces via firestorm)
* PrinciplesZealot: The protagonists refuse to lie, even to the Anti-Christ. It's a bit undermined by several cases of them telling falsehoods due to bad writing, divine interventions that prevent any negative consequences of not lying, and liberal use of FromACertainPointOfView.
* PropagandaMachine: The Global Community-controlled media and press, leading to the creation of Buck Williams' VoiceOfTheResistance publication ''The Truth''.
** Notably averted in the Millennial Kingdom, when dissenters were allowed to have their say regardless of how much in error they are in saying Satan will defeat God at the FinalBattle.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: In the Left Behind universe, "good" is defined as "consistent with God's will" (or, to put the same thing another way, God's will is by definition always good).
** [[http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2010/09/tf-reaching-for-the-cookie-sack.html This blog post]] gives us an idea of how incidental characters might view the main characters.
* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: Interesting variant: The authors believe the prophecy used in these books is also completely true in the real world. Which makes the characters' praises of how everything in this story is happening exactly as predicted by the prophecy (which is the exact thing the authors believe in and used for writing the story) [[AuthorAppeal all the more smug]].
** Except for when reality intervenes, and the Y2K bug doesn't cause the Anti-Christ to show up as they predicted.
* PursuedProtagonist: The Tribulation Force, both the core group and the later members.
** Also count for the rest of the believers.
* RaceLift: Bruce Barnes and Vernon Billings were both Caucasian in the novels while the movies both men were African-American.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Enoch Dumas and his flock of street-wise urban dwellers.
* RaisedByGrandparents: In the prequel novels, Rayford's parents are old enough to be his grandparents, as someone mistakes his parents for being his godparents, so this is a subversion of this trope. Slightly subverted again when Rayford helps raise Kenny during the Tribulation.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Jesus to Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet in ''Glorious Appearing''.
** Jesus does this to Satan yet again in ''Kingdom Come'', right before sending him into the Lake of Fire.
** In ''Assassins'', Carpathia himself does this to Eli and Moishe before gunning them down during the Global Gala.
* RealLifeRelative: Inverted, as Kirk Cameron (Buck Williams) and Chelsea Noble (Hattie Durham) are married in real life, having met on the set of ''Growing Pains.''
** Ironically, Kirk Cameron admitted that his wife had pictured a movie adaptation in her mind with the both of them as Buck and Hattie respectively shortly after completing the first book. Several weeks later, Cameron was notified of the movie adaptation and was tapped for the role of Buck Williams. He got the part of Buck, while Chelsea Noble claimed the role of Hattie.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: President Gerald Fitzhugh. He sees that Carpathia is a threat once he loses his power to the American Subpotentate and teams up with his English and Egyptian counterparts to force Carpathia out of office. It does not work, and Fitzhugh winds up getting killed.
** In ''Left Behind: World At War'', Fitzhugh futilely [[TakingYouWithMe attempts to take Carpathia down with him]] when he has a guided missile head straight for the Global Community office.
* [[RecruitTeenagersWithAttitude Recruit Under-100ers With Attitude]]: The members of The Other Light are all physically teenagers and young adults recruiting others of the same age range.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: No pun intended.
* RedHerring: Several of them, though not necessarily intentional on the part of the author, who writes as a "[[http://www.leftbehind.com/03_authors_testimonials/viewAuthorInteractions.asp?pageid=828&channelID=79 process of discovery]]" meaning that he throws in elements he thinks might be interesting and sees where they lead. This can land in some WhatHappenedToTheMouse moments among those which do not pan out. He believes that this makes for a more organic and believable story-telling experience, though whether it enhances or detracts from the quality of the writing is a matter of some debate and taste.
* ReignOfTerror: What the world reverts to with the [[MarkOfTheBeast mark of loyalty system]].
* ReligionIsRight: Arguably the [[AnAesop Aesop]] of the series. [[{{Anvilicious}} If you do not accept Christ as your Lord and Savior]], you will be [[TitleDrop left behind]] to suffer the Tribulation on Earth, followed by an eternity of damnation if you die during the Tribulation without accepting Christ then.
** In ''Kingdom Come'', it's accept Jesus Christ and you'll get to live past 100 years of age and straight to the end of the Millennium; deny Him [[DeathsHourglass when you reach 100, and you'll die and go to Hell]].
* ReluctantRuler: Since Fortunato taught him out to feign humility, Carpathia offers token resistance to the role of Secretary-General of the U.N. Only when he accepts does things go downhill.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Steve Plank, thought to have been killed during the Wrath of the Lamb Earthquake, is pretty much alive...yet horribly disfigured, and going by the name Pinkerton Stephens.
** Buck says this in the Dramatic Audio when people see that he is still alive.
* ResignationsNotAccepted: Carpathia exploits Rayford's relationship with Hattie by [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness attempting to have the both of them killed when he meets up with her once again.]] However, Buck had taken Rayford's place when it became clear that Rayford wasn't going to arrive in time and rescues Hattie, killing a GC mook in the process and making a fast getaway with Ken behind the wheel.
* ReverseMole
* RightfulKingReturns: The whole point of Jesus' second coming in the book series.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Portrayed very sympathetically as they are apparently the only people in the entire world, aside from the Tribulation Force, to think that One World Government and Religion is a bad thing.
* RocksFallEveryoneDies: Most of humanity dies in various disasters, including actual giant rocks falling out of the sky. Many get sent to Hell, y'know.
* RomanceInducingSmudge: This happens early in the series, when Chloe is eating a cookie and has a bit of chocolate on her cheek. Buck leans over and wipes it off with his thumb, then eats it on impulse. Since the two have become hilariously repressed fundamentalist Christians, this is treated as a huge sexual milestone in their relationship. (Third base comes with chocolate.) Cookies later become a romantic symbol for them, almost to the point of creepy ridiculousness.
** Almost?
* {{Satan}}: In this series, the devil is a bad guy. No doubt about that. But God [[NotSoDifferent doesn't come off as much better]]. It's unintentional.
* TheScapegoat: Thanks to Leon Fortunato, Rayford Steele is pinned for Carpathia's murder, despite evidence from Walter Moon showing that Chaim Rosenzweig was the real assassin.
* TheScourgeOfGod: Seal Judgements, Trumpet Judgements, Bowl Judgements...take your pick.
** The Bowl Judgements affect those who took the mark of loyalty and worshipped the Antichrist's image.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Feebly attempted by Buck when Nicolae offers him a job in his inner circle, based on Buck's out-of-nowhere concern for journalistic ethics. Of course, Buck denies Nicolae in person, having been flown from Chicago to New York first class, driven to the meeting in a limousine, and having had lunch at an exclusive Manhattan yacht club, all on Nicolae's dime. Subverted when after all the posturing he takes the job anyway.
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Nicolae Carpathia, full stop.
* ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem: Again, Nicolae Carpathia, post-indwelling.
** Josuha Todd-Cothran gives a real sinister example when he is confronted by Alan Tompkins in the first novel. From the Dramatic Audio:
--> '''Todd-Cothran:''' Captain Sullivan, if one of your men was to come to my office and harass me about anything, what should I do?
--> '''Sullivan:''' Mr. Todd-Cothran, sir, you do whatever you need to do.
--> '''Todd-Cothran:''' What if I was to...kill him where he sits?
--> '''Sullivan:''' Sir, I'm sure it would be justifiable homicide.
--> '''Todd-Cothran:''' What if his name happened to be Alan Tompkins?
--> '''Sullivan:''' Uh...I...I'd come over there and dispose of the body myself.
* [[ScrewTheWarWerePartying Screw The War, We're Praising The Lord!]]: In the book ''Glorious Appearing'', the people in Petra were like this when the Global Community Unity Army has them completely surrounded and ready to overrun the place. Somewhat justified in that God has made them nigh-invulnerable to enemy fire at that point...and also in that Jesus was going to come and [[CurbStompBattle turn the entire Global Community army into bird food!]]
* ScrewYourUltimatum: In ''Armageddon'', Carpathia issues the following to the defenders of Jerusalem: [[YouWillBeSpared by the count of three, if there is silence for fifteen seconds, then that means that the defenders will surrender to the GC.]] The defenders' response: [[FiringInTheAirALot shooting their guns into the air, Tsion and Buck included.]]
* SealedEvilInACan: Satan during the Millennial Reign. Some people who are part of the Other Light subsect The Only Light believe that Satan purposely sealed himself away so that he will be powerful enough to overthrow God (whom the Only Light members believe don't exist despite visible evidence to the contrary) and those that will follow Him. As keeping with what the book of Revelation says, Satan does get released to lead the Other Light army at the end of the Millennium, only for his entire army to be [[CurbStompBattle smoked to ashes by God in seconds]], and for Satan to be cast into the Lake of Fire.
* SecondComing: It's all about Jesus' return.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: {{Satan}} knows of the same Biblical prophecies as the protagonists do, and is actively trying to do the things he's prophecised to do to trigger the SecondComing so he can have his fight with Jesus. That those same prophecies say [[YouCantFightFate Jesus is going to easily win that fight no matter what]] doesn't seem to bother him.
* SharpenedToASingleAtom: Chaim Rosenzweig's blade, which he uses to skewer Carpathia's head with while PlayingSick in ''Asssassins''.
* ShiningCity: The New Jerusalem at the end of ''Kingdom Come''.
* ShowDontTell: Just look at [[http://www.patheos.com/community/slacktivist/2007/01/19/lb-boutros-boutros-carpathia-2/ this excerpt]], for instance. We are ''told'' that Nicolae Carpathia "spoke earnestly, with passion, with a frequent smile, and with occasional, appropriate humor", not shown this. We are ''told'' that it is a "touching scene", rather than shown why. We are ''told'' that Carpathia has a "grasp of history" and "photographic memory of dates and places". We are ''told'' that he spoke "with electricity and power". It should be noted that two-thirds of Carpathia's speech is simply ''reading out the names of every country in the United Nations'', before then proceeding to name all the UN agencies and random facts about them. Instead of actually writing a speech that was genuinely captivating and inspiring, the authors simply resorted to TakeOurWordForIt.
* SignificantAnagram: Chaim Rosenzweig as his alter ego Micah, which really is an anagram of Chaim.
* SomeCallMeTim: Buck's real name is Cameron Williams, of which he goes by in ''Kingdom Come'', and Mac [=McCullum=] first name is Montgomery. Also, Gustaf Zuckermandel Sr. and Jr. go by Big Zeke and Zeke respectively. Annie Christopher's real name is Angela and Hattie's short for Harriet
* TheSomethingForce: The Tribulation Force in the main book series, the Millennium Force in ''Kingdom Come''.
* StealthPun: The cellular phone implant during the Millennium in ''Kingdom Come''. It gives new meaning to the term [[spoiler:"a ringing in your ears."]]
* StrawFeminist: Verna Zee, who is also a lesbian. The authors mean for her to come over as such. But she doesn't really display much feministic behavior, she just doesn't adore Buck like everyone else seems to. [[AuthorAvatar Which is a death sentence of course.]]
** Also Chloe in the first book, before she changes.
-->'''RAYFORD:''' ...I want to see when Hattie can join us for dinner. That's all right with you, isn't it?"
-->'''CHLOE:''' As long as you don't expect me to cook or something sexist and domestic like that."
* StrawmanPolitical: Particularly HollywoodAtheist; also abortionists.
* SuperSpeed: In ''Glorious Appearing'', the Remnant in Petra make a divine-assisted mad dash from Petra to Jerusalem. Hilarious in the Dramatic Audio as both Rayford and Mac joke about Abdullah being passed by pedestrians on foot.
* SweetAndSourGrapes: Two of the main protagonists are offered jobs by the Antichrist, jobs that, were they offered by anyone else would seem like dream jobs. The characters are reluctant to take those jobs, rightly seeing them as tests of temptation before them. After some initial reluctance, they take the jobs anyway, as they feel that taking them was "God's will."
** In any other story, the following rationalization would be {{Foreshadowing}} of some kind of FaceHeelTurn, even if we didn't already know that the BigBad was capable of mind control. In this story, it's considered valid.
--> His job was ferrying Nicolae Carpathia wherever he wanted to go, and for some reason, Rayford felt compelled to sublimate his wishes, his desires, his will, and his logic. God had laid this in his lap for some reason, and as long as he didn’t have to live a lie, at least for now he would do it.
* TakeOverTheWorld
* TakingYouWithMe: Near the end of ''Left Behind: World At War'', President Gerald Fitzhugh attempts to take down Nicolae Carpathia by having a missile being fired directly toward him while he was meeting Carpathia in his office. Unfortunately, Carpathia survives.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: You can tell how old the earlier books are by their lack of cell phones and their ilk. In the written-in-2005-and-2006 prequels, though...
* TeenGenius: Chang Wong, computer nerd recruited by the bad guys (but used as the good guys' mole) before he is even done with high school.
** Naomi Tiberias, Chang's romantic interest is also a whiz in her own right, as she runs the Petra tech center.
* TextualCelebrityResemblance: Carpathia looks like a young Robert Redford.
* ThereAreNoGlobalConsequences: God miraculously destroying Russia's military and vacuuming up 20% of the global population has absolutely NO effect on day-to-day life after the first few hours of panic.
** Interestingly, this is both averted ''and'' exaggerated in the same series. The books seem to claim that only a tiny fraction of adults have the necessary beliefs to be raptured, but then exaggerates the consequences as if they represented a huge chunk of society. Entire parking garages full of abandoned cars, planes falling out of the sky (the entire crew was evangelical?), and most amusingly, a completely abandoned row of cabs at O'Hare airport. Of all the stereotypes they hit in this book, the foreign Sikh/Hindu/Muslim cabbie is the one they avoid.
*** The sheer number of plane crashes that blocked runways is especially odd. Rayford's flight to London is diverted to Chicago, despite the fact there are crashed airliners (plural) on that airport's runways. That a large number of flights are still diverted to this airport suggest all other airports are worse. It's as if every PMD-Christian pilot was trying to land his plane at the exact time of the rapture.
*** The pilot of a Concorde, bound for the US from France, reports that his flight "lost nearly fifty" passengers in the Rapture. Concorde carried exactly 100 passengers. As Fred Clark [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2003/12/10/lb-concorde-calling/ puts it]], "LaHaye and Jenkins would have us believe that nearly 50 born-again, evangelical Christian millionaires were visiting Paris and were willing and able to spare no expense to return to New York City as fast, and in as much luxury, as humanly possible."
* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: A couple of thermobaric missiles and a 'daisy cutter' is indeed overkill, as said payload is dropped onto Petra on Carpathia's orders. Too bad it doesn't work out the way he had hoped.
* ThousandYearReign: What ''Kingdom Come'' is all about.
* ThrowingOutTheScript: In ''Apollyon'', when Chaim Rosenzweig is asked to appear on TV to give his explanation for the sun giving out only one-third of its sunlight due to one of the Trumpet Judgments taking place (though Chaim isn't convinced that it is the hand of God at work), he is given a script by the Global Community that has him parrot the party line's explanation of some scientific cosmic disturbance that even Rosenzweig as a botanist can see through. He chooses to appear on TV but speaks his own mind instead, almost directing people to Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah's website before being pulled off the air.
* TimeSkip: A few of them right in ''Kingdom Come''. It starts off at the beginning of the Millennium, then jumps to 93 years later where it stays for most of the story, then it jumps right to the end of the Millennium.
** Several time jumps are evident in the main storyline and prequel novels.
* TitleDrop: Plenty.
* TookALevelInDumbass: Both sides, but most notably the villains competence is kept at a far lower level than the protagonists, barring a few exceptions.
* TotallyRadical: Some of the lingo used by the characters reveals the eras that the authors grew up in.
-->"Well, sir, I don’t know what to tell you, but it is a pity you’re not getting the services of the new pilot. I know him and he’s tops."
* TrilogyCreep: Was originally planned to be one novel, then was changed to a trilogy, and ultimately ended up being thirteen books, not counting prequels or spin-offs.
* TrashTheSet: The Abomination of Desolation (Carpathia defiling the rebuilt Temple with pig's blood and placing his image and throne inside the rebuilt Temple) in ''Desecration''.
** God Himself destroying the desecrated Temple in ''Kingdom Come''.
* TryNotToDie: In the Dramatic Audio of Apollyon, after going through the escape plan to get Tsion, Chloe and Buck out of Israel, Rayford asks for some more advice from Mac. Mac's response: "Don't get shot."
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: No specific year is given, emphasizing the "It could happen any minute" message. The first few books are [[{{Zeerust}} still dated by the lack of cell phones and widespread internet access]], though.
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Carpathia seems to be promising this, and this ''is'' God's motivation for every last thing he does.
* {{Veganopia}}: In the Millennium Kingdom, everyone is a vegetarian. It was only at the wedding feast at the beginning of the Millennium that the meat restriction was lifted for that event.
* 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.
* VillainOverride: The Indwelling.
* VillainSong: Nicolae Carpathia's own self-indulgent national anthem "Hail Carpathia", which gets twisted by Buck Williams into TheVillainSucksSong "Fail Carpathia".
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Carpathia has the entire world eating out of his hands from Day One.
* VoiceOfTheResistance: Dr. Tsion Ben-Judah himself and Buck Williams' online publication ''The Truth'' during the Tribulation; The Other Light's ''If It's True'' manifesto during the Millennial Reign.
* WagTheDirector: As mentioned on the trope page, Kirk Cameron did not grow out of this after ''GrowingPains''.
* WeAllLiveInAmerica: When Chang Wong meets an elder, he is reprimanded for wearing a hat in the elder's presence. He apologizes, saying that he is covering up a disgrace (the Mark of the Beast he was forced to take). However, in China, it is disrespectful ''not'' to be wearing a hat in the presence of an elder or at a formal occassion.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We're told that Russia emptied their arsenals at Israel. We're told that the attack failed completely. We're ''not'' told how things went for Russia afterwards, now that they had shown their willingness to use nuclear force and were unable to retaliate to attacks.
* WhatTheHellHero: When it comes to anything Hattie-related, Rayford does some very reckless things. Leah Rose and Albie call him out on that.
* WhereAreTheyNow: In ''Kingdom Come'', we see the fates of the extended members of the Tribulation Force.
* WickedCultured: Attempted (not particularly successfully) with Nicolae Carpathia.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Carpathia, hands down.
* WithUsOrAgainstUs: Ultimately, it comes down to two choices - join God or the Global Community.
* WordsCanBreakMyBones: Jesus' words when He arrives at the Battle of Armageddon, consisting of proclaiming who He is and reciting Bible verses, [[CurbStompBattle slays all his enemies at once]]. Then again, what do you expect from the One who is called The Word Of God?
* WorldHealingWave: A rather slow one, as God and Jesus spend a few months restoring the earth to its former beauty following the end of the Tribulation to make it new for the Millennial Kingdom.
** Also possibly played straight in ''Glorious Appearing'', when a nearly devastated Jerusalem is instantly restored and void of any dead bodies littering the streets after Jesus gets rid of the Global Community.
* WorldWarIII: Plays a major part in the series, as it is part of prophecy. New York, Washington, D.C., London and parts of Egypt are destroyed in the process.
* WorstNewsJudgmentEver: Every child on the planet has just disappeared, along with a great many Christians. The planet is plagued by horrific plane crashes and car accidents as a result. ThePope himself is gone, and the Catholic church has fallen into disarray. What stories do ''Global Weekly'' consider the most important to cover? A convention of Jews in New York, and a recent recall election in Romania. This stuff wouldn't be front page material on a ''slow'' news day.
** There is apparently a throwaway line that {{retcon}}s that those events were covered in the previous issue (as if they wouldn't still be news a week later).
** Apparently, the fact that AirForceOne is getting a new pilot is big news.
* XanatosRoulette, subverted: {{God}} is in control of everything, and the [[{{Satan}} Antichrist]] thinks ''he'' is.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Party:]] The Global Gala, located in Jerusalem.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Stadium:]] The meeting of the 144,000 witnesses at Teddy Kollek Stadium, organized by Eli and Moishe.
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Temple:]] The dedication of the rebuilt Temple in ''Kingdom Come.''
* [[YouAllMeetInAnInn You All Meet At The Western Wall:]] Buck and Tsion's meeting with Eli and Moishe. [[BilingualDialogue Buck is hearing them speak in English, whereas Tsion is hearing them in Hebrew.]]
-->'''Eli:''' I am Eli. This is Moishe.
-->'''Buck:''' (to Tsion, whispering) English?
-->'''Tsion:''' (to Buck, whispering) Hebrew.
* YouCantFightFate: {{Inverted|Trope}} in that ''the bad guys'' are prophesied in the Bible to lose, and that every knee must bow before Jesus and every tongue must declare Him as Lord.
** The Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'' turns the humiliation of the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and their demonic cohorts into a KneelBeforeZod moment.
** One of the most jarring, unrealistic aspects of the series is how not one person in the world ''even tries'' to fight fate. In fact, just the opposite: the protagonists voluntarily go to work for the Antichrist and ''help bring about his goals'' because they believe the Antichrist has to win (in the short term) for their prophesied end to occur.
* [[YouAreInCommandNow You Are In Charge Now:]] After Chloe [[OffWithHisHead is executed by guillotine]], Lionel Whalum takes over running the Co-Op until the [[SecondComing Glorious Appearing]].
** At the end of the Millennial Period in ''Kingdom Come'', Jesus returned the Kingdom to His Father and became "subject to Him (God) that subjected all things under His (Jesus) feet."
* YouCouldHaveUsedYourPowersForGood: What Jesus pretty much says to the Antichrist in His TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to him before he is sentenced to the Lake of Fire: every blessing God gave him was wasted for serving Satan. This was a point of contention by certain readers since Jesus pretty much berated him from [[YouCantFightFate what God destined him to function as]].
* YouHaveNoIdeaWhoYoureDealingWith: After Satan indwells Carpathia at the end of The Indwelling, he makes the following promise:
--> '''Carpathia:''' There are those among you, however, who have referred overtly to me personally as the Antichrist and this period of history as the Tribulation. You may take the following as my personal pledge...the word tribulation will not begin to describe what is in store for you. If the last three and a half years are your idea of tribulation, wait until you endure the Great Tribulation.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: In the prequel books, Marilena Carpathia, the mother of Nicolae Carpathia, was killed off when Nicolae, still a child, was old enough to be cared for by his mentor Viv Ivins. His [[HasTwoDaddies two biological fathers]], who were living together off payments from the corporation that funded the genetic project that brought forth Nicolae, were [[BuryYourGays later killed off]].
** Also pretty much applies to anyone in Nicolae's circle of advisers in the Global Community.
** Carpathia tries to pull this on Rayford and Hattie. It does not work.
* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Plenty in the series.
** Nicolae threatens to kill Tsion Ben-Judah during the meeting of the 144,000 after his bottle of water turns to blood, but is stopped by the arrival of Eli and Moishe.
** Carpathia kills the Two Witnesses at the midpoint of the Tribulation, but God revived them and returned them to heaven.
** Chaim assassinates Carpathia soon thereafter... for all the good it ultimately does.
* ZipMode: In ''Glorious Appearing'', Jesus does this on a massive scale to what's left of the human population, transporting them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for the Sheep and Goats judgment.
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