‘Left Behind’ Co-Author Tim LaHaye Dies

July 26, 2016

Tim LaHaye Dies

Author of the 16 “Left Behind” novels, Tim LaHaye has died Monday at age 90 in San Diego. LaHaye’s death followed a stroke which he had last week, his family said. He is an intellectual and popular leader of the evangelical movement whose books sold tens of millions of copies.

The “Left Behind” novels, co-written with Jerry B. Jenkins, were enormously popular, crashing mainstream best-seller lists in the 1990s and the 2000s, which until then had been all but unheard of for Christian-themed fiction.

The books, which were based heavily on the Book of Revelation, chronicled the struggles of the unfortunate people “left behind” on Earth after the Second Coming of Jesus and the “Rapture” of believers into Heaven, introducing the frankly apocalyptic theology to a much wider audience.

“Thrilled as I am that he is where he has always wanted to be, his departure leaves a void in my soul that I don’t expect to be filled until I see him again,” Jenkins said in a statement Monday.

LaHaye’s ministry said that in addition to his wife, he is survived by four children, nine grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, a brother and a sister.