Tim LaHaye, an intellectual and popular leader of the evangelical
movement whose 16 “Left Behind” novels sold tens of millions of copies,
died Monday at age 90 in San Diego following a stroke last week, his
ministry and his family said.
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.
May his soul rest in peace. Amen.