The Late Great Planet Earth

Identification Best-selling book

Date Published in 1970

Author Hal Lindsey

This work, based upon biblical prophecy and current events, postulated that the battle of Armageddon, or World War III, would involve a Russian invasion of the Middle East. It became a phenomenal best-seller and was made into a film in 1978.

Key Figures

  • Hal Lindsey (1929-    ), author

The Late Great Planet Earth focuses on “the end times” and posits the Rapture of Christian believers who will be taken from Earth to Heaven in the immediate future. The key catalyst for author Hal Lindsey’s themes was the creation of the modern nation of Israel in 1948—all other conclusions stem from his belief that this event marked the beginning of the end of the world, a view reinforced by Israel’s capture of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War in 1967. By fusing biblical prophecy and political events, he reached an audience beyond Christians of an evangelical or Fundamentalist persuasion.

Using forty years as the duration of a generation, Lindsey writes that the future events he describes will happen within a generation of the founding of Israel, or by 1988. He cites Matthew 24:34 in support. The end times will begin when an Arab African alliance of Libya (Put), Ethiopia (Cush), and Iran (Persia) invades Israel, and Russia (the Magog of Ezekiel 38:2)—supported by the Iron Curtain countries of Eastern Europe (Gomer) and southern Russian people (Togarmah) and led by a commander referred to as Gog in Ezekiel 38:15,16—seeks both to grab Israel’s vast mineral wealth in the Dead Sea Basin and to secure the “land bridge” in the Middle East. This scenario is illustrated by maps in the book.

Once the Russian intervention is under way, the Russians will double-cross their Arab African allies, and then the Antichrist leader of a united Western Europe—the beast with ten horns referenced in Daniel 7:24—originally supported by China, will attack the Russians. China will betray the Antichrist and march against him with 200 million troops, and to stop this onslaught, the Antichrist will use nuclear weapons. During this time, the Jews will convert en masse to Christianity, and Christ will return and destroy all the armies.

Following his interpretation of the Book of Revelation, Lindsey outlines how history and time will come to an end. He writes that Christ will separate surviving believers from unbelievers and establish his one-thousand-year reign on Earth, the millennium. At its end, an attempted rebellion by unbelievers will be led by Satan, but Christ will destroy them and then create the “new heaven and new earth.”

As a postscript, Lindsey offers predictions about religious, political, and social trends. Some of these offered no surprises, including a predicted movement away from institutionalized churches and disbelief within church leadership. However, he also notes that the United States would lose its dominant position in the Western world and experience tremendous increases in drug usage, crime, unemployment, poverty, mental illness, and illegitimacy.

Impact

Written in a very plain and simple style, the book paved the way for many similar works in the 1970’s and following decades, and interest in biblical prophecy, international relations, and Middle Eastern politics was heightened. Lindsey himself continued writing in this vein.

Bibliography

Boyer, Paul S. When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Clouse, Robert G. “Late Great Predictions.” Christian History 18, no. 1 (1999): 40, 41.

Lindsey, Hal. The Late Great Planet Earth. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1970.