The Late Great Planet Earth was published way back in 1970. I don’t know how many copies were sold, but I’m sure the initial sales and reprints made Hal Lindsey fairly comfortable. I read the book some time in the mid-seventies and it made quite an impression on me. I was unaffiliated with any church at the time; as a matter of fact I was a regular reprobate back then. I always related to the description of the prodigal son. “ He spent his sustenance on riotous living”. I didn’t have a lot of extra sustenance, but I was big on the riotous living anyway.
There was a countdown in Lindsey’s Revelation exposition. According to him and many other biblical scholars, there will be a seven-year period before the return of Christ called “The Tribulation”. There are differing opinions among the believers as to when in that seven years that the “Rapture” will occur. Most including Lindsey believe that it will occur at the beginning of the tribulation period, some are mid-tribbers, and there are many that believe the faithful will have to endure the entire seven years.
The problem with predicting the future, is being to specific about events or to precise on the timing. Lindsey’s timeline for the final battle was triggered by the return of Israel as a sovereign nation in 1948. From there the scripture that states, “Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done”. The Latin word for generation is the key to figuring out when it’s going to get very intense around here. Lindsey says a generation was 40 years, so his book calculated that the rapture would happen around 1981, which would mean that we would have been spared listening to the really crappy music of the eighties. So if Hal Lindsey had been on his game, then the apocalypse would have to happen by 1988! Well at least the Mayans still have their shot in 2012.
The good news is, it’s now 2011 and 1988 has come and gone 23 years ago and we’re all still here.The bad news is the rise of Islamic fundamentalism with most of them waiting for the return of the 12th Imam. I’ll give one thing to Lindsey and many other scholars of Eschatology; they may be on track when it comes to the source of the Antichrist. Most believe that a leader from the middle-east would rise to great power and garner the admiration of most of the world especially since he would be the only one who can bring peace to the entire world starting with the state of Israel and it’s Arab and Palestinian neighbors. This peace however would end abruptly when this Arabic leader enters the temple in Jerusalem and sets himself up as God. That when things get really ugly and it all culminates with the battle of Armageddon. That’s it, game over, everybody out of the pool.
When I read The Late Great Planet Earth, and studied other books on the end times, I couldn’t relate to the Antichrist springing up from the Middle East. I just couldn’t see how an Arab could wield such power and leverage against the rest of the world.
It’s now 2011 and the world looks much differently today. Islam is being dominated not by numbers but by the shear brutality and violence of the radical segment of that religion. Iran is being controlled by the worst of the worst and big proponent of the return of the 12th Imam. I don’t know about 1 thru 11, but ol number 12 has got some serious anger management issues. His resume looks like he would make a great Antichrist.
Iran is working hard on developing nuclear weapons and is getting closer to joining the club. Egypt is on the verge of revolution and I don’t think the next regime will be a broker of peace in the Middle East. Pakistan already has nukes so all we need is a revolution in that country and the Islamic radicals would instantly be a nuclear power with no incentive for restraint.
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| Looks like he's singing karaoke |
You see, Akmendinjab, Bin Laden and all the rest of these nut jobs believe they can bring about the return of the 12th Imam by setting the West, Israel, Europe and even themselves on fire! Pretty easy to do if you have the big matchstick in the nose cone of an intercontinetel ballistic missile.
I have no idea what the future holds for us, I still believe the bible is the word of God, I’m just not running out buying books on Revelation anymore. I don’t believe that the prophecies were written to give us an exact blueprint for the last days of man here on Earth. I do think our days as a species here are numbered, how many days? You won’t hear me putting a number on it anymore. I do believe we are in the final generation, but I have no idea what the term generation means, all I know is, the world right now is a tinderbox, and we have a shit load of lunatics running around with lit matches.
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