Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days

LaHaye and Jenkins include numerous descriptions to forgiveness in Left Behind. Forgiveness is described in interpersonal, familial contexts as well as global and divine contexts. The authors use descriptions of forgiveness to suggest that a forgiving spirit is symptomatic of faith in a forgiving deity, implying by extension that human acts of forgiveness therefore function as a microcosm of divine forgiveness. References to interpersonal forgiveness initially tend to be associated with characters who have been taken in the Rapture. For example, Buck’s brother, Jeff, is surprised at the forgiveness exhibited by his wife, who was a Christian and has now disappeared. Jeff feels underserving of his wife’s forgiveness, and this sentiment foreshadows the novel’s discussion of the biblical message that divine forgiveness is based on the strength of a person’s faith, not on a final tally of their good deeds.

Interpersonal forgiveness also functions as an indication of certain characters’ belief in Christianity. After Rayford’s conversion, for example, he mentions forgiveness increasingly often, and Hattie notices this preoccupation when he asks her several times to forgive him. The authors suggest a contrast between his specific, Christian-based understanding of forgiveness and her more generalized, secular definition of the word, emphasizing the different points each character occupies on the continuum from skepticism to faith.