Facts about Jerry Jenkins
Jerry B. Jenkins Biography
Jerry Jenkins is a writer whose greatest success has been the Left Behind book series, a fictional account of the end of the world and the return of Jesus Christ. In collaboration with Tim LaHaye, a Christian minister and author from California, Jenkins published the first book in the series in 1995, and the huge success of the series spawned a feature length movie, Left Behind: The Movie (2000), and a series of children’s books, Left Behind: The Kids. The story, based on an interpretation of Biblical prophecy, follows a cast of characters as they face the sudden disappearance of devout Christians and the subsequent “Great Tribulation,” a period of seven years during which the “Antichrist” rules the earth before the return of Jesus. Jenkins is a prolific writer who has published dozens of fiction and non-fiction books during his career. He is also the founder of the Christian Writers Guild and the owner of Jenkins Entertainment, a media company that produced the 2002 movie Hometown Legend. His books include Soon, The Margo Mysteries and the children’s series The Dallas O’Neil Mysteries, as well as many “as-told-to” biographies of sports celebrities such as Hank Aaron, Orel Hershiser, Nolan Ryan and Walter Payton.
Extra credit
The Left Behind series has come under fire for its fundamentalist interpretation of the Book of Revelations, especially among Catholics, who claim the books suggest that the Catholic Church would support the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation… Jenkins also was the writer of the syndicated comic strip Gil Thorp from 1996-2004… In the Left Behind series, Jenkins does the actual writing, based on LaHaye’s outlines and theological ideas.