24AR29-46

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AR 29:46 - The "late great" Hal Lindsey and his legacy

In this issue:

LINDSEY, HAL - profitably bringing "apocalyptic speculation" into the mainstream

UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA - plus a popular Catholic exorcist

Apologia Report 29:46 (1,687)
December 12, 2024

LINDSEY, HAL

"Died: 'Late Great Planet Earth' Author Hal Lindsey" by Daniel G. Hummel (Christianity Today, Nov 27 '24) -- "Lindsey became a household name in America in the 1970s with the success of The Late Great Planet Earth, which he cowrote with journalist Carole C. Carlson. The book sold an estimated 35 million copies by the end of the century, and several follow-up titles, including Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth and Planet Earth Two Thousand AD: Will Mankind Survive? were also bestsellers. 

   "Lindsey's books demonstrated an incredible appetite for apocalyptic speculation in America and paved the way for many other prophecy writers, including Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins, and Joel Rosenberg. He brought the once-obscure theology of dispensationalist premillennialism into the mainstream, introducing wide audiences to the concepts of the Rapture, the Antichrist, and the mark of the beast. ...

   "In 1955, after meeting with a prominent Houston pastor, Robert Thieme of Berachah Church, Lindsey had a born-again experience. Faith became central to his life - and so did prophecy. ...

   "Thieme, who was called 'the Colonel' by his congregation, was a self-described fundamentalist and an avid proponent of the theological system called dispensationalism. ...

   "The interpretive approach was developed in 19th-century prophecy conferences and the fundamentalist movement in the early 20th century. It was codified with the Scofield Reference Bible, compiled by Cyrus I. Scofield and published by Oxford University Press in 1909. ...

   "Lindsey studied this approach to Scripture with Thieme and then went to Dallas Theological Seminary, a center of dispensationalist theology. He graduated in 1962 with a degree in Greek New Testament.

   "After seminary, he joined Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) and moved to the University of California, Los Angeles, to evangelize students. He started a Bible study focused on prophecy. ...

   "The Bible studies became wildly popular, drawing both skeptical college kids who were nonetheless curious about the future fate of the world and young Christians who were thrilled by the way Lindsey could make the Bible seem relevant. ...

   "After six years, however, Lindsey's success became a problem for Campus Crusade. Founder Bill Bright worried the group was becoming too closely associated with what he called a 'particular theological hobbyhorse.'

   "Lindsey decided to start his own ministry, the Jesus Christ Light and Power Company. Headquartered in a former frat house at the edge of the UCLA campus, he continued to hold popular weekly Bible studies that invariably connected Scripture and current events.

   "His teaching reached a wider audience in 1970, when Zondervan, at the time a small Christian publisher, released The Late Great Planet Earth. The book ... sold 500,000 copies within a few years." (In fact, it "sold more than 10 million copies before the end of the 1970s, becoming the best-selling nonfiction book of the decade.)

   "In 1981, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lindsey was making 'thousands of dollars a week' from combined sales of books, films, and cassette tapes. ...

   "When Ronald Reagan entered the White House, administration officials made sure that Lindsey knew he had their ear. ...

   "In the midst of his professional success, Lindsey's personal life suffered. His first marriage failed around the time of his conversion. ...

   "Lindsey's second divorce - and subsequent third and fourth marriages - raised questions about his character for many evangelicals. But the biggest blow to his reputation was his failed predictions.

   "In his early books, Lindsey said all of the Bible's prophecy would likely be fulfilled 'within forty years or so of 1948,' when the nation of Israel was founded, based on his typological reading of Matthew 24. He qualified his prediction, giving himself an escape hatch with phrases like 'or so.' But few readers came away with the impression that Lindsey was unsure whether Christ would return by 1988."

    Naturally, "When 1988 came and went and the Soviet Union, one of the main objects of dispensational analyses, ultimately collapsed, Lindsey was forced to defend himself and his end times speculation."

   Nevertheless, "Lindsey continued offering commentary on current events, [especially on his TBN-based show, "The Hal Lindsey Report"] connecting them to biblical prophecy, until a few months before his death." <www.tinyurl.com/5f9zam9b>

   In February, MinistryWatch noted that Hal Lindsey Website Ministries had "$25 million in assets, but spends only about $3 million on programs," placing it in the category of organizations to which donors should "give with caution." <www.tinyurl.com/4j23zn6s>

 ---

UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENA

"The UAP Cover-Up, Uncovered (A Bit)" (Rod Dreher's Diary Substack, Nov 14 '24) -- "There is nothing on The New York Times website about Wednesday's blockbuster House subcommittee hearing on UAPs (the new name for UFOs). Nothing in the Washington Post. Unbelievable. This is huge, huge news! All I can figure is that they didn't take the hearing seriously. USA Today has <www.tinyurl.com/4uwzhra8> a good piece up, capturing the highlights of today's testimony.

   "The big news is that the US Government has for decades been collecting data on UAPs and hiding it from Congress, and, of course, from the American people. This is from a confidential report on the 'Immaculate Constellation' program <www.tinyurl.com/r9ds427h> that Subcommittee Chair Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) entered into the Congressional Record. It was leaked by a whistleblower."

   Luis Elizondo, a former military intelligence officer, "dodged the Congresswoman's question about whether or not these are 'interdimensional' beings. He said that he can't draw a conclusion about what they are, but he says that they move at speeds incompatible with our definition of life. ...

   "What are they? I don't know. Nobody seems to." adds Dreher. However, he continues by saying that "the most intelligent and highly placed people who investigated the phenomenon did not believe that they are aliens from other planets. Rather, most appear to think that they are discarnate higher intelligences from other dimensions of reality. Now, whatever they are or aren't, two things are true. The first is that there is something going on, and the second is that whatever that something is, it is evidence of the fact that this world, for lighter or darker, is more than meets the eye. ...

   "Interestingly, Jacques Vallée <www.tinyurl.com/hx544yaz> apparently has found old religious insights helpful to understand these phenomena. When the religious studies professor Diana Pasulka <dwpasulka.com> paid a visit to Vallée in his San Francisco apartment, she was astonished to find shelves of old - sometimes very old - books about angels and demons. Vallée handed her a crusty volume originally published by Carmelite nuns, telling her it was imperative to read it to better understand the UFO phenomenon. The book is a compendium of scholarly essays about Satan.

   "Pasulka is not alone in her professional belief that UFO culture is emerging as a new religion, but she has become one of the most prominent chroniclers of the phenomenon. ...

   "If you haven't checked in on the UFO world since The X-Files went off the air, you might be startled by how deep and broad the phenomenon has become. As Pasulka discusses in her two books on the subject, 2019's American Cosmic, <www.tinyurl.com/29dbbnfn> and 2023's Encounters <www.tinyurl.com/w8zj5sxh> (no relation to the Netflix show), the UFO matter involves some of the world's top scientists, technology gurus, venture capitalists, and even intelligence services. Even though the US government has begun to release limited information from its files, there is far more evidence that UFOs are real than the general public knows. Like Vallée, the best-informed among this invisible college of investigators believe that these are not visitors from other planets but entities from other dimensions.

   Dreher's response: "I am most interested in this phenomenon as a spiritual and religious one. I do believe that these are demonic entities." <www.tinyurl.com/3c4yyan3>

Dreher's conclusion, or at least the strength of it, may be fueled by his being "a big fan <www.tinyurl.com/3ckc63fj> of The Exorcist Files, <www.exorcistfiles.tv> the electrifying podcast featuring the work and commentary of the Catholic priest Carlos Martins, <fathercarlosmartins.com> an American exorcist. ...

   "Father Carlos has released his first book, The Exorcist Files: True Stories About the Reality of Evil and How to Defeat It. <www.tinyurl.com/4y5kc58e> It's really, really good. I read an advance copy, and blurbed it:

   "I really want to emphasize how practical this book is. Yes, there's lots of scary stuff, but Father is most interested in helping readers become aware of the reality of the demonic, and also giving them Scripturally sound instructions on how to avoid it and, if necessary, defeat it. In a world that is becoming fast re-enchanted - and not always by the Holy Spirit - you need to have this book. Many people understandably hate this stuff, and don't want to acknowledge it. Believe me, I get that. But you need to understand, as Father Carlos explains, that you might not be interested in demonic evil, but demonic evil is most definitely interested in you."

   Dreher also lists 13 common sins by which demons "come to possess or otherwise attach themselves to a person" according to "Father Carlos."

   Dreher devotes time to defending Carlos in subsequent Substack posts regarding internal Catholic controversies which he's encountered of late - for example, an incident in which "A St. Jude relic traversing the United States came to a stop this week, while the priest organizing the tour [Fr. Martins] faces an Illinois police investigation over alleged inappropriate conduct involving children.". <www.tinyurl.com/y6pa4369> Notably, "The priest has for several years led a ministry called Treasures of the Church," <treasuresofthechurch.com> which brings bone fragments and other remains of saints to Catholic parishes across North America for veneration. <www.tinyurl.com/4ytsfjah> 

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