The Earth as seen from Apollo 17, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hal Lindsey and the Late, Great Planet Earth

Hal Lindsey Video

Hal Lindsey is a little different from the other bible teachers mentioned on this site. At the time of writing he is still alive and still broadcasting. His contribution has not been so much as to bring new teaching but to bring together existing prophetic bible teaching and make it accessible to the general public. His book, "The Late, Great Planet Earth" opened the world of bible prophecy to millions of people.

The book is particularly remembered for the following two points:

In Ezekiel 38 Gog is mentioned as the leader of "Meschech and Tubal" which Hal Lindsey attempts to show are areas of Russia. Hal Lindsey believes that Russia as Gog will lead an end times alliance of nations listed in Ezekiel 38:5-6 in an invasion of Israel. He goes through the biblical names of the nations and identifies them with modern nations.

[Eze 38:5-6 KJV] 5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: 6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: [and] many people with thee.

1. Russia as Gog

Since the book was published in 1970 there have been many other interpretations of who these nations actually are. Hal Lindsey could be said to be the person who got the discussion going

2. Europe as the Revived Roman Empire

The other point that the "Late, Great Planet Earth" is largely remembered for is its identification of Europe with the revived Roman Empire. Daniel chapter 7 lists four beasts that represent four empires

[Dan 7:2-3 KJV] 2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. 3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

These four empires, or kings, are usually interpreted as follows:

The fourth empire is said to have ten horns in Daniel 7:20 and Hal Lindsey identifies this as a ten nation confederacy. In his book Hal Lindsey considered that what was then the European Common Market would become a ten nation group that would be a revived version of the Roman Empire.

Since the publication of the book many people have dismissed Hal Lindsey's interpretation because the European Union has now grown to many more than ten nations. However we do also now see that the European Union has much greater ambitions than to be a simple common market. It now wants to be a super state with its own army and centralised control.

Also it is worth noting that the connection between Europe and the beast of Daniel and also of Revelation is not a new one particularly in terms of the Roman Catholic church. The following wood cut is an example of how the woman sitting on the beast with seven heads and ten horns was seen by many during the Reformation period.

Coloured woodcut from Luther’s bible translation for Revelation 17, showing the beast with ten horns and the woman sitting on it who Luther identified as the Roman Catholic Church. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Hal Lindsey's book has come in for a great deal of criticism. However if you can accept that no one gets everything right in bible prophecy then it is still a great place to start when trying to understand about God's plans for the Last Days.