Hal Lindsey came to town not long ago. The Fool was unable
to attend his lecture at a local church and thought from
the little bit he read in advance about his appearance,
that responsible people would probably not be going - let
alone being taken in by Lindsey's mischievous gospel. But
the Fool was wrong! Hundreds attended and even some of the
Fool's friends spoke highly of Lindsey's prophetic
insight. So the Fool decided he should read The Late Great
Planet Earth, which seemed to provide the basis for
Lindsey's apocalyptic views.
The quote from Demosthenes at the head of the first
chapter should have revealed what would follow, but it
didn't ring through to the Fool until second reading: "We
believe whatever we want to believe." This is precisely
what Lindsey does in the face of all evidence to the
contrary.
Lindsey starts with non-critical commentary on Edgar Cayce
and Jeane Dixon. The Fool was not sure what attitude
Lindsey really has toward this type of prophecy,
spiritualism, ESP, and spiritual healing to which Lindsey
casually alluded.
Then Lindsey speaks of the "fantastic claims" of the Bible
and indicates that "Bible prophecy (these same fantastic
claims?) can become a sure foundation upon which your
faith can grow..." Lindsey said "There is no need to
shelve your intellect while finding this faith," but the
Fool found this to be entirely untrue. There is a great
deal of intellectual activity that has been engaged in
regarding the Bible. Even the Fool is aware of a little
bit of it that has taken the place during the last few
centuries. But Lindsey disposes of all of these Biblical
scholars by designating them as "so-called." This is
certainly a call to shelve one's intellect.
Lindsey hops, skips, and jumps through a large amount of
biblical prooftexting with Genesis, Chronicles, Micah,
Daniel, Matthew, James, and Mark all called upon within a
half dozen pages to "prove" one contention after another.
No attempt is made to place these different books in
historical perspective or to evaluate critically the
degree of historical or prophetic accuracy they may
contain.
The Fool realizes that it would be easy for an unthinking
reader to be taken in by Lindsey's apparent scholarship,
but the fact is that Lindsey is only presenting a narrow
self-serving view of the Bible. Headings like, "Passing
the Test," "Guaranteed Accuracy," "Truth From Dusty
Books," "What's the Evidence?" and "Stay Tuned to the
Facts" sound like he is concerned about truth and
objectivity, but the Fool found so many broad
generalizations, half-truths, unsubstantiated allusions,
and speculation that he put the book aside in favor of
viewing the movie of the same name.
The Fool came away from the theater thinking that it is a
very dangerous movie. It portrays much that is true about
famine, pollution, the destructive potential of our war
machines, and the possibilities of natural and
semi-natural hazards such as earthquakes, weather
catastrophes, and the possible destruction of the ozone
layer. Yet it is filled with so much quasi-science,
anti-intellectualism, pseudo-Biblical criticism, and false
prophecies that the viewing public is likely to be quite
confused at best.
If we are to understand that the Biblical prophecies that
Lindsey assumes have been - and will be - true, then the
Battle of Armageddon is inevitable an the God who
apparently created the whole universe just to play out
this scenario will have the last laugh as all of his
creations are destroyed - except possibly the flowers that
bloom forth in fast action photography at the end of the
movie.
If mankind is to survive the hazards that are real, then
even the Fool knows that we need honest, rational, and
objective descriptions of the problems that face us - and
encouragement to use our best abilities to solve these
problems. The Fool is afraid that The Late Great Planet
Earth falls far short of what is needed and that it
actually does a disservice to mankind. The last lines of
the movie reminded the Fool that at least one of the
prophecies of Jesus was obviously false, since, "All these
things were [not] fulfilled" before his generation passed
away, as he said that they would be in Mt. 24:34 .
The Fool suspects that Lindsey must have some explanation
to deal with this and other Biblical "prophecies" that
have not taken place, but the Fool does not find them to
be dealt with openly in the book where they could be
easily confirmed or documented.
The Late Great Planet Earth was written in 1970 and
purports to describe the world situation since 14 May 1948
when David Ben-Gurion read the Declaration of Independence
announcing the establishment of a Jewish nation to be
known as the State of Israel. But the fact is that 22
years after the event, Lindsey was not able to identify
"The Future Fuehrer" or the "One-world Religion" or the
"ten-nations which will come out of Rome," all of which
are essential to Lindsey's theories. Ten years after
Lindsey wrote his book - now 32 years into the countdown,
the Fool knows of no evidence that these specific
"so-called" prophecies are being fulfilled.
The Fool wonders how many errors, mistakes, or
inadequacies would need to be demonstrated before Lindsey
and other modern prophets of the apocalypse and their
followers would admit that they may be wrong?
The Fool is especially bothered by Lindsey's apparent
dishonesty in dealing with history on a selective basis -
drawing attention to what confirms at least part of his
theory and avoiding or glossing over that which doesn't
fit in with it.
Lindsey winds down his book by giving an altar call in
which the reader is assured that he need not be bothered
if he doesn't understand it all. This seems a long way
removed from Lindsey's contention that one need not shelve
one's intellect to read his book. It seems much closer to
Demosthenes' insight that "We believe whatever we want to
believe," whether it is valid or not.
The planet Earth may indeed be close to "late" but
unfortunately it is thinking such as Lindsey's that seems
to be hastening its demise by encouraging persons not to
confront the real problems that face us in a reasonable
and understanding way.
Gaunilo II
March 1980
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