Tim LaHaye, a creator of the Left Behind series, who was once named the most influential American evangelical, died July 25 in the San Diego area at age 90 after a recent stroke.

He and his wife of 69 years, Beverly LaHaye, were active in religious broadcasting and publishing, education, and conservative political organizing.

Left Behind, the first in the series, which follows the rapture its authors saw as depicted in 1 Thessa­lonians 4:16–17, was published in 1995.

In 2001, the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals named LaHaye “the most influential American evangelical of the last 25 years,” citing the string of books he wrote in the 1970s and ’80s: The Battle for the Mind, The Battle for the Family, and The Battle for the Public Schools.

Tom Sine, another Christian author, wrote in 2001 that LaHaye had “defined the terms of America’s culture war” through fostering the “politics of fear.” —Religion News Service