Meet The Prophet

HOW AN EVANGELIST AND CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST TURNED PROPHECY INTO A FICTION JUGGERNAUT

Tim Lahaye is many things--influential theologian, founder of a Christian school system, co-author of a sex manual with 2.5 million copies in print--but he isn't a novelist. Which is a bit strange, since he enjoys top billing on the Left Behind novels, the wildly popular books that make the end of the world fun. When LaHaye first conceived the series--entirely written by author Jerry Jenkins--he hoped to sell maybe 250,000 copies. Last year's installment alone sold 3 million, and for the first time since 1994, the author of the best-selling novel in the U.S. wasn't named Grisham.

And yet it's hard...

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