Hal Lindsey moved prophecy belief from the fringe of evangelical Christianity to the center of American culture for almost two decades.
The Late Great Planet Earth, a dispensationalist popularization of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the rapture, the Antichrist and the climactic battle of Armageddon became a national bestseller. Lindsey died Nov. 24 at the age of 95, eight years before his most recent guess of the world ending in 2032.
Lindsey spun out tales of a world set to erupt in panic and holy terror. Borrowing extensively from the 19th-century works of John Nelson Darby, Willliam Miller and C.I. Scofield’s Reference Bible, Lindsey was a rapture believer. The Anglicans share some blame here along with the Baptists, because Darby was ordained an Anglican priest.
Faith legacy
Lindsey’s faith legacy is that he branded evangelical faith in the USA as a “rapture faith.”
Hal Lindsey
The Scofield Reference Bible and The Late Great Planet Earth were the one-two punch in wrapping dispensationalism in popular form and selling it to the nation. The dispensationalism of Darby fills the footnotes of the Scofield Bible and Lindsey’s book became the template for the next generation of rapture preachers.
Paul Boyer notes, in When Time Shall Be No More, as many as 12 million copies of Scofield Reference Bible were sold and explains: “For more than 80 years, the Scofield Reference Bible has been a major conduit for disseminating the premillennial dispensationalism throughout the world.”
The Late Great Planet Earth, published in 1970, sold more than 35 million copies and was the No. 1 nonfiction bestseller of the decade, according to The New York Times.
On March 5, 1967, the chairman of my ordination committee presented me with a copy of C.I. Scofield’s Reference Bible, King James Version and told me, “Preach the word.” I recall my pastor telling me “Read the Bible but stay clear of the footnotes.”
Lindsey took the footnotes and expanded them into a work of fiction.
Lindsey’s legacy extends from evangelical faith to popular culture to American politics. He threw out the “kitchen sink” of doomsday signs, including culture wars to the threat of terrorism in the late 20th century. While his works were meant for popular consumption, evangelicals hailed him as the leading scholar of the apocalypse.
“While his works were meant for popular consumption, evangelicals hailed him as the leading scholar of the apocalypse.”
He was grounded in dispensationalist faith at the breeding ground of the entire corpus of millennialism in the USA, Dallas Theological Seminary. He graduated from DTS in 1962 with a master of theology degree and Greek New Testament major. Other prominent graduates include fellow dispensationalists Robert Jeffress, David Jeremiah, Tony Eans and Bruce Wilkinson.
Predicting the end: Lindsey’s Achilles heel
While the dispensationalists carried their precious apocalyptic message like an ancestral talisman, Lindsey cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its seductive energies into the public. He popularized end-times theology. His Achilles heel was an inability to resist the temptation to predict the day of the return of Jesus.
In The Late Great Planet Earth, Lindsey selected 1988 as the year of the return. He was wrong. Undeterred, Lindsey continued to select dates. Each decade, he released a new book predicting a new date. Finally, he selected 2032. And in an incredulous move for an end-times aficionado, he had a back-up date of 2037.
Lindsey didn’t seem fazed by his wrong predictions. Christianity Today asked him about the risk of failed predictions when he published The Terminal Generation.
“There’s just a split second’s difference between a hero and a bum,” Lindsey said. “I didn’t ask to be a hero, but I guess I have become one in the Christian community. So I accept it. But if I’m wrong about this, I guess I’ll become a bum.”
Lindsey joins a huge company of “bums” — members of the “100% Wrong Club” — unable to resist the temptation of predicting the end of the world. I found more than 60 predictions for the date of the world’s end ranging from 1980 to 2021.
Edgar C. Whisenant made four wrong predictions: 1988, 1989, 1993 and 1994. Harold Camping, losing his faith in this hazardous prophecy business, also had six failed predictions: Sept. 6, Sept. 29 and Oct. 2, 1994; March 31, 1995; and May 21, 2011, and then Oct. 21, 2011.
“He continued making predictions of the end, but the end never came.”
As his star fell from the evangelical sky, Lindsey continued his television ministry. He continued making predictions of the end, but the end never came. His predictions began to have the same feel as Jim Bakker’s Silver Solution COVID cure. Lindsey never again attained the super stardom within the alternate universe of evangelicals he occupied prior to his predictions being wrong.
As I made my way through Lindsey’s books, I had the sense he was simply repeating the text of The Late Great Planet Earth with new and sizzling titles. He changed the date of the expected return of Jesus Christ, but there was nothing new other than the contemporary examples of the signs of doom and gloom.
A stack of Hal Lindsey books for sale online.
What did grow was Lindsey’s income. I redefined “rapture” as the ecstatic feeling Lindsey experienced as he made quarterly royalty payments to his bank account.
Lindsey’s legacy is that he opened the door to the next generation of populist dispensationalists. College football coaches are often said to have a “coaching tree.” It consists of all the assistant coaches who have worked for a head coach and then became head coaches at other schools. Hal Lindsey has a “dispensationalist tree.” Two of the most popular and successful members of Lindsey’s tree have been Tim LaHaye and Robert Jeffress. They learned from Lindsey’s mistakes and didn’t predict when the end would come.
Political legacy
Apocalyptic symbols have multiple expressions in U.S. religious and political culture. The mythos of American exceptionalism, imperialism, a chosen people composing a Christian nation with a millennial mission, an innocent and righteous people opposed by the forces of evil.
“The evangelical four horsemen are the rapture, creationism, American nativism and family values.”
The four horsemen of the end time are described as pestilence, war, famine and death. The evangelical four horsemen are the rapture, creationism (Ken Ham), American nativism (David Barton), and family values (James Dobson). They plan to ride these four to the throne of God which they long to control.
What impact did Lindsey have on politics? Boyer argues the evidence here is sketchy. He cites Lindsey’s claim that his impact on politics was direct and dramatic. Perhaps Lindsey exaggerates his influence in a bit of biographical hagiography.
Ronald Reagan
The strongest connection between Lindsey and American politics shows up in President Ronald Reagan’s deep interest in the apocalyptic. The teaching of Lindsey, put forth with absolute certainty in defiance of almost everything scholars have learned about the Bible, convinced Reagan a horrifyingly violent end was near. The leader of the free world spoke of “a great many theologians,” including Lindsey, eagerly looking for God to soon draw the curtain on history.
After a coup in Libya in 1971, Reagan observed: “That’s a sign that the day of Armageddon isn’t far off.” In 1983, Reagan told a lobbyist for Israel: “I turn back to your ancient prophecies …. foretelling Armageddon, and I …. wonder if we’re the generation that’s going to see that come about.”
In The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, Lindsey was “rabidly nationalistic and virulently anti-Soviet,” according to Boyer. Lindsey insisted the “Bible supports building a powerful military force.” He advocated for Christians being more involved in politics. Reagan would increase the aggressive militarism endemic to all empires.
Donald Trump
Lindsey’s legacy also shows up in Donald Trump. I believe we need to read Trump not as a politician with policies but as a kind of religious leader with a secular apocalyptic view. Trump personifies the politicalization of religious apocalyptic.
Trump, in his first term, said, “Our military will be given the resources its brave warriors so richly deserve.” He “directed the Department of Defense to develop a plan to demolish and destroy ISIS — a network of lawless savages.” As president-elect he has threatened to bomb Gaza unless all hostages are released. His militant discourse resonates with the apocalyptic.
Trump absorbed the rapture ideology into his own brand of secular apocalypticism.
Trump’s apocalyptic message is as misleading and false as Lindsey’s. Trump did put his finger on a real crisis, on signs of dis-ease in America, but he offers a false diagnosis.
He has pictured America as losing, failing and on the brink of destruction. He prophesied the collapse of civilization by predicting a worldwide depression if Kamala Harris won the presidency. Trump portrays the fearmongering of a religious apocalyptic preacher like Lindsey, LaHaye and Jeffress.
Mike Huckabee in 2016. (Photo by Johnny Louis/WireImage)
The seeds of MAGA policies were planted by Lindsey’s rapture narrative. In the Terminal Generation, Lindsey says, “The reborn state of Israel was central to the development of world events which are predicted to lead to the last and greatest war of all time. …. Zechariah predicted that all nations would be drawn into the final great war which begins with a dispute between the Arabs and Israel over Jerusalem.”
If you doubt this assertion, remember this: Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Jeffress gave the opening prayer in Jerusalem. And in words that would warm the heart of Lindsey, Jeffress prayed, “Father, we are also grateful as we think about what happened 70 years today, at this very moment, when you fulfilled the prophecies of the prophets from thousands of years ago and regathered your people in this Promised Land.”
Trump now has nominated Mike Huckabee as U.S. ambassador to Israel. Former pastor and Arkansas governor, Huckabee has pressed, along with other evangelicals, a bond with Israel rooted in biblical prophecy.
“Huckabee’s appointment may be the pinnacle of Lindsey’s political legacy.”
Huckabee’s appointment may be the pinnacle of Lindsey’s political legacy. The U.S. ambassador to Israel will be a born-again, premillennial, pre-tribulation, rapture believer. A member of the House of Lindsey will sit in on the discussions that will shape American foreign policy in the Middle East. Keep in mind Huckabee has publicly declared, “There is no such thing as a Palestinian.”
Huckabee told Charlie Kirk, “Without any apology, I believe those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed. I want to be on the blessing side.”
While Trumpism is rooted in Lindsey’s apocalyptic theology, the theme has shifted from describing the earth as “late” to “Make America Great Again,” and the premillennial theology has morphed into postmillennial desire for Jesus to postpone his return so Trump and his evangelical henchmen can engage in the hardline politics that grant them control of the levers of power.
As the deeply prejudiced, racist, Islamophobic theology of the rapture works itself out in harsh policies in Gaza and the expected deportation of 11 million immigrants from the U.S. to almost certain death, where is the word from the Lord?
Is not this the hidden shame in Lindsey’s legacy? The book of Jonah sounds a loud protest against the nationalism and hatred hidden in Lindsey’s rapture. God sent Jonah to save the city of Nineveh — representative of Israel’s enemy. And God was determined to teach Jonah that enemies were as loved as “God’s own people.” And then God spoke: “And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
We might ask: “And should not God be concerned about Gaza where there are more than 2.2 million people? And should not God be concerned about the 11 million immigrants in the U.S. including many children?
Yet the rapture folk want God to burn the place down, but God spares the very people they want to burn. Lindsey owns this dark, violent legacy.
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.
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