Authors Conclude Left Behind Series with 'Glorious Appearing'
by Allie Martin
March 30, 2004
(AgapePress) - Christian booksellers nationwide are bracing for big crowds as the final installment in the Left Behind series goes on sale.Tyndale Publishing officials say two million copies of Glorious Appearing: The End of Days, the 12th and last book in the best-selling series of apocalyptic thrillers, have been ordered. Chris Rodgers of LifeWay Christian Bookstores says the popularity of the Left Behind books has grown continuously.
"For the past few books, we've been doing the presales and the interest just grows and grows," Rodgers says, "and it's kind of interesting to see that upward spiral, because more and more people get interested in it as time goes by."
In the past nine years, the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, has sold more than 45 million copies, and sales are expected to be brisk as the final installment hits the shelves.
Rodgers says interest in the final installment has been high for weeks now. "We've never really seen a series take off like this one has, [with such] continued interest -- to have a series where a book comes out sometimes once every year and to maintain that interest has really been a phenomenon in Christian retailing," he says.
Co-author Tim LaHaye told Associated Press that some series characters are killed in the final book, only to come back with Christ at the second coming, when He returns in glory to defeat Satan and reign for a thousand years.
Although Glorious Appearing ends the successful Left Behind saga, co-author LaHaye says fans can anticipate a prequel, which will focus on what the "raptured" characters went through, and a sequel set during the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ.
