Based on a Dispensationalist reading of Old and New Testament scripture, the Left Behind series centers on those “left behind” after the Rapture transports true believers to Heaven. The Tribulation, the period between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Jesus, is marked by great pain, but it offers those left behind a chance at redemption. Over the course of 16 books, the Left Behind series tracks a group of Americans who join together to form the Tribulation Force, which battles the Global Community, an Illuminati-esque organization led by a man later revealed to be the Antichrist. Critics characterize the series as “a revenge fantasy, in which right-wing Christians win out over the rational, scientific, modern, post-Enlightenment world,” but the series has sold more than 80 million copies worldwide.