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Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days
Unavailable
Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days
Unavailable
Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days
Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days

Written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

Narrated by Frank Muller

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

Only one series will take you to the end of the world as you explore eternal truth: the best-selling Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Now the entire series is available in an audio.

When the trumpet sounds, where will you be? Passengers in an airborne Boeing 747 find out in this riveting novel by renowned Christian speaker Tim LaHaye and master storyteller Jerry Jenkins. Without any warning, passengers mysteriously disappear from their seats. Terror and chaos slowly spread not only through the plane but also worldwide as unusual events continue to unfold. For those who have been left behind, the apocalypse has just begun. This fictional account of life after the Rapture delivers an urgent call to today's readers to prepare their own hearts and minister to others.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateOct 19, 2000
ISBN9781414324869
Author

Tim LaHaye

Before his passing in 2016, Tim LaHaye was a New York Times bestselling author of more than 70 nonfiction books, many on biblical prophecy and end-times. He is the coauthor of the record-shattering Left Behind series and is still considered one of America's foremost authorities on biblical end-times prophecy.

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Reviews for Left Behind

Rating: 4.259887005649717 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

177 ratings53 reviews

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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I read these books in high school and liked them well enough, but there were just too many characters to track and follow. Also, lot of a exposition to get through and speeches given often from the religious leaders.... The movie does look promising though! We shall see...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Man, this thing took FOREVER! I don't know how many books there are in the series, but I know that I won't be reading them all (and judging from how much space they take up on the shelf at the library, there is a TON). The whole premise of this series is what would happen if the rapture occurred and you were one of the millions (probably billions) left behind. Rayford Steele is piloting an aircraft when a stewardess he'd been lusting after rushes into the cockpit tells him that they're suddenly missing over 100 people. At first he thinks it's a joke but he soon realizes that all their clothes have been left behind as well. One of the passengers on the plane is an award winning, international journalist named Buck. He sets about recording everything because he knows this is the biggest story of his career, hell of his lifetime! Buck, the stewardess, the pilot, and his daughter start finding their paths crossing as they try to figure out what on earth has happened to all their loved ones and how they are going to survive what comes next. Not as bad as I thought it would be, but not great either.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Left Behind series are kind of a guilty pleasure for me. The books are great fun when you turn off your brain and just enjoy. This is one of the few series of books that our whole family enjoys
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Ironically, I am writing this review on June 6, 2006 (06/06/06) which some people claim will be the day of the apocalypse. If I believed the message of this book I would think only practising Christians would be called to heaven and the rest of us will be left to suffer on earth. Although I was raised in the Christian church, I was never confirmed and I do not attend church regularly. I would say I believe in a supreme being but I don't think one has to attend church or belong to an organized religion to be a good person. I certainly don't think that all those other people in the world who are religious but not Christian are doomed. Christianity has been responsible for a lot of death and destruction such as the Crusades and the struggles in Northern Ireland between the Protestants and the Catholics. So I don't think it can claim a moral high ground as this book leads the reader to believe. Having said all that, it is probably not surprising that I gave this book such a low rating. However, that is not the only problem I had with it. I thought the book was repetitious for those parts of it that dealt with seeking salvation. On the other hand, there really was very little attention paid to the fall-out of having millions of people disappear. I find it hard to believe that within days of such a cataclysmic event, air travel and international meetings would continue as usual. I was also irritated by the lack of discussion of events outside of the great U. S. of A.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    2.5 stars. Rayford Steele is an airline pilot, flying a commercial flight; Buck Williams is a journalist and a passenger on the same plane. Mid-flight - all of a sudden - people disappear into thin air, leaving their clothes behind. They discover that millions of people have disappeared in the same manner at the same time, all around the world. Rayford turns to God and his wife's church for comfort and answers; Buck the journalist is just trying to find out what happened.

    I like the idea behind the story, and parts were exciting, but the book just got too preachy for me. There was some political stuff in the book that I just didn't find all that interesting either, so those two things combined really brought down my rating and enjoyment of the book. It ends on a cliffhanger, which may have left me wanting to read the next book, except I just can't handle the preachiness of it all, so I won't be continuing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    First of an as-yet uncompleted series of novels playing out the Bible's Book of Revelations. This first is gripping. I picked it off a library shelf long before I had heard of the series and was riveted. The back cover blurb was short and to the point:In one cataclysmic moment, millions around the globe disappear.Vehicles, suddenly unmanned, careen out of control. People are terror sticken as loved ones vanish before their eyes.In the midst of global chaos, airline captain Rayford Steele must search for his family, for answers, for truth. As devastating as the disappearances have been, the darkest days may lie ahead.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fictional account of the people left behind on Earth after the rapture. Fast-moving, almost believable, with interesting characters albeit a little flat. Theology and preaching cleverly interwoven with the plot. Quite thought-provoking.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read about 2/3 of this on a flight between Charlotte and Bradley. My personal setting made this far more enjoyable (though it was very enjoyable, anyway). It's a tad on the preachy-side, but not nearly as much so as you would expect given the content. It's a bit predictable, but then again, it isn't exactly high-literature. This is just good, fun light reading.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I started this series because my wife wanted me to read them, and since I like sharing things in common with her, I read them. Wasn't as bad as I feared, but the authors have a lot of annoying habits to create filler, such as constantly having the characters relate again and again their personal stories. Many of the characters are goody-goodies who are basically undistinguishable from each other. The Biblical research throughout is fairly shoddy, which surprised me. He took many things out of context and neglected to answer any of the objections people genuinely have about Christianity (for example, the books insist Jesus fulfills all of the Messianic prophecies, when he does not, such as being named "Immanuel," which is the prophecied name).
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I just can't get passed the way this book was written. It seemed like the writing of a grade schooler to me... The story-line is interesting, but the writing brings it down!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I actually read this book for my College Success Skills class, and there were some things I didn't like. The characters seem to change quicker than what would be natural, which I didn't like. However, the concept of the book was very deep, especially because I was annotating for dystopia the entire time. It definitely made me think, and I already have two people lined up to read this book after I turn my paper in.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is great series, fascinating to say the least. The writing is a bit weak at times. They also take the book of revelation to the extreme but it does really make you think especially if you are a christian.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to settle on a star rating for this book; anything from 2 to 5 seems defensible.Is it great writing? No, it is not. It ranges from adequate to plodding, with its flaws being perhaps most visible when it tries to portray somebody as being particularly eloquent.But the ideas are the important thing here. This is meant as a dramatization of the Rapture and its immediate aftermath, showing what it might look like were it to happen today. While I don't happen to share any of the authors' premises, it does a good job of setting out how such a scenario might broadly play out, even if it's less successful with the details. (We could spend hours nitpicking the details.) And its earnestness serves it surprisingly well, making it easier to overlook -- or at least forgive -- the literary flaws. It's fairly engaging, especially if you accept the premises. I can see why the series has been wildly successful.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I didn't expect to like this really. Not given what I'd heard of its Christian Fundamentalist plot and themes. However, I know this is enormously popular, a huge bestseller, and I do sometimes like to read such books, to better understand their appeal. And if they're really bad... Well, I found the Twilight Saga rather fun as a trainwreck and read the whole thing. This novel struck me as too stupid to bother with within a dozen pages though. This novel, part of a series, has as its basis the doctrine held by some Christian sects about "the Rapture." The idea is that in the Last Days of Earth when Jesus returns those who are "saved" will be pulled out and spared the Tribulations. So in this novel such people are suddenly whisked away and those left have to deal with the aftermath.I admit it, I soon did feel I wouldn't get through this, that it was too much like having pamphlet-wielding missionaries crowding me in a stuck elevator. But that aspect isn't what stopped me reading. Or the subpar writing evident from the first. No, a passage on Page 8 is what got to me. We're supposed to believe that a man invents "a synthetic fertilizer that caused the desert sands of Israel to bloom... making Israel the richest nation on Earth" with "zero unemployment" and they are then able to buy peace from their enemies. This is so breathtakingly spectacularly stupid on an a scientific, agricultural, economic and political level, in comparison the Rapture is easy to believe in, and right there I lost interest in anything the authors wanted to put before me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Imagine that suddenly millions of seemingly random people vanish into thin air. Cars are left without drivers, airplanes without pilots, parents without children. Those left behind are people that must not only deal with the wreckage, but they must also try to come to terms with the actual disappearances of friends and loved ones. What happened? Was it aliens, a new form of nuclear technology, the end of the world, or a prophecy of The Bible that is being fulfilled? In this first book of the Left Behind series, LaHaye and Jenkins draw readers into a captivating story of the human condition.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I only read this book because it was chosen for my book club. I tried to approach it with an open mind but my reluctancy was confirmed. The book was unexciting, unfulfilling, and born from "Christian" paranoia. Do not take on this book unless you are willing to read the entire series. The author took 25 chapters to accomplish what could have been done in 5. The ending was no ending at all, it only sets up the next book in this very long series. In short I can't believe I wasted my time and brain cells on this book and would be more than a little embarassed to admit to reading it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Read the entire series, enjoyed the story. I wanted to learn more about the theology the book was based on.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Bad and inadequate Bible interpretation along with a touch of soft porn and more than a touch of paranoia.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    this is a wonderful book and i hope this never happens because i will be left behind :-(
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I've decided this series is the VC Andrews of Christian fiction - trashy, trashy, trashy. I'm not sure why I picked it up - maybe all that 2012 crap I've been devouring. I just know I'm now going to have to read to the terrible end of this series. The book was is preachy and hilarious. My favorite part was that the chosen peeps were taken to heaven without any clothes - in fact, even their contact lenses were left behind. (Am I juvenile to find that funny?) I was also impressed that fetuses were taken - but not the pregnant women. Can't wait to read what happens next!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is the first of a great christian book series that depcits life after the rapture. The characters are left behind after their loved ones are taken during the rapture. The series talks about their journey to Christianity during the time before the return of Christ. Great book and series. I enjoyed reading all of the books.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The start of this wonderful series. Creative idea - very gripping. Loved it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wow....this book will grab your attention right from the jump. This has the great balance between fiction and non-fiction with someone seeking spiritual answers about the end of times. Great story line, with characters that keep you wanting to turn the page. In reading this, you must have an open mind and basic understanding of biblical teachings.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Left Behind is a series that has passed me by somehow. With no preconception I dived in and found a refreshing take on the End of Days. From the outset the book creates a solid air of mystery, which is wrapped up in this first book, whilst creating a plan for the epic series ahead. The central characters aren't as fleshed out as they could be, the narrative style seems aimed at young adults, rather than the more mature sci-fi readers. In fact, at several times I felt preached to, as if the writers were trying to sell Christianity to me. That aside, the plot is strong and Left Behind definitely succeeds as a fresh, if religion-heavy, approach to the subject matter. Worth reading and will probably hook you to read further entries.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Hahaha. You know the expression "so bad it's good"? Well, that's not true of this book. Oh no.For those unaware, it's the first book in a series written by dispensationalist US Christian conservatives: didactic works intended to promote their theology as well as being novels.Left Behind was unintentionally funny. Many of the plot devices were madly implausible - a super-duper fertiliser formula making Israel richer than oil nations and thereby bringing relative peace (until the Russkies try to kill them)? Agrarian based economies don't work like that, and even if they did, money is so unlikely to solve all Israel's problems! Carpathia's fantastically moving speech consisting of reciting the names of every country?!Overall, it was poorly written, the characterisation rather basic, and the inner lives rudimentary. On the plus side, it was readable, if clunky. On the minus, its didacticism was overt and it had a hammer for those points and knew how to use it. It took crude potshots at all sorts of targets, from the Jews to family planning.I found it impossible to take the novel seriously and snickered long and loud. For me, the best part was the naming of "Tribulation Force" which was doubly a gift since it was very close to the end, thankfully. Oh me, oh my. Hahaha.Needless to say, I shan't be rushing out to read any more of the several gazillion sequels, prequels and spin-offs from this stable.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I was going to say this book wasn't gripping, and is truly one of the least interesting of the entire series, but clearly it hooked me enough to read fifteen more books in the series. Straight-forward, rarely artistic, purely for the sake of narrative, which is purely for the sake of interpreting Biblical scripture - supposedly. Interesting juxtopisation of Christian beliefs and wartime strategy, violence and inhumanity. Surprisingly gory in places. Individual characters found almost no significant voices themselves in this, the first book, but the seeds are planted to see the core family - The Steeles, Ray and Chloe, and Buck Williams - eventually have real struggles and conflicts. It's basically almost entirely setup, a promise of more interesting material to come, which was true enough.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The book's star rating is skewed: for a Christian fiction, it's actually quite good (go read some of the later books in this series, or Christian fiction books by other authors if you're in doubt - try Ted Dekker's Adam!). For a science fiction, it's about average.Don't get me wrong, as the series progresses, the writing/characters/story gets progressively worse (I stopped at book 7 since after that it was just junky writing and bad editing). But this book was actually quite enlightening in its explanation of an entire religious group's beliefs, and, read as sci-fi, is as believable an apocalypse as any...
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    This book was a terrible read. I have enjoyed Tim LaHaye's non fiction works, so I feel I gave these books a fair go, but the characters seemed quite one dimensional to me, the plot pondering and long and the whole thing based on some very bad theology.I do not entirely understand the fixation many American Christians have with the secret rapture. It seems that the doctrine was invented in the 19th century among a group known as the Irvingites, who disintegrated following the failure of their prophecies to come to pass, but one of whose leaders had influence in another group that then proceeded to produce the Darby study bible that became very widely used in the US. Because of the ubiquity of this Bible, the notes in it became widely assimilated as a dsitinctive American orthodoxy, and one of these doctrines was that of the secret rapture, that this book uses as its theme.That being the case, no one should read the book with any idea that its events would actually unfold as described. Read it as a work of fiction.But with this in mind, I read the book as a work of fiction and still I hated it. Perhaps I am too close to the errant orthodoxy that informs the storyline, because it then held no surprises for me - and the quality of writing did not save it.My best recommendation is to non American readers - read this to get into the mind set of one popular strand of American Christianity.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Although these books have been on the market for a while, I only recently decided to read them. After reading this one, I was hooked. I feel connected to each character, I felt their fear and pain for all of their losses. This was a very easy read, and although not my usual type of thriller, I am rating this among the top in my library.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one of the best Christian fiction book series that I have ever read. I would highly recommend this book and all the other in the series