Hi to my Forum Friends,
Since our non-believing Friend, Contendah, has offered his thrashing of Christians and Biblical Eschatology in his post titled "End Times Nuttiness Down Through The Ages" -- I will offer a viewpoint which I believe to be a wee bit more honest and truthful.
Contendah, you post the writings of a columnist on Time Magazine's web page, a woman who apparently stands way over on the Far Left and who loves to sling mud at Christians and Christianity -- and, then you add your very insightful atheist viewpoint with, "Yup, sho' 'nuff, the end of the world is comin' soon! So they have been saying for centuries, as exemplified by the nutjobs described in this link."
And, you quote from that Far Left woman's article about Hal Lindsey and his book "The Late, Great Planet Earth" :
Among them is the ever-smug Hal Lindsey, who has missed the mark several times, but who still appears on TV, boldly and dogmatically "interpreting" today's events in light of Biblical prophecy. I recently heard one of the hucksters on American Family Radio praising Lindsey's gift for understanding prophecy. Truly, there are those who can fool some of the people all of the time!
This has been a favorite "stone to throw" at all Conservative Christians since the recent wacked out rantings of Harold Camping -- and as far back as William Miller, whose teachings led to the beginning of the Seventh Day Adventist church, when he declared that Jesus Christ would return in 1843/1844. This type of attack against Christianity is typical of the unbelievers of the world.
Give the non-believer a spoonful of water -- and they will make a bathtub full of mud from it.
First, let me say that I have read several of Hal Lindsey's books. I have watched him on television and listened to him on the radio. And, I do not recall him EVER predicting the time of the Rapture. All Christians know that the Rapture is imminent and that no one, except God, can know the time.
Contendah, since it would appear that the extent of your reading on this subject seems to be limited to very biased articles such as the one you quoted; I will give you a wee bit of insight from the actual book, The Late, Great Planet Earth.
In the final chapter of the book published in 1970, "Polishing The Crystal Ball" -- Lindsey writes:
No other prophet has ever had more numerous, far-reaching prophecies revealed to him than Daniel; and yet a great deal of what he received in God-given visions and revelations He didn't understand. . . I believe that God today gives us illumination to what has been written, but that He doesn't give us infallible revelation as He gave the writers of the Bible. Here, then, are the things that I believe will happen and develop in the near future.
The Religious Scene: In the institutional church, composed of professing Christians who are, in many cases, not Christian, look for many things to happen:
With increasing frequency the leadership of the denominations will be captured by those who completely reject the historic truths of the Bible and deny doctrines which, according to Christ Himself, are crucial to believe in order to be a Christian. . . as ministers depart from the truths of the Bible, they lose the authority and power that it (the church) has to meet real human needs. . . So they (the churches) resort to "social action gimmicks" -- super organizations -- and elaborate programs as a substitute.
The Political Scene: Keep you eyes on the Middle East. If this is the time we believe it is, this area will become a constant source of tension for all the world.
On The Sociological Scene: Look for the present sociological problems such as crime, riots, lack of employment, poverty, illiteracy, mental illness, illegitimacy, etc. . . . Look for the beginning of the widest spread of famines in the history of the world. . . Look for drug addiction to further permeate the U.S. and other free-world countries. Drug addicts will run for high political offices and win through support of the young adults. . . Look for drugs and forms of religion to be merged together. . . which will not be related to God, but to Satan. . . Astrology, witchcraft, and Oriental religions will become predominant in the western world.
Where Do We Go From Here?: We believe that, in spite of all these things (written about in The Late, Great Planet Earth) God is going to raise up a believing remnant of true Christians. . .
And, the book ends with this:
So let us seek to reach our family, our friends, and our acquaintances with the Gospel -- with all the strength that He gives us. The time is short.
In the early centuries, the Christians had a word for greeting and departing; it was the word, "Maranatha," which means "the Lord is coming soon." We can think of no better way with which to say goodbye -- MARANATHA!
Note: Bold, underline, and italic emphasis in the book excerpts above are mine.
First, let me add this qualification: I will be the first to say that we should always take what we read on Wikipedia with a grain of salt; for anyone can write on Wikipedia, and anyone can edit those articles. With that qualification, I will submit this article I did find on Wikipedia -- for I agree with what the writer tells us about Hal Lindsey and his book The Late, Great Planet Earth.
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The Late, Great Planet Earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...,_Great_Planet_Earth
The Late, Great Planet Earth is the title of a best-selling 1970 book co-aut****d by Hal Lindsey and Carole C. Carlson, and first published by Zondervan. The book was adapted in 1979 into a movie narrated by Orson Welles and released by Pacific International Enterprises. It was originally ghost-written by Carlson, whom later printings credited as co-author. Lindsey and Carlson went on to write several sequels, including Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth and The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon.
The Late, Great Planet Earth is a treatment of literalist, premillennial, dispensational eschatology. As such, it compared end-time prophecies in the Bible with then-current events in an attempt to broadly predict future scenarios leading to the rapture of believers before the tribulation and Second Coming of Christ to establish his thousand-year (i.e. millennial) Kingdom on Earth. Focusing on key passages in the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, Lindsey originally suggested the possibility that these climactic events might play out in the 1980s, which he interpreted as one generation from the foundation of modern Israel in 1948, a pivotal event in most evangelical (especially conservative evangelical) schools of eschatological thought.
Cover art on the Bantam edition boldly suggested that the 1970s were the "era of the Antichrist as foretold by Moses and Jesus," and called the book "a penetrating look at incredible ancient prophecies involving this generation." Descriptions of alleged "fulfilled" prophecy were offered as proof of the infallibility of God's Word, and evidence that "unfulfilled" prophecies would soon find their denouement in God's plan for the planet.
He cited an increase in the frequency of famines, wars and earthquakes, as key events leading up to the end of the world. He also foretold a Russian invasion of Israel. Like many previous books, The Late, Great Planet Earth postulated an Antichrist ruling over a ten-member or ten-nation European confederacy. Lindsey believed that what was then the six-member European Economic Community (later the 27-member European Union) could be a forerunner of this confederacy, which he considered to be a revival of the Roman Empire. He found little in the Bible that could represent the United States of America, but he suggested that Ezekiel 13:13 could be speaking of the United States in part.
Although Lindsey did not claim to know the dates of future events with any certainty, he suggested that Matthew 24:32-34 indicated that Jesus' return might be within "one generation" of the rebirth of the state of Israel, and the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple, and Lindsey asserted that "in the Bible" one generation is forty years. Some readers took this as an indication that the Tribulation or the Rapture would occur no later than 1988.
In his 1980 work The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, Lindsey predicted that "the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it."
Note: Bold, underline, and italic emphasis in the article excerpt above are mine.
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Twenty years ago, in 1991, during the Gulf War, our Bible study leader, Tom Fletcher, inspired by the black smoke filling the skies from the oil field fires the Iraqi armies had set in Kuwait -- began to talk about the Rapture, the Tribulation, and other eschatological issues which were totally beyond me as a relatively new Christian.
During the Bible study that evening, I was not about to admit that I did not know what Tom was talking about -- but, this sparked my interest in eschatology, the End Times prophecies. And, the first book I found to read was -- you guessed it -- The Late, Great Planet Earth.
Since then, I have read all of the Left Behind series as well as many books by other solid Bible scholars, theologians, and teachers of eschatology. More than two shelves of my personal library are books on eschatology -- some very good, others not so good. But, this has given me the opportunity to look at opposing viewpoints and, in my own mind, determine which view I feel best aligns with Biblical teachings.
Yet, I have found, and still find, Hal Lindsey's book, The Late, Great Planet Earth, a great place to start if one is looking for a jumping off point in your End Times studies journey.
So, for my non-believing Religion Forum Friends, I might suggest you put your "stones" back into your pocket -- for in this attack against Biblical Prophecy -- your stones have become marshmallows.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
