"Left Behind" series author Tim LaHaye dead at 90
The author of the best-selling "Left Behind" novels about the return of Jesus and the rapture has died.
A publicist for the Rev. Tim LaHaye says the novelist died Monday in San Diego, California, days after suffering a stroke. He was 90 years old.
LaHaye and his partner, Jerry B. Jenkins, wrote 16 volumes in the "Left Behind" series, which sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, bringing Christian prophecy and the apocalypse into mainstream bookstores.
"I don't think the media has really caught on to what's been going on in the last 30 years or so in America. An enormous number of people have come to faith in Christ and consider themselves evangelical Christians. And these are people that are buying, reading and distributing our books," LaHaye told "60 Minutes" in 2004.
LaHaye was also a Baptist minister who started an Atlanta-area church and several Christian schools, and wrote dozens of non-fiction and advice books. He was active in conservative political groups and instrumental in the creation of the Moral Majority.
No funeral plans were announced. He is survived by his wife, Beverly, and four children.