End Times writer Hal Lindsey and me
You’ve most likely seen the news that end-times writer Hal Lindsey went on to be with the Lord on November 25th of this year. One thing is for sure about Lindsey: he evokes a lot of emotion from people, both positive and negative.
On the negative side, you’ve got everything from non-Christians saying that teaching Lindsey’s eschatological views to teenagers in the 20th century amounted to literal child abuse (sigh), to believers calling him a false prophet, polygamist, and saying his writings amounted to fear-based theology. Seeing the mud-slinging from the latter is disappointing but not surprising. Name any Christian leader and you’ll find someone in the faith who calls them a false teacher, dangerous, and someone who doesn’t brush their teeth regularly enough.
That said, there’s little debate Lindsey heavily implied, in his book, The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon, that Jesus was going to break open the heavens in that decade. Commenting on Israel’s rebirth as a nation in 1948 and how a “generation” in the Bible is around 40 years, Lindsey tied both into Jesus’ Olivet Discourse and wrote, “This generation' means ... the generation which sees Israel (the fig tree of verse 32) back in the land of Palestine — this is the chief sign — and sees all the other signs of Matthew 24 being fulfilled … within about forty years of 1948 all the events leading to and including Christ's return could take place.”
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Definitely a little egg on the face with that one. But in his defense, he did use the word could instead of would.
Those who appreciate the man praise his Evangelical outreach and interest he generated about the Christian faith, even those who don’t share his interpretation of bible prophecy like John Piper who wrote: “I have no doubts about Hal Lindsay’s faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, nor do I doubt that God uses his lecturing to bring people to Christ … Nor does he take any doctrinal position which would cause me to break off fellowship with him as a brother in Christ.”
I can affirm that Piper is right that “God uses his [Lindsey’s] lecturing to bring people to Christ” because I’m one of them.
When I was 19 years old, for reasons I still cannot explain to this day, I became interested in bible prophecy in an out-of-the-blue fashion and a friend of mine found The Late Great Planet Earth in a bookstore and brought it to me. I read it in a bug-eyes fashion and raced back to the bookstore to get The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon.
Flawed as it may have been with the idea that most of the prophetic biblical puzzle pieces were falling into place at that time, in the back of that book Lindsey spoke to his readers about salvation in Christ and described how one could receive Jesus and their Lord and Savior. I put the book down, crossed my legs on the couch, and did just that.
And here you are reading this right now because God reached down to me decades ago through Lindsey’s books and wrote my name into His Book of Life (yes, I know it was there from all eternity, but you get the point). Hal may have been wrong about Christ returning in the 1980s but my salvation experience showcases once again that God can draw a straight line with a crooked stick.
And the thing is, bible prophecy remains an excellent apologetic today just as it was back then for those considering Christianity and looking for affirmation that Scripture is a divinely inspired book.
What are the odds?
Considering Christianity against competing faiths, Blaise Pascal wrote: “I see many contradictory religions, and consequently all false save one. Each wants to be believed on its own authority and threatens unbelievers. I do not therefore believe them. Everyone can say this; everyone can call himself a prophet. But I see the Christian religion wherein prophecies are fulfilled; and that is what everyone cannot do.”
He's right.
Fulfilled prophecy demonstrates both the omniscience of God and that the Bible is a supernatural book. Moreover, fulfilled prophecy proves that Jesus is the Messiah and God, and it gives us confidence in the future predictions that the Bible makes.
Regarding Jesus, Scripture lists 109 distinct prophecies that concern His first coming made hundreds of years before His birth. Mathematician Peter Stoner, in his book Science Speaks, calculates the odds of just eight prophecies being accidently fulfilled in the life of one man to be 1017 or one hundred quadrillion. Mathematicians will tell you that anything that exceeds 1050 power is the same thing as zero chance, and this probability is exceeded with 20 fulfilled prophecies (and remember, Jesus fulfilled over 100).
Pretty amazing, huh? But did you know that more prophecies proclaim Christ’s second coming vs. His first? Let me drive this fact home to you and tell you why it matters.
Prophecy takes up 1/5 of Scripture, and of that, 1/3 refers to the second coming of Christ. While 100+ prophecies talk about His first coming, over 200 mention His second. Of the 46 Old Testament prophets, less than 10 speak of His first coming, but 36 speak of His second coming.
1,500 passages in the Old Testament refer to Christ’s 2nd coming and 1 out of 25 verses in the New Testament refer to it also. Looking at it from a different angle, every time the Bible mentions His first coming, it mentions His 2nd coming eight times. Jesus Himself refers to His 2nd coming 21 times.
Here's the thing we need to keep in mind with all this: if each prophecy concerning Christ’s first advent was fulfilled literally, and I mean to the letter, what do you think is going to happen in the future with all the ones that speak about His second coming?
When the Jews in Christ's time wanted to emphasize something they were about to say, they used to preface it by repeating the word “amen” (a Hebrew term that means “truth,” “certainty,” or “so be it”) to intensify the meaning, underscoring the reliability and importance of what followed. You see Jesus does this quite a lot in the Gospels.
With prophetic talk about Christ’s second coming outdistancing His first by 2 to 1, I think we see God saying to us “amen, amen” where Jesus’ return is concerned.
This means Hal Lindsey was right: Bible prophecy, and specifically Jesus’ second coming, is serious business and something you and I need to take to heart. What about you — are you ready if Jesus were to come right now?
For believers, Peter tells us what effect the imminent return of Christ and the cataclysm that follows should have on us when he asks, “what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness” (2 Pet. 3:10–11). For unbelievers, we’re told, “because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God” (Rom. 2:5).
Realize that whether Jesus returns in this life, or we meet Him in the next, Christ will either be your blessed hope (Titus 2:13) or your holy judge (1 Tim. 4:1). My advice to you is the same as Hal Lindsey’s was to me a long time ago: receive Christ today if you haven’t already.
Robin Schumacher is an accomplished software executive and Christian apologist who has written many articles, authored and contributed to several Christian books, appeared on nationally syndicated radio programs, and presented at apologetic events. He holds a BS in Business, Master's in Christian apologetics and a Ph.D. in New Testament. His latest book is, A Confident Faith: Winning people to Christ with the apologetics of the Apostle Paul.
