Editing Left Behind (section)

====Influences on the authors====
LaHaye and Jenkins cite the influence of [[Russell Doughten]], an Iowa-based filmmaker who directed the [[A Thief in the Night (film series)|''Thief in the Night'' series]], a series of four low-budget but popular feature-length films in the 1970s and 1980s about the [[Rapture]] and [[Second Coming]], starting with 1972's ''[[A Thief in the Night (film)|A Thief in the Night]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Dean A. |date=March 7, 2012 |title=The Original 'Left Behind' |url=https://christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/originalleftbehind.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230806182100/https://christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/marchweb-only/originalleftbehind.html |archive-date=August 6, 2023 |access-date=August 6, 2023 |website=[[Christianity Today]]}}</ref> Indeed, the title ''Left Behind'' echoes the refrain of ''Thief''{{'s}} [[Christian rock|early Christian rock]] theme song by [[Larry Norman]], "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," in which he sings, "There's no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you've been left behind."

The success of [[Frank Peretti]]'s pioneering Christian [[spiritual warfare]] thrillers in the 1980s and 1990s was a significant influence on the authors as well.<ref name="Connolly">{{Cite journal |last=Connolly |first=Andrew |date=2020 |title=Masculinity, Political Action, and Spiritual Warfare in the Fictional Ministry of Frank E. Peretti |url=https://www.academia.edu/42605016 |url-status=live |journal=Christianity & Literature |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=60 |doi=10.1353/chy.2020.0003 |issn=2056-5666 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505115505/https://www.academia.edu/42605016/Masculinity_Political_Action_and_Spiritual_Warfare_in_the_Fictional_Ministry_of_Frank_E_Peretti?auto=download |archive-date=2022-05-05 |access-date=2022-05-05}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Silliman |first=Daniel |title=Religion and the Marketplace in the United States |date=2015 |publisher=[[Oxford Academic]] |editor-last=Stievermann |editor-first=Jan |edition=Online |location=New York |chapter=Publishers and Profit Motives: The Economic History of left behind |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199361793.003.0008 |editor-last2=Goff |editor-first2=Philip |editor-last3=Junker |editor-first3=Detlef}}</ref>