History Literature / LeftBehind

* {{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.]]

* [[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.

* MythologyGag: Nicolae Carpathia had the rest rooms of his underground bunker in Jerusalem empty out its fecal material in a holy place called the Cradle Of Jesus...similar to what Jehu son of Jehoshaphat from 2nd Kings did with a house of Baal after he was done slaying the worshipers of Baal: turn it into an outhouse.

* AdultFear: Losing a child to the Rapture produces this in the various people who are left behind in all adaptations of the story.

** At the end of Book 2 and the beginning of Book 3, Nicolae ''finally'' does something properly evil by launching World War III. This takes the form of WWII-style bombing raids dropping ''100-megaton'' nuclear bombs on such targets as hospitals and airports, leaving the cities looking like London during The Blitz. The largest human-caused explosion ''ever'' was the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba Tsar Bomba]] atomic bomb test, which was a "mere" ''fifty'' megatons, but which still destroyed small buildings hundreds of kilometers away. Dropping a ''single'' 100-megaton nuke (never mind a bombing raids' worth) would reduce the cities to glass craters; targeting individual buildings would be pointless. Also, the bomber problem mentioned above would be orders of magnitude worse.

* ArtisticLicenseGeography: One book describes large ships sailing the Jordan River. In reality, the River Jordan has an average depth of 6 feet and only small pleasure crafts can sail on it. For most of the river's length it is more a small creek than a river.

** The depiction of Judaism is just... bizarre. Characters explicitly identified as world-renowned religious scholars are blown away when they hear the bare tenets of Christianity, and none of them bring up any of the many real-world reasons that Jews don't believe Jesus was the (or a) messiah.

** A near-miraculous ([[AWizardDidIt almost literally in this case]]) fertilizer is invented by an Israeli scientist, and the exact chemical formula of it is kept secret as a matter of national security by the Israeli government. It is put to work making vast tracts of Israel into super-productive mega-farms, turning it into a produce export powerhouse. This ignores the fact that a) Israel being able to produce as much food as the state of New Jersey is not going to cause much waves in the international market as the authors thinks, and b) even if it does, such a continuous bumper-crop on the market would likely depress food prices, quickly rendering the return on the investment in such a project minimal, and other nations would likely enact protectionist import policies on Israeli-grown foodstuffs to keep their own farming industries from collapsing and dragging those nations into economic ruin. [[CutLexLuthorACheck More profitable for the state of Israel]] would be to produce and export the fertilizer itself, or to allow others to produce it under paid license agreements. However, according to the authors the [[Literature/TheBible Book of Revelations]] [[BecauseDestinySaysSo says that the desert will bloom]], and so goes the books.
** There is hardly any significant economic development following the Rapture would be. Massive gluts of Rapture-abandoned property flooding markets, disruption of supply chains due to mass bereavement, the utter destruction of some industries (anything child-related) combined with the explosive need for others (grief counseling and fertility services) - combined with the political unrest as a huge chunk of the population disappeared with no explanation, countries should be on the verge of collapse, yet life goes on completely normally for Our Heroes.
* ArtisticLicenseGeography: One book describes large ships sailing the Jordan River, in actuality, the River Jordan has an average depth of 6 feet and only small pleasure crafts can sail on it, for most of the river's length it is more a small creek than a river.

** When Russia and Ethiopia tag-team Israel (despite both being Christian nations who have no reason whatsoever to do so), they launch fighter jets and nukes. ''In tandem.'' The ''Enola Gay'', when dropping the fateful bomb on [[UsefulNotes/AtomicBombingsOfHiroshimaAndNagasaki Hiroshima]], flew at a height of approximately 32,333 feet, more than six miles above sea level, just to stay out of the blast zone, whereas fighter jets as described in the novel do not have that kind of range capacity. Using nukes on the same area that you are also using your air force to ''bomb'' means that you would essentially be nuking your own planes. Not to mention that bombing a city at all ''after'' you fucking '''nuke it''' would be [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill a needlessly redundant waste of resources]].
** [=LaHaye=] and Jenkins tell us that Russia used "almost its entire arsenal" on Israel. Russia has over 4,000 nuclear devices, enough to destroy every country on the planet. Israel is the size of New Jersey. Granted, Israel explicitly needs a literal divine intervention to survive this (and fortunately for them, they also [[DivineIntervention get one]]), but even so, it's a [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill silly level of overkill]] as far as the Russian strategists are concerned.

* 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.

* AuthorTract: The books are a narrative way of the authors communicating their end-times theology, wrapped up in an AirportFantasy package.
** Also each book takes a moment and makes you read a section "aimed" at the people of the earth to encourage them to accept Christ, but this is a very thinly veiled tract aimed at any readers who aren't already Christians.

* BecauseDestinySaysSo: Why did Russia (and Ethiopia) attack Israel? Because it was written that they would (well, that's how the author interpreted it, what was written was pretty vague on the details). 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.

* ButNotTooEvil: 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 the only time he tried to act on it was when the Rapture happened.

* 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.

* FamousNamedForeigner: Nicolai Carpathia is named after the infamous Romanian Dictator Nicolai Ceausescu and the Carpathian Mountains.

* TakeOverTheWorld: The plan of Nicolae Carpathia, via the OneWorldOrder means.

* AlphabeticalThemeNaming: The three fallen angelics are named in alphabetical order: '''A'''shtaroth, '''B'''aal, and '''C'''ankerworm.

* AnarchyIsChaos: What Tsion Ben-Judah believes is going to happen around the time of the Bowl Judgments in ''The Remnant'' when poverty is rampant and law and order have become relics, with common citizens arming themselves for fear of thieves, rapists, and terrorists and no longer having any trust in the Global Community protecting them (even the Peacekeepers have resorted to extortion).

** 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.

* AstralProjection: In ''The Indwelling'', Tsion Ben-Judah experiences something like this (twice) when he finds himself taken up to heaven to witness Revelation chapter 12 taking place -- the woman clothed with the sun giving birth to the Manchild that would rule the earth from God's throne, and Satan and his angels being cast down from heaven.

* 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 [[ArtisticLicenseGeography 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.

* BigBlackout: A supernatural version, as one of God's Bowl Judgments causes New Babylon to be so dark that, even though they still have power, none of Nicolae Carpathia's loyalists can see any form of light save for [[PowerGlows Nicolae's faint aura]]. The believers in Christ, on the other hand, can still see with the illumination level of a low-powered chandelier. The blackout lasts for a whole year until an angel of the Lord illuminated the city long enough to warn God's people to get out of New Babylon before [[DoomedHometown it is destroyed]]. Even worse for Carpathia's loyalists is that, during the blackout, they also suffer pains and sores for which there is no relief.

* 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.

** 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, even though he wants his family back.

** The way Carpathia said it in the Dramatic Audio, it seemed to suggest that [[EvenEvilHasStandards it was rather excessive for such a person]].

** The Rapture Tape Pastor Billings made '''three years''' before the Rapture. It would be instrumental in bringing about Rayford and Chloe's salvation.

** Cendrillion Jospin, as it is through her death that the believers discover her connections to The Other Light.

*** [[TeenGenius Teen Geinuses]]: Chang Wong and Naomi Tiberias

* CozyCatastrophe: Crashed airlines, mass disappearances, and political upheaval ''everywhere'', but the trash is still getting collected, [[RepressiveButEfficient airline flights are uninterrupted]], and it's safe to walk the streets at night.

** 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.

* DefiantToTheEnd: Carpathia is this when he stands before Jesus...until Jesus cast Satan out of him.

* 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.

** And he was on the verge of directing an intruder to take her instead of him in The Rising.

** 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.)

* ForegoneConclusion: It can be a bit tough to care 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. 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.

* 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.

* 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]].

* 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.

-->'''Annie:''' And for the record, Captain [=McCullum=], I can't stand working for either of you. Personnel has a standing request from me, demanding that I be reassigned. The Director of my department is condescending and unberable...\\

** ''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 for people to agree with, apart from a general "Peace is good, mkay?" Maybe this is intentional, to ''really'' show off his ([[{{Glamor}} possibly supernatural]]) speaking skills -- i.e., the ''script'' is terrible, but Carpathia speaks it with such intense passion and flair that he can build enthusiasm anyway.

** 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.

** Viv Ivin's fate is mentioned in the Dramatic Audio presentation of ''Glorious Appearing'', as she is [[RocksFallEveryoneDies killed by a giant hailstone]].

* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: ZigZaggingTrope. 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 trains run on time despite the global rapture after a 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.

** Mainyu Mazda, a Middle East black market dealer, has a fake mark with a number that ''isn't'' his regional code or any of the regional codes...yet he's still evil in that he cares only about collecting bounty for the disloyal.

** 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.

* 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.

** 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.

** 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.

* 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.]]

--> 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.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Enoch Dumas and his flock of street-wise urban dwellers.

* WartimeWedding: If you count the seven-year Tribulation period as being a war, then the few weddings that took place during it of Tribulation Force members Rayford Steele and Amanda White, Buck Williams and Chloe Steele, amd Ming Toy and Ree Woo would count in the main book series. (Judd Thompson Jr. and Vicki Byrnes of the Young Tribulation Force would also count.) Rayford's marriage to Amanda lasts for about three months at the most, as Amanda died in a plane crash during the Wrath Of The Lamb earthquake, and Buck's marriage to Chloe lasts until a year before Jesus Christ's glorious appearing at the Battle of Armageddon, when she is captured and put to death by the Global Community. The only bright spot of Buck and Chloe's wedding is that they have produced a son, Kenny Bruce, during the years they were married.

* 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.

** "Ladies and gentlemen, we have an urgent news bulletin! A minor reporter from the midwest who you have never heard of and who nobody but his 3 friends really care about, is feared dead following a "mysterious car bombing"! In other news, all children in the entire world vanished last night, experts say it was likely the result of "excess electromagnetism" or some shit, so in other words we have no idea and it could happen again to all of us at any second. In sports news..."

** 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.

* {{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.

** 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 [[{{Asexuality}} you'll never be able to fall in love with anyone else, get or stay married,]] or [[ImmortalProcreationClause even have children]]. It's a tough choice to make, and sometimes God may end up deciding your fate.

** A near-miraculous ([[AWizardDidIt almost literally in this case]]) fertilizer is invented by an Israeli scientist, and the exact chemical formula of it is kept secret as a matter of national security by the Israeli government. It is put to work making vast tracts of Israel into super-productive mega-farms, turning it into a produce export powerhouse. This ignores the fact that such a continuous bumper-crop on the market would likely depress food prices, quickly rendering the return on the investment in such a project minimal, and other nations would likely enact protectionist import policies on Israeli-grown foodstuffs to keep their own farming industries from collapsing and dragging those nations into economic ruin. [[CutLexLuthorACheck More profitable for the state of Israel]] would be to produce and export the fertilizer itself, or to allow others to produce it under paid license agreements. However, according to the authors the [[Literature/TheBible Book of Revelations]] [[BecauseDestinySaysSo says that the desert will bloom]], and so goes the books.

* {{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.

* 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, [[IllegalReligion outlawed all religions]] except for Carpathianism by the midpoint of the Tribulation, forcing people to either take the MarkOfTheBeast or die, and sometimes just outright killing them after they have taken the mark. God's lethal punishments are reserved for the unbelievers who have committed a crime that is worthy of death, such as the AttemptedRape by a "natural" of a "glorified".
*** 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.
*** Thirdly, no mention of God setting up any "concentration camps" for unbelievers during the Millennium like Nicolae eventually did for the Jews among the prison populations outside Israel in the latter half of the Tribulation. God in this series at least honors people's freedom and their decision to be saved or not [[DeathsHourglass before their 100th birthday]] rolls around.
*** Though the above rings incredibly hollow due to the fact that an eternity in Hell is probably many orders of magnitude worse to even a few years (and eventual death) in a concentration camp. Still, God leaves the choice of eternal life or eternal death up to the person.
*** It all reaches absurd levels when the books establish that free will is not a factor in anything at all. All decisions were predetermined by God eons before anyone was around to make them; therefore, the hellbound and heavenbound alike never had any choice about where they would eventually end up (and seeing as sinners in the lake of fire and saints in the new earth alike spend all their time proclaiming "Jesus is Lord," one wonders what the ultimate difference between either place is.)

* ClimateChange: In ''The Remnant'', one of God's Bowl Judgments is this on a scale that is very lethal to both the undecided and those who have taken the MarkOfTheBeast and worshiped Carpathia's image. It causes the polar ice caps to melt, raising the sea level and causing the dead carcasses of sea animals from a previous Bowl Judgment to wash further inward. It lasts until God causes a supernatural BigBlackout in New Babylon with His next Bowl Judgment.

* RealityEnsues: While the book is highly criticized for turning the Secretary-General of the United Nations into a global king, there is one surprisingly realistic touch: The UN's budget is very limited so Carpathia has to pay for many of his actions out of his own pocket rather than rely on some magically limitless amount of money.

* {{Defictionalization}}: The CellSol emergency network now exists as a not-for-profit open design at http://f3.to/cellsol/ and specifically references Left Behind as an inspiration.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The cookies.

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

* HighTimesFuture: It's implied that drugs have been legalized during the Tribulation period in the series due to the OneWorldGovernment allowing such vices to be legalized — Albie's hometown of Al Basrah has been given over entirely to drugs by the time he visits it to seek out the service of a Middle Eastern black market dealer for an undercover job. The status of drugs is unclear during the Millennial Kingdom period, although the hills of Jerusalem are dripping with wine, and there's mention of hashish parties held by the LaReésistance group The Other Light in order to sway new members to join the group.

There is [[http://www.patheos.com/blogs/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/blogs/slacktivist/2003/10/18/left-behind-pretrib-porno/ here]]). Presenting a very detailed (and viscerally hostile) commentary, it covered the first two books and part of the third before the writer apparently ran out of steam; as of 2021, it has not been updated for many years.

*** It all reaches absurd levels when the books establish that free will is not a factor in anything at all. All decisions were predetermined by God eons before anyone was around to make them; therefore, the hellbound and heavenbound alike never had any choice about where they would eventually end up (and seeing as sinners in the lake of fire and believers in the new earth alike spend all their time proclaiming "Jesus is Lord," one wonders what the ultimate difference between either place is.

%%* TheFundamentalist: The protagonists. Ironically they were left behind because they weren't actually saved.

%%* HappilyEverAfter: How the series ends for the believers. Everyone else goes to Hell.

%%* MadonnaWhoreComplex: The view of females in the series.

%%* TitleDrop: Plenty.

%%* AlienInvasion: One of the theories mentioned by one of the characters about the disappearances that took place in the Rapture.

%%* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Floyd Charles and Hattie Durham. Also David Hassid and Hannah Palemoon.

%%* ArchangelGabriel: 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.

%%* {{Brainwashed}}: The Antichrist's preferred method of gaining allies and resources.

%%* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: Which the characters don't want to prevent, but pray will come soon, given the CrapsackWorld they're currently in.

%%* HeelFaceTurn: Aplenty.
%%** But see above.

%%* {{Omniglot}}: Nicolae Carpathia.

%%* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Nicolae Carpathia, full stop.

%%* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Carpathia, hands down.

%%* 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.

* 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 counts, or at least it is treated with the same degree of dread by the act of conversing with such a prime agent of evil.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The Tribulation Force members are good, while the Global Community members are evil.

* TheAtoner: Anyone who was left behind following the Rapture who became a Christian.

* 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.