Late Great Planet Earth, The

Rating:
Summary: rib poking and thought provoking
Review: Using the books of Isaiah, Zachariah, Daniel and Revelation, Hal Lindsey iterates the timelessness of these books and the 100% accuracy rating of prophecies from the ancient Jewish prophets that have already come to pass, and more still unfulfilled.

For a book written in the early 70s, Lindsey's comments on tension in the Middle East, nukes in Russia and aspirations of China are chilling in light of events of today. Of course, Lindsey is not making his own predictions, but rather explaining the what, who, and where of names cited in the book of Daniel, etc. based on historical record.

My less than perfect rating is for the manner in which Lindsey and his co-author Carlson jump around from topic to topic within chapters. A number of places say something of the manner of "if you'll remember from Chapter 8..." which isn't possible since the chapters have names, but not numbers... so unless you're keeping a running tab of what chapter you're on, you're not exactly sure as to what the authors are referring to (unless you've got a mind like RainMan, of course).

The book makes no apologies for its matter-of-fact statements regarding the current state of the world and where we're headed ... and acts as a "wake-up call" for those who don't see the proverbial handwriting on the wall.

While written in 70s vernacular, the message of the text is as timeless as the books it refers to. There is a reason why the New York Times listed this as the best seller for over a decade - it's a much read and re-read book on our times and the times to come.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic on Biblical Prophecy.
Review: This is the classic Bible prophecy book of all time, I first read it in the early 70s and it moved me to seek out God. Hal Lindsey in the Late Great Planet Earth shows us how the Bible predicts many many things about the end times. For One Hal shows us that four great spears of Power will be on the scene in the end time. A united Europe (This is happening now, right in front of our eyes, remember this book was written in the 60s); Russia and her Allis (remember Russia is still a heavily armed nation-Russia has also, made a peace treaty with Iran guaranteeing Iran safety from attack my Israel or the USA); The Muslims nations of the middle east, Africa etc.,: and the Asian Power (which can field an army of 200,000,000. China and India can easily field an army of such size). Hal also shows us how the Bible predicted the re-gathering of Israel in the ends times (EZK 36), and how they would come into Israel first (1948) and get Jerusalem later (1967) and how this is a key to the start of the last days. Hal also talks about how the Bible predicts how two intriguing figures will rise up at the end time, the anti Christ and the False Prophet. One will be over the United European Powers and the Other will be in Israel. They will make a treaty with each other and bring in a peace for a short time (Hal also shows how this leads to war and the return of Christ). Folks if you see it happen Believe in Gods Word. Lets face it if it was 100 years ago, who would have ever thought that the Jews would be back in Israel? Who would have thought that Europe would be uniting under one from of Government? Who would have thought Russia would be aligning with Iran? Its all happening right in front of our eyes. We all need to Wake up!!!

Rating:
Summary: A Classic That Remains Relevant Today
Review: Although this book was written 30 years ago, it remains timely. While the Soviet Union has disintegrated, it does not change the fact that a great northern power will one day attack Israel, and face God's direct wrath. While this northern power cannot be the Soviet Union, it can easily be something worse--perhaps an even more egregious Russian totalitarian state will soon emerge. In fact, not a few Russians insist that "We are between empires." Meanwhile, the enmity of Arab states against Israel has not diminished. Finally, regardless of the accuracy or otherwise of Lindsey's ideas about the end times, we do know that Jesus Christ will return to Earth someday, and His return is imminent. This means that it can happen at anytime, not necessarily soon.

Rating:
Summary: Must read book for any student of Prophecy
Review: Hal Lindsey is one of the Premier if not the highest regarded prophecy teacher of the 20th century. Any student of Prophecy should read this wonderful book written almost 35 years ago. This book was the number one selling book between 1970-1980 after the Bible on the NY best sellers list. I suggest anyone that is interested in prophecy add this to their collection.

Rating:
Summary: I Love This Stuff
Review: Whenever I think we may have actually progressed out of the Dark Ages, I remember that people actually spend good money to read Hal Lindsey's superstitious nonsense. Back in the late 1970s, I read this one, and was amused at its "predictions" for the future. The fact that none of these biblical "prophets" ever gets anything right never stops guys like Lindsey from making a fortune on books like this.
If you read the Bible, you'll see that Jesus believed he was coming right back. He says it over and over again in the Gospels. Guess what ... he was wrong. And that mistake, which Bertrand Russell (among others) has written about (see "Why I Am Not a Christian") has led Christians to wait for 2,000 years for a mythical second coming, which has become a veritable cottage industry.
Because Lindsey's always wrong, he can come out with a new book every year or so, "reinterpreting" the "facts" and make himself a pile of money from the poor benighted sheep who take this stuff seriously. This book got the "end times" ball rolling, but it will never stop, because no matter how wrong this stuff is, someone will always write another one claiming to have it right.
Someday, it will be the year 3000, and Hal Lindsey's descendants will be writing about how Jesus is coming any day now because a sheep with three horns was born in Fiji or a Ecuador has just invaded Brazil ... and the Bible predicted it would happen to signal the last days.
More power to you Hal -- P.T. Barnum had it right.

Rating:
Summary: To everything there is a season...
Review: We believe what we want to believe.

There, he said it. Quoting Demosthenes at the very outset of the book, we've been put on notice. The mystery is, why do people want to believe this?

I remember 'The Late Great Planet Earth' from many years ago. I believe I was 15 years old at the time when I first read the book, an easy-to-read text even then, so much so that I completed it in one sitting. However, I am reminded of the letter of Paul to the Corinthians - when I was a child, I thought like a child. I have grown up, and contrary to many of the messages that 'The Late Great Planet Earth' seemed to impart, the earth is still here.

The Bible is full of prophecy, and people are interested in prophecy. There are people who seem to need prophecy of death and destruction - this is as true today as it has been throughout most of history. Most cultures have had an apocalyptic strand of prophecy. One thing that amazes me, however, is the ease with which we in the late twentieth/early twenty-first centuries co-opt someone else's prophecy and start preparing for our own destruction.

*How to read the Bible*
There are many different ways to read the Bible. In fact, there is disagreement in religious communities today about how to read the Bible, drawing from the more liberal interpreters on the one hand, and the more fundamentalist/literalist interpreters (and let us not forget that to take things literally is a choice of interpretation) on the other, with a myriad of views falling outside of these two primary camps. Lindsay is part of the fundamentalist camp - which perhaps makes it all the more amazing the often extreme non-literal interpretations attached to the various prophecies. Those who are so insistent on a word-for-word literal rendering of the beginning of the Bible are the first to attach the most non-literal interpretations to the last book of the New Testament (I have yet to meet anyone, fundamentalist or not, who literally expects a seven-headed monster with ten horns to arise from the sea). The principles by which some things can be treated as symbolic and other things must be taken literally are never made clear.

Lindsay's interpretations do not come solely from the Revelation to John, but draw from prophecies collected through the entire biblical text. Daniel figures prominently, as do other prophets major and 'minor' from the Hebrew scriptures. Lindsay also finds end-time prophecies in Genesis, Chronicles, and the gospels.

With this material, Lindsay constructed a scenario worthy of any apocalyptic novel, but did not see his product as fiction; nor did the tens of millions who flocked to bookstores to purchase this. Perhaps the most crucial element, one repeated frequently by Lindsay, was the restoration of Israel. Lindsay pinned much on this fact and his reading that the end times, the rapture, and the second coming would take place 'within a generation' of this event. He even went so far as to say the crucial date should be 1988. And the year is now...?

Lindsay put many things together in his synthesis. For example, the monster of Daniel was the European Community, which at the time had ten nations, seven major and three minor. This was the ten-nation confederacy needed for the antichrist. The European Community today has twice that number of nations and continues to grow, and is highly unlikely to produce an antichrist figure; indeed, one wonders why the more obvious choice of the Arab nations (most of whom also occupy former Roman territories) were not chosen; politics today would look to them (from Morocco to Turkey there are ten nations, seven major) who are increasingly popularly characterised as anti-Christian.

*What about Prophecy?*
There is a difference between prophecy and fortune-telling or future-telling, and Lindsay's text never makes this crucial distinction. Prophecy is, quite simply, truth-telling. To be prophetic is not to predict the future, but to call attention to the issues of the day and what needs to be reformed. One of the important things to realise, if you will forgive my awkward language, is that prophecy need not come true to be true. The Bible testifies to this - Jonah's prophecy toward Nineveh was true, even though the destruction he foretold did not happen; Jonah was unhappy about this, but the fact that the compilers of the Bible chose to include a story of 'failed' prophecy shows both that God has the infinite capacity for mercy, and can decide differently, but also that any particular interpretation we put on prophecies might not be the proper ones.

The Bible itself says we will not know the end times - how could this book unlock those mysteries? Wouldn't that prove at least part of the Bible false? Another truth we overlook is that end-time prophecies have been coming true all along - Nostradamus is perhaps a good counterweight here, seeing not one but many antichrists in history; perhaps bar-codes are the mark of the beast for our present day, just as the blemishes of bubonic plague were the mark of the beast for another age; perhaps the great fire followed by the great plague in London in 1665/1666 (ominous numbers echoed in other prophetic texts) were the fulfillment of death and fire prophecies for those times. Christians have been living in the end of times since the beginning.

Lindsay's text is flawed but interesting, but perhaps even more interesting is the reaction of people to it. Faith should be more based on love and God's goodness, not fear of destruction. I have little doubt that Lindsay's purpose was pastoral concern - as my friend Ron Allen (a New Testament scholar) once said, the Revelation to John is one of the more pastoral works in the Bible - it is concerned that people be ready, be prepared, and this was probably Lindsay's primary intention as well. However, we still wait, and watch. Stay tuned...

Rating:
Summary: Tomorrow's headlines today
Review: Hal Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth" is the kind of book that those hostile to Christianity love to analyze and criticize by distorting Lindsey's words. By golly, the man must be a false prophet, after all, he said that Israel's rebirth as a nation in 1948 was a sure sign that we were living in the "last generation" before the return of Christ. Since he describes a generation as lasting "about 40 years" in the Bible, well, golly, they claim Lindsey was predicting the end of the world (as we know it) in the year 1988. Duh, like, gee, the world didn't end in 1988 so he must be, like, you know, wrong and stuff. Duh.

Such people are wolves in sheep's clothing, and sheep that mindlessly follow the wolves. They misinterpret Lindsey's words in order to contradict him. But Lindsey doesn't claim to be infallible, and most of what he saw coming way back when this book was first published has come to pass. The United States of Europe that he said the Bible prophecized is now a reality, and this body, the European Union, from which the Antichrist will rise, even uses the image of a woman on a bull (the harlot atop the beast) that the Book of Revelation presents as a symbol of this unholy union.

In short, this is an excellent book. Read it with an open mind, and accept the fact that Lindsey is human and, therefore, bound to be wrong about little details and such. But when it comes to the big picture, he invariably hits the mark.

And be aware that everything the Bible says will happen will surely happen, and though belief requires faith, it doesn't really require much faith to see that what the Bible foretells is being played out right before our eyes.

Rating:
Summary: I Can't Believe anyone takes this seriously
Review: This book probably represents the darkest manifestation of the scams and snake oil American dream. Despite the fact that this book originally predicted the end of the world (by biblical apocalypse, not Reagan's) to occur in the early 1980's and has been pushed back every time his "expert" interpretation of prophesy failed to come true (the latest occuring in 2000), millions still buy this book and, no doubt, work themselves up into a religious frenzy of renewed fear and loathing. While this book once scared me when I was 12, all i can do now is laugh at the stupidty of it. Trite, simplistic, ridiculous, and insane are just some of the words that could be used to describe this book. If you want to contribute more to Lindsey's favorite charity (himself), then by all means go ahead and flush your money straight down the toilet. That way you can cut out the middle man and place your order with Lindsey directly.

Rating:
Summary: Rather sticky subject....
Review: I realise that I have taken a big risk in being skeptical about this book. It's all too easy to identify this with a lack of faith, but that is not the case with me at all - I'm looking foward more than anything else to the return of Christ. However, there are some tremendously important caveats to bear in mind when reading this book.

Firsrtly, we are commanded to be sober and watchful. This means, in a complex environment, keeping in mind that we may not have the whole bundle of exact details entirely correct. That means, basically, that we should be reading the scriptures VERY carefully on a regular basis and not steam rolling ahead with assumptions made a long while ago.

Secondly, in this age, and in quite a few others, there has been a characteristic strong element of deception flavouring almost everything. It has been sadly the case that many Christians have found, to their cost, that there are many counterfeit movements of God and many very deceitful people. This, again, is very strongly indicated by many scriptures.

I think you shoul dbear in mind that 30 odd years ago, it was very easy to think of the mass adoption of, say, the mark of the beast (which I certainly reckon is a future reality) as an element in a kind of Sci-fi scenario that would skim past the average believer, who would wear a kind of teflon skin and find it tough but fairly exciting. I am beginning to believe that this is not even nearly the case.

Bearing in mind that I'm English, for what it's worth, the culture here is actually very ripe for some sort of national abberation. We have had years of stupifying political life (observe Os Guiness on this matter if you doubt the tremendous importance of the defusion of ideas from this arena) and a resulting mass culture in which quite dreadful things have arisen.

But it has proved very difficult indeed for many Christians to avoid being swept away entirely by the flood of all of this.

This has spread everywhere - and is sharply manifest in the commercial and technological arenas. The story would take a long time to tell.

One very small thing is this, Lindsey spends a long time with Communism in this book. Nowadays, Communism is confined to some very small nations, who are daily threatened with near extinction... but even now, Christians on the whole are still confused, thinking that Communism (apart from the appalling behaviour of several Chinese and Russian administrations) in itself was a "principal" evil.

But in any case, it's gone now, and it's doubtful that the book Lindsey conceived is at all applicable with these sections removed.

The identification of Meschek with Moscow has ben in force for sometime, but is one of many a priori assumptions about geolography and history that are now seriously in doubt. I must be very plain that this doubt is among definitely born again believers who are in no way doubting the authenticity of the word of God, but looking very much more carefuly at the precise context of the writings. Meschek may be only just north of Turkey - Moscow is so far away it is almost certain not to have been on the Middle Eastern map at that stage.

The Bible speaks clearly about great military force being assembled. I think I've said enough about this now, but I would encourage people to read some good texts on Biblical history, but above all, to go back to prayer and fellowship, keeping on seeking God. This is the only way to keep clear on the "hall of mirrors" that is the current environment...

Rating:
Summary: Sheer Idiocy
Review: What can I say about this book of which, I confess, I have not been able to stomach more than half. Idiotic, gullible, credulous, superstitious, fanatical, irrational, etc. cannot adequately describe the abysmal depths of stupidity to which the author and earnest readers of this garbage dive. To chop down a tree in order to print this is truly a crime against nature.