Timothy Francis LaHaye (April 27, 1926 – July 25, 2016) was an American Baptist evangelical Christian minister who wrote more than 85 books, both fiction and non-fiction, including the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction, which he co-authored with Jerry B. Jenkins. He was a founder of the Council for National Policy, a right-wing conservative Christian advocacy group. LaHaye was vociferously anti-homosexual, a harsh critic of Roman Catholicism, and a strong believer of the Illuminati global conspiracy theory. 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 (née Palmer). 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 night 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 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 (now called Shadow Mountain Community 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. 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 encouraged Jerry Falwell to found the Moral Majority and