LaHaye's mother was the former Margret and his father, Frank LaHaye, was a Ford auto worker. He died of a heart attack in 1936 and his death had a significant influence on LaHaye, just 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, 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 Air Force in 1944 at the age of 18, after finishing night school. He and served in Europe as a machine gunner aboard a bomber.
LaHaye received a B.A. from Bob Jones University in 1950. He also holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Western Seminary. In 1958, the LaHaye family moved to San Diego, California, where he became pastor of the Scott Memorial Baptist Church (since renamed "Shadow Mountain Community Church") in El Cajon, serving there for almost 25 years. In 1971 he founded the San Diego Christian College.
LaHaye is best-known for the Left Behind series of apocalyptic fiction that depict the Earth after the pretribulation rapture which LaHaye believes will occur. The books were LaHaye's brainchild, though Jerry B. Jenkins, a former sportswriter with numerous other works of fiction to his name, did the actual writing of the books from LaHaye's notes. LaHaye has said, "I write the best I can. I know I'm never going to be revered as some classic writer. I don't claim to be C. S. Lewis. The literary-type writers, I admire them. I wish I was smart enough to write a book that's hard to read, you know?"
The series, which started in 1995 with the first novel, includes 16 titles in the adult series; as well as juvenile novels, audio books, devotionals, and graphic novels. The books have been very popular, with total sales surpassing 65 million copies. Seven titles in the adult series have reached #1 on the bestseller lists for The New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly. Jerry Falwell said about the first book in the series: ""In terms of its impact on Christianity, it's probably greater than that of any other book in modern times, outside the Bible." The best-selling series have been compared to the equally popular works of Tom Clancy and Stephen King: "the plotting is brisk and the characterizations Manichean. People disappear and things blow up."
LaHaye indicates that the idea for the series came to him one day about 1994 while he was sitting on an airplane and observed a married pilot flirting with a flight attendant. He wondered what would befall the pilot if the Rapture happened at that moment. The first book in the series opens with a similar scene.
In 2001 LaHaye co-hosted with Dave Breese in the prophecy television program The King Is Coming. His book The Rapture was released on June 6, 2006, in order to show a 6-6-6 connection.
