The late, great prophecy teacher has just passed away:
Eschatology teacher and Bible lecturer Hal Lindsey has just gone to glory, aged 95. Although I now differ with a number of his views on things concerning the end times, he did have an influence on me, as well as on millions of other people over the decades.
Best known for his 1970 runaway bestseller The Late, Great Planet Earth, he certainly had an impact on me in my early days as a believer. The author of several dozen books, his earlier ones especially sold quite well, including his 1972 volume, Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, and his 1973 book, There’s a New World Coming: A Prophetic Odyssey.
I just pulled those books off my shelves. I see that one of them has even been signed by him! And I heard him speak in Washington state perhaps in 1973. However, his views did not always stay with me. Over the years I have come to see that there are other eschatological options, other millennial options, and other theological frameworks to utilise besides dispensationalism.
All those fine eschatological details, discussions and debates I will not here rehearse, in part since I have dealt with them elsewhere. See this two-part piece for example that discusses various millennial options, and even briefly looks at the rapture theory:
Nor will I here offer any sort of proper obituary or eulogy. I mostly just want to share a few personal stories about how he and some others impacted me, especially as a new believer. Those who have read my four-part testimony will recall that I mentioned his first book. In Part 3 I wrote this, after first discussing how the beginning of my Christian journey involved joining a cult:
Arriving in Tacoma – perhaps sometime in May [1971] – I was still seriously seeking truth, and it was there that I would finally get on to the right path. Two episodes especially cemented all this. The first had to do with a truck driver who picked me up as I was hitchhiking around the area. He gave me a copy of Hal Lindsey’s The Late, Great Planet Earth which came out in 1970. Of course for the past year I had read very little at all, except for the Bible.
This was a book on biblical prophecy, stating that with the formation of the nation of Israel the prophetic clock was seriously ticking, and Jesus would soon be returning. Boy, that sure got my attention. It made me aware of the urgency of the hour, and the necessity to make sure I was right with God, and to alert my family to all this.
So during this period I prayed a prayer of commitment to Christ. I told him that I did not know if I was a Christian or not. If I was, I wanted to do a hardcore recommitment of my life to him. If I was not, I wanted to get saved then and there. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2012/06/27/coming-home-my-testimony-part-3/
A major part of his view – and others like him – was that the 1948 establishment of modern Israel really ratcheted biblical prophecy up a few gears. Among other things, using verses like Matthew 24:34 (“Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.”), things would soon come to an end.
If a biblical generation was, say, 40 years, or 44, then it could still work out from the perspective of a 1970 book. Of course, now, 54 years later, that notion might need some major readjustment. But the point was, reading that book really shook me up. Primarily, I knew I had to get back home to my family in Wisconsin and tell them about Jesus!
And that I did soon thereafter, as Part 4 of my testimony discusses. So even though all the details did not quite go to plan, his book nonetheless did propel me, and so many others, to take seriously the claims of Christ, and not just his claims about the end times.
And unlike Lindsey, plenty of other folks became rather wealthy by selling books assuring us that Jesus would return on a very particular date – some even down to the day! Consider one very notorious example: In 1988 Edgar C. Whisenant wrote the book, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Could Be in 1988. Um, I think we can all agree that he got that one wrong.
And then there have been some repeat offenders in this regard, such as Doomsday teacher Charles R. Taylor. He may in fact be the prize-winner here, with confident predictions that the rapture would occur in 1975. When that did not quite transpire, he said it would definitely be 1976. Then 1980. Then 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1992, and 1994!
But at least Lindsey did not go this far, and he said this on the final page of his book:
“Fifth, we should plan our lives as though we will be here our full life expectancy, but live as though Christ may come today. We shouldn’t drop out of school or worthwhile community activities, or stop working, or rush marriage, or any such thing unless Christ clearly leads us to do. However, we should make the most of our time that is not taken up with the essentials.”
As mentioned, my own theological and eschatological journey has not remained static for my 53 years as a believer. So while in my early days I was ready to die on the hill of dispensational, premil, pretrib thinking, I am now much more open to other points of view. Today I have plenty of friends and books and beliefs that are into the various other major end times camps.
Even though we differ, I still owe Lindsey for how he helped me to get serious and committed as an early believer. As I have often said, when I get to heaven and hang around with Jesus for the first few centuries, I will look up Hal, greet him and hug him, and thank him for helping me in solidly coming to Christ. God bless you Hal.
More changed views
One more thing, on how I have shifted somewhat over the years as a believer. If I as a newish Christian had a hard time extending the right hand of fellowship to other Christians who held to a different view on eschatology, I was in the same boat when it came to things like cessationism (the idea that various signs gifts found in the early church are no longer for today).
I had little or no time for Pentecostals and charismatics as a younger Christian. I thought they were quite wrong and I passionately warned against them. But that too is an area where I have changed somewhat over the years. But you can read about my reasons for that here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/10/18/on-strange-fire-part-one/
The reason I bring that up here is this: when on the social media I posted about Hal’s passing and his Late, Great book, another older believer posted, saying “It didn’t impact me as much as David Wilkerson’s The Cross & the Switchblade.”
The New York preacher was someone that I first avoided like the plague. But as mentioned, I have shifted over the years. As proof, I even penned a piece on David when he passed away in 2011: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2011/04/29/david-wilkerson-rip/
Moreover, I discussed a biography of him written by his son Gary. One of the things that most stood out to me in that bio was the influence the great revivalist Leonard Ravenhill had on Wilkerson. As I said in my piece:
As Gary explains, while in his eighties, and still travelling the world to preach the gospel, he really had lost heart to do so. He felt he had nothing to give and nothing to say. Just as he was about to go on another major crusade, a car pulled up in the driveway.
In it was his friend Leonard Ravenhill. He had a large sack with him, which he gave to Wilkerson. The sensitive and discerning Ravenhill knew what was needed. He said this: “David, I have something for you to read. This is your future. Read it and it will change your life.”
And the contents? A large collection of books by the Puritans. The classic works by the Puritan divines had an incredible impact on the elderly Wilkerson. He read them as he travelled and each volume struck him to the core. Let me allow his son to tell the story:
“As my father dug into those treasures, his heart opened to a new revelation of Christ. Grace awakened him, coming alive in a way he had never known. The old books stirred him once again to study the Scriptures cover to cover, this time with a new understanding of the gospel. As he explored the full extent of the finished work of Christ, he experienced joy….
The eye-opening truths Dad gained from the Puritans involved the breadth, depth, and unfathomable scope of the work of Christ – and that Jesus’ work is all-sufficient for us….
Dad’s reading was no longer just fuel for ministry. He realized he needed something for his own soul – a sense of awe at what Christ had done – and the Puritans supplied it. I would peek into a book on my dad’s desk, and almost every sentence was underlined with a phrase written in the margins: ‘This is the key!’ The key he was discovering was ‘My Father loves me! He accepts me, and I am pleasing to him.’
This was a radically new perspective for Dad.”
Wow. If the Puritans can have that sort of impact on such a man of God as Wilkerson, they can have the same impact on anyone. I suggest you all start digging into the Puritans. For those who want to ease in slowly, the first article I linked to above has a recommended reading list of many helpful books which introduce you to the Puritans, their thought, their writings, and their impact. https://billmuehlenberg.com/2018/08/09/in-praise-of-the-puritans/
So I must thank God for David, and for Leonard, and for Hal. God bless you three gentlemen.
I was flabbergasted when I heard him say Joe Rogan was preying on people’s fears because that is pretty much all “Our ABC” does. From climate to Covid to ordinary people being classed as “right wing extremists” to claiming Donald Trump would end democracy to outrageously and completely deceitfully claiming a nice old man like George Pell was a threat to children to slandering Christianity generally to calling everyone who is not a socialist a “racist”, to slandering Jews to you name it pretty much and that is not all of our filthy ABC is doing to prey on people’s fears and I must say I am absolutely fed up with our public funding going to bureaucratic, propagandist ratbags like Kim Williams.
Yes, I did see that Michael. Quite right.
Sad to hear. Like yourself, the works of Hal Lindsey were very important in my early days as a Christian. Whilst I too have shifted in my thinking on some of those issues, l still look back fondly on those days and the fire that was set alight in my heart.
I loved this article. Those three men of God had a good effect on me as well. They lived well before the face of God. Thanks, Bill.
Many thanks Bob.
Off topic but did you see our despicable ABC chairman, Kim Williams unloading on Joe Rogan:-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/other/elon-musk-and-joe-rogan-respond-to-criticism-of-us-podcaster-by-abc-s-chair-kim-williams/ar-AA1uSwuO
I was flabbergasted when I heard him say Joe Rogan was preying on people’s fears because that is pretty much all “Our ABC” does. From climate to Covid to ordinary people being classed as “right wing extremists” to claiming Donald Trump would end democracy to outrageously and completely deceitfully claiming a nice old man like George Pell was a threat to children to slandering Christianity generally to calling everyone who is not a socialist a “racist”, to slandering Jews to you name it pretty much and that is not all of our filthy ABC is doing to prey on people’s fears and I must say I am absolutely fed up with our public funding going to bureaucratic, propagandist ratbags like Kim Williams.
Yes, I did see that Michael. Quite right.
Sad to hear. Like yourself, the works of Hal Lindsey were very important in my early days as a Christian. Whilst I too have shifted in my thinking on some of those issues, l still look back fondly on those days and the fire that was set alight in my heart.
Thanks Ken.