Hal Lindsey’s recent death resulted in little mention from the conservative press; perhaps it’s an indication of how he’s regarded in conservative circles and if so, it’s a shame.
I think the guy who in the early 1970s predicted the Apocalypse would happen in the 1980s in his book The Late Great Planet Earth is getting shorted. He deserves a bigger historical footnote, because the man was right.
Right? How so, you ask. There was no showdown between Gog and Magog in Israel, no final battle prior to Christ’s return to reign for 1,000 years. There was no Antichrist, right?
Perhaps not on the antichrist, agreed on the rest.
That said, Lindsey’s doomsaying book was fundamentally right, in that he reminded us all (especially those of us who were from evangelical families and were kids when his hit book and movie came out) that time is short. Like an old newspaper comic strip in which a bearded hippie in a toga waves a sign saying, “The End Is Near,” Hal Lindsey was that comical hippie in a way, warning us to get right with Heaven or else.
“Make straight your ways, for the Lord is coming,” is sort of boilerplate biblical messaging, because it works. And because it’s always true, since every human has the same problem of their (unclearly) impending morality, and the need to come to terms with their actions, make amends, repent, and try to clean their slate before death.
But how can you do so if you’re not paying attention? That is, why do it when there’s so much else to focus on?
Being reminded that the end is near, that is, death could be a year, hour or minutes away, tends to focus a person. And if Lindsey made some wrong predictions and it helped people to focus on what is good, and on doing good, then I think he was right enough to deserve a lot of credit.
“Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” is never a bad message and always a good idea. And we have Hal Lindsey in part to thank for that Biblical messaging in America that in the 1970s wove its way into several motion pictures including In Search Of Noah’s Ark. Lindsey was one of the authors who gave momentum to those movies and related books.
Looking back, it may have laid the groundwork for the so-called “conservative” 1980s. But I digress, a lot.
I remember as a kid, and even into my 20s, I thought we were living in the End Times and that things would conclude a lot sooner than we think. That fatalistic thinking wasn’t exactly helpful, and I wouldn’t pin it on Lindsey any more than I’d blame my Presbyterian Sunday School teacher at my childhood church.
But these days, with the conflagration in the Middle East, a Gog and Magog showdown seems far more possible to me than it felt in the 1980s. Still, in a very personal way, it does not matter; though of course it matters a lot how Jews, Christians, and Muslims are treating each other in the Middle East.
Spirituality is ultimately a game of one, though. We all must meet our Maker on our own, when we die.
And if we want that meeting to be all it might be, we’re going to have to fess up and straighten up as much as possible, promptly. We’ll have to wise up enough to fear the Lord and the consequences of our actions.
In his rather flashy way, Hal Lindsey was telling us: Straighten your path, kid, your time could be short.
Hal Lindsey was right.
A journalist for 30 years, Jonathan Barnes has written and reported for Reuters, Fortune, Wall Street Journal and many other legacy media.
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