The bestselling Left Behind novels, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins between 1995 and 2007, dramatize the premillennial view of the End Times favored by earlier generations of American fundamentalists, in which Christ «raptures» his followers to heaven before a series of
apocalyptic events unfold on earth.
There have been similar plague - based
apocalyptic films both before and after — 1971's «The Omega Man» and its 2007 offshoot «I Am Legend», for instance — but this one is especially poignant for British viewers, if only because the
unfolding events are so much closer to home.