Tim LaHaye
Timothy Francis LaHaye was an American Baptist evangelical Christian minister and political activist who wrote more than 85 books, both non-fiction and fiction, including the Left Behind series of novels depicting apocalypse events after a pre-tribulation rapture.
He was a founder of the Council for National Policy, a conservative Christian advocacy group. LaHaye opposed homosexuality, believing it to be immoral and unbiblical. He was a critic of Roman Catholicism, and a believer in conspiracy theories regarding the Illuminati. LaHaye has been called "one of the most influential evangelicals of the late twentieth century" and, along with his wife Beverly LaHaye, he helped shape the beliefs and organizations of the Christian right.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, he experienced the early death of his father, which he later cited as a formative spiritual moment. LaHaye served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II and later earned degrees from Bob Jones University and Western Seminary. He pastored congregations in South Carolina, Minnesota, and California, spending nearly 25 years at Scott Memorial Baptist Church in San Diego. He co-founded Christian Heritage College and the Institute for Creation Research, and authored The Act of Marriage, a Christian guide promoting marital sexuality within a complementarian framework.
LaHaye was heavily involved in conservative political activism, founding groups such as Californians for Biblical Morality and the American Coalition for Traditional Values, and encouraging the creation of the Moral Majority. He supported several Republican presidential campaigns. His views included premillennial dispensationalism. He was recognized as one of the most influential evangelicals of his era, with numerous awards and tributes, including from Time Magazine and Liberty University.
Biography
Early life
Timothy Francis LaHaye was born on April 27, 1926, in Detroit, Michigan, to Frank LaHaye, a Ford auto worker who died in 1936 of a heart attack, and Margaret LaHaye. His father's death had a significant influence on LaHaye, who was only nine years old at the time. He had been inconsolable until the minister at the funeral said, "This is not the end of Frank LaHaye; because he accepted Jesus Christ, the day will come when the Lord will shout from heaven and descend, and the dead in Christ will rise first and then we'll be caught up together to meet him in the air."LaHaye later said that, upon hearing those remarks, "all of a sudden, there was hope in my heart I'd see my father again."
LaHaye enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in 1944, at the age of 18, after he finished high school. He served in the European Theater of Operations as a machine gunner aboard a bomber. Then he studied at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina, where he met his wife, Beverly, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1950. LaHaye held the Doctor of Ministry degree from Western Seminary.
Ministry
He served as a pastor in Pumpkintown, South Carolina, and after that he pastored a congregation in Minneapolis until 1956. After that, the LaHaye family moved to San Diego, California, where he served as pastor of the Scott Memorial Baptist Church for nearly 25 years.In 1971, he founded Christian Heritage College, now known as San Diego Christian College. In 1972, LaHaye helped establish the Institute for Creation Research in El Cajon, California, along with Henry M. Morris.
In 1976, the couple wrote The Act of Marriage, a Christian self-help sex manual. The book sought to depict enjoyment of sex within marriage as positive rather than sinful. It frames marital sex as an important part of a complementarian, divinely designed relationship – with men as aggressive, sexually voracious leaders whose submissive wives provide them with sexual satisfaction to boost their egos and thereby make them more confident leaders, as part of God's design for gender roles.
Political activism
LaHaye started numerous groups to promote his views, having become involved in politics at the Christian Voice during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1979, he founded Californians for Biblical Morality, which has been described as "in many ways...the genesis of the Christian right." The same year, LaHaye encouraged Jerry Falwell to found the Moral Majority and was among its three directors.LaHaye was a member of and speaker for the John Birch Society, a conservative, anti-communist group; scholar Celestini Carmen argues that LaHaye used the JBS's culture war methods and rhetoric of "fear, apocalyptic thought and conspiracy" to forge the Moral Majority, with "fear, anger, and disgust as essential ingredients." His book Rapture Under Attack describes his time in the JBS and relationship to its leader, Robert W. Welch Jr.
Also in 1979, LaHaye's wife, Beverly, founded Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian women's activist group.
Then in 1981, he left the pulpit to concentrate his time on politics and writing. That year, he helped found the Council for National Policy, a policy making think tank in which membership is only available through invitation. ABC News called it "the most powerful conservative organization in America you've never heard of".
In the 1980s he was criticized by the evangelical community for accepting money from Bo Hi Pak, a longtime Sun Myung Moon operative. He was additionally criticized for joining Moon's Council for Religious Freedom, which was founded to protest Moon's 1984 imprisonment. In 1996, LaHaye's wife spoke at an event sponsored by Moon.
In the 1980s, LaHaye founded the American Coalition for Traditional Values and the Coalition for Religious Freedom. He founded the Pre-Trib Research Center along with Thomas Ice in 1993. The center is dedicated to producing material that supports a dispensationalist, pre-tribulation interpretation of the Bible.
LaHaye also took more direct roles in presidential politics. He supported Ronald Reagan's elections as United States president. He was a co-chairman of Jack Kemp's 1988 presidential bid but was removed from the campaign after four days when his anti-Catholic views became known. LaHaye played a significant role in getting the Religious Right to support George W. Bush for the presidency in 2000. In 2007, he endorsed Mike Huckabee during the primaries and served as his spiritual advisor.
''Left Behind''
LaHaye is best known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction that depicts the Earth after the pretribulation rapture which premillennial dispensationalists believe the Bible states, multiple times, will occur. The books were LaHaye's idea, though Jerry B. Jenkins, a former sportswriter with numerous other works of fiction to his name, wrote the books from LaHaye's notes.The series, which started in 1995 with the first novel, includes 12 titles in the adult series, as well as juvenile novels, audio books, devotionals, and graphic novels. The books have been very popular, with total sales surpassing 65 million copies as of July 2016. Seven titles in the adult series have reached No. 1 on the bestseller lists for The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly. Jerry Falwell said about the first book in the series: "In terms of its impact on Christianity, it's probably greater than that of any other book in modern times, outside the Bible." The best-selling series has been compared to the equally popular works of Tom Clancy and Stephen King: "the plotting is brisk and the characterizations Manichean. People disappear and things blow up."
LaHaye indicates that the idea for the series came to him one day circa 1994, while he was sitting on an airplane and observed a married pilot flirting with a flight attendant. He wondered what would befall the pilot if the Rapture happened at that moment. The first book in the series opens with a similar scene. He sold the movie rights for the Left Behind series and later stated he regretted that decision, because the films turned out to be "church-basement videos", rather than "a big-budget blockbuster" that he had hoped for.
Later activities
In 2001, LaHaye co-hosted with Dave Breese the prophecy television program The King Is Coming. In 2001, LaHaye gave $4.5 million to Liberty University to build a new student center, which opened in January 2002 and was named after LaHaye. He, alongside his wife, served as a member of Liberty's board of trustees.He provided funds for the LaHaye Ice Center on the campus of Liberty University, which opened in January 2006.
LaHaye's book The Rapture was released on June 6, 2006, in order to capitalize on a 6-6-6 connection.
Personal life and death
Tim LaHaye married activist and fellow author Beverly Ratcliffe in 1947 while attending Bob Jones University.In July 2016, the LaHayes celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary. They had four children and nine grandchildren, and lived in the Los Angeles area. The LaHayes owned a condo in Rancho Mirage, California.
LaHaye died on July 25, 2016, in a hospital in San Diego, California, after suffering from a stroke, aged 90. In addition to his wife, Beverly, he was survived by four children, nine grandchildren, 16 great grandchildren, a brother, and a sister. His funeral service took place at Shadow Mountain Community Church on August 12, 2016, with David Jeremiah, who succeeded LaHaye as pastor at what was then Scott Memorial Baptist Church, led the service. LaHaye is interred at Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego, California.