Hal Lindsey - Biblical Interpretations

Biblical Interpretations

The core of Lindsey's teachings is the belief that Jesus Christ is presented in the four gospels of the New Testament as the divine Son of God and the Jewish Messiah. He teaches from the Bible that Jesus Christ will return from heaven to earth someday and establish eternal peace, happiness, prosperity, and harmony among all people.

Lindsey states that the bible contains numerous prophecies that foretell of certain conditions and events that will occur in the world prior to Christ's return. He states that, as these things occur, they are to serve as signs and reminders that we are in the era that the bible calls the end times or last days. Lindsey teaches that the prophetic event that officially begins the end times is the regathering of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland to form an independent nation after a prolonged worldwide dispersion. He states that the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948 is the fulfillment of this major prophecy. He also states that the last seven years of the end times is a period known as the Tribulation; which is described in the gospel of Matthew and the book of Revelation.

In the The Late Great Planet Earth, Lindsey wrote that the biblical prophets identified certain nations that would ally with other countries to form "four major spheres of political power" during the same time era that Israel would be reestablished as a nation. Lindsey wrote that these nations and their allies can be identified as: (1) Russia with its allies, (2) China with other nations of the Orient, (3) Egypt with other Middle East countries, and (4) an alliance of Western European nations.

According to Lindsey, the alliance of Western European nations is a revived form of the ancient Roman Empire; predicted in the books of Daniel and Revelation symbolically as ten horns and ten kings. In The Late Great Planet Earth, Lindsey quotes from a 1969 Time Magazine that the goal of the European Economic Community, which preceded the European Union, was to establish a ten-nation economic community. Lindsey concludes, based on this and other sources, that this alliance will lead to the fulfillment of this prophecy and will ultimately be ruled by the Antichrist. The European Union currently has 27 members.

Lindsey noted that the prophets did not directly or indirectly refer to the United States of America. He concluded that this an indication that the U.S. will no longer be a leader on the world geo-political stage by the time the Tribulation of the end times arrived.

In a later book, entitled, The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon, he indicated that he believed it was possible that the battle of Armageddon could take place in the not too distant future, stating, "the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it.". He noted again that there is no reference to the U.S. in bible prophecy. He listed a few scenarios that seemed plausible to him at the time: (1) A takeover by communists, (2) destruction by a surprise Soviet nuclear attack, or (3) becoming a dependent of the 10-nation European community. The book was on the NY Times bestseller list for over 20 weeks.

Planet Earth - 2000 A.D., published in the early 1990s, states that Christians should not plan to still be on earth by the year 2000.

Lindsey's earlier predictions all assumed that the Cold War would continue indefinitely, and had eschatological significance; he explicitly identified Russia with the apocalyptic figure of Gog. He also assumed that the 1960s counterculture would eventually become the dominant culture, and become the source of prophesied "immorality" that would lead to the establishment of a false religion.

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