Posted on 11/29/2024 8:18:32 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Hal Lindsey, a teacher of biblical prophecy who wrote the bestselling book The Late Great Planet Earth, has died two days after turning 95.
The home page of Lindsey’s news and commentary website, known as “The Hal Lindsey Report,” posted a photo of the author and End Times expert, noting that he died on Monday.
Multiple people posted their condolences on social media, among them the Facebook page for Prophecy Update, a site dedicated to End Times topics and discussion.
“Hal was a long time mentor and encouraging friend,” stated the page. “From a humble tugboat skipper to a giant in the Bible prophecy world, Hal’s books and teachings led countless souls to the Lord.”
“I met a young man at a prophecy conference a couple of weeks ago and he told me that he had come to the Lord after reading Hal’s ‘Combat Faith’ book! Praying for Hal’s family and all those that aided him in his ministry.”
Pastor Tom Hughes, founder of 412 Churches and the Hope For Our Times Ministries, also posted his reminisces on Facebook, noting that Lindsey’s bestselling book had “a significant influence on my passion for Bible prophecy.”
“In 2016, I had the privilege of visiting him in Texas and watching him record The Hal Lindsey Report, which became the inspiration for The Tom Hughes Report,” stated Hughes.
“Please keep his family and friends in your prayers as they grieve this loss. I look forward to the day we will meet again in heaven.”
Born in 1929 in Houston, Texas, Lindsey studied business at the University of Houston and served in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Korean War, later serving as a tugboat captain during the 1950s.
According to the Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements, Lindsey first developed his End Times ideas while a student at Dallas Theological Seminary.
Lindsey later worked for Campus Crusade for Christ and became a preacher in California, reportedly drawing large crowds for a five-day event held at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1968.
In 1970, Lindsey had the most popular of his more than 20 books published, The Late Great Planet Earth, which was originally published by Zondervan and went on to sell over 28 million copies.
“Initially published by Zondervan in 1970, then a small theological press, Late Great was reissued by the non-religious publisher Bantam Books in 1973,” stated CDAMM. “In 1976, the book was made into a film narrated by Orson Wells that appeared in theatres across the United States of America.”
“Framing American anxieties in relation to the counterculture movement of the 1960s and the Cold War (1947-1989), the Vietnam War (1955–1975), and the Six-Day War (1967) as signs of the End Times, the book sought to give answers to the uncertainties of the time.”
Lindsey was a prominent figure in Christian television, initially serving as host of the "International Intelligence Briefing" on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, with the program ending its run by 2006.
That same year, Lindsey launched "The Hal Lindsey Report," a long-running program that focused on current events and Bible prophecy, CBN reported.
All pre trib rapture big wigs go to the grave. Like everyone else.
Didn’t the Hal Lindsey version of the end times start with a man named Darby back around 1830-1850??
I’ll wait for the movie to come out. I did go out to see it in the theater when it came out. I just remember that I saw it.
I had no idea he was still alive in these times.
Hal Lindsey is an important figure in my spiritual life, and if I weren’t so sure of his rewards in Heaven, I would weep for him leaving us.
The Church was blessed to have him, and others like him.
David Wilkerson, Chuck Missler, Chuck Smith, Walter Martin, and many others no longer with us. I’d like to add Art Katz, but many won’t know who he was. They were all young during the rebirth of the Sate of Israel in 1948, and did amazing things in teaching the Bible.
I’ll see if I can’t find “The Late Great Planet Earth” on Youtube or Amazon tonight when I get home for memory’s sake.
God Bless Hal! Hope to see you soon!!!
I often watched Jack Van Impe. What would he say today? He did predict AI and postulated the beast may be a machine.
Protestia.com "‘Late Great Planet Earth’ Author Hal Lindsey Dies at 95"
...Here, he popularized dispensational premillennialism with a doomsday bent, tying modern events to biblical ancient prophecy and scaring the hell out of the masses while doing so. This teaching was his bread and butter, along with making apocalyptic predictions that never came to pass despite being based on “clear bible prophecies.” For example, in a message given in 1979, he predicted an all-out nuclear war before 1989, an invasion of Israel by Russia, the world running out of raw materials before 1990, and the meltdown of major nuclear power plants and the destruction of the nation’s damns in 1982. He also told folks that the rapture was at hand and would occur in their lifetimes. In short: he was a notorious bible prophecy teacher whose prophecies and predictions never came to pass.
He would later write 30 more books, including the sequel The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon which furiously hinted and suggested that Jesus would return in 1988, coming as close as possible to setting the date without ever definitely doing so. ...
The antichrist could be a cyborg. The Bible says he is killed with a mortal wound to the head, but then a moving living “statue” walks into the temple and demands to be worshipped. I think it will be a lie. Maybe a cyborg with a brain will be possessed by the same spirit. Demons can jump into pigs so why not a living brain. Scientists routinely work with electronic chips with brain tissue called “organoids”
You are right about Hal.
Didn’t the Hal Lindsey version of the end times start with a man named Darby back around 1830-1850??
No Charlie rich is wrong about that.
The Hal Lindsey end times, comes from the Bible.
Someone to watch. Jan Markell
https://youtu.be/YdT_sLmoDFo?si=5fldCgkrX40-ZF9w
But we’ll always have Barney Miller in reruns. (Wait...)
Regards,
I was not a "believer", but that book planted the seeds (searching) that would lead me to Christ 20 years later.
I guess it was the first book about Biblical things I was exposed to. A bit goofy in retrospect, but it served its purpose.
Pretty good theory.
Dispensationalism relegates Jesus and the Church to “plan B” status, as if God’s plan for the redemption of mankind got de-railed by the continual disobedience of the nation Israel. I find it hard to believe that an omniscient God would say “oops, this isn’t working, guess I need to kill my only son to get it back on track”. It is much easier to believe the Covenant theological position that God’s plan has been consistent from day one, as scripture shows, and as you would expect from a sovereign, omniscient God. Modern day Israel has nothing to do with it. Hal Lindsey’s (1948+40 = 1988 rapture) was not just hogwash, it was false prophecy.
The spin-off Fish will never be seen again.
Probably for the best.
Hal Lindsey’s book “The Late Great Planet Earth,” written in 1970 (first edition), sold over 40 million copies. Gullible Christians got sucked into Lindsey’s soon end-of-the world poppycock. As time has passed without his version of Armageddon taking place, we can now objectively analyze where Lindsey went wrong:
• Lindsey (p. 54, 181), like other dispensationalists, placed the beginning of the end with Israel becoming a nation in 1948. He thought all prophecy would be fulfilled within a 40-year generation (Matthew 24:34). But 1988 came and went, proving him to be a false prophet. (This should be adequate proof that 1948 has nothing to do with Bible prophecy.)
• Lindsey (p. 44) prophesied a 7-year, world-wide, tribulation. He got this from Revelation 11 which speaks of the “holy city” being trampled for 42 months—and “two witnesses prophesying” for 1,260 days. He simply adds both of these 3 ½-year periods together to get 7 years (of tribulation). There is NO indication in the text that this is a valid interpretation. He was reading something speculative into the text that is not there. Indeed, there is no passage in the Bible that clearly teaches a 7-year tribulation. Further, Jesus limited the time of the trampling of Jerusalem to his own generation (Luke 21:20-22, 32). Interestingly, the final assault on Jerusalem by the Roman army under Titus lasted 42 months from February AD 67 to August AD 70. This is strong supporting evidence for the Great Tribulation being fulfilled at the Jewish-Roman War ending with the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.)
• Lindsey (p. 87, etc.) saw the existence of nuclear weapons as an important sign of the end times. However, Jesus taught that the so-called “end times” would be when God’s people would “fall by the edge of the sword” (Luke 21:24). Jesus’ prophecies were about ancient warfare, not modern nuclear weapons. The context of this prophecy by Jesus was about the coming destruction of the temple (Luke 21:6). Jesus told his listeners that it would happen when THEY saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies (Luke 21:20), in THEIR generation (Luke 21:32). This all happened when the Roman armies invaded Jerusalem in AD 67-70.
• Lindsey (p. 56-57) said, “It is certain that the Temple will be rebuilt. Prophecy demands it.” Problem is, not a single verse of the Bible can be mustered to support a future rebuilding of the temple. This idea is merely an invention of dispensationalists to try to justify their theory.
• Lindsey (p. 88, 124) even makes this astounding prediction: “The prophetic Scriptures tell us that the Roman Empire will be revived shortly before the return of Christ to this earth. A new Caesar will head this empire.” It’s hard to believe anyone took this charlatan Lindsey seriously.
• Lindsey (p. 108), in speaking of the Antichrist, “He will have a magnetic personality, be personally attractive, and a powerful speaker. He will be able to mesmerize an audience with his oratory.” But the Antichrist is never mentioned in Revelation, let alone any such description of him. The Antichrist is only mentioned in John’s epistles, which say that the Antichrist was already in the world when John was writing (1 John 4:3). Indeed, John taught that it was already the “last hour” as he wrote (1 John 2:18). If you believe John was an inspired writer, this precludes any future fulfillment.
• Lindsey (p. 125, 126) said that modern drug addiction and witchcraft is evidence of the “sorceries” of Revelation 9:21. He quoted a TV station that “Nearly every respectable high school these days has its own witch.” (Besides the obvious problem of nonsense, Revelation itself teaches that it is about things that MUST SHORTLY TAKE PLACE (Revelation 1:1; 22:6). Indeed, there are over 30 passages in Revelation that reiterate that its fulfillment was “near,” “soon,” or “about to happen.”
• Lindsey said that we should take the Bible literally (p. 176). Obviously, he doesn’t take the over 100 imminence statements literally—that biblical prophecy would be fulfilled SOON, AT HAND, BEFORE SOME IN THE FIRST CENTURY HAD DIED, IN THEIR GENERATION, etc. (Matthew 10:23; 16:27-28; 24:34; Luke 21:22; Acts 2:14-20; Hebrews 1:2; 10:37; 1 Peter 4:7, 17; etc., etc.)
• Lindsey (p. 133) said that the Harlot Babylon is some future one-world religious system “clothed in purple and scarlet.” But, Revelation itself teaches that Babylon is “the great city” (Revelation 18:10) upon whom wrath was to come. The Great City Babylon is clearly identified as Jerusalem (Revelation 11:8)! Further, purple and scarlet are the colors of the ritual dress of the high priest (Exodus 28:5-6; 39:1-2). So, the evidence supports the view that Revelation is about God’s judgment on Old Covenant Israel.
• Lindsey thought that Revelation was written in 95 AD. But there are some two dozen clues within Revelation that it was written prior to AD 70. Revelation refers to events that match the historical record of the Jewish-Roman War of AD 66-70. The book was written DURING the “tribulation” per Revelation 1:9, apparently while the temple was still standing per Revelation 11:1, and during the reign of the sixth emperor of Rome per Revelation 17:10—that is, Nero who died in AD 68. Over 130 scholars have been identified as holding to the pre-AD 70 date of Revelation.
• Lindsey (p. 164) thought the Day of the Lord predicted in the book of Joel is in our future. But the inspired apostle Peter taught that Joel’s prediction was being fulfilled in his own day (Acts 2:14-20).
• Lindsey (p. 179) taught that the “elements” of 2 Peter 3 that would be destroyed refer to the “most basic element of nature”—thus the physical universe. But EVERY TIME in the New Testament that the word “elements” (Greek, stoicheion) is used, it refers to the elements of the old covenant (Galatians 4:3, 9; Colossians 2:8, 20-22; Hebrews 5:12-13). So, what was to be destroyed? — the old covenant, not the physical universe (Hebrews 8:13).
• Lindsey (p. 180, 181) references Daniel 12 as predicting the end of the world. But Daniel 12 itself says that the “TIME OF THE END” would be when the power of the holy people would be shattered and the daily sacrifices for sin taken away. That clearly happened in AD 70 with the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple. Daniel 12 could not be clearer.
• Lindsey (p. 176) taught, as do all premillennialists, that Christ will establish a literal, physical kingdom on earth. But Jesus said that his kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:36; cf. Luke 17:20-21).
I could go on. I cannot judge Mr. Lindsey personally, only what he wrote. But this is enough to demonstrate that Hal Lindsey was a deceiver and a false prophet. Lindsey was reported to be worth $42 million, which is, apparently, after his first three wives got their share. (He was married to his fourth wife.) Hal Lindsey not only separated millions of people out of their money for his own gain, he made a mockery of Christianity. Many people altered their lives for a lie. Such is the influence of problematic eschatology of Lindsey and other dispensationalists.
Dispensationalism was born in 1830 with John Nelson Darby. It died in 1988 when their prophecies failed to materialize in “that generation.” Rest in peace.
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For more about Bible prophecy, see my website:
www.ProphecyQuestions.com.
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