Hal Lindsey (b. 1929) The Father of Apocalyptic
Christian Zionism
1. The Significance of Hal Lindsey to Christian
Zionism
2. Lindsey's Literalistic Dispensational Hermeneutic
3. Lindsey's Unconventional View of Prophecy
4. The Distinctive Apocalyptic Zionism of Hal Lindsey
4.1 The Jews of the Bible
and the Modern State of Israel
4.2 The Territorial Extent of Eretz Israel
4.3 The Significance of Jerusalem
4.4 The Rebuilding of the Jewish Temple
4.5 The Implacable Enemies of Israel: Communists
and Moslems
4.6 The Fall and Rise of the United States
4.7 Europe and the Emergence of a Revived Roman
Empire
4.8 The Coming Holocaust: Armageddon Theology in
Practice
4.8.1 The Motivation for the War of Armageddon
4.8.2 The Strategy for the Soviet Occupation of
Israel
4.8.3 The Samson Option: Israel's Response to
the Coming Holocaust
4.8.4 The Extent of the Final Holocaust
4.8.5 Supernatural Deliverance from the Holocaust
4.9 Dating the Second Coming of Christ
4.9.1 This Generation
4.9.2 The Anti-Christ is Alive and Well
4.9.3 Signs of the Times
5. Lindseyism and Charges of Anti-Semitism
6. A Summary and Critique of Hal Lindsey's Christian
Zionism
1.
The Significance of Hal Lindsey to Christian Zionism
Hal Lindsey is undoubtedly the most influential of all Christian
Zionists of the 20th century. Although rarely quoted by others, he has nevertheless
been described by Time as 'The Jeremiah for this Generation', and by the New
York Times as 'the best selling author of the decade.'1
His newest publisher describes him as 'The Father of the Modern-Day Bible Prophecy
Movement,'2
and, 'the best known prophecy teacher in the world.'3
He is apparently one of very few authors to have had three books on the New
York Times best seller list at the same time.4
This chapter will explore the significance of Hal Lindsey
within Christian Zionism, his dispensational hermeneutic, uncoventional view
of prophecy and eschatology, his distinctive apocalyptic Zionism and his stand
against anti-Semitism.
Lindsey acknowledges that 'The future is big business,'5
and has proved the axiom true. He is a prolific writer, the author of at least
twenty books spanning 27 years, most of which deal explicitly or implicitly
with a dispensational interpretation of the future, biblical prophecy and Christian
Zionism.6
He hosts his own radio7
and television programmes, leads regular pro-Israeli Holy Land tours, and by
subscription makes available a monthly Christian Intelligence Journal called
Countdown as well as the International Intelligence Briefing8.
Lindsey, along with fellow Zionist, Grant Jeffries, hosts a weekly news programme,
International Intelligence Briefing on the fundamentalist Trinity Broadcasting
Network television station.9
Lindsey's most famous book, The Late Great Planet Earth
has been described by the New York Times as the '#1 Non-fiction Bestseller of
the Decade.' It has gone through more than 108 printings with sales, by 1993,
of more than 18 million copies in English, with estimates varying between 18-20
million further copies in 54 foreign languages.10
Despite dramatic changes in the world since its publication
in 1970, Lindsey maintains that the prophetic and apocalyptic scenario depicted
in the book is biblically accurate and therefore it remains in print in its
original un-revised form. Sales increased 83% during August and September 1990
amidst fears in the United States that Saddam Hussein would drag the world into
total world war. Paul Van Duinen, an executive of Lindsey's publishers, admitted,
' Often times we see during a crisis that people more actively turn toward God
and things spiritual.'11
Lindsey's popularity may be attributed to a combination
of factors including his readable, journalistic style of writing, his imaginative,
if apocalyptic, insistence that contemporary geo-political events are the fulfilment
of biblical prophecy and, above all, his categorical assertion that the end
of the world is imminent.
What makes Lindsey's writings distinctive, however, is that
like J. N. Darby12
and C. I. Scofield13,
he confidently claims his interpretation of the Bible shows what will happen
in the future.
Today, almost before I finish explaining a developing trend
- it's already an accomplished fact.14
This book describes in more detail and explicitness than
any other just what will happen to humanity and to the Earth, not a thousand
years from now, but in our lifetime-indeed in this very generation.15
In this riveting non-fiction book, the father of modern-day
Bible prophecy cracks the "Apocalypse Code" and deciphers long-hidden
messages about man's future and the fate of the earth.16
Hal will be your guide on a chilling tour of the world's
future battlefields as the Great Tribulation, foretold more than two thousand
years ago by Old and New Testament prophets, begins to unfold, You'll meet the
world leaders who will bring man to the very edge of extinction and examine
the causes of the current global situation - what it all means, what will shortly
come to pass, and how it will all turn out.17
Like Darby, Lindsey claims his novel interpretations to
have been revealed directly and personally by God.
I believe that the Spirit of God gave me a special insight,
not only into how John described what he actually experienced, but also into
how this whole phenomenon encoded the prophecies so that they could be fully
understood only when their fulfillment drew near... I prayerfully sought for
a confirmation for my apocalypse code theory...18
His popularity may also in part, however, have to do with
his tendency to revise those predictions in the light of changing world events.
So for example The Final Battle (1994) is essentially an unacknowledged rewrite
of the 'Late Great Planet Earth' (1970); 'Apocalypse Code' (1997) is a rewrite
of 'There's a New World Coming' (1973); and 'Planet Earth 2000 A.D.' (1994,
& 1996) are both revisions of 'The 1980's Countdown to Armageddon' (1980).
Planet Earth: The Final Chapter (1998) is, the latest version in the 'Planet
Earth' series.
A good example of Lindsey's prophetic revisions concerns
the future of the United States. In Planet Earth 2000 A.D. Lindsey specifically
draws attention to a prophecy made in The Late Great Planet Earth as evidence
of his prophetic accuracy. A comparison, however, shows that he has edited out
the prediction of communist subversion which did not occur.
The
Late Great Planet Earth |
Planet
Earth 2000 A. D. |
The United States
will not hold its present position of leadership in the western world; financially,
the future leader will be Western Europe. Internal political chaos caused
by student rebellion and Communist subversion will begin to erode the economy
of our nation. Lack of moral principle by citizens and leaders will so weaken
law and order that a state of anarchy will finally result. The military
capability of the United States, though it is at present the most powerful
in the world, has already been neutralized because no one has the courage
to use it decisively. When the economy collapses so will the military.19
|
"The United
States will not hold its present position of leadership in the western world,"
I wrote in The Late Great Planet Earth.
"Lack of moral principle by citizens
and leaders will so weaken law and order that a state of anarchy will
finally result. The military capability of the United States, though it
is at present the most powerful in the world, has already been neutralized
because no one has the courage to use it decisively. When the economy
collapses so will the military." Remember folks, these words were
written in 1969, not the 1990's!20
|
Without access to all Lindsey's books one would not necessarily
be aware that he has adapted his material to fit the changing world since he
rarely acknowledges his sources or uses footnotes. The Introduction to two of
his books serves as a good example. Reading Planet Earth 2000 A.D. (1994), one
is led to believe this, and not 1980's Countdown to Armageddon (1981), was the
long awaited sequel to The Late Great Planet Earth (1970).
1980's
Countdown to Armageddon |
Planet
Earth 2000 A. D. |
Ever since The Late
Great Planet Earth I have thought about writing another book on how prophecy
relates to current events.
But only recently have I felt compelled to
do so. So many of the things which have occurred during the past 10 years
are so directly related to prophecy that I now sense an urgent, even desperate
compulsion to bring readers up to date.
The goal of this book is not merely to show
which prophecies have been fulfilled since Late Great came out in 1970,
however. Even more important, it is intended to analyze what will occur
in the decade we have just entered...
The decade of the 1980's could very well
be the last decade of history as we know it.21
|
Meanwhile, for 25
years I resisted the mammoth undertaking of writing a book that would go
beyond where The Late Great Planet Earth left off, mostly because prophetically
meaningful events were occurring so quickly, I wasn't sure how a book could
do justice to the subject. Instead of focussing on writing prophecy books
that might be out of date by the time they reached the stores, I devoted
my attention to radio and television shows, video and audio tapes and a
monthly news and prophecy journal.
Only now, as mankind approaches the third
millennium, do I feel like the Holy Spirit has provided me with the proper
perspective - the Big Picture, so to speak - on the mind blowing experiences
of the modern world...
This book doesn't dwell on the past, it looks
to the future. Because we are so close to the final, climactic stages
of world history, it is considerably easier today for the student of Bible
prophecy to see with some accuracy what's coming next...
I am certain... The Second Advent will occur
in the next few years - probably in your lifetime.22
|
With the decade of the 1980's coming to an end, and the
Second Advent still some way off, Lindsey also needed to revise the title if
it was to remain in print. Without acknowledging he had rewritten the book,
Lindsey changed his publisher and implied that Planet Earth 2000 A.D. was actually
the sequel to The Late Great Planet Earth. Ten years on, and with the new Millennium
fast approaching, the date has been removed altogether from the title in the
latest edition, Planet Earth, the Final Chapter.23
Lindsey also makes use of previously published material
in his later books. Unattributed paragraphs and sentences from earlier works
reappear with regularity. So for example, in two unrelated books, published
just a year apart, the same sentences are repeated.
Planet
Earth 2000 A.D. (1994) |
The
Final Battle (1995) |
The greatest threat
to freedom and world peace today - is Islamic fundamentalism... Tragically,
the world's sole remaining superpower - the United States -has responded
to this monumental threat by embarking on a suicidal, unilateral demilitarization
process of unprecedented speed and recklessness. Like the Scriptures warn,
the West is blithely saying 'Peace and safety'...24
As the Bible tells us, the dispute over Jerusalem
and Israel's borders will never be settled by any peace agreements nor
any whiz-bang diplomatic breakthrough.25
Right now, as you read this, preparations
are being made to rebuild the Third Temple.26
Folks, the footsteps of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, can already be heard as He approaches the doors of heaven
to return.27
'Land for Peace!' Is the cry heard 'round
the world.28
...the Arab world has been successful at
framing the debate over the Middle East as a struggle between downtrodden
Palestinians and powerful, heavily armed Jews...29
Heading up what will evolve into a 10-nation
confederacy will be a man of such magnetism and power that he will become
the greatest dictator the world has ever known...30
There is a potential dictator waiting in
the wings somewhere in Europe who will make Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin
look like choir boys. Right now he is preparing to take his throne, inflaming
his soul with visions of what he will be able to do for mankind with his
grand schemes and revolutionary ideas.31
There will be no peace in the Middle East
as long as the world entertains the Arab's fanciful visions of dividing
and conquering Jerusalem.
Peace would only be possible, if, by some
miracle, the Arabs realized that their ambitions for military and economic
hegemony over Israel were delusional. Don't hold your breath... the Arab
world has been successful at framing the debate over the Middle East as
a struggle between downtrodden Palestinians and powerful, heavily armed
Jews...32
|
...the greatest
threat to freedom and world peace today - is Islamic fundamentalism... Tragically,
the world's sole remaining superpower for the moment - the United States
- has responded to this monumental threat by embarking on a suicidal demilitarization
process of unprecedented proportions. Like the Scriptures warned, the West
is blithely saying 'Peace and safety'...33
As the Bible tells us, the dispute over Jerusalem
and Israel's borders will never be settled by any peace agreements nor
any whiz-bang diplomatic breakthrough.34
Right now, as you read this, preparations
are being made to rebuild the Third Temple...35
Truly, the footsteps of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ, can already be heard as He approaches the doors of heaven
to return.36
"Land for peace!" is the cry heard
'round the world.37
Because the Muslim nations have been successful
at framing the debate over the Middle East as a struggle between downtrodden
Palestinians and powerful, heavily armed Jews...38
And heading up this 10-nation confederacy
will be a man of such magnetism and power that he will become the greatest
dictator the world has ever known.39
There is a potential dictator waiting in
the wings somewhere in Europe who will make Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin
look like choir boys. Right now he is preparing to take his throne, inflaming
his soul with visions of what he will be able to do for mankind with his
grand schemes and revolutionary ideas.40
There will be no peace in the Middle East
as long as the world entertains the Arab's fanciful visions of dividing
and conquering Jerusalem and driving all the Jews into the sea. Peace
would only be possible, if, by some miracle, the Arabs realize that their
ambitions for military and economic hegemony over Israel were delusional.
But don't hold your breath... Because the Arab world has been successful
at framing the debate over the Middle East as a struggle between downtrodden
Palestinians and powerful, heavily armed Jews...41
|
On one occasion in The Final Battle (1995), Lindsey even
makes use of the same material in subsequent chapters.
Israel
is facing world pressure like never before. Because the Muslim nations have
been successful at framing the debate over the Middle East as a struggle
between downtrodden Palestinians and powerful, heavily armed Jews. Israel
is precipitously close to compromising its own security needs42
|
Israel
is facing world pressure like never before. Because the Arab world have
been successful at framing the debate over the Middle East as a struggle
between downtrodden Palestinians and powerful, heavily armed Jews. Israel
is dangerously close to compromising its own security needs.43
|
In criticising clergy for
getting caught up in 'the save-the-earth gospel,' Lindsey reveals something
of his estimation of himself,
Don't get me wrong. No one can deny that the earth is facing
grave ecological crises. There is probably no one in the church that has done
more than me in calling this fact to the attention of millions.44
There is no doubt that Lindsey has had a profound and lasting
impact on the American as well as British Christian scene. Indeed, the popular
influence Christian Zionists such as Lindsey have had, even in American political
circles, is highlighted by Don Wagner who claims that as long ago as 1980,
The election of Ronald Reagan ushered in not only the most
pro-Israel administration in history but gave several Christian Zionists prominent
political posts... Once the Reagan Administration opened the door, leading Evangelical
Christian Zionist televangelists and writers were given direct access to the
President and cabinet members. Rev. Jerry Falwell, Christian Zionist televangelist
Mike Evans and author Hal Lindsey among them.45
'White House Seminars' became a regular feature of Reagan's
administration bringing Lindsey into direct personal contact with national and
Congressional leaders. Lindsey subsequently became a consultant on Middle Eastern
affairs not only to the Pentagon but also to the Israeli Government.46
2. Lindsey's Literalistic Dispensational
Hermeneutic
Like other dispensationalists,
Lindsey holds dogmatically to a literalist approach to biblical hermeneutics.
He attributes the development of erroneous views concerning Israel to an allegorical,
non-literal hermeneutic supposedly popularised by Origen.
The man most responsible
for changing the way the Church interpreted prophecy is Origen... [He] powerfully
introduced, taught and spread the allegorical method of interpreting the Scriptures,
particularly in the area of prophecy. From this seemingly harmless fact of Church
history evolved a system of prophetic interpretation that created the atmosphere
in which 'Christian' anti-Semitism took root and spread. Using this method of
prophetic interpretation, Church theologians began to develop the idea that
the Israelites had permanently forfeited all their covenants by rejecting Jesus
as the Messiah.47
As has been shown in an earlier chapter, it was the consistent
approach of the Post-Apostolic Fathers to interpret the Hebrew Scriptures typologically
as the Apostles had done before them.48
In his commitment to literalism, Lindsey does not appear to distinguish between
figurative or typological approaches acknowledged by covenantal theologians
from the allegorical methods of interpretation seen typically in pre-Reformation
Roman Catholicism.49
The distinction between these two methods of interpretation are significant
since the former places particular emphasis on the historical context of passages
as well as the way scripture interprets scripture. An allegorical approach finds
eternal truths in the bible without reference to their historical setting. A
typological approach highlights the way New Testament writers see Jesus Christ
to be the fulfilment of many Old Testament images and types.50
There is good evidence that a typological interpretation of the Old Testament
was consistently followed by the Church from the 1st Century, and did not arise
with Origen as Lindsey alleges.
Origen defended the historical sense of Scripture, tried
to reconcile the historical and allegorical senses, attempted to interpret Scripture
with Scripture, and was respectful of the church's tradition.51
Ironically, Lindsey admits to using typology on occasions.
In explaining his hermenutical approach to interpreting the Book of Revelation,
Lindsey makes the following assumptions,
How could this first-century man describe the scientific
wonders of the latter twentieth century? He had to illustrate them with phenomena
of the first century; for instance, a thermonuclear war looked to him like a
giant volcanic eruption spewing fire and brimstone... Much of the symbolism
John used was the result of a first century man being catapulted in God's time
machine up to the end of the twentieth century, then returned to his own time
and commanded to write what he had seen and heard. The only way that John could
obey that instruction was to use phenomena with which he was familiar to illustrate
the scientific and technical marvels that he predicts.52
Some writers have chosen to interpret each symbol
quite literally. For example, a locust with the face of a man, the teeth of
a lion, a breastplate of iron, a tail than can sting, and wings that make the
sound of many chariots would have to be specially created by God to look just
like that description. I personally tend to think that God might utilize in
his judgments some modern devices of man which the Apostle John was at a loss
for words to describe nineteen centuries ago! In the case just mentioned, the
locusts might symbolize an advanced kind of helicopter. This is just one example
of the fast-moving, contemporary, and often deductive manner in which I have
chosen to approach the Book of Revelation. I realize I'll be accused by some
of making wild speculations...53
In
Apocalypse Code (1997), essentially an unattributed revision of There's a New
World Coming (1973), Lindsey's speculations become more dogmatic and categorical,
and so phrases such as "might symbolize" become "actually saw."
Just exactly how could a first century prophet describe,
much less understand, the incredible advances in science and technology that
exist at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries? Yet he
testified and God bore witness that he actually saw and heard things like:
- supersonic jet aircraft with missiles...
- advanced attack helicopters
- modern main battle tanks
- intercontinental ballistic missiles with Multiple Independently
Targeted Reentry Vehicles tipped with thermonuclear warheads (ICBM's that
are MIRVed).
- battlefield artillery and missiles with neutron-nuclear
warheads
- biological and chemical weapons
- aircraft carriers, missile cruisers, nuclear submarines
- laser weapons
- space stations and satellites
- the new super secret HAARP weapon system (High-frequency
Active Auroral Research Program)54
So, in Lindsey's inspired
bible code, John's 'locusts' become helicopters, 'horses prepared for battle'
are heavily armed attack helicopters, 'crowns of gold' are the helmets worn by
pilots, and the 'sound of their wings' are the 'thunderous sound of many attack
helicopters flying overhead."55
Just as imaginatively, the 'bow' wielded by the Antichrist in Revelation 6:1-2,
is apparently, "...a code for long range weapons like ICBM's."56
The reference to the "colour of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone"
in Revelation 9:17 becomes the "Chinese national flag"..."emblazoned
on the military vehicles."57
Lindsey applies the same hermeneutical technique to Zechariah 14:12.
This is exactly the way a neutron bomb works. A soldier
is hit by a burst of radiation that leaves only a skeleton within a nanosecond.
How could Zechariah have known such a thing 2500 years ago? Once again, the
Apocalypse code unlocks the meaning of something not understood for centuries,
because the technology for such things did not exist until now.58
Like Darby and Scofield before him, Lindsey also interprets
references to ancient tribes and nations mentioned in Old Testament prophecies
as applying to contemporary peoples and countries in the Middle East.59
In Psalm 83, some 3,000 years ago, God gave a warning of
what would happen in the last days... In these verses the Philistia or Philistines
are the modern Palestinians. Tyre is modern Lebanon. Assyria is modern Syria.60
Ezekiel 38 also talks about a confederacy of powers
- including Russia and Germany - coming against Israel... Ezekiel Chapter
38, verse 8 describes modern-day Israel, after the Jews have returned from
many nations and "are living securely."61
I know from my study of the Bible that the final
great war includes Turkey as part of the Islamic grouping allied with Russia.62
The great nations that do get Biblical reference are
the Kings of the East, (China, India, Pakistan - all openly nuclear), Russia
(Gog and Magog), Libya, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and so on.63
On other occasions, with reference to Exodus 9:9, Lindsey
is content to acknowledge, "Egypt is often used as a metaphor in the Bible
for the "world" as oppesed to the Church."64
It is not clear, however, when the term should be taken
litrerally or as a metaphor.
To assist his readers in their understanding of otherwise
obscure passages of Scripture, Lindsey also has the tendency to add words to
biblical texts which are not there in the original. So, in The Road to Holocaust,
for example, where Lindsey is anxious to stress how the promises made in Romans
11 apply to the State of Israel and not merely to Jews generally, Lindsey 'interprets'
this passage dispensationally adding the word 'national' to the text.
The whole point of this passage revolves around Israel's
being restored to a position of preeminence as a believing nation. This could
not be true if those who are converted in the future are made part of the
Church, since the national distinction would be lost... The exact meaning
of the future 'riches of the world' and of the 'fullness for national Israel'
is of utmost importance.65
In a quotation of Matthew 24:15-18, Lindsey adds a reference
to the rebuilding of the temple, necessary for this prophecy to refer to some
future date,
Therefore when you see the Abomination which was spoken
of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place [of the rebuilt
temple] (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee
to the mountains...66
Lindsey's interpretation of Daniel 11:40-45 is similarly
colourful,
This will be the sign that immediately precedes the Russian-led
Islamic invasion of Israel... "At the time of the end the King of the
South [the Muslim Confederacy] will engage him [the False Prophet of Israel]
in battle, and the King of the North [Russia] will storm out against him with
chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He [the Russian Commander]
will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also
invade the Beautiful Land [Israel]. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab
and the leaders of Ammon [Jordan] will be delivered from his hand...67
Likewise, in quoting Ezekiel 38:15-16, Lindsey adds the
word 'Russia' to reinforce his interpretation.
And you (Russia) will come from your place out of the remote
parts of the north, you and many peoples with you...68
His preoccupation with reading the Soviet Union into Old
Testament prophecies leads to some novel definitions of chronology and time.
In commenting on Isaiah 10:25, for example, Lindsey insists,
Carefully note also that right after the LORD predicts
the restoration of the remnant of Israel and the destruction of the Assyrian
enemy (which must be applied to a yet future enemy), He says, 'VERY SOON my
anger against you will end and my wrath will be directed to their [Israel's
enemies] destruction' (Isaiah 10:25) What the LORD called 'Very soon' has
already been some 2700 years.69
Lindsey's rather unusual understanding of time also extends
to his view of prophecy.
3. Lindsey's Unconventional View
of Prophecy
Integral to his literalist
hermeneutic, Lindsey has largely been responsible for popularising a rather
controversial approach to eschatology. In his first work, The Late Great Planet
Earth, Lindsey surveys the apparent revival in interest in astrology, spiritualism
and clairvoyancy. He then asserts,
However, compared to the speculation of most that is called
prophetic today, the Bible contains clear and unmistakable prophetic signs.
We are able to see right now in this Best Seller predictions made centuries
ago being fulfilled before our eyes. The Bible makes fantastic claims; but
these claims are no more startling that those of present day astrologers,
prophets and seers. Furthermore, the claims of the Bible have a greater basis
in historical evidence and fact.70
In his third book, There's A New World Coming: A Prophetic
Odessey, published three years later in 1973, Lindsey continues to take a comparative
approach to prophecy, likening the claims of the Old Testament prophets to those
of the druids of Stonehenge.
Through these stones, 4000 years ago, priests could site
the sun, moon and stars and predict with exact accuracy the seasons, sun risings
and eclipses of the sun and moon... There have been many, throughout the centuries
of man's long history, who have sought to predict the course of human events,
but none have had the incredible accuracy of the ancient Hebrew prophets.71
In 1994, looking back at the popularity of The Late Great
Planet Earth, Lindsey challenged his critics,
Not surprisingly, then, I'll confidently hold up my track
record against that of any modern-day astrological charlatan or New Age clairvoyant.72
Lindsey appears therefore to believe that predictive accuracy
is the hallmark of divinely inspired prophecy. In taking a comparative approach
to prophecy he has been criticised for blurring the distinction between biblical
and occult sources.73
Ironically, the last chapter of The Late Great Planet Earth is entitled, 'Polishing
the Crystal Ball,'74
while a paragraph heading in There's a New World Coming, describing the Book
of Revelation, is entitled, 'John's Chain of ESP'.75
Lindsey makes a second questionable
assumption regarding prophecy. He assumes that biblical prophecy is essentially
futuristic and predictive, that is, the foretelling of the future, and the future
of the State of Israel, in particular.
The center of the entire prophetic forecast is the State
of Israel. Certain events in that nation's recent history prove the accuracy
of the prophets. They also force us to accept the fact that the 'countdown'
has begun.76
The information in the book you're about to read
is more up-to-date than tomorrow's newspaper... I think you will be surprised
to see what kind of predictions were made almost two thousand years ago!77
...it is intended to analyze what will occur in
the decade we have just entered.78
The world is spinning out of control - or so it
seems. But, as you will discover, everything is in order. God told us these
things would happen - in advance...79
These weapons are so new, so secret, and so deadly
that few people outside of military circles even know such weapons exist.
But God knew, and he told Zechariah all about them when he was given details
of another, upcoming battle for Jerusalem.80
Following Darby, Lindsey believes 'prophecy is prewritten
history'.81
In so doing he detaches predictions concerning the future from the covenantal
context within which the prophecies were given. Lindsey's view is at variance
with the Hebrew prophets who consistently stress that their intention is to
call God's people back to the terms of their covenant relationship. Their role
was not primarily to reveal arbitrary and otherwise hidden facts about predestined
future events. The
prophet speaks the Word of God. He appeals to his people to be true to Yahweh,
the God of the covenant... He comes to his people with a threat or with words
of comfort. Insofar as his message touches on the future, he does point to events
down the road. But the prophet never makes predictions as such. His message
is conditional; it is tied in with God's promises, on the one hand, and his
threats, on the other.82
Authentic biblical
prophecy was always conditional rather than fatalistic and given within the
context of the covenant between God and his chosen people. It was the false
prophets who flattered the people with promises of peace and prosperity without
specifying the covenantal preconditions of repentance and faith.
The true prophets were not concerned with authenticating
their prophecies by presenting predictions that came true. In fact, some of
the predictions didn't come true at all. When Micah prophesied that Jerusalem
would be plowed as a field and turn into a heap of ruins, his words led to repentance
under King Hezekiah. As a result, the Lord held back his judgment He had in
mind (Mic. 3:12; Jer. 26:17-19).83
Since Lindsey, like
other Dispensationalists, believes God gave the Middle East to Abraham's Jewish
descendants as an unconditional and everlasting possession, he does not acknowledge
a correlation between the prophetic message and covenant relationship. Instead,
he understands the prophets to be predicting predetermined events thousands
of years later, giving an 'exciting view'84
of human destiny.
Three millenniums of history
are strewn with evidence of their prophetic marksmanship and to ignore their
incredible predictions of man's destiny and the events which are soon to affect
this planet will be perhaps the greatest folly of this generation.85
Hal Lindsey claims to have uncovered prophetic puzzles
throughout the Bible. Hidden away within these enigmas are specific predictions
concerning the present and imminent future. In the wake of the 'Bible Code'
debate, Lindsey rewrote There's a New World Coming, renaming it Apocalypse Code
claiming to have deciphered, 'long-hidden messages about man's future and the
fate of the earth.'86
To do so Lindsey performs 'acrobatic stunts',87
twisting biblical texts to fit his future scenario, propounding what some critics
regard as a 'new form of Christian Gnosticism,'88
since only those who read his books will be able to understand
them.
Perhaps we could speak of a post-Rapture complex in Lindsey's
hermeneutics. As a result of this complex, all sorts of ancient prophecies
about nations that have disappeared must be modernized, right down to the
weaponry used in warfare... In his books, Hal Lindsey uses Biblical prophecy
to open a supermarket in which he sells the curious inside information about
the near future, especially World War III.89
Responding to criticism that he did not foresee the collapse
of Soviet Communism, Lindsey carefully denies that he himself ever claimed to
a prophet.90
He does, however, confess to making 'a series of predictions'91
and is happy to quote others who believe he is a prophet. For example, Lindsey
allows his publishers to use the accolade of Time magazine that he is "The
Jeremiah for this generation.'92
Reviewing the prophecies
made in The Late Great Planet Earth, 25 years later, Lindsey lists 23 of these
predictions and then asks the rhetorical question, 'Did I miss any?'93
The
back cover of The Final Battle (1995), which is an amplified and significantly
more politicised rewriting of The Late Great Planet Earth, says,
You couldn't get a better picture of what World War III
will be like without being bodily transported into the future. Hal Lindsey
has done it again! 94
4. The Distinctive Apocalyptic
Zionism of Hal Lindsey
The titles of Lindsey's books show an increasingly exaggerated
and almost pathological preoccupation with the apocalyptic.95
His books are replete with dogmatic and categorical assertions
of the imminent destruction of the world.
We are the generation the
prophets were talking about. We have witnessed biblical prophecies come true.
The birth of Israel. The decline in American power and morality. The rise of
Russian and Chinese might. The threat of war in the Middle East. The increase
of earthquakes, volcanoes, famine and drought. The Bible foretells the signs
that precede Armageddon... We are the generation that will see the end times...
and the return of Jesus.96
Lindsey has been described as, 'a long haired reincarnation
of Scofield.'97
This may be because of the similarities between the pessimistic
pronouncements of both authors.
Cyrus
Scofield (1918) |
Hal
Lindsey (1970) |
So far as the prophetic
Word has spoken there is not the least warrant for the expectation that
the nations engaged in the present gigantic struggle will or can make
a permanent peace. It
is fondly dreamed that out of all the suffering and carnage and destruction
of this war will be born such a hatred of war as will bring to pass
a federation of the nations-The United States of the World-in which
will exist but one army, and that an international peace, rather than
an army... For that Word certainly points to a federated world-empire
in the end-time of the age... It
is, of course, possible, nay, probable that some temporary truce may
end, or suspend for a time, the present world-war, for ten kingdoms
will exist at the end-time in the territory once ruled over by Rome.98
|
In spite of the vain striving of man, of
the bold and infamous conquerors throughout the ages who failed in their
human attempts, we are beginning to see the Ancient Roman Empire draw
together, just as predicted... We believe that the Common Market and
the trend toward unification in Europe may well be the beginning of
the ten-nation confederacy predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation...
In spite of those who propose the alternatives to the United States
of Europe, and the temporary setbacks it appears to have, it seems that
the trend is ever onward... At about 1980 we may fully expect the great
fusion of all economic, military, and political communities into the
United States of Europe... Imagine that. A "ten-nation economic
entity." Is it any wonder that men who have studied prophecy for
many years believe that the basic beginning of the unification of Europe
has begun?99
|
Lindsey's book, The Final Battle, is a good example of "Armageddon
Theology". It includes this statement on the cover,
Never before, in one book,
has there been such a complete and detailed look at the events leading up to
'The Battle of Armageddon.'"100
Lindsey asserts that the world is degenerating and that
the forces of evil manifest in godless Communism and militant Islam are the
real enemies of Israel. An apocalyptic scenario is predicted, centred upon a
great battle at Megiddo between massive continental armies that will attempt
but fail to destroy Israel.
Based on his interpretation of Ezekiel 38 & 39, and
selective quotations from speculative 19th Century commentators, Lindsey insists
the references to Gog, Rosh and Tubal reveal that the chief enemy of Israel
in the final days will be Russia.
You need only to take a globe to verify this exact geographical
fix. There is only one nation to the 'uttermost north' of Israel - the U.S.S.R...
General Dyan's statement that 'The next war will not be with the Arabs but
with the Russians' has a considerably deeper significance, doesn't it? Just
think for a moment how incredible a thing we are considering here. How could
Ezekiel 2600 years ago have forecast so accurately the rise of Russia to its
current military might and its direct and obvious designs upon the Middle
East, not to mention that fact that it is now an implacable enemy of the new
state of Israel? How could men like Chamberlain and Cummings, for that matter,
one hundred years ago have so clearly seen the rise of Russia to its present
world-threatening position? The answer is again, it seems to this writer,
obvious, Ezekiel once again passes 'the test of a prophet'.101
Lindsey offers detailed illustrated plans showing future
military movements of armies and naval convoys, including the American 6th Fleet,
leading up to the battle of Armageddon.102
He claims these cataclysmic events indicate the imminent return of Jesus Christ
as King of the Jews who will rule the world from the rebuilt Jewish temple on
the site of the destroyed Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.103
Lindsey believes that the
great battle of Armageddon is imminent and unavoidable. His motive for writing
is to shock people into believing in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
Only then can they be raptured to heaven and avoid suffering in the coming global
holocaust. Like a sinking ship, Lindsey portrays a world in which there is no
hope or purpose, other than trying to get off as quickly as possible. There
is therefore no point in trying to care for the world or getting involved in
charitable or humanitarian work. Every human tragedy, be it earthquake, hurricane
or war merely adds to the mounting evidence and proves his contention that the
end of the world is nigh.
You won't find another book
quite like this one. We will examine why and how the world is hurtling toward
disaster... My background as a student of prophecy allows me to place all this
information in perspective in a way that is sure to lead many people to the
ultimate truth about the coming global holocaust - and, if they are open, to
a wonderful way of escaping it. Read this book. Learn from it. Pass it on to
your friends. It may be the last chance some of them will ever have to avoid
the horrible fate this book describes.104
According to Lindsey, the key to deliverance from Armageddon
is bound up with God's purposes for, and our attitude toward, the Jews.
4.1 The Jews of the Bible and
the Modern State of Israel
Lindsey's empathy for the
Jews is highlighted in his emotive description of a visit he made to the Western
Wall.
The wall is a symbol of the unity of the Jews as a race
and of their ancient ties to God. Even battle-hardened soldiers wept when
they first approached the wall. I stood by many a Jew when he first touched
the wall, and all have felt that at last they had come home. So did I.105
He also claims to have been motivated by concern for the
Jews in writing his first book,
In writing The Late Great Planet Earth, I had the Jews
constantly in mind. I prayerfully and deliberately sought to present my prophetic
case in such a way that it would especially appeal to them. It has been published
in more than fifty foreign editions and has been instrumental all around the
world in bringing tens of thousands of Jews to faith in Jesus as their Messiah.
I run into them everywhere. They continue to write to me from virtually every
part of the world. The first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben Gurion, was
reading it shortly before he died. Since everything in his room has been kept
the way it was before he died, a copy of The Late Great Planet Earth remains
on his desk. A friend of mine who is one of Israel's top military commanders
passed out hundreds of copies of the Hebrew translation to the Israeli Defence
forces, even though he personally hasn't as yet believed in Jesus as the Messiah.106
Lindsey's sympathies clearly lie with the State of Israel
rather than with her Arab neighbours, the Palestinians, or even with the ancient
indigenous Christian community of Israel and the Occupied Territories. Under
a heading 'Why the Bias?' Lindsey insists,
Because Israel is a pro-Western, democratic nation committed
to the ideals of free speech and press, there is good access for journalists...
And because Israel is a staunch U.S. Ally, it is always under the microscope...
This kind of distortion and bias has placed Israel center stage in the court
of world opinion and helped to make the Jewish state something of a pariah
nation. Funny, how that's just what the Bible predicted for Israel in the
last days.107
Lamenting the isolation the United States experiences in
the United Nations when vetoing repeated censure motions against Israel, Lindsey
points out,
Up to the time of the 1991 Madrid Conference, the Arabs
were 'called upon' to 'comply,' 'desist,' 'refrain' etc. four times.
Israel was 'demanded,' ordered,' etc. to do General Assembly bidding three
hundred and five times. The UN voted six hundred and five resolutions
between its inception and the Gulf War. Four hundred and twenty nine of those
resolutions, or, sixty-two percent of the total of the UN's resolutions were
against Israel or its interests.108
Israeli society is far from homogeneous politically. While
the majority of secular Jews favour a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians,
Lindsey identifies with the fundamentalist settlers and political far right.
...it was a pity that Israel chose to recognize, negotiate
and compromise with sworn enemy and terrorist Yasser Arafat... It was a risky
tactic - one fraught with danger not only for the Jewish state but for the
entire world. The stage is now set for the kind of explosive developments
students of Bible prophecy have long anticipated. What the Israelis have actually
done by establishing autonomous Arab states in Jericho and Gaza is to create
the kind of bridgehead in Israel that Arafat has, until now, only dreamed
about.109
Lindsey's preoccupation with Israel is largely due to his
dispensational presuppositions which distinguish Israel from the Church in the
present and future purposes of God, although the origins of this theological
position are never discussed, nor attributed in any of his writings apart from
three pages in his latest book.110
Like other dispensationalists, Lindsey insists that the
promises of blessing and protection made to Abraham are unconditional and eternal
and that it is specifically the State of Israel rather than merely people of
Jewish descent who are the beneficiaries today.
There has been much infidelity in Jewish history, and their
present worldwide dispersion and persecution have been their divine discipline.
However, God made unconditional promises of eternal blessings to the Jewish
patriarchs and will someday restore the Jews to a position of special favour
with Himself... God has promised never to abandon His chosen people, no matter
how despicably they treat Him (Romans 11:1,2). The divine hand of protection
of the Jews during their recent Six-Day War was just a token of that protective
care.111
...God clearly reveals that the tree into which
we Gentiles have been grafted contrary to nature is still the Jew's own olive
tree. The simple meaning of this is that the covenants are still valid to
the physical race of Israel. Their fulfilment only awaits that predicted time
when God will bring them back to faith again.112
Rather than apply these ancient promises to the Jewish people
generally, Lindsey quite specifically, and increasingly more explicitly, applies
them to the State of Israel and Israeli citizens.
The God of Israel has sworn in the prophecies that He will
not forsake the Israelis, nor let them be destroyed.113
To Israel as a nation were made unique promises...
All other nations received blessings only through Israel. They were the only
nation that was promised a specific plot of land, a city, and a kingdom on
an earth from which the original curse would be removed.114
Unless one goes off into allegorical la-la land,
these prophecies literally demand a National restoration of Israel as a distinct
and unique believing Nation in the future kingdom.115
To reinforce the link with the Jews of the Old Testament,
in his later books, Lindsey increasingly refers to Israeli citizens as 'Israelites'116
as well, the land as 'Judea and Samaria'117
One of Lindsey's strongest critics is David Chilton. With
regard to the promise in Romans 11 that many Jews would recognise Jesus as their
Messiah, Chilton insists,
The Bible promises the restoration of Israel as a people,
but not necessarily as a State; nothing requires that the two must go together.
Even assuming, that there is still a State of Israel when the Jews are converted,
Israel would simply be one Christian nation among many, with no special standing.
The people of genetic Israel will be part of the covenantal tree of life,
but there is no longer any religious significance belonging to Palestine.118
To even classical dispensationalists, such as Schuyler English,
who revised the Scofield Reference Bible in 1967, Israel as a State has no prophetic
significance during the 'church age' until after the so-called 'rapture'.
An intercalary period of history, after Christ's death
and resurrection and the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 has intervened.
This is the present age. During this time God has not been dealing with Israel
nationally, for they have been blinded concerning God's mercy in Christ...
However, God will again deal with Israel as a nation. This will be in Daniel's
seventieth week, a seven-year period yet to come.119
Daniel 9:24-27 states,
"Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your
holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to
anoint the most holy.
25"Know
and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem
until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and
sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times
of trouble. 26After
the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing.
The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.
The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations
have been decreed. 27He
will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven'
he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he
will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed
is poured out on him."
Lindsey believes,
...this amazing prediction of the future events of Israel's
career sets forth a divinely ordained time period of 'seventy weeks' of years
(490 years) in which God would, in specific ways, deal with the sin of the nation,
bring in everlasting righteousness, and send the Messiah to the world. This
allotted time period was like a great divine 'time-clock'... Countdown began
clicking off April, 444 B.C.E... Then Daniel predicted a strange thing. He said
that after sixty-nine weeks of years (483 years) had clicked off on this allotment
of time, the Messiah of Israel would be revealed to the Jews and then killed,
and the city of Jerusalem and their Temple would be destroyed and their 490
year special time allotment would be temporarily cut short by 7 years...
Jesus himself had thoroughly studied this prophecy of Daniel
and related its meaning to his disciples... Then he added something which Daniel
hadn't predicted, but Moses had: '...Jerusalem would be trampled under foot
by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled' (Luke 21:23,
24)... For nearly two thousand years now, this prophecy has been a horrible
reality in the life of God's chosen people... Even though Israel is now partially
back in her ancient homeland, she isn't at peace with the world around her...
We have one thing to give substance to our hope for Israel.
We know that God will never break a promise and He still owes Israel seven
years of her allotted 490 years in which to bring about righteousness in her
land and purge her people of sin. Then God's Messiah will come again to Israel
and give to those of His chosen people and the world who receive Him, the
Kingdom of God which He promised so long ago.120
Lindsey does not explain how he fits the nearly 1878 year
gap between 70 A.D. and 1948 into Daniel 9:24-27. The seven years he claims
is still 'allotted' to Israel during which they will be 'purged' is actually
a euphemism for the 'tribulation' in which Lindsey believes many Israelis will
suffer and die in the nuclear war of Armageddon. In order to strengthen his
argument that the prophets predicted the restoration of Israel in 1948, Lindsey
believes that Moses predicted two separate destructions of Israel in Deuteronomy
28:49-52 and 28:62-66. The passages actually state,
The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away,
from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language
you will not understand, 50a
fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. 51They
will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you
are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves
of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined. 52They
will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified
walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout
the land the Lord your God is giving you. (Deut. 28:49-52)
You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be
left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63Just
as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will
please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are
entering to possess.
64Then
the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the
other. There you will worship other gods--gods of wood and stone, which neither
you nor your fathers have known. 65Among
those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your
foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing,
and a despairing heart. 66You
will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never
sure of your life. (Deut. 28:62-66)
Lindsey claims these verses teach that,
Just before the Hebrews
conquered the Promised Land, Moses predicted that Israel would twice be destroyed
as a nation and twice be driven out of the land because of persistent unbelief.
He also predicted that the first destruction and dispersion would come by the
hand of one mighty nation. He specifically predicted that in this dispersion
the Israelites would be taken captive into this one invading nation (Deuteronomy
28:49-57). This prophecy was fulfilled when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem
in 586 B.C. And took the survivors back to Babylon as slaves (2 Chronicles 36:9-21)...
When Moses predicted the second destruction of the nation,
he warned that the second dispersion would be much more extensive and severe
than the first... This part of Moses' prophecy was fulfilled in A.D. 70 when
Titus and the Roman Tenth Legion crushed Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple and
scattered the surviving Jews throughout the known world... Moses, Isaiah,
Ezekiel, Amos, Zechariah and many other prophets predicted Israel's second
restoration as a nation in the 'latter days'. They predicted that the Jews
would return to their ancient homeland after a long and terrible dispersion
among the nations, and that they would miraculously become a nation again
(Ezekiel 36, 37). The most important factor in these prophecies is that God
promises the Jews that once they have returned in the second restoration,
their nation will never be destroyed again.121
Lindsey neglects to point out that the warnings uttered
by Moses in Deuteronomy 28 were not predictions of future events but conditional
warnings, dependent on whether the Israelites kept the covenant. In between
the two selective passages which Lindsey highlights, Moses also warned that
the Israelites would suffer all the plagues witnessed in Egypt if they were
disobedient, something Lindsey conveniently ignores.
More significantly, the passages Lindsey quotes do not actually
specify that the Israelites will be taken captive 'into this one invading nation',
nor that two distinct dispersions would occur. The reference in Deuteronomy
28:63-66 which Lindsey claims predicts a second universal exile actually goes
on two verses later to indicate that Egypt, still a feared and great power in
Moses day, would be their return destination. Lindsey's insistence on two dispersions
is itself a very selective reading of Jewish history ignoring the earlier Assyrian
conquest of Tiglath-Pileser in 721 B.C. when the ten tribes of the Northern
kingdom were deported and absorbed into other parts of the Assyrian Empire.
Instead of following the position of Schuyler English and
other traditional dispensationalists, Lindsey develops his own innovative scheme
claiming that there is great significance in the events of 1948 and especially
1967. He insists, 'The center of the entire prophetic forecast is the State
of Israel,'122
and Israel is the 'center of world destiny.' 123
Lindsey's entire reading of the Bible and of contemporary
events in the world are shaped by this conviction and perspective.
In 1970, in The Late Great Planet Earth, under the sub-title
'Keys to the Prophetic Puzzle', Lindsey explained why his interpretation of
contemporary events concerning Israel is more reliable than previous attempts.
Then in 1980 Lindsey reiterated this conviction more dogmatically, insisting
the 'rebirth' of Israel to be the only 'sign' that the 'countdown' to Armageddon
had begun.
Late
Great Planet Earth |
1980's
Countdown to Armageddon |
Many Bible students in recent years have tried
to fit the events of World War I and II to the prophetic signs which would
herald the imminent return of Christ. Their failure discredited prophecy...
It is because of these unscriptural attempts at calculating days that
some eyebrows rise when we speak of Bible prophecy today. The
one event which many Bible students in the past overlooked was this paramount
prophetic sign: Israel had to be a nation again in the land of its forefathers.124
|
Many skeptics point
out that during World War I and II, some well-meaning students of prophecy
claimed that the end of history was at hand and the Messiah would return
soon... Naturally, when the world didn't end, all prophecy was discredited.
These skeptics have asked me, 'Why do you think that all the various prophecies
will come to pass during this generation? The answer is simple. The prophets
told us that the rebirth of Israel-no other event-would be the sign that
the countdown had begun. Since that rebirth, the rest of the prophecies
have begun to be fulfilled quite rapidly. For this reason I am convinced
that we are now in the unique time so clearly and precisely forecast by
the Hebrew prophets.125
|
Lindsey bases his interpretation
of contemporary events largely on the prophecies of Ezekiel 37-39, and, in particular,
the vision of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. Most commentators see in
these chapters the promise of the return of the remnant from Babylon under Ezra
and Nehemiah.126
Lindsey, however, chooses instead to apply them to 1948
and 1967 when Israel occupied the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem.
Some 2600 years ago Ezekiel showed that the Jewish nation
would be reborn after a long world-wide dispersion, but before the coming
of the Messiah...127
Ezekiel 37:7-8... Is phase one of the prophecy
which predicts the PHYSICAL RESTORATION of the Nation without Spiritual life
which began May 14, 1948... Ezekiel 37:9-10... Is phase two of the prophecy
which predicts the SPIRITUAL REBIRTH of the nation AFTER they are physically
restored to the land as a nation... The Lord identifies the bones in the allegory
as representing 'the whole house of Israel.' It is crystal clear that this
is literally predicting the restoration and rebirth of the whole nation at
the time of Messiah's coming [Ezekiel 37:21-27].128
In like manner, where first Century Christians understood
Jesus to be warning them to flee Jerusalem because of its imminent destruction,
Lindsey claims that Jesus was actually predicting the restoration of the Jews
to Palestine in the 20th Century.
But the most important sign in Matthew has to be the restoration
of the Jews to the land in the rebirth of Israel. Even the figure of speech
'fig tree' has been a historic symbol of national Israel. When the Jewish
people, after nearly 2,000 years of exile, under relentless persecution, became
a nation again on 14 May 1948 the 'fig tree' put forth its first leaves.129
Nothing, however, in Matthew 24:32 indicates that Jesus intended
his hearers to understand that he was promising Israel would become a nation
once more. The New Testament is silent on the question of whether the Jews would
ever become a national state again. Nevertheless, Lindsey has popularised the
notion that the return of Jewish people to Palestine since 1948 is the fulfilment
of biblical prophecy. Lindsey speaks repeatedly of the 'rebirth'130
of Israel, insisting,
The nation of Israel cannot be ignored; we see the Jews
as a miracle of history.'131
...all the unconditional covenants... Were made
only with the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as a unique
nation.132
This logic leads Lindsey to suggest that had the Jewish
people accepted Jesus as their Messiah, the rest of the world would not have
been offered the Gospel.
The Gospel and the age of grace would not have come to
us Gentiles unless Israel had fallen into unbelief.133
Aware of criticism of attempts to apply biblical prophecy
to contemporary events, Lindsey qualifies his own particular interpretation,
but in so doing advocates both a massive secularisation of biblical prophecy
as well as a questionable 'second chance' way of salvation for the Jews.
Right here a careful distinction must be made between 'the
physical restoration' to the land of Palestine as a nation, which clearly
occurs shortly before the Messiah's coming and the 'spiritual restoration'
of all Jews who have believed in the Messiah just after His return to this
earth. The 'physical restoration' is accomplished by unbelieving Jews through
their human effort. As a matter of fact, the great catastrophic events which
are to happen to this nation during 'the tribulation' are primarily designed
to shock the people into believing in their true Messiah (Ezekiel 38; 39).134
In
The Road to Holocaust, Lindsey draws a distinction between those who are Jews
racially and religiously from those who are regenerate Jews, claiming only the
latter are God's chosen people.
The Regenerate Israelite has always been the True Israelite.
This group combines together both the racial and spiritual factors that the
Bible describes as 'the remnant of Israel.'... The Bible reveals the insufficiency
of being only a racial and religious Jew... The Bible has always taught that
only the racial Jew who is born spiritually is a true Israelite and heir to
the eternal promises... And that they continue to be God's special people.135
Lindsey does not accept that the privileged status of covenant
people was taken away from the Jews at some time between Pentecost and the destruction
of Jerusalem in 70 A. D. Based on his interpretation of Romans 11, Lindsey argues,
in line with classical dispensationalism, that the Church will be replaced by
Israel as the people of God on earth,
...at some point in history - very soon, I believe - God's
special focus and blessing is going to shift back to the Jews. At that moment,
the Jews will once again be responsible, as God's representatives, to take
His message to the whole world. This mission - incomplete and seemingly impossible
for the last 2,000 years - will be accomplished by the 144,000 Jewish Billy
Graham's in seven years.136
In his latest work, Lindsey continues to insist on a radical
distinction between the church and Israel.
He redeemed the Church (both Jew and Gentile who trusted
in Him) at the Cross. That is an accomplished fact. Israel's national redemption
in accordance with the Abrahamic covenant takes place at the Second Advent.137
An alternative reading of the New Testament would suggest
that, while the apostles Peter and Paul could appeal to the historical link
between the Jews and their privileges (Acts 3:25; Romans 9:4-5, 11:28), time
was running out and that there was a limit to that appeal. In the plan of redemptive
history, the rejection of the Messiah by the majority of Jewish people led to
their rejection under the terms of the covenant. In Acts 3:22-23 Peter applies
the Mosaic warning of Deuteronomy 18:15-19 and Leviticus 23:29 to his generation
and makes their response to Jesus Christ the critical test.
For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you
a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything
he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from
among his people.' (Acts 3:22-23)
Likewise, Paul explains how only those who believe in Jesus
Christ, including both Jews and Gentiles, are now the true children of Abraham.
It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received
the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness
that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value
and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no
law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that
it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring - not only
to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.
He is the father of us all. As it is written: "I have made you a father
of many nations." (Romans 4:13-17)
Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited
to him as righteousness." Understand, then, that those who believe are
children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles
by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations
will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along
with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:6-9)
The New Testament therefore insists on a limited time when
the initial offer of salvation would be made to the Jews as the chosen people
of God. This was probably confined to the generation that witnessed the life
and ministry of Jesus Christ. Failure to respond to the claims of Christ led
to the removal of the covenant status and privileges from the Jewish people
and their application to the Church (1 Peter 2:9-10). Paul goes so far as to
describe the consequences as a complete reversal of the status of Jews and Gentiles.
'Jerusalem' symbolic of the Jews who had rejected Jesus Christ were now regarded
as the offspring of Hagar not Sarah.
24These things may be taken figuratively,
for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and
bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25Now Hagar stands
for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem,
because she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem
that is above is free, and she is our mother... 28Now you, brothers,
like Isaac, are children of promise... 30But what does the Scripture
say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son
will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." 31Therefore,
brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. (Galatians
4:24-31)
Ignoring the flow of redemptive history, the status of Israel
under the terms of the Hebrew covenant, and ultimately the impact of their rejection
of Jesus Christ, Lindsey applies conditional and superseded Old Testament promises
made to Israel, at times to the contemporary State of Israel and on other occasions
to Jews who believe in Jesus as their Messiah. This ambivalence is perpetuated
in Lindsey's speculations concerning which, and how many, Israelis will survive
the war of Armageddon, explored later.
4.2 The Territorial Extent of Eretz Israel
Christian Zionists clearly see the founding of the State
of Israel in 1948 as highly significant, signalling the end of 2000 years of
exile. They have therefore actively encouraged Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe
to make Aliya, seeing this as another 'Exodus.'138
The settlement and integration of the Occupied Territories
within Eretz Israel, now imbued with the evocative biblical names of 'Judea
and Samaria', is deemed essential to maintain Israeli security as well as to
fulfil the land promise made to Abraham and his descendants. In this Lindsey
was the first and probably most successful to popularise a Christian Zionist
reading of Scripture and contemporary events since 1967.
What the average Israeli understands-in part because their
sons and fathers and brothers fought to gallantly to gain this high ground-is
this... Giving away the Golan Heights might be enough to cause a political
uprising among the Israeli people. But if it isn't, surely concessions that
involve Judea and Samaria would be. There are 100,000 Jewish settlers living
in these lands now. They are biblically Jewish lands. To evacuate Jews from
them would be an enormous psychological blow to the whole concept of Jewish
nationhood. Frankly, such an attempt might be enough to trigger a civil war.139
And God has promised the land of Israel to the
Jews forever. Period.140
Lindsey is at his most critical when contemplating the implications
of a 'land for peace' resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
If Israel would just give the Palestinians a homeland,
the Arabs would be satisfied and peace would reign. If you believe that, I
have some lakefront property in the Sahara Desert I'd like to sell you.141
Having listed the various military threats Israel faces
from Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and other Arab nations, Lindsey finds
negotiation incomprehensible.
...despite all of these facts, Israel has still agreed
to give up more occupied land in the Gaza strip and Jericho and is discussing
turning over more strategic territory in Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights.
This series of developments was enough to make the most confident warriors
scared.142
With its all-consuming desire for peace at any
price, Israel has now placed itself in an indefensible position.143
Speaking of the Wye, Oslo and Hebron Accords, Lindsey offers
this pessimistic assessment.
Basically, the agreement calls for Israel to surrender
more land in exchange for Arafat's promises to abide by the agreements he
has already signed. Something for less than nothing is the best way to term
it.144
'Land for Peace!' Is the cry heard 'round the world.
In 1993 we saw Israel bullied and blackmailed into turning over more land
to the Arabs - this time to its sworn enemy, the terrorist Yasser Arafat.
Objective military and intelligence say any more land concessions would be
strategically foolhardy... Further land concessions would leave Israel with
indefensible borders and no effective conventional deterrent against attack.
The world should take note that if it stands by and lets Israel be over run,
the Samson Option is still very much in readiness... Does the world really
want to force Israel to rely exclusively on nuclear weapons for its defence?
145
Although the rhetorical answer is presumably 'no,' Lindsey
predicts, yet again, an apocalyptic scenario.
There is no question, in reviewing Bible prophecy, that
a cataclysmic, apocalyptic war will engulf the Mideast prior to the return
of Jesus Christ. In this nuclear age, it makes sense to us that the mass annihilation
we read about might be the result of a nuclear exchange. Because the Bible
talks about mass destruction by fire, this scenario seems to make sense. 'And
I will send fire on Magog [Russia],' Ezekiel recorded. If faced with annihilation
you can count on Israel to protect its civilian population by any means necessary...
Its clear that the Bible can't be talking about any other time in history
but today.146
Quoting a defence expert, Joseph De Courcy, Lindsey insists,
The absolute minimum territory Israel requires to deter
war is the territory it is controlling today... If Israel gives back Judea,
Samaria, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, it woill simply no longer be
able to defend itself against the Muslim nations with conventional weapons.147
4.3 The Significance of Jerusalem
Lindsey insists that the occupation of the Old City of Jerusalem
in 1967 by the Jews was another significant sign of the imminent return of the
Messiah, since unfulfilled prophecies concerning the Jewish people must occur
within the ancient city.
Jerusalem's importance in history is infinitely beyond
its size and economic significance. From ages past, Jerusalem has been the
most important city on this planet... More prophecies have been made concerning
Jerusalem than any other place on earth.148
He concedes that the status of Jerusalem is contested, claiming,
in the context of the Oslo Peace Accord,
The Arabs still demand Jerusalem as the ransom price for
any lasting peace. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu went on record in Washington
repeating his promise that Jerusalem will never be divided.149
Nevertheless, Lindsey insists, pessimistically, Arab aspirations
are futile.
As the Bible tells us, the dispute over Jerusalem and Israel's
borders will never be settled by any peace agreements nor any whiz-bang diplomatic
breakthrough. Jerusalem, the Bible says, will be a stumbling block for the
entire world... In Luke 21:24, the Bible tells us that 'Jerusalem will be
trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.'
We are literally witnessing the end of the times of the Gentiles.150
A year later, Lindsey is more specific and emphatic in his
dispensational timing,
We are literally witnessing the last hours of the times
of the Gentiles. God's focus is shifting back to His people Israel.151
Lindsey interprets the prophecies of Zechariah 12-14 as foretelling
events that are about to happen including a fearful siege of Jerusalem by the
Soviet army.152
It is clear from these chapters that the Jews would have
to be dwelling in and have possession of the ancient city of Jerusalem at
the time of the Messiah's triumphant advent.153
There couldn't be a more perfect modern-day description
of what was predicted hundreds of years ago in Zechariah 12-14. There it tells
us that the last war of the world will be started by a dispute over Jerusalem.
We've got that dispute right now. As a matter of fact, the West helped guaranty
the world a dispute over Jerusalem by forcing the Israelis into a pact with
the Palestinians.154
How much of Jerusalem will be left standing when Jesus returns
is a matter of speculation, given Lindsey's terrifying description of the war
of Armageddon.
The Bible also makes clear that Jerusalem - the focal point
of the endtimes fighting - will be vanquished by Israel's enemies in the hours
just before the Lord comes. In fact, it seems that the destruction of the
holy city is the final straw that angers God and provokes Jesus' return.155
He nevertheless looks forward to a better day after Armageddon,
when, during the Millennium,
Jerusalem will be the spiritual centre of the entire world...
all people of the earth will come annually to worship Jesus who will rule
there.156
4.4 The Rebuilding of the Jewish
Temple
Right now, as you read this, preparations are being made
to rebuild the Third Temple.157
Lindsey not only regards the founding of the State of Israel
and capture of Jerusalem as the fulfilment of biblical prophecy but insists,
controversially, that the Jewish Temple must also be rebuilt. Initially, in
1970, he insisted this would have to be in place of the Dome of the Rock.
There remains but one more event to completely set the
stage for Israel's part in the last great act of her historical drama. This
is to rebuild the ancient Temple of worship upon its old site... There is
one major problem barring the construction of a third Temple. That obstacle
is the second holiest place of the Moslem faith, the Dome of the Rock. This
is believed to be built squarely in the middle of the old temple site. Obstacle
or no obstacle, it is certain that the Temple will be rebuilt. Prophecy demands
it.158
This quote reveals Lindsey's basic ignorance of
Islam. The Temple Mount on which the Dome of the Rock and Alaqsa Mosque are
built constitutes the third most holy shrine to Moslems after Medina and Mecca
not the second as Lindsey erroneously asserts here and repeats later in There's
a New World Coming.159
Dispensationalists like Lindsey believe in the imminent
rebuilding of the Temple based on the somewhat enigmatic passage of Daniel 9:24-27.
The sanctuary already appears to have been destroyed in verse 26 yet sacrifices
are brought to an end in verse 27 and then the 'abomination that causes desolation'
desecrates the Temple.
After the sixty-two 'sevens,' the Anointed One will be cut
off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy
the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue
until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27He
will confirm a covenant with many for one 'seven.' In the middle of the 'seven'
he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he
will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed
is poured out on him." (Daniel 9:26-27)
On the basis of a rather tenuous interpretation, Lindsey
confidently argues,
This prophecy speaks of sacrifice and offerings which
demand that the Jews rebuild the Temple for the third time upon its original
site. At that point, Judaism and Islam will be placed on an inevitable course
of war over the site, a war that will start Armageddon. Many prophecies
demand rebuilding of the ancient Temple, indicating that the event is a
significant prophetic sign (see Matthew 24:15 and 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4).
Therefore any move toward that direction is a crucial clue to what hour
it is on God's prophetic timetable.160
Lindsey insists Jesus concurred with this interpretation.
Of course, for Temple rites to be stopped in the last
days, we know they must be restarted. The words of Jesus Himself in Matthew
24:15 require that a new holy place be built and a complete sacrificial
system re-instituted. And since only a consecrated temple can be defiled,
this prophecy shows that the physical Temple must not only be rebuilt, but
a functioning priesthood must begin practising once again.161
He also sees evidence for the rebuilding of the Temple in
the instructions given to the Apostle John to measure the Temple in Revelation
11:1-2.
The Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation about the
year A.D. 95. This means that the Temple... was non-existent for the twenty-five
years preceding John's writing... What Temple, then, was John referring
to? There can be only one answer - a yet-to-be-built structure!162
Lindsey quotes Israel Eldad, an Israeli historian, who
claims that devout Jews, 'some of whom are in powerful positions in the Israeli
government' expect the Dome of the Rock to be destroyed, whether by natural
or supernatural intervention, and the Jewish Temple to be rebuilt very soon
after.163
Lindsey quotes Eldad again three years later,
"When the Jewish people took over Jerusalem the
first time, under King David, only one generation passed before they built
the Temple, and so it shall be with us." When asked about the problem
of the Dome of the Rock being on the Jewish Temple site, he replied with
a wink, "Who knows, perhaps there will be an earthquake!" What
Eldad said in jest may be just the thing that will happen.164
Clearly, in 1970, Lindsey believed that the Dome of the
Rock would need to be destroyed in order for the Jewish Temple to be rebuilt.
He even appeared to know the exact location of the former structure.
Archaeologists have uncovered a pillar from Solomon's
porch as the first major find from the Herodian Temple. From its location
in relation to the Wailing Wall they have now ascertained where the ancient
Holy of Holies in the Temple was located. Imagine my emotions as I stood
under a sign at the Wall which read in Hebrew: 'Holy of Holies, 10 Metres,'
with an arrow pointing towards a spot thirty feet behind the existing Wall
in the direction of the Dome of the Rock!165
By 1983 Lindsey had changed his mind about the location
of the Herodian Temple. Based apparently on the findings of a 16 year investigation
undertaken by Dr Kaufman of the Hebrew University and published in the Biblical
Archaeology Review, Lindsey now claimed,
I also believe that this discovery has accelerated the
countdown to the events that will bring the Messiah Jesus back to earth.
The reason for this belief is that the predicted Third Temple can now be
built without disturbing the Dome of the Rock. ...the Temple and its immediate
guard wall could be rebuilt and still be twenty-six meters away from the
Dome of the Rock. 166
Having discovered the true site of the Herodian Temple,
in 1980 Lindsey proceeded to find scriptural verification for this new location.
Revelation chapter 11 indicates this very situation:
'I was given a reed like a measuring rod and told, 'Go and measure the temple
of God and the altar, and count the worshippers there. But exclude the outer
court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They
will trample on the holy city for 42 months.'' (Revelation 11:1,2 NIV).
The outer court, which includes the area where the Dome of the Rock is situated,
was given to the Gentiles. So this prophecy accurately reflects the situation
that is present today... All of these things are tremendously exciting to
those who know Bible prophecy. We are literally in the very last days of
the Church Age. The Temple will be rebuilt soon!167
In 1994, Lindsey heightened speculation still further with
the following assertion.
I remember my whole body tingling with excitement when
I measured the distances on the Temple platform and realized that God had
left out the outer court because it allowed for the Gentile temple to remain
alongside the rebuilt Jewish Temple during the Tribulation. Folks, the footsteps
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, can already be heard as He approaches
the doors of heaven to return. The Temple is the last sign that needs to
fall into place before events irreversibly speed toward the return of Jesus.168
Despite being aware of the hypersensitivity felt by Moslems
about the Temple Mount area and their justifiable fear that Jewish and Christian
fundamentalists might try to destroy it again,169
Lindsey assumes that, since a Jewish Temple could now be built alongside the
Dome of the Rock, the Moslem authorities would tolerate this, so that the
Jewish Temple could become 'the greatest tourist attraction in the world'.170
But lets think even more practically. Not only would
the Temple become a unifying force for Israel's diverse and pluralistic
society, it would also, without doubt, become the greatest tourist attraction
in the world. Its basic economics. Imagine what a new Temple would do for
the Israeli economy, which relies so heavily on tourism. The Temple would
also serve to attract more Jews from all over the world-and... The Bible
tells us that eventually all of the dispersed will return to their homeland.
The Temple would serve as a kind of spiritual magnet. This, too, would fit
into the prophetic scenario, which indicates that Israel is destined to
play a major role in the world and experience vast wealth, power and prestige
in the last days. Why else would the Antichrist choose to set up his throne
in Jerusalem unless Israel had moved center stage in the world's political
and economic picture.171
Lindsey points to the existence of two talmudic schools
training some 200 Levite priests and the accumulation of vessels and clothing
necessary to perform sacrifices, as further proof of the imminent plans to rebuild
the Temple.
Near the site of the Temple, the seminary of Aterat Kohanim
(Glory of the Priests) is reviving an extinct class of Jewish priests and
their servants known as Levites so they will be ready when the ancient prophecies
are fulfilled and the Temple, twice destroyed, is rebuilt.172
Lindsey's belief in the imminent rebuilding of the Temple
is reinforced by his understanding of Jesus' words in Matthew 24.
Jesus Christ predicted an event which would trigger a
time of unparalleled catastrophe for the Jewish nation shortly before His
second coming... With the Jewish nation reborn in the land of Palestine,
ancient Jerusalem once again under total Jewish control for the first time
in 2600 years, and talk of rebuilding the great Temple, the most important
sign of Jesus Christ's soon coming is before us... It is like the key piece
of a jigsaw puzzle being found... For all those who trust in Jesus Christ,
it is a time of electrifying excitement.173
Although Lindsey's speculations are popular and have an
immediacy in terms of interpreting contemporary events, they bear little relation
to the events described in Matthew 24. Many commentators note that the predictions
of Jesus were fulfilled in the events leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem
in 70 A.D. when Jewish Zealots desecrated the temple using it as a fortress
against the Romans. Eusebius, for example, the 4th Century Bishop and historian
refers to the eye witness accounts of Josephus, the Jewish historian of the
1st Century, to show how these predictions of Jesus had already been fulfilled.
It is fitting to add to these accounts the true prediction
of our Saviour in which he foretold these very events.174
Lindsey ignores this historical position preferring to
interpret Matthew 24 as prophecy still awaiting fulfilment. So when Jesus
promised these events would be witnessed by 'this generation'175,
Lindsey understands 'this' to be his own generation.176
There is no room for negotiation or debate on this issue,
Lindsey is emphatic.
So the rebuilding of the Temple is significant not only
because of the potential firestorm it will create between Jews and Muslims
in the Middle East. It is also a critical development in the entire prophetic
scenario. The Bible makes it clear that in the last days the Antichrist
will establish his reign in the Temple of Jerusalem. Therefore, the Temple
must and will be rebuilt.177
4.5 The Implacable Enemies of Israel:
Communists and Moslems
Lindsey claims biblical warrant for his hostility toward
Communism and Islam.
Ezekiel, Daniel and Zechariah all said that a nation
to the extreme north of Israel would achieve great influence and become
a threat to the whole world. They said this power would be Israel's mortal
enemy. The prophets predicted that this nation would launch an all-out land
and sea attack on Israel, the Arab nations and the continent of Africa.
This country, Bible scholars agree, is the Soviet Union. A line drawn due
north of Israel crosses only one land mass - Russia. And the three tribes
Ezekiel predicted would people the nation to the north are in fact the ancestors
of today's Russians. Throughout its history, the single most consistent
motive of the Soviet Union's military invasions has been the acquisition
of warm water ports for its merchant and naval fleets. 178
As previously quoted the Russians will make both
an amphibious and land invasion of Israel. The current build-up of Russian
ships in the Mediterranean serves as another significant sign of the possible
nearness of Armageddon.179
Lindsey's speculations concerning Russia show remarkable
similarity to those of earlier Dispensationalists such as Arno Gaebelein.
Arno
Gaebelein (1916) |
|
The time cannot be far off when Russia's millions,
augmented by the armies that she will gather from these and other nations,
will be thrown by their rulers into Palestine in order to destroy the
nation of the Jews.180
|
...I predicted that the Soviets would begin
their Middle East campaign with a sweep through the Persian Gulf area
into Iran. The recent Russian invasion of Afghanistan was a first step
in that direction.181...to
utterly destroy the Jewish people.182
|
Attempting to keep pace
with the dramatic geo-political changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union,
Lindsey insisted in 1981 and 1994 that his shifting views of Russia, were nevertheless
both predicted in the Bible.
1980's
Countdown to Armageddon |
Planet
Earth 2000 A.D. |
Today, the Soviets are without question the
strongest power on the face of the earth. Lets look at recent history
to see how the Russians rose to the might predicted for them thousands
of years ago.183
|
We see Russia as
no longer a world threat, but a regional power with a world-class military
- exactly what Ezekiel 38 and 39 predicted it would be.184
|
While at the time believing Russia had a preordained destiny
to dominate the world, attack Israel and precipitate a nuclear holocaust, in
1980 Lindsey nevertheless berated successive American governments for allowing
the Russians to gain this military superiority. He does not explain how on the
one hand he believed this to be the fulfilment of biblical prophecy yet 'incomprehensible'.
The United States was far ahead in the nuclear arms race
until the end of the 1960's. Then the situation began to change rapidly.
The change occurred because of the U.S. leadership's almost unbelievable
misreading of the Soviet goals and intentions. In light of the clearly-stated
communist goal of world domination and their constant efforts to attain
that status, it is incomprehensible to me that America allowed the Russians
to take the lead in the arms race. To understand how the U.S. slipped into
this perilous position we must review some recent history.185
Lindsey provides five pages of graphs to show how Russia
had by the 1980's gained military superiority over the United States in conventional
forces, tactical aircraft, military personnel, combat ships, tanks, artillery,
anti-ballistic missiles, interceptor aircraft, strategic bombers and nuclear
warheads.186
Lindsey laments,
Beginning with President Kennedy, each U.S. Administration
has grossly misjudged the goals of the Soviet Union and communism in general.
Each successive administration has hoped that its own example of fairness
and good will toward the world would somehow encourage the communists to
abandon their drive toward world domination.187
Lindsey repeats this inexplicable contradiction, one the
one hand criticising the U.S. Government for allowing the Russians to gain superiority,
while at the same time claiming this to be their divinely determined destiny.
In carefully researching this chapter, one thing came
through with sickening clarity: The foreign policies of the western nations,
especially the U.S., have done more to aid the tremendous buildup of Soviet
power than has any other single factor... The Soviet Union and its satellites
have now reached the position of military superiority and strategic world
power to fulfill their predicted dreadful role in history. The pages of
Ezekiel's and Daniel's prophecies are beginning to look like today's headlines.188
With the demise of the Soviet empire, Lindsey's predictions
appeared more like 'yesterdays' headlines. Nevertheless, in 1994, despite the
fall of the Communist government, Lindsey continued to speculate a possible
revival of the Russian threat.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, I criticized Ronald Reagan
and George Bush for making foreign policy based on the life and health of
one man - Mikhail Gorbachev. It is even more true today that the United
States is taking a great gamble - because of its rapid savaging of our whole
military-industrial complex - that Boris Yeltsin will prevail and turn Russia
permanently away from its expansionist, imperialist dreams. That's a gamble,
by the way, that the Bible prophecies hint may lead to our destruction.189
By 1995, just a year later, Lindsey was now extolling Reagan's
foreign policy and denying that it was ever predicted in Scripture that the
Soviet Union would gain world domination.
In fact, the Soviet Union was on the verge of dominating
the world militarily in the period leading up to 1985... Fortunately, a
confident and bold leader, Ronald Reagan, was elected president of the United
States and set in place policies which resulted in a series of reversals
- militarily and economic - for the Soviet Union. I believe God's providential
hand was working behind the scenes because it was never on the cards for
the Kremlin to rule the world.190
With the gradual demise of Russia as a world power, and
the disintegration of her communist empire, Lindsey began to switch his emphasis
to Islam as the real threat to Israel and world peace.191
It is interesting to observe this transition.
Late
Great Planet Earth (1970) |
Apocalypse
Code (1997) |
The Russian force
will establish command headquarters on Mount Moriah or the Temple area in
Jerusalem. ...he seeks to utterly destroy the Jewish people.192
|
In response to these
two deadly threats, the Russian-Muslim force retreats back to Israel and
sets up command HQs on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. These forces try to
annihilate the Jews as they do this.193
|
1980's Countdown to Armageddon
|
Planet Earth 2000 A.D. (1994)
|
Today, the Soviets are without a question
the strongest power on the face of the earth... As the Biblical prophets
predicted long ago, the Russians now possess a 'splendidly equipped' army.
In fact, the Russian military is the most destructive war machine ever
assembled... The Soviet Union and its satellites have now reached the
position of military superiority and strategic world power to fulfill
their predicted dreadful role in history... Today, we are in a life-or-death
contest with the totalitarian system of communism. If we cannot build
a credible deterrent to the growing Soviet military machine, then we will
soon be taken over, and we will cease to exist as a free society...194
|
The greatest threat to freedom and world peace
today - is Islamic fundamentalism... Tragically,
the world's sole remaining superpower - the United States -has responded
to this monumental threat by embarking on a suicidal, unilateral demilitarization
process of unprecedented speed and recklessness. Like the Scriptures warn,
the West is blithely saying 'Peace and safety'... Yet the free world today
is facing greater danger than anything since World War II.195
|
Throughout his books, but increasingly in the latter editions,
Lindsey denigrates Arabs generally and Palestinians, in particular. He appears
to show little understanding or compassion for their plight. Instead he offers
a novel reinterpretation of the events of 1948.
Although the new Israeli government pleaded with them
to stay and fight together for a common homeland, all but a handful crossed
over into Jordan to wait for total victory against the Jews.196
The Palestinians are determined to trouble the
world until they repossess what they feel is their land.197
While it is true that "the Palestinian issue"
is a mere mirage, an excuse for hating Jews and Israel and turning the world
against them, it is also true that the radical Islamic world will never
accept the existence of the Jewish state no matter what concessions it makes
toward peace.198
...there is no such thing as Palestine.199
...the Palestinians who have attempted to usurp
control ovewr a city that holds no genuine significance for them and a land
they never particularly wanted until the Jews occupied it again.200
Lindsey's antipathy toward Islam, expressed in quite inflammatory
remarks, is typical of Christian Zionism generally.
'All Moslems see Israel
as their enemy'201
The Arab nations are united in their fanatical obsession
to destroy Israel.202
The Arab nations consider it a matter of racial honour
to destroy the State of Israel.203
The Middle East is a powder keg, all right. But
its not because of Israeli policies. Islam, with its grand and global ambitions
- not Israel - is the culprit.204
There will be no peace in the Middle East as
long as the world entertains the Arab's fanciful visions of dividing and
conquering Jerusalem. Peace would only be possible, if, by some miracle,
the Arabs realized that their ambitions for military and economic hegemony
over Israel were delusional. Don't hold your breath... the Arab world has
been successful at framing the debate over the Middle East as a struggle
between downtrodden Palestinians and powerful, heavily armed Jews...205
Agreements in the Arab nations don't mean the
same thing they mean in the Judeo-Christian world. Islam not only has a
track record of re-interpreting, denouncing and reversing settlements, such
actions are actually encouraged if they further the cause of Allah.206
Is there anyone who doubts
that the Syrians are willing to push the button to launch surface-to-surface
missiles carrying chemical warheads into Israeli population centers?... Given
what you know about the long history of Islamic jealousy and hatred of the Jews,
is it difficult to imagine a decision being made in Baghdad or Tehran to fire
a nuclear warhead at Tel Aviv?207
The history of the Middle East and Islam is a landscape
of tribal warfare, imperial ambitions and oppression for all non-believers.208
This movement seeks not only to destroy the state of
Israel but also the overthrow of the Judeo-Christian culture-the very foundation
of our western civilisation... They have, like the Communists, at their
philosophic core the sworn duty to "bury us."209
Lindsey claims biblical warrant for the contemporary Arab-Israeli
conflict. He believes the Psalmist, for example, predicted that the Palestinians
along with the Lebanese and Syrians would attempt but fail to destroy Israel.
Long ago the psalmist predicted the final mad attempt
by the confederated Arab armies to destroy the nation of Israel... (Psalm
83:1-8)210
In Psalm 83, some 3,000 years ago, God gave a
warning of what would happen in the last days... In these verses the Philistia
or Philistines are the modern Palestinians. Tyre is modern Lebanon. Assyria
is modern Syria. I wanted you to read this passage for yourself because
it speaks of a time in which there is a concerted effort to wipe out Israel
as a nation... Even then, the Psalmist -under Divine Inspiration-looked
to the last days before the Messiah would come to deliver Israel from the
children of Ishmael. All the peoples named in those verses make up the various
tribes that became known as the Arabs. When you read some of these verses
it sounds like modern Radio Tehran, doesn't it? Why? Because this passage
of scripture is predicting the modern-day Middle East situation.211
As the Bible tells us, the dispute over Jerusalem
and Israel's borders will never be settled by any peace agreements nor any
whiz-bang diplomatic breakthrough.212
Lindsey attributes Armageddon and the destruction of most
of the world's population to the influence of Islam over the Arab-Israeli conflict.
All this destruction will be caused by the ancient hatred
between Ishmael and Isaac - the smouldering flames of hatred that have existed
for 4,000 years - the jealousy of Ishmael toward Isaac - the fact that Ishmael
and his descendants have never been willing to accept the blessings that
God gave them... they have never been satisfied. They wanted Isaac's blessing...
it is what is going to touch off the war that will almost destroy the World.213
Ezekiel's long-predicted invasion sweeps into
Israel with the pent-up-fury of four thousand years of hatred that started
with Ishmael and was later enshrined by his descendants in the Muslim religion.214
This will be the sign that immediately precedes
the Russian-led Islamic invasion of Israel.215
Lindsey claims his assessment of Middle Eastern politics
is not only based upon the bible but also privileged access to 'primary intelligence
sources' within the Israeli military. In 1994 he quoted one such source as equating
Islam with Nazism,
Stopping the Iranian-Syrian axis and their lead over
the Islamic world is the most important issue of this decade. It is even
more important than it was in 1939 to stop Adolf Hitler.216
Lindsey's dogmatic and provocative views are representative
of what Edward Said calls Western cultural imperialism or 'Orientalism' typified
by its "crude stereotype imaging of the East."217
4.6 The Fall and Rise of the United States
A popular view among Christian Zionists is the belief that
God will continue to bless America only as long as she remains an ally of Israel.
Lindsey is no exception.
Except for the U.S., Israel has no allies... We are still
Israel's friend. But there are strong pressures from within to turn away
from Israel. I pray that we do not, for our friendship with the Israelis
is one of the reasons we've survived as a nation.218
Lindsey finds mention of
the United States in the Bible. In the reference to '...the woman were given
two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly into the wilderness...' in
Revelation 12:13-17, Lindsey speculates that this describes 'some massive airlift'
that will transport escaping Jewish believers from the holocaust of Armageddon
to the safety of places like Petra.
Since the eagle is the national symbol of the United
States, its possible that the airlift will be made available by aircraft
from the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean.219
Lindsey does not explain why the symbolism of the eagle
should be applied to the United States instead of to any one of a number of
countries like Germany or the Czech Republic who also include an eagle as part
of their national emblem. Nor does he explain why this particular reference
to an eagle should be understood as describing modern aircraft and not other
passages such as Exodus 19:4, Deuteronomy 32:11-12 or Isaiah 40:31 which also
refer to eagles. Such speculative interpretations hardly corroborate Lindsey's
claim to hold to a consistent literal hermeneutic.
Despite fulfilling this important biblical role of supporting
Israel, Lindsey does not, however, see a hopeful future for the United States.
In 1970 he predicted,
The United States will not hold its present position
of leadership in the western world; financially, the future leader will
be Western Europe. Internal political chaos caused by student rebellion
and Communist subversion will begin to erode the economy of our nation.
Lack of moral principle by citizens and leaders will so weaken law and order
that a state of anarchy will finally result. The military capability of
the United States, though it is at present the most powerful in the world,
has already been neutralized because no one has the courage to use it decisively.
When the economy collapses so will the military.220
In 1994, Lindsey drew attention to the accuracy of his
predictions, made some 24 years earlier, of a moral as well as military decline
of the United States. "And this is exactly what I have been expecting
and predicting for this country since 1956."221
In the 1980's Lindsey saw further evidence that
his prediction had come true. He berated the U.S. Administration for allowing
Russia to gain military superiority, describing America as 'a second-class
military power.'222
Lindsey claimed God wanted the American government to win
back the lead in the arms race.
...I believe that the Bible supports building a powerful
military force. And the Bible is telling the U.S. To become strong again.
A weak military will encourage the Soviet Union to start an all-out war...
It is time to use our vast and superior technology to create the world's
strongest military power. Only this will stop the Soviet's insane rush toward
nuclear war.223
Since Lindsey believes most of the world will be destroyed
in a predestined nuclear holocaust anyway, he does not explain the point of
building yet more weapons of mass destruction. Nevertheless, he claims that
American people must face some stark choices.
So from the standpoint of Biblical prophecy, the U.S.
must fade from its place of leadership for the West and its former supreme
superpower status. There are several possible fates for the U.S. They include:
A takeover by the communists
Destruction by a surprise Soviet nuclear attack (I don't
even like to think about this possibility)
Becoming a dependent of the 10-nation European confederacy
- A far more hopeful fate than any of the above...224
His fourth option is elaborated under the heading 'The More
Important Duty.' Lindsey claims that God has preserved the United States as a
'free country' for four reasons. These include the presence of a large community
of 'true believers'; their support for missionaries around the world; their commitment
to prayer; and,
The third reason is that the U.S. has stood behind
the Jews and the nation of Israel in their times of need. Both here and
in the Middle East, we have fought persecution of the Jewish people and
their nation, many times when no one else would help. God said to Abraham,
the father of all Jews: 'I'll bless those who bless you, and I will curse
those who curse you.' This promise was extended to protect all the descendants
(sic) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 12:3 and 27:29). I believe
that if the U.S. ever turns its back on Israel, we will no longer exist
as a nation. Don't take this lightly, for throughout history the rise
and fall of empires can be directly related to how they treated the Jews.225
By 1995 Lindsey was lamenting American ambivalence toward
Israel.
I believe America's fate is tied directly to the way
it relates to the nation of Israel. Think of the way America prospered
from 1948 through 1967 when its support of the Jewish state was virtually
unconditional. Today the United States has joined the worldwide chorus
urging Israel to make concession after concession to the Arabs for nothing
more than promises...226
This he attributed to a failure on the part of the American
establishment, and president, in particular, to maintain a foreign policy
that was unequivocally pro-Israel based on a strategic military alliance against
the Communists and Islam.
In these days of rogue Islamic nations acquiring nuclear
missile capabilities, such short-sightedness is close to national suicide...
We now have had a president of the United States who smoked marijuana
but "didn't inhale." The American military is completely demoralized.
Its mission has been radically altered from fighting force to "humanitarian"
force. And as the defense budget is hacked away mercilessly, America's
naive political leadership keeps finding more remote parts of the world
in which to commit our confused young troops.227
After Jimmy Carter was elected president in
1976, America took a more strongly pro-Cairo line... Under President Bush,
things deteriorated even further... George Bush's administration represented
the most anti-Israel U.S. presidency ever. But that was then, and this
is now. The current administration and, particularly, the new leadership
emerging within the State Department, may make the Bush years look good
by comparison.228
Lindsey has been particularly outspoken in criticising
the United States decision to help monitor the Peace Accord by offering the
services of the CIA both to the Palestine Authority as well as Israel.
Last week's Middle East peace deal puts the US smack
in the middle of a war zone. President Clinton committed the Central Intelligence
Agency to a role the CIA was not designed to do. The US promised to use
the CIA to openly track Palestinian compliance with the Wye agreement...
The use of the CIA in the Middle East is filled with dangerous possibilities
for America... And it's the CIA's new role to play umpire. Anybody that's
ever been to a baseball game knows what that means. The last thing the
US needs is to hear the Arabs begin to chant 'kill the umpire.' Because
they won't be throwing soda bottles.229
Appalled at the involvement of the United States in the
peace agreement signed at the White House in 1993, Lindsey insists,
Instead of peace, appeasement will lead to war in the
Middle East. But not just war. This time it will lead to catastrophe,
to nightmare, to unprecedented bloodshed and human suffering. In other
words, it will lead to the Final Battle.230
Despite the fact that the United States remains the most
powerful country in the world, and while Lindsey remains convinced that the
apocalypse is imminent, in 1995, he reiterated,
But my gut reaction is that America will continue to
decline in power and influence in the coming years. Clearly, America does
not appear to play an extraordinary role in the endtimes events. If she
did, there would be more scriptural evidence for it.231
I have always believed and stated quite plainly
that the fate of America is, to a great extent, determined by how it treats
Israel. Why? Because God promised to bless those nations that were a blessing
to Israel and curse those that were a curse upon the Jewish state. I won't
go so far as to suggest that America has been a curse upon Israel of late,
but it has been far from a blessing either... The U.S. has been protected
by God because it has been a haven for Israelites and an ally for their
survival... Now we are turning away, look for the "Late Great United
States... Its understandable why America may be all but irrelevant by
the time of the Final Battle."232
4.7 Europe and the Emergence
of a Revived Roman Empire
Like many other dispensationalists before him, Lindsey
claims the Bible predicts that the European nations are forming a revived
Roman Empire out of which the Anti-Christ will emerge. His writings show a
rare ability to shape prophecy to fit the changing size of the European Community.
In 1970, quoting Walter Hallstein, former president of the European Economic
Community, Lindsey predicted,
We believe that the Common Market and the trend toward
unification of Europe may well be the beginning of the ten-nation confederacy
predicted by Daniel and the Book of Revelation... 'At about 1980 we may
fully expect the great fusion of all economic, military, and political
communities together into the United States of Europe.'233
In 1973, Lindsey returns to the same theme,
You'll notice that nine countries are already members
of the Community... The European union has therefore been temporarily
halted at nine members instead of ten. My personal belief is that God
Himself stopped the rapid unification because the Revised (sic) Roman
Empire was coming together too fast. Once the confederacy includes the
ten nations of God's choosing, the group will begin to look for a leader
powerful enough to make this new nation the nucleus of a one-world government.234
In 1980, Lindsey was more assured about his timetable.
When I wrote that in Late Great, the only possible
successor to the Roman Empire (in my opinion) was the European Common
Market. But a decade ago, that organization had just six member nations,
not the 10 the Bible forecast. In 1979, Greece became the 10th member
of the Common Market. Recently, the Common Market went beyond its original
economic and trade functions and elected a parliament. This move will
eventually fulfill the Common Market's long range goal - to unify its
members into a single political body.235
Perhaps forseeing that more countries might conceivably
wish to join the European Community, Lindsey wisely covers that eventuality
also.
It is possible that more than 10 nations could at one
point be admitted. But in the final stages, it will number 10.236
In 1994, Lindsey acknowledged that there were now 12 member
nations and more likely to join, so, in order that Scripture be fulfilled,
Lindsey predicted,
In phase 2 of the fourth kingdom, Rome will be in the
form of a 10-nation confederacy. Therefore we can expect two nations to
withdraw from the CE or we can expect to see mergers of nations.237
A year later, Lindsey was more specific about what would
likely happen next.
I believe, for instance, that a split is very likely
that will cause either Britain and/or Germany to leave the EC. Germany
could forge a closer relationship with Russia, while Britain may turn
toward the United States of America. The Bible is very clear, as we shall
see, that this union will be a confederation of ten nations.238
4.8 The Coming Holocaust: Armageddon
Theology in Practice
Most Christian Zionists
are dispensationalists and all dispensationalists are premillennialists, holding
to a pessimistic view of the future. Lindsey is no exception. Without any
hesitation or doubt he insists,
'And look what's happening in the Middle East - ground
zero in the endtimes events.... This phoney peace deal in the Middle East
thus only ensures that eventually there will be a thermonuclear holocaust
in the Middle East... This seems to parallel predictions in Revelation
and elsewhere almost to a T. Mark my words. It will happen.'239
Let's talk about World War III... We can almost
see the handwriting on the wall... Does this sound like a scenario that
could happen in the very near future? Perhaps at almost any minute? You
bet it does.240
Want to know what hell on earth will be like?.
Hal Lindsey gives us the best glimpse to date... You couldn't get a better
picture of what World War III will be like without being bodily transported
into the future... This book focuses on a rapidly approaching climactic
war - the most brutal, barbaric and destructive conflict ever waged on
this planet.241
At times Lindsey's description of suffering inherent in
this most terrible scenario of a nuclear holocaust is tasteless if not sick.
Man has pretty much exhausted his arsenal. There are
few popguns left, but not very much left to pop them. At least four billion
people have perished in the first 14 Judgments alone. Now its God's turn.242
I always get a comical mental image when I
read this next verse. In my mind's eye, I see this confused, cancer ridden,
dull eyed, war-weary soldier. He smokes a giant joint and says, "Let
the weak say, I am a mighty man"243
In two of Lindsey's much early books he includes maps
showing the various stages of this war of Armageddon. A comparison shows the
evolution in Lindsey's thinking given a changing world.
The
Late Great Planet Earth (1970) |
Israel
and the Last Days (1983) |
Phase I: Pan Arabic
assault & Russian amphibious assault.
Phase II: Russian Confederacy counterattack
Middle East into Egypt (Daniel 11:40-42)
Phase III: Russian Confederacy initiates
conquest of Africa, attacking to the West and South.
Phase IV: Russian commander hears tidings
out of the 'East' (Orient mobilizing) and out of the 'North' (Roman confederacy
mobilizing) and regroups his troops. (Daniel 11:43-45)
Phase V: Russian army returns to Israel from
Egypt and is destroyed there.244
|
Map 1: King of the
South. Pan-Arabic Armies Attack Israel (Daniel 11:40).
Map 2: King of the North. The Soviet Union
Launches an All-Out Invasion. (Daniel 11:40-45)
Phases 1 & 2: Soviets and their allies
launch massive invasion from land, sea and air.
Phase 3: Soviets launch lightning attack
on Strait of Hormuz from Afghanistan to close off oil from Persian Gulf.
Phase 4. Soviet navy makes large amphibious
invasion. Hits hard and lands at Haifa, gateway to the Valley of Armageddon.
Also lands on shores of Egypt.
Soviet commander moves rapidly through Israel
on his way to Egypt and prepares to take Africa (See Daniel 11:42-44.)
Map 3: Armies of the East and West. China
and Ten Nations of Europe Counterattack (Revelation 16:12, Daniel 11:44)...
The Soviets are totally destroyed.
Map 4: The Messiah Comes. Blood Shall Stand
to the Horses Bridles (Revelation 14:19-20).245
|
Despite the peace-process, in 1995, Lindsey maintained a
predictably pessimistic stance regarding the future.
...the Middle East is more unstable and more prone
to war than any time in modern history. Its literally on the brink of
a catastrophic nuclear war. And the next time, its not going to be a regional,
self-contained conflict. It will touch every part of the globe.246
4.8.1 The Motivation for the War
of Armageddon
At various times Lindsey has speculated as to the causes
of the war of Armageddon. To justify the conviction that four great super-powers,
a revived Roman Empire, a Russian, an African and the Chinese will all wish
to occupy Palestine, Lindsey initially speculated that Israel would become the
wealthiest and most desirable territory on earth.
The prophetic indication is that Israel will become
one of the most prosperous nations on earth during the reign of the
Antichrist... Israel will become a cultural, religious and economic
world center, especially at Jerusalem. The value of the mineral deposits
in the Dead Sea alone have been estimated at one trillion, two hundred
and seventy billion dollars. This is more than the combined wealth of
France, England, and the United States.247
Together with her strategic significance as a bridgehead
between Africa, Asia and Europe, Lindsey argues, based on his interpretation
of Ezekiel, that the Russians will invade Israel to gain control of
this great material wealth.248
In 1983, Lindsey began to speculate about an alternative
religious reason for the war of Armageddon.
The dispute to trigger the war of Armageddon will arise
between the Arabs and Israelis over the Temple Mount and Old Jerusalem
(Zechariah 12:2-3), the most contested and strategic piece of real estate
in the world. Even now we are witnessing the escalation of that conflict.249
In 1994, Lindsey developed this religious theory further,
describing the Temple Mount as 'The most disputed 35 acres on the planet.'250
He confidently predicted,
Two religions, Judaism and Islam, thus are on a collision
course with global and heavenly repercussions... Islam will never accept
Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the Jewish state, and Israel will
never agree to give it up. This is the intractable, insoluble crisis that
will soon result in the climax of world history.251
The whole prophetic scenario is in place. We
see the Islamic nations united in mutual hatred of Israel. The dispute
has nothing to do with borders or territory. It has to do with the existence
of Israel and its claim on Jerusalem.252
In 1995, Lindsey lay the blame for the failure of the peace
process and the coming holocaust squarely with the Moslems.
The peace process continues... But - and this is a
big 'but' - any such settlement is doomed to ultimate failure for two
basic reasons. First, because it doesn't deal with the principal causes
of war between Arabs and Jews, which are rooted in the Muslim religion.
Second, because it at the same time, increases the opportunities for war.
The Muslim nations know that Israel must have the territory she has held
since 1967 to successfully defend herself with conventional weapons. So
when Israel is squeezed down to the presently agreed upon borders, the
Muslims will once again figure that an all out attack on Israel would
have a high probability of victory.253
4.8.2 The Strategy for the Soviet
Occupation of Israel
In the Late Great Planet Earth, Lindsey claimed that Daniel
11 and Ezekiel 38 describe the way in which Russia will attack Israel.
When the Russians invade the Middle East with amphibious
and mechanized land forces, they will make a 'blitzkrieg' type of offensive
through the area... The current build-up of Russian ships in the Mediterranean
serves as another significant sign of the possible nearness of Armageddon.254
Ten years after making his first predictions concerning
the role of Russia in the war of Armageddon, Lindsey saw further corroboration.
In the Late Great Planet Earth I predicted that the
Soviets would begin their Middle East campaign with a sweep through the
Persian Gulf area into Iran. The recent Russian invasion of Afghanistan
was a first step in that direction.255
Russia's attack on Afghanistan was its first
step into the pages of Ezekiel, chapter 38. It's clear that the Russian
strategy is to cut off the supply of Persian Gulf oil to the west and
then close all sea lanes leading to that vital area.256
The Russian invasion of Afghanistan has telegraphed
the Soviet intention to take over the entire Middle East... This area
has now fit precisely into the pattern predicted for it. All that remains
is for the Russians to make their predicted move.257
When we apply this prophecy to modern times,
it becomes obvious that the Soviets will use their recent conquest of
Afghanistan as a springboard to overthrow Iran and gain control of the
Persian Gulf area.258
Although apparently obvious to Lindsey, the Soviet military
had another agenda and were forced ignominiously to pull out of Afghanistan.
In 1990 when asked whether perhaps the Gulf War instead perhaps signalled the
end of history, Lindsey claimed rather more evasively,
I've never named a day or time, but I can tell you
this: Prophecy is on fast forward. I do believe we live in the generation
that will see Armageddon.259
Then in early 1991 Lindsey again insisted the war against
Iraq was 'setting the stage for the last, climactic war.'260
By 1995, however, the Islamic threat to destroy Israel
would come, Lindsey now predicted, from Iran.
In Tehran, the new leader of the Islamic confederation
is determined to do Allah's will and destroy Israel and thereby prove
to the world that its creation was merely a historical anomaly. Here's
the plan: Iran's Operation Grand Design includes a a (sic) strategic amphibious
invasion in a chemical weapons environment. The first step is clearly
the overthrow of the house of Saud. By taking out Saudi Arabia, the Iran-Syria
alliance would remove the vital Western military base, control the Islamic
holy places and deprive the West of its supply of oil. According to intelligence
sources, the plan then calls for an all-out airborne chemical and nuclear
assault on the state of Israel. Such draconian plans become all the more
achievable as Israel's borders shrink. That's the policy America is promoting
today for Israel.261
4.8.3 The Samson Option: Israel's
Response to the Coming Holocaust
Following the war of 1973, Lindsey described a conversation
with one of Israel's 'most brilliant and aggressive generals.'262
At Masada, all Israel's graduating military officers swear
allegiance to the State, promising as part of a solemn oath that 'Masada shall
never fall again.' Lindsey claims this 'Masada Complex' has now been superseded
by a more aggressive retaliatory stance known as the 'Samson Complex'.
A hint of Israel's new outlook was revealed just after
the 1973 war. Time magazine quoted a conversation between General Moshe
Dayan, then chief of Israel's defense, and the late Prime Minister Golda
Meir. The conversation reportedly took place when Israel's defences were
being overwhelmed both in the Sinai and in the Golan Heights. 'The Third
Temple (a term for modern Israel) is falling,' Dayan reportedly told his
prime minister. 'Arm the doomsday weapon.'... Anyone who understands the
history of the Jewish people knows what the Israelis would do if they
found themselves about to fall to their Arab enemies... I'm sure that
if Israel saw its own destruction near it would use whatever was needed
to bomb key Arab cities right off the map. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised
if Israel launched an attack on Russia as well, since the Soviets have
armed and goaded Israel's Arab enemies. Remember, Israel has the capability
of producing nuclear weapons, and its pilots are legends for their skill
and daring. If the world were to stand by and allow another holocaust
to occur, then, like Samson of old, Israel would surely take its enemies
along to mutual destruction.263
In 1994, Lindsey was even more dogmatic. He anticipated
that the consequence of the peace process would require Israel to relinquish
more strategic territory in the Occupied Territories and the Golan. The consequences
of this for Lindsey were dire.
Soon will come the time when Israel has no alternative
but to use all or part of its nuclear arsenal - conservatively estimated
at some 200 warheads. This doesn't even count its neutron bombs.264
A year later Lindsey claimed to have had access to Israeli
military intelligence reports showing that the "Samson Option" was
now operative.
Instead of just Jewish corpses, there would be millions
of Arab corpses. The option is to launch an all-out nuclear attack on
all the Arab capitals. I have seen and read the "Samson Option"
a special paper that outlines a military doctrine now in force. If Israel
is being overrun, they will use the nuclear option. Like Samson, they
may go down, but so will all their enemies. And that's just a preview
of how terrible things will be in the Final Battle.265
4.8.4 The Extent of the Final Holocaust
Lindsey describes in graphic detail what this war will be
like. In his earliest writings, he predicted that there would be a Soviet invasion
if Israel.
The Russian force will establish command headquarters
on Mount Moriah or the Temple area in Jerusalem. Daniel pointed this out
when he said: 'And he shall pitch his palatial tents between the seas
[Dead Sea and Mediterranean Sea] and the glorious holy mount Zion; yet
he shall come to his end with none to help him' (Daniel 11:45 Amplified).266
However, Russia and her confederates will be
destroyed completely by an act that Israel will acknowledge as being from
their God. This act will bring many in Israel to believe in their true
Messiah (Ezekiel 38:15ff.). The attack upon the Russian confederacy and
the resulting conflict will escalate into the last war of the world, involving
all nations.267
The armies of all nations will be gathered
in the area of Israel, especially around Jerusalem. Think of it: at least
200 million soldiers from the Orient, with millions more from the forces
of the West... Messiah Jesus will first strike those who have ravaged
His city, Jerusalem. Then he will strike the armies amassed in the Valley
of Meggido. No wonder blood will stand to the horses' bridles for a distance
of two hundred miles from Jerusalem! (Revelation 14:20). Its grizzly to
think about such carnage, but just to check all this out I measured from
the point where the Valley of Armageddon sloped down to the Jordan Valley.
From that point southward down the Valley through the Dead Sea to the
port of Elath on the gulf of Aqabah measures approximately two hundred
miles. Apparently this whole valley will be filled with war materials,
animals, bodies of men, and blood!268
I have traveled the entire length of this valley...
It is almost impossible to imagine the valley covered with blood five
feet high! Yet that is exactly what God predicts, and He always fulfills
His Word. Some have asked, "Wouldn't the blood coagulate and not
flow?" Blood exposed to intense radiation doesn't coagulate.269
Because of the intense radiation, blood will
not coagulate. It will literally become a sea of blood five feet deep.270
The topography between Megiddo and Eilat would make such
a vision difficult. Megiddo is approximately 50 metres above sea level while
Jerusalem is over 800 metres above sea level. Most of the Jordan Valley,
however, is 300 metres below sea level while the region around Eilat rises
to around 70 metres above sea level. Without major geological changes, Lindsey's
vision cannot be accomplished. However, based on Revelation 16, he believes,
the impending '...full-scale nuclear exchange' will not only radically alter
the climate causing a 'global heat wave' but will also change the topography
of the world.271
While this great battle is raging, every city in the
world is going to be levelled. This will take place by what is called
an 'earthquake' (Greek seismos), but that's not the only meaning. The
word itself simply means 'a great shaking of the earth.' The earth could
be shaken either by a literal earthquake or by a full-scale nuclear exchange
of all remaining missiles. I lean towards the nuclear conflict; I believe
that when these powers lock forces here, there will be a full-scale exchange
of nuclear weapons, and its at this time that 'the cities of the nations
fall.' Just think of the great cities of the world - London, Rome, Paris,
Berlin, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Tokyo -
all these great cities are going to be judged at that time!272
Apparently the devastation will be so tremendous
that not only will all the cities be destroyed, but the land itself will
be ripped apart. The coastlines and continents will be changed and all
the mountains will be shifted in elevation... This chapter closes with
multiplied millions of soldiers slaughtering each other in and around
Israel.273
That means half of the original population
of the earth is wiped out within a space of no more than a few years.
Perhaps in only a few months (Revelation 6:7, 8 and 9:15)... When all
is said and done - after all the battles have been waged and Jesus has
conquered Satan... Only a tiny fraction of the world's population will
be left. Only a remnant will have survived... Hard to believe, isn't it?
... Think no such thing. This is reality.274
4.8.5 Supernatural Deliverance
from the Holocaust
Most dispensationalists are not afraid of the imminent
holocaust. Whereas Israel is the 'Fuse of Armageddon'275
Christians accepting a dispensational eschatology will,
Lindsey insists, be safely raptured to heaven just before the tribulation of
Armageddon begins. He depicts this event seen from the perspective of the non-Christian
left behind,
There I was driving down the freeway and all of a sudden
the place went crazy... cars going in all directions... and not one of
them had a driver. I mean it was wild. I think we've got an invasion from
outer space.276
While Lindsey is confident that Christians will escape the
holocaust and witness the events from heaven he seems less certain concerning
the fate of the Jews. His writings offer a variety of perspectives, some more
hopeful than others. In The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), Lindsey taught,
...the great catastrophic events which are to happen
to this nation during 'the tribulation' are primarily designed to shock
the people into believing in their true Messiah (Ezekiel 38; 39)... According
to Zechariah, terrible fighting will center around the city of Jerusalem
(Zechariah 12:2,3; 14:1,2)... In a battle line which will extend throughout
Israel with the vortex centred at the Valley of Megiddo... Zechariah predicts
that one-third of the Jews alive during this period will be converted
to Christ and miraculously preserved.277
In There's a New World Coming (1973), Lindsey claimed God
will supernaturally deliver Messianic Jews who come to believe in Jesus during
the tribulation. The fate of those who do not believe is left unclear but presumably
bleak given the carnage he envisages. Based on his reading of Revelation 7:4-8
Lindsey insists,
The fact that God redeems 144,000 literal Jews and
ordains them His evangelists not only makes good sense but fits in with
the counsel of God... So I say loud and clear: the 144,000 described here
are not Jehovah Witnesses, or Mormon elders, or some symbol of the Church;
they are Jews, Jews, Jews!278
This chapter closes with multiplied millions
of soldiers slaughtering each other in and around Israel.279
In The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon (1980), Lindsey is
more hopeful for Israelis generally.
The God of Israel has sworn in the prophecies that
He will not forsake the Israelis, nor let them be destroyed.280
By 1983, in Israel and the Last Days, Lindsey is able to
reassure Jews that during the tribulation, despite being at the 'vortex' of
a world war involving hundreds of millions of soldiers and despite enduring
nuclear as well as conventional attacks from Russia, Europe and China,
In one of the most incredible miracles of all time,
Israel will be converted to faith in her true Messiah and then miraculously
protected... (Zechariah 12:8,9). As promised, God will strengthen the
Israelis to fight with a ferocity never seen before on this earth. He
will also supernaturally protect them from being annihilated.281
In 1994, Lindsey had returned to a more pessimistic forecast.
...only a tiny fraction of the world's population will
be left. Only a remnant will have survived. Many of the Jews would have
been killed.282
In The Final Battle published in 1995, Lindsey seems to
envisage contradictory scenarios for Israel. Under the heading "It Will
Take A Miracle To Save Israel-Intelligence Digest", Lindsey was confident,
A miracle is just what Zechariah Chapters 12 through
14 predict and promise will save Israel. God has promised in several passages
that their nation will never, ever again be destroyed. All the weapons
of the world won't overturn that promise. But Israel is in for a very
rough time. The Jewish state will be brought to the brink of destruction.283
In a later chapter, however, he predicts in greater detail,
The land of Israel and
the surrounding area will certainly be targeted for nuclear attack. Iran
and all the Muslim nations around Israel have already been targeted with
Israeli nukes. Russia clearly receives a knockout blow, probably in the
form of a retaliatory strike. Russia's Eastern European allies would also
likely suffer the same fate. All of Europe, the seat of power of the Antichrist,
would surely be a nuclear battlefield, as would the United States... Zechariah
gives an unusual, detailed account of how hundreds of thousands of soldiers
in the Israel battle zone will die. Their flesh will be consumed from their
bones, their eyes from their sockets, and their tongues from their mouths
while they stand on their feet (Zechariah 14:12). This is exactly the sort
of thing that happens from the intense radiation of a neutron type bomb...
But God's power is certainly stronger than any nuclear bomb... We do know
God will supernaturally strengthen and protect the believing Israelites
so that they will survive the worst holocaust the world will ever see. Amen.
But believe it or not, there's more to this story. The world is not over.
Contrary to popular belief, the Final Battle is not the end of the world.284
Lindsey neglects to explain how this will be biologically
or ecologically possible, nor how the 144,000 Jewish evangelists will have
any ministry to perform in a post-nuclear holocaust world where the combined
populations of America, Russia, China, Europe and the Middle East have been
annihilated by destructive forces sufficient to modify the world's climate
as well as topography. Since "every city in the world will be leveled"285
it is difficult to imagine anyone alive, let alone anyone sane enough to
want to listen to "144,000 Hebrew Billy Grahams running round the world"286
4.9 Dating the Second Coming of
Christ
One reason other Dispensational writers have perhaps avoided
quoting Lindsey or been reluctant to identify with his views, may be because
of his tendency to set the date for Christ's return. Lindsey was not the first
to do so. In 1828, one of the founders of what became dispensationalism, Edward
Irving, set an example others have eagerly followed.
I conclude, therefore, that the last days... will begin
to run from the time of God's appearing for his ancient people, and gathering
them together to the work of destroying all Antichristian nations, of
evangelising the world, and of governing it during the Millennium... The
times and fulness of the times, so often mentioned in the New Testament,
I consider as referring to the great period numbered by times... Now if
this reasoning be correct, as there can be little doubt that the one thousand
two hundred and sixty days concluded in the year 1792, and the thirty
additional days in the year 1823, we are already entered upon the last
days, and the ordinary life of a man will carry many of us to the end
of them. If this be so, it gives to the subject with which we have introduced
this year's ministry a very great importance indeed.287
Lindsey has exploited that same escapist fear throughout
his writings. On the back cover of the American edition of The 1980's Countdown
to Armageddon, for instance, is the assertion, 'We are the generation that
will see the end times ...and the return of Jesus.'288
The British edition is more circumspect claiming enigmatically, 'We are
the generation the prophets were talking about...'289
In 1994, Lindsey was still insisting,
It is clear that the Bible can't be talking about any
other time in history but today. No man knows the day or hour this dramatic
climax is going to occur. But there can be little doubt that this is the
generation. It could start tomorrow.290
Lindsey's dogmatism concerning the imminent return of Christ
is largely based on his interpretation of the 'signs' given in Matthew 24 and
the meaning of the phrase 'this generation.'
4.9.1 This Generation
In his first book, The Late Great Planet Earth, Lindsey
interprets Matthew 24 as referring to the events that have occurred since the
State of Israel was founded in 1948. Lindsey calculates,
Jesus said that this would indicate that He was 'at
the door,' ready to return. Then He said, 'Truly I say to you, this generation
will not pass away until all these things take place' (Matthew 24:34 NASB).
What generation? Obviously, in context, the generation that would see
the signs-chief among them the rebirth of Israel. A generation in the
Bible is something like forty years. If this is a correct deduction, then
within forty years or so of 1948, all these things could take place. Many
scholars who have studied Bible prophecy all their lives believe that
this is so.291
Lindsey does not elaborate on who these scholars are
but implicitly set 1988 as the date by which Jesus would return. In his
later work, 'The 1980's Countdown to Armageddon', published in 1980, Lindsey
continued to speculate that the tribulation would occur before 1990. 'The
decade of the 1980's could very well be the last decade as we know It.'
292
Many of his contemporary dispensationalists similarly placed great emphasis
on 1988.293
By 1994, while persisting in his belief that Jesus meant
this present generation, Lindsey had begun to prevaricate and lengthen a 'biblical
generation' since Jesus had not returned by 1988 as he had confidently predicted.
Based on his revised calculations Lindsey claimed Jesus would return some time
between now and 2067.
Jesus promised us that the generation that witnessed
the restoration of the Jewish people to their homeland would not pass
until 'all these things' - including his return to Earth - would be done.
The Jewish people declared the rebirth of their nation in 1948. They recaptured
Jerusalem in 1967. A biblical generation is somewhere between 40 to 100
years, depending on whether you take the example from Abraham's day or
from the discipline of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. In either case,
you do the arithmetic, folks. No matter how you cut it, there's not much
time left.294
I also said that 'if' a generation was 40 years
and 'if' the generation of the 'fig tree' (Matthew 24:32-34) started with
the foundation of the State of Israel, then Jesus 'might come back by
1988.' But I put a lot of ifs and maybes in because I knew that no one
could be absolutely certain.295
Many biblical scholars have pointed out the
fact that a generation in the Bible is generally regarded as 40 years.
Some people point out that 40 years has already passed since the rebirth
of Israel and Jesus has not returned. Well folks, we simply don't know
for certain how long a biblical generation is. In addition, we're not
certain when that final countdown began. Did it begin in 1948 when Israel
was reborn? Or could it have begun in 1967 when Jerusalem, the apple of
God's eye, was recaptured and reunified under Jewish control? We simply
don't know and that is the way God wants it.296
The failure of Lindsey's published timetable led him to
reappraise the critical 'sign' upon which his chronology was based.
My recent study of Daniel 9:24-27 has convinced me
that the capture of Jerusalem in 1967 may be a more prophetically significant
event than the rebirth of the nation. Think of it. In June of that year,
the Jews recaptured Jerusalem and re-established a lasting sovereignty
over it for the first time since the Babylonian destruction in the 6th
Century B.C.297
In The Final Battle, Lindsey also implied a date before
2024 A.D was now feasible,
But note carefully, Jesus said the generation would
not "pass away until all was fulfilled." In other words, many
who saw the signs begin to come together would not die before their climactic
fulfillment. Life expectancy today in the U.S. is about 76 years298
In Lindsey's latest work, Planet Earth, The Final Chapter,
with the benefit of hindsight, he now claims, the period between 1948 and 1967
does not count in calculating the time of the Lord's return.
...the prophetic time-clock stalled in 1948, and did
not resume again until the pivotal events on June 6, 1967, when for the
first time in 2500 years, Jews once again had sovereign control of Jerusalem
and have maintained it.299
While Lindsey places great emphasis on holding to a 'literal'
hermeneutic, on passages such as this, he appears to accept an interpretation
that is far from literal. When Jesus refers to 'this generation' he uses
the same language as in Matthew 16:28, where he predicts, "I tell you
the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see
the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." In both cases most commentators
believe Jesus is referring to those alive at that time, rather than a generation
living 2000 years or more later.300
4.9.2 The Anti-Christ is Alive
and Well
Integral with the 'end times' scenario Lindsey envisages,
is the conviction that the Antichrist is alive and about to be revealed. Beginning
in 1970, Lindsey has repeatedly insisted that this individual is alive today.
We believe that the
dramatic elements which are occurring in the world today are setting the
stage for this magnetic, diabolical Future Fuehrer to make his entrance.301
As I wrote 10 years ago in The Late Great Planet Earth,
I believe this man is alive today-alive and waiting to come forth... I
believe this leader is alive somewhere in Europe; perhaps he is already
a member of the EEC parliament.302
He will immediately rise to prominence in the
EEC and from that post he will offer the world amazing solutions to all
its complex and terrifying problems. Because of his superhuman powers
and his solutions to the world's conflicts, the anti-Christ will be chosen
to lead the EEC.303
Heading up what will evolve into a 10-nation
confederacy will be a man of such magnetism and power that he will become
the greatest dictator the world has ever known... And he is alive today.
There is a potential dictator waiting in the wings somewhere in Europe
who will make Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin look like choir boys. Right
now he is preparing to take his throne, inflaming his soul with visions
of what he will be able to do for mankind with his grand schemes and revolutionary
ideas... Is alive and well on planet Earth... Lets go meet him.304
Today, the man who will command this budding economic and
military colossus - this phony savior of Jerusalem - is alive and well somewhere
in Europe. The man who will make a pact with Satan for a few months of glory
in this world is planning his ascendancy.
Despite promising in 1995, 'I will show you who will
be the key players in this endtimes drama,'305
and for thirty years, making detailed predictions about
this 'someone', supposedly alive today, Lindsey is still unable to identify
the anti-Christ.
4.9.3 Signs of the Times
Consistently and repeatedly,
Lindsey draws attention to 'signs' which he believes indicate that the return
of Jesus is very near. In this respect, Lindsey is simply reiterating a conviction
held by earlier dispensationalists. John Walvoord, a member of the faculty at
Dallas Theological Seminary while Lindsey was a student, held very similar views
to Lindsey some twenty years earlier.
John
Walvoord (1962) |
Hal
Lindsey (1980 & 1994) |
In the
present world scene there are many indications pointing to the conclusion
that the end of the age may soon be upon us... In this generation.
Never before in the history of the world
has there been a confluence of major evidences of preparation for the
end.306
|
We are the generation he was talking about.
I say this because, unmistakably, for the first time in history, all the
signs are coming together at an accelerating rate.307
...never before in the history of
the planet have events and conditions so coincided as to set the stage
for this history-stopping event.308
|
In 1983 Lindsey was even
more emphatic.
All the predicted signs are before us. No other generation
has ever witnessed the simultaneous coming together of these prophetic
events. It is because of this that I believe we are the generation that
will see the Lord Jesus' return. World events viewed through the grid
of Bible prophecy indicate that we are rapidly moving toward the end of
history as we know it.309
Lindsey goes to great lengths to show that the 'signs' of
his imminent return predicted by Jesus, such as wars, earthquakes, famines,
etc. are increasing dramatically.
There have been many great earthquakes throughout history,
but, according to surprisingly well-kept records, in the past they did
not occur very frequently. The 20th Century, however, has experienced
an unprecedented increase in the frequency of these calamities. In fact,
the number of earthquakes per decade has roughly doubled in each of the
ten year periods since 1950... The 1970's experienced the largest increase
in the number of killer quakes known in history.310
Whilst Lindsey lists the major earthquakes which occurred
in the 1970's, he offers no evidence to substantiate his assertion that such
disturbances are increasing exponentially. In 1994 he quoted from a U.S. Geological
Survey, which allegedly shows the number of earthquakes increasing.311
Others remain unconvinced and quote seismologists to that effect.312
Lindsey's apocalyptic claim that in 1982, the so-called 'Jupiter Effect' would
cause 'history's greatest outbreak of earthquakes' did not materialise.313
While other contemporary dispensationalists like Thomas
Ice could insist,
'...there are no signs relating to the rapture. The
fruit of date setting... has not been gathered from the root called dispensationalism,'314
Lindsey and others have proved that date-setting sells books.315
So in a foreword to The Coming Russian Invasion of Israel, by Thomas McCall
and Zola Levitt, Lindsey claims, 'I feel this book is a must for everyone who
wants to know where we are on God's time-table.'316
In 1994, with an eye on the Middle East, Lindsey was still
insisting,
It is clear that the Bible can't be talking about any
other time in history but today. No man knows the day or hour this dramatic
climax is going to occur. But there can be little doubt that this is the
generation. It could start tomorrow. We are on the brink of some startling
prophetic development. Never before has the world stage been set for the
climax of history as it is today. Pray for God's intervention. The 'times
of the Gentiles' are rapidly drawing to a close.317
In describing the Apostle John's description of Armageddon,
Lindsey reminds his readers in 1994, '...of this endtimes battle, which I believe
is coming in this decade or the next.'318
Lindsey appears able to hold in tension his declared agnosticism
over the precise timing of the Lord's return with the ability to predict the
decade, always just a few years hence. Since 1970, as each decade has passed,
Lindsey has offered with each new book another 'imminent' prediction when the
old one has been superceded. For example, he reflects,
I remember saying to myself a little over 13 years
ago while writing the book, The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, that if
the Lord doesn't come by the mid 1990s, we'll be able to see the end more
clearly from there. And now that we're here, wow, can we see it.319
In an 'Afterword' Lindsey looked on toward the celebrations
being planned for the 31st December 1999.
Just for the record: I'm not planning to attend. In
fact looking at the state of the world today, I wouldn't make any long-term
earthly plans. We may be caught up to meet Christ in the clouds, between
now and then - just as I described in an earlier chapter. Could I be wrong?
Of course. The rapture may not occur between now and the year 2000. But
never before in the history of the planet have events and conditions so
coincided as to set the stage for this history-stopping event... I want
to spend the final pages of this book discussing what I expect to see
happen in the hours and minutes we have left.320
In the same work, Lindsey made his most provocative claim,
repeated word for word a year later in 1995, concerning the imminent return
of Christ.
Folks, the footsteps of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, can already be heard as He approaches the doors of heaven to return.321
5. Lindseyism and Charges
of Anti-Semitism
Assured of the veracity of his own interpretation of Biblical
prophecy and contemporary events, like Darby, Lindsey has sought to inoculate
his followers from the criticisms levelled against him.322
Peter... even warned that in 'the latter times' men
posing as religious leaders would rise from within the Church and deny,
even ridicule, the prophetic word (II Peter 2:1-3; 3:1-18). If you pass
this book around to many ministers you'll find how true this prediction
has become.323
No self-respecting scholar who looks at the
world conditions and the accelerating decline in Christian influence today
is a 'postmillennialist.'324
I've said it before and I will no doubt say
it again: When the Rapture occurs, many churches will not have to find
a new pastor. That's how badly infected the modern church is with deceiving
spirits.325
Given his controversial reading of Scripture, Lindsey
has attracted criticism particularly from postmillennialists326
as well as from fellow dispensationalists who distance themselves from what
they term the popular 'apocalyptism' of 'Lindseyism'.327
It's obvious that Lindsey does nor represent 'orthodox'
dispensationalism. But Lindsey's brand of date-setting dispensationalism
is the prevailing system. If Lindsey had not intimated at dates, and used
the regathering of unbelieving ethnic Israel to their land as the basis
for his speculations, The Late Great Planet Earth would not have been
an eschatological novelty. It was the predictions that sold the books.
Therefore, many who call themselves dispensationalists are really 'Lindseyite
dispensationalists.'328
Lindsey's most controversial book is probably Road to
Holocaust. In it, like Darby, he makes eschatology a test of orthodoxy.329
He accuses those who refuse to accept dispensationalism's
distinction between the Church and Israel of actually encouraging anti-Semitism
since they deny any future role for the State of Israel within the purposes
of God.
...the same error that founded the legacy of contempt
for the Jews and ultimately led to the Holocaust of Nazi Germany.330
The purpose of this book is to warn about a
rapidly expanding new movement in the Church that is subtly introducing
the same errors that eventually and inevitably led to centuries of atrocities
against the Jews and culminated in the Holocaust of the Third Reich...
They are setting up a philosophical system that will result in anti-Semitism.331
As I wrote in my book. The Road to Holocaust,
the allegorizing of prophetic passages and the unconditional covenants
made to the believing Jewish remnant, in which future national blessings
are guaranteed to them, open the door to Christian anti-Jewish attitudes.332
Given that Lindsey's form of pre-tribulational dispensationalism
with its rigid distinction between Israel and the Church, was unheard of prior
to 1830, he is essentially condemning all Christians before then as well as
those since who hold contrary views of the relationship of Israel to the Church.
Lindsey is less than charitable toward those affirming a covenantal post-millennial
eschatology.
Man, this is one of the things that's dangerous. This
is the most anti-Semitic movement I've seen since Adolf Hitler.333
Critics argue that it is actually Lindsey who is perpetuating
the legacy of racism and anti-Semitism.
The ongoing attempt to identify the real Antichrist
is still spawning racism, polarization, and conflict. In a chapter of
The Late Great Planet Earth entitled 'The Yellow Peril,' Lindsey describes
how 'vast hordes of the Orient' are likely to threaten our future... I
am convinced that the relentless and impassioned search for the Antichrist
through the years has produced a tragic amount of racism, religious hatred,
and violence. It both nourishes and feeds off the illusion that the world
can best be understood in simple black-and-white apocalyptic terms - the
powers of Antichrist verses the powers of God.334
Harold Brown traces the
link between Marcion's heretical view of a radical discontinuity between the
Old and New Testaments and anti-Semitism.
One consequence of Marcion's rejection of the Old Testament
was hostility to the Jews. Both Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism which
were much more critical of Old Testament Law than the Reformed tradition
are also more inclined to anti-Semitism. The rejection of the authenticity
and authority of the Old Testament by nineteenth-century liberalism was
followed by virulent anti-Semitism, especially in Germany.335
Following traditional dispensationalism, Lindsey does not
believe the moral law enshrined in the Ten Commandments has any abiding relevance
for Christians.
The Law of Moses was specifically given only to the
Nation of Israel. More than 150,000 of the first believers in Jesus as
Messiah were all Israelites. When the early Jewish believers first had
to deal with the problem of Gentile converts, many were still confused
about the purpose of the Law. They tried to put the Gentiles under the
Mosaic Law... Israel's failure under the Law serves as an historical lesson
to all of us today that religion of all kinds blinds us to the truth.336
Brown's observations concerning the environment which gave
rise to anti-Semitism could therefore justifiably apply to dispensationalists
such as Darby, Scofield337
and Lindsey who deny the validity of the Old Testament moral
law, such as the prohibition to commit murder, on the Gentiles.
Dispensationalism creates an environment for any despot
to do what he wants, even murder, since Jewish law, the Old Testament
was never intended for the Gentile nations. Hitler murdered millions of
Jews, but what law would Hal Lindsey use to judge him? The Ten Commandments?
But that's Jewish law.338
Donald Grey Barnhouse, another leading dispensationalist
insisted, however,
It was a tragic hour when the reformation churches
wrote the Ten Commandments into their creeds and catechisms and sought
to bring Gentile believers into bondage to Jewish law, which was never
intended either for the Gentile nations or for the church.339
Without the law of God, protection against anti-Semitism
and other forms of racism are removed. It is ironic that Lindsey should charge
his critics with anti-Semitism while he believes Israel will make a 'Treaty
with Hell',340
that two-thirds of all Jews will die in the battle of Armageddon, that the 200
mile valley from the Sea of Galilee to Eilat will flow with blood several feet
deep,341 and with,
...death on a massive scale... One-fourth of the world's
population will be destroyed within a matter of days... Nearly one billion
people.342
Given his apocalyptic dispensational eschatology in which
the 'church age' will fail just like the previous five, Lindsey is intensely
pessimistic about the Middle East peace process and any possibility of co-existence
between Jews and Arabs. He insists,
It is this kind of fierce pride and smoldering hatred
against Israel that will keep the Middle East a dangerous trouble spot.
No Arab leader could hope to remain in power if he were willing to make
concessions in negotiating with Israel.343
Demar suggests a reason why Lindsey should charge his critics
with anti-Semitism.
The futuristic and unwarranted literalistic interpretation
of these passages forces the dispensationalist to predict the greatest
holocaust the world has ever seen, all in the name of dispensational premillennialism!
Is it any wonder that Hal Lindsey wants to paint non-dispensational premillennialist
(sic) as holocaust-orientated? He must cover up the inevitable holocaust
predicted by dispensationalism.344
Perceptive Jews are not
surprisingly cynical of Christian Zionist support for the State of Israel when
it is realised that they largely share Lindsey's dispensational views on the
fate of the Jews, while Christians are safely 'raptured' to heaven to escape
the mother of all holocausts.
6. A Summary and Critique of Hal
Lindsey's Christian Zionism
Lindsey's particular kind
of reading of history, coloured by a literal exegesis of highly selective biblical
scriptures, is essentially polarised, dualistic, racist and confrontational.
He justifies the continued demonisation of Russia, China, Islam and the Arab
nations; he encourages the continued military and economic funding of Israel
by the United States; he urges Israelis to resist negotiating land for peace
and instead, maintain their apartheid policies, settling and incorporating the
Occupied Territories within the State of Israel; and he incites fundamentalist
groups committed to destroying the Dome of the Rock and rebuilding the Jewish
Temple. In so doing Lindsey identifies unconditionally with the political as
well as religious far right both in the United States as well as in Israel.
Ironically, as the 'father' of 'armageddon theology' his attempts to defend
Israel and to refute anti-Semitism may actually be leading to the very holocaust
he abhors but repeatedly predicts.
Revised 11 April 1999
29,000 words
Stephen R. Sizer
1
Hal Lindsey, The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon (New York, Bantam, 1981), p.
179.
2 Hal Lindsey, The
Final Battle (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front, 1995), back cover.
3 Hal Lindsey, The
Apocalypse Code (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front, 1997), back cover.
4 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 179
5 Hal Lindsey, The
Late Great Planet Earth (London, Lakeland, 1970), p. 16.
6 Hal Lindsey, The
Late Great Planet Earth (London, Lakeland, 1970); Satan is Alive and Well on
Planet Earth (London, Lakeland, 1973); There's A New World Coming, A Prophetic
Odyssey (Santa Ana, California, Vision House, 1973); The Liberation of Planet
Earth (London, Lakeland, 1974); The World's Final Hour: Evacuation or Extinction?
(1976); The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon (New York, Bantam, 1981); The Promise
(Eugene, Oregon, Harvest House, 1982); The Rapture: Truth or Consequences (New
York, Bantam, 1983); The Terminal Generation (New York, Bantam,1983); A Prophetical
Walk Through the Holy Land (Eugene, Oregon, Harvest House, 1983); Israel and
the Last Days (Eugene, Oregon, Harvest House, 1983); Combat Faith (1986); The
Road to Holocaust (New York, Bantam, 1989); Planet Earth-2000 A.D. (Palos Verdes,
California, Western Front, 1994); The Final Battle (Palos Verdes, California,
Western Front, 1995); Planet Earth-2000 A.D. Rev. Edn. (Palos Verdes, California,
Western Front, 1996); Amazing Grace (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front,
1996); Blood Moon (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front, 1996); The Apocalypse
Code (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front, 1997); Planet Earth: The Final
Chapter (Beverley Hills, California, Western Front, 1998); International Intelligence
Briefing (Palos Verdes, California, HLM), monthly journal.
7 Lindsey's weekly
radio programme is called 'Week in Review' and is aired by several Christian
radio stations.
http://www.audiocentral.com/rshows/weekinview/default.html
8 For more information
see http://www.iib-report.com/
9 http://www.iib-report.com/
10 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 195. For other statistics see George Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism
and Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1991) p. 77, and Michael Lienesch,
Redeeming America: Piety and Politics in the New Christian Right (Chapel Hill,
North Carolina, North Carolina Press, 1993), p. 311. See also Gary Friesen,
'A Return Visit,' Moody Monthly (May 1988), p. 30; Lindsey's latest publisher,
Western Front, is more conservative referring to 'a dozen books with combined
world sales of more than 35 million.' Lindsey, The Final Battle (Palos Verdes,
California, Western Front, 1995), p. xiii & back cover.
11 National &
International Religion Report (22 October 1990), p. 1, cited in Gary Demar,
Last Days Madness, Obsession of the Modern Church (Atlanta, Georgia, American
Vision, 1997), p. 196.
12 J. N. Darby, "Evidence
from Scripture for the passing away of the present dispensations' Collected
Writings., Prophetic I, Vol II. p. 108.
13 C. I. Scofield,
What do the Prophets Say? (Philadelphia, The Sunday School Times Co, 1918),
pp. 18-19.
14 Lindsey, Planet.,
Rev. Edn. p. 3
15 Lindsey, Final.,
p. xiii
16 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
back cover.
17 Lindsey, Planet
Earth The Final Chapter, back cover.
18 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
p. 37. Compare with Darby, Collected Writings., Prophetic I, Vol. II. pp. 6-7,
108.
19 Lindsey,
Late., p. 184.
20 Lindsey,
Planet., pp. 15-16.
21 Lindsey,
1980's., p. 7.
22 Lindsey,
Planet., p. 3.
23 Hal Lindsey, The
Late Great Planet Earth (London, Lakeland, 1970); The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon
(New York, Bantam, 1981); Planet Earth-2000 A.D. (Palos Verdes, California,
Western Front, 1994); Earth-2000 A.D. Rev. Edn. (Palos Verdes, California, Western
Front, 1996); Planet Earth: The Final Chapter (Beverley Hills, California, Western
Front, 1998).
24 Lindsey,
Planet., p. 171.
25 Lindsey, Planet.,
pp. 162, 164.
26 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 156.
27 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 160.
28 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 149.
29 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 310.
30 Lindsey,
Planet., p. 232.
31 Lindsey, Planet.,
pp. 232, 235.
32 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 310.
33 Lindsey,
Final., p. 5.
34 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 93.
35 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 103.
36 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 108.
37 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 118.
38 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 116.
39 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 163.
40 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 165.
41 Lindsey, Final.,
pp. 260-261.
42 Lindsey,
Final., p. 116.
43 Lindsey,
Final., p. 261. In his last book, Planet Earth, The Final Chapter, the page
numbers in the index do not correspond to the chapters in the book.
44 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 32.
45 Wagner, Beyond.,
p. 5.
46 Wagner, Beyond.,
p. 4.
47 Hal Lindsey, The
Road to Holocaust (New York, Bantam, 1989), pp. 7-8.
48 Chapter 2. Early
Christian Attitudes Towards the Jews.
49 J. N. D. Kelly,
Early Christian Doctrine, rev. ed. (San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1978),
pp. 69-75.
50 Gary DeMar and
Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy of Hatred Continues: A response to Hal Lindsey's
The Road to Holocaust (Tyler, Texas, Institute for Christian Economics, 1989),
p. 34. See also E. A. Martens, Plot and Purpose
in the Old Testament. (Leicester, IVP, 1981); Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and
Kingdom, A Christian Interpretation of the Old Testament, (Exeter, Paternoster,
1981); According to Plan, The Unfolding Revelation of God in the Bible, (Leicester,
IVP, 1991).
51 DeMar and Leithart,
Legacy., p. 37.
52 Lindsey, Israel.,
pp. 32-33. This chapter is reused heavily in Apocalypse Code, pp. 30-44.
53 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 8. The idea that the locusts mentioned in Revelation 9 are Cobra helicopters
is raised again on page 141.
54
Lindsey, Apocalypse., p. 36.
55 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
p. 42.
56 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
p. 72.
57 Lindsey, Planet
Earth: The Final Chapter, p. 247.
58 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
pp. 110-111.
59 J. N. Darby, 'The
Hopes.,' The Collected Writings, Prophetic I, Vol. II, p. 380; C. I. Scofield,
Scofield Reference Bible, fn. 1, p. 883.
60 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 2.
61 Lindsey, Final.,
pp. 140, 142.
62 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 183.
63 Lindsey, Planet
Earth: The Final Chapter, p. 213.
64 Lindsey, Planet
Earth: The Final Chapter, p. 255.
65 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 176.
66 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
p. 78.
67 Lindsey, Planet
Earth, The Final Chapter, pp. 182-183.
68 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 65.
69 Lindsey, Road.,
pp. 143-144.
70 Lindsey, Late.,
pp. 17-18.
71 Lindsey, There's.,
Back page.
72 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 4.
73 C. Van der Waal,
Hal Lindsey and Biblical Prophecy (Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada, Inheritance
Publications, 1991), p. 51.
74 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 180. See also Demar, Last., p. 197.
75 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 12.
76 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 11.
77 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 7.
78 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 7.
79 Lindsey, Planet.,
Rev. Edn. p. 2.
80 Lindsey, Planet
Earth, The Final Chapter, p. 227.
81 C. Van der Waal,
Hal Lindsey and Biblical Prophecy (Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada, Inheritance
Publications, 1991), p. 51.
82 Van der Waal, Hal.,
p. 51.
83 Van der Waal, Hal.,
p. 52, 53.
84 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 18.
85 Lindsey, Late.,
back cover.
86 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
back cover.
87 Van der Waal, Hal.,
p. 54.
88 Van der Waal, Hal.,
p. 55.
89 Van der Waal, Hal.,
p. 53.
90 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 191.
91 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 4.
92 Lindsey, Planet.,
back cover; Final., back cover;
93 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 5. These predictions included the rise of ecumenism, the persecution of Christians,
a one-world religion, plans to rebuild the Jewish Temple, European unification,
the decline of US influence in the world, Israeli prosperity, papal influence,
global catastrophes, and increases in crime, riots, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy,
etc. Lindsey does not, however, footnote where these predictions were made in
The Late Great Planet Earth.
94 Lindsey, Final.,
back cover.
95 Hal Lindsey, The
1980's: Countdown to Armageddon (New York, Bantam, 1981); Israel and the Last
Days (Eugene, Oregon, Harvest House, 1983); The Road to Holocaust (New York,
Bantam, 1989); The Final Battle (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front, 1995);
Planet Earth-2000, Will Man Survive? Rev. Edn. (Palos Verdes, California, Western
Front, 1996); The Apocalypse Code (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front,
1997).
96 Lindsey, 1980's.,
back cover.
97 Van der Waal, Hal.,
p. 48.
98 C.
I. Scofield, What Do The Prophets Say? (Philadelphia, The Sunday School Times
Co., 1918), pp. 18-19. Cited in Canfield, Incredible., pp. 274-275.
99 Lindsey,
Late., pp. 96-97.
100 Lindsey, Final.,
front cover.
101 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 66.
102 Lindsey, Late.,
pp. 155, 159.
103 Lindsey, Israel.,
pp. 31-48.
104 Lindsey, Final.,
p. xxi.
105 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 41.
106 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 195.
107 Lindsey, Planet.,
pp. 142-143.
108 Hal Lindsey,
International Intelligence Briefing, 29th October 1998. His underlining.http://www.iib-report.com/pages/transcripts/10.29.98/oct29.htm
109 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 182.
110 Lindsey, Planet
Earth, The Final Chapter. pp.32-34.
111 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 115
112 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 197.
113 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 45.
114 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 127.
115 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 208.
116 Lindsey, Road.,
pp. 7-8; Final., pp. 231, 255-7.
117 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 122.
118 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 208.
119 E. Schuyler English,
A Companion to the New Scofield Reference Bible (New York, Oxford University
Press, 1972), p. 135.
120 Hal Lindsey,
The Promise (Eastbourne, Kingsway, 1983), pp. 187-191.
121 Lindsey, Israel.,
pp. 18-19.
122 Cited in 'The
Church and Israel' by Michael Horton, Modern Reformation (May/June 1994), p.
1.
123 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 133.
124 Lindsey,
Late., p. 43.
125 Lindsey,
1980's., p. 12
126 See Moshe Greenberg,
Ezekiel 21-37 Anchor Bible Commentary (New York, Doubleday, 1997); Walther Zimmerli,
Ezekiel 25-48, Hermeneia Series (Philadelphia, Fortress, 1979); John B. Taylor,
Ezekiel (Leicester, IVP, 1969), pp. 234-250.
127 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 51.
128 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 180.
129 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 53.
130 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 19; Lindsey, 1980's., p. 11.
131 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 45.
132 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 186.
133 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 208.
134 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 48. The idea of Jewish evangelists replacing the Church during the Tribulation
offering people a second opportunity to believe in Jesus is also taught in There's
a New World Coming, pp. 121ff.
135 Lindsey, Road.,
pp. 134-135, 143.
136 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
p. 121.
137 Lindsey, Planet
Earth: The Final Chapter, p. 98.
138 Leon Uris, Exodus
(New York, Bantam, 1958); Steve Lightle, Exodus II (Chepstow, Bridge, 1983);
Tom Hess, Let My People Go (Charlotte, Morning Star, 1996); Gustav Scheller,
Operation Exodus, Prophecy Being Fulfilled (London, Sovereign World, 1998).
139 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 122.
140 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 262.
141 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 42.
142 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 146. See also page 174.
143 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 243.
144 Hal Lindsey,
International Intelligence Briefing, 29th October 1998.
145 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 149.
146 Lindsey, Planet.,
pp. 150-151.
147 Lindsey, Final.,
pp. 117, 127-128.
148 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 20.
149 Hal Lindsey,
International Intelligence Briefing, 29th October 1998.
150 Lindsey, Planet.,
pp. 162, 164.
151 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 95.
152 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 54.
153 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 55.
154 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 247.
155 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 262.
156 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 165.
157 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 156, Final., p. 103.
158 Lindsey, Late.,
pp. 56-58.
159
Lindsey, There's., p. 160. 'This site is second only to
Mecca in sacredness to the millions of Moslems in the world.'
160 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 23.
161 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 158.
162 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 160.
163 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 57.
164 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 164
165 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 163.
166 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 29.
167 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 30.
168 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 160.
169 Ross Dunn, 'Israel
holds disciples of 'Second Coming' cult' Times, 4 January 1999, p. 12.
170 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 163.
171 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 163.
172 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 156.
173 Lindsey, Late.,
pp. 56-58.
174 Eusebius Pamphilus,
'Predictions of Christ' The Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius Pamphilus (Grand
Rapids, Baker Book House, 1988), 3:7, 92-94.
175 Matthew 24:34
176 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 54.
177 Lindsey, Final,
p. 104.
178 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 13.
179 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 157.
180 Arno
C. Gaebelein, Our Hope XXIII (August 1916), 110. Cited in Dwight Wilson, Armageddon
Now! The Premillennial Response to Russia and Israel Since 1917 (Tyler, Texas,
Institute for Christian Economics, [1977], 1991), p. 36.
181 Lindsey,
1980's., p. 13.
182 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 160.
183 Lindsey,
1980's., p. 68.
184 Lindsey,
Planet., p. 216.
185 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 69.
186 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 70-74.
187 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 81.
188 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 86.
189 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 190.
190 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 4.
191 Lindsey, Chapter
1 of The Final Battle, (Palos Verdes, California, Western Front, 1995), is entitled
"The New Islamic Global Threat". p. 1.
192 Lindsey,
Late., p. 160.
193 Lindsey,
Apocalypse., p. 153.
194 Lindsey,
1980's., pp. 68, 85-86, 144.
195 Lindsey,
Planet., p. 171.
196 Lindsey, Planet
Earth The Final Chapter, p. 71.
197 Lindsey, Israel.,
pp. 38-39.
198 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 52.
199 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 260.
200 Lindsey, Planet
Earth The Final Chapter, p. 264.
201 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 45.
202 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 33.
203 Lindsey, Israel.,
pp. 38.
204 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 175.
205 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 310.
206 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 256.
207 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 151.
208 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 42.
209 Lindsey, Final.,
pp. 4-5.
210 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 38.
211 Lindsey, Final.,
pp. 2-3.
212 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 93.
213 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 256.
214 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
p. 79.
215 Lindsey, Planet
Earth: The Final Chapter, p. 182.
216 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 172.
217 Edward Said,
Orientalism. pp. 47-48.
218 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 45.
219 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 185.
220 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 184.
221 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 15.
222 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 107.
223 Lindsey, 1980's.,
pp. 149, 154.
224
Lindsey, 1980's., p. 132.
225 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 158.
226 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 111.
227 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 225.
228 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 228.
229 Lindsey, International
Intelligence Briefing, 4th November 1998.
230 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 114.
231 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 215.
232 Lindsey, Final.,
pp. 227, 231, 232.
233 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 96.
234 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 194.
235 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 15.
236 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 104.
237 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 223.
238 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 153.
239 Lindsey, Planet.,
pp. 243-244.
240 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 255.
241 Lindsey, Final.,
pp. back cover, xv.
242 Lindsey, Planet
Earth: The Final Chapter, p. 254.
243 Lindsey, Planet
Earth: The Final Chapter, p. 266.
244 Lindsey,
Late., pp. 155-159
245 Lindsey,
Israel., pp.37-44.
246 Lindsey, Final.,
p. xix.
247 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 156.
248 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 156.
249 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 19.
250 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 156.
251 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 155.
252 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 216.
253 Lindsey, Final.,
p. xix.
254 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 157.
255 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 13.
256 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 47.
257 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 63.
258 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 68.
259 National Review
(19 November 1990) 49, cited in Demar, Last., p. 200.
260 'Artswatch,'
World (2 March 1991), 15, quoted in Gary Demar, Last Days Madness, Obsession
of the Modern Church (Atlanta, Georgia, American Vision, 1997), p. 107.
261 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 114.
262 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 37.
263 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 39.
264 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 247.
265 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 128.
266 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 160.
267 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 71.
268 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 215.
269 Lindsey, Final,
pp. 251-252.
270 Lindsey, Planet
Earth: The Final Chapter, p. 284.
271 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 230.
272 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 237.
273 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 238.
274 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 264.
275 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 44.
276 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 136.
277 Lindsey, Late.,
pp. 48, 165, 167.
278 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 121.
279 Lindsey, There's.,
p. 238.
280 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 45.
281 Lindsey, Israel.,
pp. 45-46.
282 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 264.
283 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 184.
284 Lindsey, Final.,
pp. 255-7.
285 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
p. 237.
286 Lindsey, Apocalypse.,
p. 118.
287 Edward Irving,
The Last Days A Discourse on the Evil Character of These Our Times, Proving
Them to be The 'Perilous Times' and the 'Last Days' (London, James Nisbit, 1850),
pp. 10-22.
288 Hal Lindsey,
The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon (New York, Bantam, 1982), back cover.
289 Hal Lindsey,
The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon (Basingstoke, Lakeland, 1983), back cover.
290 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 151.
291 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 54.
292 Lindsey, 1980's.,
back page.
293 A classic example
was, Edgar Whisenant, who predicted the return of Christ some time between 11-13
September 1988 in his book, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988 (Nashville,
World Bible Society, 1988), pp. 3, 36, 56, which sold 2 million copies. See
also Tom Sine, Cease Fire (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1995), p. 57, and Richard
Kyle, The Last Days are Here Again (Grand Rapids, Baker, 1998) p. 121.
294 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 3.
295 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 6.
296 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 144.
297 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 144.
298 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 263.
299 Lindsey, Planet
Earth, The Final Chapter (Beverly Hills, Western Front, 1998), p. 76.
300 David Hill, The
Gospel of Matthew (London, Oliphants, 1972), pp. 323-324; David E. Garland,
Reading Matthew, a Literary and Theological Commentary on the First Gospel (London,
SPCK, 1993), pp. 234-238; R.T. France, Matthew, Evangelist & Teacher (Exeter,
Paternoster, 1989), 315.
301 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 113.
302 Lindsey, 1980's.,
pp. 15, 106.
303 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 109.
304 Lindsey, Planet.,
pp. 232, 235.
305 Lindsey, Final.,
p. xv.
306 John
Walvoord, Israel in Prophecy (Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1962), p. 129.
307 Lindsey,
1980's., p. 162.
308 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 306.
309 Lindsey, Israel.,
p. 47.
310 Lindsey, 1980's.,
pp. 29-30.
311 Lindsey, Planet.,
pp. 83-84.
312 Demar, Last.,
p. 331. See also http://www.bible.ca/pre-earthquakes-history-data.htm
313 Lindsey, 1980's.,
p. 29.
314 Thomas D. Ice,
'Dispensationalism, Date-Setting and Distortion,' Biblical Perspectives (September/October,
1988), p. 1.
315 Gary DeMar &
Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy of Hatred Continues, A Response to Hal Lindsey's
The Road to Holocaust, (Tyler, Texas, Institute for Christian Economics, 1989),
p. 31.
316 Cited in C. Van
der Waal, Hal Lindsey and Biblical Prophecy (Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada, Inheritance
Publications, 1991), p. 14.
317 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 151.
318 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 213.
319 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 164.
320 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 306.
321 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 160, Final., p. 108.
322 Roy Coad, A History
of the Brethren Movement (Exeter, Paternoster, 1968), p. 135.
323 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 67.
324 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 176.
325 Lindsey, Planet.,
p. 29.
326 Samuele Bacciochi,
Hal Lindsey's Prophetic Jigsaw Puzzle, Five Predictions That Failed (Berrien
Springs, Biblical Perspectives); Gary DeMar & Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy
of Hatred Continues, A Response to Hal Lindsey's The Road to Holocaust, (Tyler,
Texas, Institute for Christian Economics, 1989); Kenneth Gentry, 'Dispensationalism's
Achilles' Head: Comments on Hal Lindsey's The Road to Holocaust' Dispensationalism
in Transition, Institute of Christian Economics, Vol II, No. 8 & 9, 1989;
Steve Schlissel & David Brown, Hal Lindsey and the Restoration of the Jews
(Edmonton, Alberta, Still Waters Revival Books, 1990); Curtis Crenshaw, a review
of Steve Schlissel & David Brown, Hal Lindsey and the Restoration of the
Jews (Edmonton, Alberta, Still Waters Revival Books, 1990) Contra Mundum No.
3, Spring 1992.; C. Van der Waal, Hal Lindsey and Biblical Prophecy, (Neerlandia,
Alberta, Inheritance Publications, 1991); Stephen O'Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse:
A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric (Oxford, Oxford University Press); John Mann,
a review of Stephen O'Leary's, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial
Rhetoric (Oxford, Oxford University Press), http://homepages.anglianet.co.uk/johnm/apoc.html
. See also Dispensationalism in Transition (Institute of Christian Economics,
Tyler, Texas); Center for the Refutation of Dispensational Falsehoods (CRDF)
web site: http://village.ios.com/~dougg/biblstud/crdf/crdf.htm
; Contra Mundum web site: http://www.wavefront.com/~contra_M/cm/reviews.cm03_rev_jewish.html
;
327 Blaising &
Bock, Dispensationalism., pp. 14-15.
328 Gary DeMar and
Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy of Hatred Continues: A response to Hal Lindsey's
The Road to Holocaust (Tyler, Texas, Institute for Christian Economics, 1989),
p. 17.
329 J. N. Darby,
'The Rapture of the Saints and the Character of the Jewish Remnant,' Collected
Writings, Prophetic. IV, Vol. II, p. 154.
330 Lindsey, Road.,
back page. Refuted by Gary DeMar and Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy of Hatred
Continues: A Response to Hal Lindsey's The Road to Holocaust (Fort Worth, Dominion
Press, 1989)
331 Lindsey, Road.,
p. 3
332 Lindsey, Final.,
p. 36.
333 Hal Lindsey,
The Dominion Theology Heresy, Tape 217, 1987, quoted in DeMar & Leithart,
Legacy., p. viii.
334 Tom Sine, Cease
Fire: Searching for Sanity in America's Culture Wars (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans,
1995), p. 58.
335 Harold O. J.
Brown, Heresies: The Image of Christ in the Mirror of Heresy and Orthodoxy from
the Apostles to the Present (Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 1984), p. 455,
note 38.
336 Lindsey, Road.,
pp. 153-154. Lindsey's disdain for the Mosaic Law may have contributory in his
justification in divorcing not just one wife but two and his marrying a third,
Kim, 25 years his junior. http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/lindsey/lindsey.htm
337 Scofield, Scofield
Reference Bible., fn. 1, p. 20, p. 989.
338 Gary DeMar and
Peter J. Leithart, Legacy., p. 25.
339 S. Lewis Johnson,
'The Paralaysis of Legalism' Bibliotheca Sacra (April/June 1963), p. 109. Cited
in Gary DeMar and Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy., p. 24.
340 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 151.
341 Hal Lindsey,
The Final Battle (Palos Verdes, Western Front, 1995), pp. 250-252; Israel and
the Last Days (Eugene, Oregon, Harvest House, 1983), pp. 20-30.
342 Hal Lindsey,
There's a New World Coming (New York, Bantam Books, 1984, p. 90.
343 Lindsey, Late.,
p. 76.
344 Gary DeMar and
Peter J. Leithart, The Legacy of Hatred Continues: A response to Hal Lindsey's
The Road to Holocaust (Tyler, Texas, Institute for Christian Economics, 1989),
p. 27.