Hal Lindsey’s “The Late Great Planet Earth”

The Late Great Planet Earth’s author, Hal Lindsey, who just died, was one of the most influential Christian writers of the last 60 years. His 1970 book popularized End Times Dispensationalism, tying contemporary events to cataclysmic biblical prophecies. Thanks to Lindsey, tens of millions of evangelical Christians, and others, anticipated a possible cosmic Apocalypse in their lifetimes, preceded by a “Rapture” in which the redeemed are carried to Heaven and spared the ordeal.

From 1995 to 2007, the popular series of “Left Behind” novels by Timothy LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, which also sold in the millions, and which became films, further popularized the End Times fascination, especially The Rapture. But Lindsey gets the ultimate credit.

Lindsey’s influence was such that his eschatology, or understanding of the Last Days, virtually became a part of accepted Christian orthodoxy for much of the church. Christians who did not understand the Trinity or know the Nicene Creed knew a lot about Lindsey’s End Times scenarios. The Dispensationalist perspective, which included the Rapture, was not even developed until the 19^th century. But much of American Christianity, and, indirectly, global Christianity, accepted it as self-evidently “biblical.” Lindsey deserves a lot of the credit.

My personal example is that in about 1979 I was awarded his book by my centrist United Methodist church in thanks for my services as a church acolyte or altar boy. Official Mainline Protestantism did not affirm his work. But millions of Mainline Protestants were still familiar with it through their own reading and through popular culture. America in the 1970s was preoccupied with disasters, political, economic, environmental, nuclear, and cosmic. Lindsey’s book, which ultimately sold in the many millions, reached a receptive audience then and later.

So much bad stuff in the 1970s seemed unprecedented.  Lindsey, by tying it to biblical prophecy, explained why. Movies like The Omen of 1976 and its sequels, following the progress of the Antichrist in American politics as foretold supposedly in the Bible, were popular. There was even a 1978 film more directly based on Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth, narrated dramatically by Orson Welles. I recall seeing it in the movie theater. Paul Ehrlich, author in 1968 of The Population Bomb, even appears. Although not religious, his now discredited prediction of disastrous overpopulation, with millions starving, fits neatly with Lindsey’s thesis.

In the 1970s secular prophets of apocalypse were common enough. Lindsey’s work mostly fed Evangelical fascination with the End Times. Pat Robertson’s popular 700 Club daily television show routinely relied on this perspective to explain global events, especially in the Mideast. It was as though the Book of Revelation was unfolding in real time. Lindsey implied that the generation that experienced Israel’s 1948 revival would also live to experience the End Times. The Soviet Union and communist China would be important actors. It was all ostensibly in the Bible. As a boy I was sometimes distressed by these prognostications about world war and millions killed, with blood up to the reins of horses, even though they were not the teaching of my church.

In retrospective, Hal Lindsey’s popularity was a major harbinger of the decline of denominations. No longer were they the definitive teaching source for their flocks. Emerging new post denominational evangelicalism, with its own books, radio stations, television and entrepreneurial personalities displaced the old denominations and their traditional teachings. Of course there were political implications.

Millions of voters were influenced by Lindsey’s perspective, so naturally politicians heeded their concerns. Supposedly President Reagan privately shared some of these apocalyptic beliefs, as did George W. Bush, among others, although it’s not clear to what extent, if any. Their critics, especially Reagan’s, sometimes alleged that evangelical politicians were comfortable with the idea of world war, even nuclear war, because it was only a preamble to Christ’s return. There’s no evidence for this concern. Reagan had a special preoccupation with preventing nuclear war, which motivated his missile defense initiative, and later his arms control agreements.

Evangelical commentators who shared Lindsey’s perspective, such as Pat Roberson, who himself ran for president in 1988, did not want global cataclysm. Typically, they opined that wise policy, and good behavior, could postpone if not avert the Apocalypse. Maybe in this sense, they were not dissimilar to preachers across centuries who warned of divine judgement absent societal repentance. But Lindsey’s view harnessed this conventional warning to more direct geopolitical events.

The late Mike Cromartie, a prominent D.C. evangelical thinker and operator, once admonished me that “my” people, i.e., the Methodists or the Arminians, by rejecting Calvinism, with its stress on divine sovereignty, and stressing human freedom, were responsible for the constantly nervous, apocalyptic perspective of American evangelicals. This belief in human freedom placed evangelicals in a constant mode of panic and anxiety. There will be disaster if we don’t act! Evangelical politics are accordingly frenzied and lack long-term staying power.

Of course I rejected the allegation! Wesleyans have had little influence in modern evangelicalism.  Lindsey’s direct influence was mostly on Baptists and generic evangelicals. But it was strong with Pentecostals, who are often more Wesleyan. So maybe Cromartie was somewhat if not entirely right. We can speak of Lindsey’s influence somewhat if not entirely in the past tense because his theological influence is waning. Dispensationalism and its focus on the End Times perhaps peaked with Baby Boomers with some influence on older Generation X.

In recent years, there’s been little public Evangelical commentary about Iran and Putin’s Russia, or the rise of China, based on “biblical” and End Times concerns, at least compared to what would have been true 30 and 40 years ago. I’m told there is among young charismatic Christians a renewed interest in the Book of Revelation. But this interest seems to be somewhat separate from Lindsey’s school of thought. So maybe there will be new literature to influence new generations with a modified or updated End Times perspective.

It’s orthodox Christian teaching that Christ will return amid divine judgement. Every Christian tradition teaches that each believer should behave as though every moment could be the last. We never know how our days are numbered! Our hearts should always prayerfully strive for peace with God. Our plans for the future, and we must always make plans, depend on divine mercy, if the Lord tarries.

But Hal Lindsey’s projected 1970s social anxieties onto the scriptures. It’s usually vanity to assume that contemporary times are uniquely ominous or addressed very specifically by scripture. The Bible of course warns against specific predictions about Christ’s return. We are called to live faithfully in every age, with readiness but also with serenity. Lindsey’s prognostications were more hair raising than serene. And too often they induced smugness about the “chosen” nature of some believers who purportedly were not just ready but anxious for The Rapture, even amid great suffering for everybody else.

The most favorable interpretation of Lindsey’s work is that hopefully many who read him or were influenced by him at least were drawn closer to God, even if amid much confusion and foreboding. It’s tempting to find in the Bible a direct explanation for disturbing events. It’s harder to live in the mystery of trusting God without knowing all His plans.