The Late Great Planet Earth (Paperback)

~ Hal Lindsey (Author), Carole C. Carlson (Contributor) "It was a perfect night for a party..." (more)
Key Phrases: uttermost north, future fuehrer, northern commander, Jesus Christ, Middle East, United States (more...)

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

Product Description

The Bible has much to tell about the imminent future and this blockbuster reveals all the signs, seen in today's society, that foreshadow the return of Jesus Christ.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan; twenty-fifth printing december edition (August 18, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031027771X
• ISBN-13: 978-0310277712
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #217,565 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lindsey is a false prophet?, May 19, 2008

By	Clyde E. Bright "SitkaHappy" (Sitka, Alaska) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When this book first came out it stated that Jesus would return 40 years after the founding of the Jewish nation. We are now 20 years apast the date Lindsey gave for the return of Jesus. I guess that makes Mr.Lindsey the leading false prophet in the evangelical church today.

27 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Christian Book Reviews "www.christianbookrevi... (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

20 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars fascinating like a car crash, February 3, 2007

By	tribolumen (San Jose, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This book is yet another in a long, long, LONG string of failed attempts to predict the end of the world. Christians have been predicting it for 2,000 years; they've all been wrong. For thousands of years before THAT, people wrote their predictions on clay tablets, temple walls, papyri, and whatever else they could get their hands on; they were all wrong, too. With that kind of track record, why should anyone think these predictions are going to be any better?

The original 1973 version of this book claimed that the world would end in 1988. 19 years later, it's still here. Of course, the book has been updated so that the date is now further out in the future. Comic book readers call that sort of editing a "retcon", and it's as ridiculous in this world as it is in the comics.

It's comforting to think that our time is special. It feeds one's ego to think that our generation is the one in all of history who will face the great Biblical trials, rise to the challenge, and see God destroy the old world and create things anew. It's also comforting to think that Earth is the center of the universe, and that the sun, the planets, and the stars all revolve around us. Comforting, but not true.

I don't know if Hal Lindsey is sincere or not, and I don't care. There's no reason for any thinking person to believe that he's going to be right now when 5,000 years of doom-sayers (including Mr. Lindsey himself) have been wrong. For Christians, there's even less reason to think he knows when the end is coming, since the Bible itself states very plainly (and repeatedly) that NO ONE, not angels, not the Son Himself, knows the time. For Mr. Lindsey to claim that HE knows the time would seem to border on blasphemy.

The human race needs to stop paying so much attention to how we're all going to die, and worry a little more about how we all live. This book just completely misses the point.