The Late Great Planet Earth [Paperback]

Hal Lindsey (Author), Carole C. Carlson (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 1970

The impact of The Late Great Planet Earth cannot be overstated. The New York Times called it the 'no. 1 non-fiction bestseller of the decade.' For Christians and non-Christians of the 1970s, Hal Lindsey's blockbuster served as a wake-up call on events soon to come and events already unfolding -- all leading up to the greatest event of all: the return of Jesus Christ. The years since have confirmed Lindsey's insights into what biblical prophecy says about the times we live in. Whether you're a church-going believer or someone who wouldn't darken the door of a Christian institution, the Bible has much to tell you about the imminent future of this planet. In the midst of an out-of-control generation, it reveals a grand design that's unfolding exactly according to plan. The rebirth of Israel. The threat of war in the Middle East. An increase in natural catastrophes. The revival of Satanism and witchcraft. These and other signs, foreseen by prophets from Moses to Jesus, portend the coming of an antichrist . . . of a war which will bring humanity to the brink of destruction . . . and of incredible deliverance for a desperate, dying planet.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The impact of The Late Great Planet Earth cannot be overstated. The New York Times called it the “no. 1 non-fiction bestseller of the decade.” For Christians and non-Christians of the 1970s, Hal Lindsey’s blockbuster served as a wake-up call on events soon to come and events already unfolding—all leading up to the greatest event of all: the return of Jesus Christ.

The years since have confirmed Lindsey’s insights into what biblical prophecy says about the times we live in. Whether you’re a churchgoing believer or someone who wouldn’t darken the door of a Christian institution, the Bible has much to tell you about the imminent future of this planet. In the midst of an out-of-control generation, it reveals a grand design that’s unfolding exactly according to plan.

The rebirth of Israel. The threat of war in the Middle East. An increase in natural catastrophes. The revival of Satanism and witchcraft. These and other signs, foreseen by prophets from Moses to Jesus, portend the coming of an antichrist . . . of a war that will bring humanity to the brink of destruction . . . and of incredible deliverance for a desperate, dying planet -- Publisher

From the Author

Hal Lindsey is the author of numerous fiction and non-fiction books, including Blood Moon and Apocalypse Code. C. C. Carlson is the author or coauthor of many books, including Our Values: Stories and Wisdom and The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (May 23, 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031027771X
• ISBN-13: 978-0310277712
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 1 x 5.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 138 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Oops...I Did It Again, August 25, 2006

By 

Labarum (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Late Great Planet Earth (Paperback)

A generation before there was a Left Behind, there was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and C. C. Carlson. This is the book that broke the dispensationalist view of the end times into the consciousness of America. A phemomenal best seller, it was a watershed event in the growing Christian publishing industry. For many Christians, their first reading of this book was an energizing event that shaped their future. A generation later, many of its former supporters now see in its pages a complete misreading of Holy Scripture, sensationalistic attempts to correspond Biblical prophecies to current events, and an unhealthy enthusiasm for seeing the world obliterated.

So why bother with what can easily be written off as paranoid millenarianism? Well, while many have outgrown its simplistic approach to world events, it still resounds for much of the Church and this is shown in the continued audience for books by Lindsey and other "prophecy pundits." While it is certainly true that Tim LaHaye has replaced Lindsey as the popular voice of dispensationalism, it cannot be denied that Left Behind was made possible by this book.

Part of the commercial success of both authors has to do with their placing the dispensationalist view in a popular book form. For LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, it was the pulp novel. Back in 1970, Lindsay and C. C. Carlson did the same with a popular genre of their day - the sensationalistic expose. Like most books of this type (e.g., The Bermuda Triangle, Chariots of the Gods?, The Philadelphia Experiment, The Population Bomb), it is written in a breezy soundbite style that is long on conjecture and short on facts. Like most of these books, it was a peculiar period piece of American life at a time when the fabric of the nation seemed to be coming apart at the seams. Like most of these books, it is laughable in retrospect.

If the book were out of circulation and I were reviewing this for historical purposes, I would almost be tempted to give it a free pass as a kitschy period piece...sort of a fundamentalist lava lamp. The original was so over the top and written with such enthusiasm one could almost have forgiven the fact that the authors got everything wrong. After all, it was the 1970's when wild conspiracy theories, distrust of any traditional authority, and predictions of impending disaster were all the rage. When viewed within a time frame that produced predictions of a soon to be ice age, a UFO invasion, a famine around the corner, and California falling into the Pacific Ocean, the authors' claims of the coming Armageddon look downright trendy.

However, in the intervening years, the revisions of this book just kept piling up. Make a bad prediction? No problem, edit the book with the old gaffes removed, add a few trendier predictions, and release it as a new book. Lindsey, now well into middle age and hurtling towards his golden years, still clings to the long discredited dispensationalist hypothesis (Carleton's contribution is more stylistic) despite his failed scenarios. Lindsey's original view was that the end times events would take place in the 1980s (he even wrote a book The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon trumpeting this belief). Well that didn't pan out, so he then jumped on the Y2K bandwagon (another of his books was Planet Earth 2000 A.D.: Will Mankind Survive?). Oops, wrong again. First communism was the main source of evil in the world but more recently it is Islam (a more recent book is The Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad). When one bogeyman falls, he is quick to insert a new one in its place.

Between the failed predictions, the hilarious misreadings of the original languages, the bizarre correlations between apocalyptic symbolism and modern military technology, and the hysterical pleading for contemporary events fulfilling the Biblical prophecies "right before our eyes", it is not surprising many of those energized by this book became convinced of the imminent end of all things. This trend continues to this day for the many followers of dispensationalist worldview as they are perpetuated in the many novels based on dispensationalist beliefs - notably the Left Behind series of novels.

If you can find a copy of the original version from 1970, it can be interesting in much the same way as a Brady Bunch episode - not for its merit but as an example of a particular moment in the consciousness of the fundamentalist subculture at a particular time. Just as many Catholics have vivid memories of nuns and the Baltimore Catechism, fundamentalists of that era will never forget this book and the movie A Thief in the Night.

However, for the reedited version here presented as a guide to interpreting biblical prophecy, it is best to pass. For all its success as a cultural marker, its usefulness in properly understanding Biblical prophecy is basically nil. For this, its original purpose, The Late Great Planet Earth is completely worthless.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyed the book, August 8, 2011

By 

Eileen Archie - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Late Great Planet Earth (Paperback)

I don't know why all the previous commenters were so negative about this book. In fact, as far as I know some of these predictions are taking place right now!

36 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars To everything there is a season..., January 28, 2004

By 

FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Late Great Planet Earth (Paperback)

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...