History Literature / LeftBehind

* CommandRoster:
** The Tribulation Force consists of:
*** TheCaptain: Rayford Steele
*** NumberTwo: Cameron "Buck" Williams
*** [[MissionControl 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 Geniuses]]: 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

* 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.
** Eleazar Tiberias is a bit of this with his daughter Naomi.

* BuryYourGays: Just after (accidentally) outing herself, closet lesbian and StrawFeminist Verna Zee gets killed by the Wrath Of The Lamb earthquake in the book ''Nicolae'', though there were Christians that died in the earthquake as well, including the New Hope Village Church secretary Loretta and parishioners Donny and Sondra Moore, none of which were gay. In the prequel novels, the Antichrist villain Nicolae Carpathia has [[HasTwoDaddies his two biological fathers]], who were both gay, killed off.

* HasTwoDaddies: Nicolae Carpathia was a DesignerBaby who 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.]]

* 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]].

* 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.]]

** 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 Little Boy 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, and even at a range of '''18 miles from Ground Zero''' was ''still'' hit by the bomb's blast wave; fighter jets as described in the novel do not have that kind of range. 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]].

** The depiction of Judaism is just... bizarre. Characters explicitly identified as world-renowned religious scholars are [[IdiotBall 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.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: Boy ''howdy!''

** Rayford quit playing soccer simply because he did not enjoy watching it. Fair enough. However, his criticisms of it, namely that professional players all play for 0-0 draws, is an oft-repeated and so-far-off-base comment compared with reality (0-0 draws do happen, but they are rather rare, and are often hated by fans of the game even more than by detractors), and given this book was written and released the very year after Arsenal FC in England finished an entire season undefeated by playing a very offensive game (admittedly something not widely circulated in America at the time, as the game hadn't yet caught on), these are facts that were easily searchable during the time of writing.

* AuthorAvatar: The authors are ''terrible'' about this, as they combine very obvious author avatars in the heroes (Rayford Steele for Tim [=LaHaye=] and Buck Williams for Jerry Jenkins). This gets really, really hilarious when the authors get things blatantly wrong due to their limited understanding of reality (Williams, supposedly "really physically fit", is about ready to pass out after a ''two-mile'' walk through the streets of New York - something that the overweight Jenkins probably ''would'' find uncomfortable).

* BizarroApocalypse: The series details the steady destruction of the Earth in the apocalypse foretold (kind of) in the biblical book of Revelation, but having the events written down doesn't make them any less bizarre. All Christians on the planet vanish, followed by various judgments including a plague of demonic stinging locusts (whose victims are incapable of dying to ease their pain), massive shifts in weather, a huge earthquake, invisible-to-nonbelievers demon horsemen who slay a tenth of the remaining population, solar flares... [[spoiler: and that doesn't include the actual {{Antichrist}} who gets possessed by Satan himself halfway through the Tribulation (and celebrates by riding a giant pig), or the part where Jesus shows up and slaughters an entire army by speaking. After that, humans and animals live together tranquilly, rivers have turned to milk, the survivors can live to be hundreds of years old (but without their youth), and humanity has collectively abandoned relationships and sexuality to spend eternity worshipping Jehovah. [[SarcasmMode And they all lived happily ever after.]]]]

** The 2014 movie covers only the first half of the first book.

* HideYourChildren: Every child under age 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.''

* 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://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2010/09/21/tf-loopholes-and-paradoxes/ 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 [[MillenniumBug [=Y2K=]]] bug doesn't cause the Anti-Christ to show up as they predicted.

* {{Satan}}: In this series, the devil is a bad guy. No doubt about that. But God doesn't come off as much better. It's unintentional.

* 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, and the last book doesn't fare much better, featuring [[{{SchizoTech}} cell-phone implants and portable fax machines]].

** Who knows, [[http://news.yahoo.com/designer-babies-only-rich-094500317--politics.html this could someday happen for real!]]

* 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.]]

* DiscOneFinalBoss, although more of a fake Dragon in Peter Mathews vs. Leon Fortunato.
* 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)?

* [[HyperCompetentSidekick Hyper Competent Sidekicks]]: The Global Community communications people. Things like communications and even the Internet, which get rebuilt to privilege robustness to throughput on Carpathia's orders, are done well enough that they operate through the Tribulation, and even the Battle of Armageddon and its aftermath. [[http://emlia.org/pmwiki/pub/web/Tripocalypse.History.html Why didn't Carpathia put them in charge of anti-supernatural operations?]]

-->'''Nicolae Carpathia:''' [[YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive Your days are numbered, my friend.]]
-->'''Buck Williams:''' [[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight As are yours]], "my friend".

* DistressedDamsel: With as many times Hattie has been captured by the GC, she could give Princess Peach a run for her money.

** A near-miraculous ([[AWizardDidIt almost literally in this case]]) fertilizer is invented by an Israeli scientist, and the exact chemical formula 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 as big a wave in the international market as the authors think, 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 Revelation]] [[BecauseDestinySaysSo says that the desert will bloom]], and so goes the books.

** A near-miraculous ([[AWizardDidIt almost literally in this case]]) fertilizer is invented by an Israeli scientist, and the exact chemical formula 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 as big a wave in the international market as the authors think, 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 upheaval following the Rapture. 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.

** Carpathia, upon his ascension to the UN, suggests that all countries on Earth give up all their military materiel and turn over 1/10th of what's left to the UN to serve as a global army. Everyone accepts this. Ignoring the fact that the UN has been been pushing ''limited'' disarmament for ''decades'' with not much success. Also, ever since the UN was founded there has already existed a clause in the UN charter (chapter 7, art. 43) establishing a UN military force ... and it's been ignored ever since the UN was founded.

** In-universe, the Christian denominations that don't hold to that particular teaching of the end times get 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]].

** Rayford spent his childhood as a soccer player, and was praised for being simultaneously the team's top scorer and best defender. Not impossible by any stretch, but given that by the time kids make it to their early teenage years, they have a preferred position and have developed in it, it is most likely that Rayford would play box-to-box midfielder rather than defender, which would be the position that best suited his purported defensive and offensive acumen.

* AuthorAvatar: The authors are ''terrible'' about this, as they combine very obvious author avatars in the heroes (Rayford Steele for Tim [=LaHaye=] and Buck Williams for Jerry Jenkins). This gets really, really hilarious when the authors get things blatantly wrong due to their limited understanding of reality (Williams, supposedly "really physically fit", is about ready to pass out after a ''two mile'' walk through the streets of New York - something that the overweight Jenkins probably would find uncomfortable).

* AuthorFilibuster: The authors are not afraid of parachuting a 30 page sermon into the plot.

** 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 Tim [=LaHaye=] 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.

* BizarroApocalypse: The series details the steady destruction of the Earth in the apocalypse foretold (kind of) in the biblical book of Revelation, but having the events written down doesn't make them any less bizarre. All Christians on the planet vanish, leading to various judgements including a plague of demonic stinging locusts (whose victims are incapable of dying to ease their pain), massive shifts in weather, a huge earthquake, invisible-to-nonbelievers demon horsemen who slay a tenth of the remaining population, solar flares... [[spoiler: and that doesn't include the actual {{Antichrist}} who gets possessed by Satan himself halfway through the Tribulation (who celebrates by riding a giant pig), or the part where Jesus shows up and slaughters an entire army by speaking. After that, humans and animals live together tranquilly, rivers have turned to milk, the survivors can live to be hundreds of years old (but without their youth), and humanity has collectively abandoned relationships and sexuality to spend eternity worshipping Jehovah. [[SarcasmMode And they all lived happily ever after.]]]]

* 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 beforehand. 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.

* CharacterShilling: Characters like Buck and Rayford are presented as being at the top of their game, career-wise, being a fabulously well-known [[IntrepidReporter globe trotting journalist]] and a respected AcePilot, respectively. However, [[InformedAttribute we do not so much see them be good at their job as see other characters telling them that they are]].

* ColonCancer: A whopping three colons in ''Assassins: Assignment: Jerusalem, Target: Antichrist''

* 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 was killed or bribed into submission.
* CosyCatastrophe: Due to ArtisticLicenseEconomics and the authors generally not thinking about it very hard, our heroes aren't bothered by the kind of economic upheaval you might expect when billions of people disappear -- nor the anguish when ''every child on Earth vanishes''.
* DeusExMachina: {{justified|Trope}} -- after all, the whole series is basically ''about'' God causing stuff to happen.

* 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.

* TheFilmOfTheBook: The 2000 film of the first book was 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''.

* FoxNewsLiberal: The many Jews who convert to Christianity serve this purpose. They prove the validity of the authors' beliefs by joining, but do so without demanding answers to the longstanding issues that have prevented real-world Jews from accepting Jesus as the Messiah of the Hebrew Bible. Not that they had much time for such questions when their lives were on the line on the day of the Lord's coming.
* TheFundamentalist: As the prerogative of thee books is that "The Bible is literal truth, the end", every Saved character becomes one of these.
* GoodGunsBadGuns: the game Eternal Forces depict the Tribulation Forces being armed with M16/M4s, while the GC peacekeepers are armed with [=AKs=].

* 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.''
* InstantExpert: All of the protagonists somehow start acting like people who've lived in the evangelical bubble all of their life immediately on conversion, without ever being told about any of it.

** It has its own moral substitute in the form of ''Literature/ChristianNation'', told from an secularist POV and with the roles reversed.
** The ''Literature/LastDaysTrilogy'' tells the same story as ''Left Behind'', but preaches a pre-wrath Rapture instead of a pre-Tribulation Rapture.

* 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]].

* AlasPoorVillain: Nicolae Carpathia, [[TheAntichrist of all people]]. While his characterization throughout most of the series rarely gets any more sympathetic than SmugSnake at best, and approaches Complete Monster territory at worst, he [[HeelRealization honestly realizes that he was wrong]] at the very end when put on trial before Jesus, and regrets his sins. But at the same time, [[HeelFaceDoorSlam by then it's far too late]] for him to be forgiven... and he [[FaceDeathWithDignity accepts this gracefully]] and enters Hell without either begging or kicking and screaming like the other villains, in the knowledge that he [[NoPlaceForMeThere deserves it]]. He's a tyrant who has caused the deaths of millions of people, but the way he chooses to die (after also seeing everything he ever worked for and believed in not only destroyed, but proved misguided and evil in the first place) can make him come across as at least somewhat of a TragicVillain.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Floyd Charles desires Hattie Durham, who instead wants Rayford, who initially considers beginning an affair with her until the Rapture happens and he loses all desire for Hattie. Also Hannah Palemoon pines for David Hassid, who already has a girlfriend.

* 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.]]

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Surprisingly many character readily agree that the mass disappearances weren't caused by space aliens, and that the mere idea is just absurd.

** 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.

* 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.

* 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.

** Chaim Rosenzweig, TheProfessor who makes the desert bloom and [[spoiler:[[BadassBookworm assassinates the Antichrist with a home made sword]]]].

** In the case of Lucifer-Satan, rather than the BigRedDevil stereotype, ''Left Behind'' goes with [[ShownTheirWork what the Bible actually says]], and describes him as [[AngelicBeauty a wonderful angel of light]]. His appearance is so awe-inspiringly beautiful that even the devout old Bible scholar [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Tsion Ben-Judah]] immediately wants to worship him when he sees him in a vision, and has to be brought back to his senses by a good angel.

* BerserkButton: It runs in the family in regards to Marilena Carpathia and her son.

** 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."

* {{Brainwashed}}: Carpathia's preferred method of gaining allies and resources, via his CompellingVoice. Can make people think they saw soemthing different than what actually happened, among other things.

-->'''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.

A reboot film of the first book, ''[[Film/LeftBehind2014 Left Behind (2014)]]'' was released in theaters on October 3, 2014, directed by Vic Armstrong and starring Creator/NicolasCage, Cassi Thomson, and Chad Michael Murray. It covers only the first half of the first book, though it expands on that half by making the story an airline disaster film. Though the film didn't perform well, a sequel titled ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16174868/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_15 Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist]]'' has been filmed and released in 2023, with Rayford Steele recast as Creator/KevinSorbo.

* MatzoFever / MightyWhiteyAndMellowYellow: Chang Wong and Naomi Tiberias. Lampshaded in the Dramatic Audio:
-->'''Chang Wong:''' Can you tell me what a Chinese-Hebrew wedding ceremony looks like?

A reboot film of the first book, ''[[Film/LeftBehind2014 Left Behind (2014)]]'' was released in theaters on October 3, 2014, directed by Vic Armstrong and starring Creator/NicolasCage, Cassi Thomson, and Chad Michael Murray. It covers only the first half of the first book, though it expands on that half by making the story an airline disaster film. Though the film didn't perform well, a sequel titled ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16174868/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_15 Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist]]'' is reportedly in production, with Rayford Steele recast as Creator/KevinSorbo.

* 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 occasion.

-->-- '''[[Literature/BooksOfThessalonians 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17]]''', ''Literature/TheBible''

* WidowedAtTheWedding: In the first book, the Rapture takes place at the same time that a couple is getting married, and the groom (who is a Christian) is the one who gets taken up, leaving the bride without her husband. Technically he's only [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Ascended To A Higher Plane Of Existence]], but imagine how crushed she would feel to see her husband mysteriously vanish leaving [[EmptyPilesOfClothing only his tuxedo]] behind, not to mention confused if she didn't know there was such a thing as the Rapture.

* ScifiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale : Happens all the time. Geographic distances are wildly exaggerated or ignored, things happening across a continent can affect the local city but things affecting the local city could be completely ignored in the suburbs, the given explosive payload of bombs are way off from their described effects, the amount of time it takes for a global reorganization is ignored to get that reorganization to happen on schedule with prophecy, etc.

* 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 series' interpretation of the Bible is only shared by a very small segment of Christian denominations.

** 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. 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]].

*** [[TheChick The CEO:]] Chloe Steele

* 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.

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

** The movie averts this by having Carpathia shoot 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.

''Left Behind'' has also been made into [[Film/LeftBehind2000 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, ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Behind%3A_Eternal_Forces Left Behind: Eternal Forces]]''. Incidentally, the PC game gained criticism from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Thompson_(activist) Jack Thompson,]] who claimed it was incompatible with basic Christian doctrine (on account of all the killing) and that it encouraged religious bigotry. Others disagreed with this, even going so far as to call it malicious misrepresentation, though ultimately the game received mixed reviews.

A reboot film of the first book, ''[[Film/LeftBehind2014 Left Behind (2014)]]'' was released in theaters on October 3, 2014, directed by Vic Armstrong and starring Creator/NicolasCage, Cassi Thomson, and Chad Michael Murray. It covers only the first half of the first book, though it expands on that half by making the story an airline disaster film. Though the film didn't perform well, a sequel titled ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16174868/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_15 Left Behind: Rise of the Anti-Christ]]'' is reportedly in production, with Rayford Steele recast as Creator/KevinSorbo.

* PropagandaMachine: The Global Community-controlled media and press, leading to the creation of Buck Williams' VoiceOfTheResistance publication ''The Truth''. Interestingly, the Global Community acquisition of all press and communications also includes Christian-related media such as the [[Series/The700Club Christian Broadcasting Network]] and [[Creator/{{TBN}} Trinity Broadcasting Network]], which makes you wonder what became of [[SinisterMinister the televangelists who were left behind]].

A reboot film of the first book, ''[[Film/LeftBehind2014 Left Behind (2014)]]'' was released in theaters on October 3, 2014, directed by Vic Armstrong and starring Creator/NicolasCage, Cassi Thomson, and Chad Michael Murray. It covers only the first half of the first book, though it expands on that half by making the story an airline disaster film.