What Hal Lindsey Taught Me About the Second Coming

By Chris Hall
Christianity Today 10/25/99

At UCLA, amid war protests and police helicopters, teachings on an imminent end made a lot of sense.

John's apocalyptic vision in the Book of Revelation first caught my attention as a young student at UCLA in the late sixties. It was a wild, wonderful, worrisome time to be in school. The war in Vietnam was raging, and war protests regularly punctuated a day at the university. I remember the daily hum of police helicopters hovering over hot spots in Westwood, periodic sweeps by the Los Angeles Police Department across campus, and the agitated, turbulent, urgent words of speakers on the free-speech platform just off Bruin Walk. The issue of the day might be the war itself or it could range across topics from economics and politics to philosophy, music, or sex.

What I most vividly recall, though, is the deeply felt urgency of the times. Many students sensed they stood on the edge of history; discussions and debates, religious or not, often had an apocalyptic tone. The world seemed tilted on edge, off-kilter, out of balance. The conflict over the war in Vietnam revealed cracks in American moral underpinnings, at least from the perspective of the young. Students opposed to the war insisted that it end immediately. Others felt just as strongly that those opposing the war were disloyal, cowardly sentimentalists, unaware of political realities. Whether for or against the war, many students sensed that life in America was changing: politically, morally, spiritually.

It was a time of extremes, of deep darkness and bright light and, surprisingly, of opportunity for the gospel, for unexpectedly, in the midst of this screwy, sexually overheated, violent world the gospel found a ready audience. Where? Precisely among young people who were longing to find a point of moral and spiritual clarity and stability, a rock in the midst of the storm, truth in the midst of the falsehoods of both the Right and Left, forgiveness in the midst of an increasingly jaded culture. Christ presented himself in the guise of street preachers such as "Holy Hubert" at Berkeley and singers like Larry Norman in Los Angeles. More conventional ministries, such as Campus Crusade for Christ, attracted some. Some less conventional groups, such as the Christian World Liberation Front at Cal, reached others. The revival known as the Jesus movement broke out on college campuses and rippled through the counterculture.

What I learned from Hal
I first heard the gospel in a context, manner, and form I could understand from a former tugboat captain named Hal Lindsey. Every Wednesday night, students from UCLA gathered at the Light and Power House, a former college fraternity house on the fringes of the campus, to hear Hal teach the Bible. Some students came from evangelical backgrounds. Many more were from nominal Christian or secular homes. Hal, often dressed in a tank top, blue jeans, and leather boots, walked us through the Bible. I recall, almost wistfully, the sense of excitement, intensity, and urgency we felt as Hal linked the Scripture to our world, our dilemmas, our questions. He possessed a gift for linking the simplicity of the gospel to our longing for truth and our interest in discerning how Christ's work and words were connected to life in the wacky world of the sixties. And of course, Hal's interest in biblical prophecy fed into the wider apocalyptic fervor of the youth culture and American culture at large.

As a young Christian, I possessed only vague recollections from childhood that Jesus had said he would come again. Words, phrases, and symbols such as Rapture, Great Tribulation, pretribulation, posttribulation, millennium, Antichrist, Beast, and 666 were entirely new to me. As Hal interpreted apocalyptic images from Daniel and Revelation, a new world opened up—a world that God controlled, even in its worst moments, and promised both to redeem and judge. Tremendous hope and fervor enveloped me and other students.

As Hal explained matters, Jesus could come at any time for his church. Indeed, Hal argued, the signs indicating the imminent arrival of the last times had been fulfilled when Israel regained its status as a nation in 1948. The retaking of Jerusalem in the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab enemies only further confirmed God's timetable. And this had just occurred! Soon, according to Hal's timetable, the Rapture would occur, the Antichrist would be revealed, the Great Tribulation would break out, and finally, Christ would return to establish his millennial kingdom for a thousand years.

The ideas we first heard from Hal on Wednesday nights at the Light and Power House soon made their way into print in The Late Great Planet Earth, which now has more than 35 million copies in print (The New Millennium Manual, Baker). Only the Bible itself has outsold Hal's simple, dispensational, premillennial explanation of the church's hope for Christ's return. Hal had unexpectedly uncovered a deep vein of eschatological and apocalyptic longing in the fundamentalist/evangelical subculture and in American culture at large. More important, perhaps, he knew how to package the dispensational eschatology he had learned at Dallas Theological Seminary in a fashion that Americans, many of them young, countercultural types emerging from the turbulent sixties, could understand and embrace.

What the Fathers taught me
What I didn't realize was that elements of Hal's premillennial perspective minus dispensational emphases—such as the distinct separation of Israel from the church in God's economy and a pretribulational Rapture—represented a distinguished though minority perspective in the history of Christian exegesis. Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist and martyr writing in the midsecond century A.D., was convinced that Christ was soon to return in triumph. This "great and terrible day" would include Christ's judgment of the entire world, his appearance in Jerusalem, and the destruction of "the man of sin." Why the delay in the return of Christ? Justin argued that "the number of the just" to be included in the kingdom was yet to be completed.

Christ's return, as understood by Justin, would result in great blessing for the saved, a beatitude to be enjoyed successively in two stages. First, believers in Jesus would possess and inhabit the land of Canaan, reigning there for one thousand years. Second, upon the completion of the thousand years, "the general, and, to put it briefly, eternal resurrection and judgment of all will…take place." Other passages in Justin seem to indicate that after this second resurrection the saints would eternally possess the Holy Land.

Significantly, Justin was convinced that the reality of Christ's coming and its attendant, severe judgments should be a spur to faithful, sober Christian living as the church waited for its Lord. Brian Daley, author of The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology, comments that he was convinced that Christians should be "marked out from the rest of pleasure-loving human society…by their conviction that the wicked will be punished in eternal fire, and the Christ-like just united with God, free from suffering. This is the reason Christians are truthful in affirming their faith, as well as the ground of their good citizenship and their ultimate fearlessness before the threat of persecution."

Irenaeus of Lyons, another church father writing in the late second century, also represents a broadly premillennial perspective, describing a two-stage resurrection in his great work Against Heresies. Stages were necessary, Irenaeus argues, because "it is fitting for the righteous first to receive the promise of the inheritance which God promised the fathers, and to reign in it, when they rise again to behold God in this creation which is renewed, and that the judgment should take place afterward." Daley points out that Irenaeus supports his interpretation on the basis of "many biblical passages that promise salvation to Israel in typical terms of peace, prosperity and material restoration, and he insists that these may not be allegorized away"—hence, the necessity of a 1,000-year period (see Rev. 20), followed by a general resurrection. God will cast the resurrected unbelievers into Gehenna's eternal fire and create the habitation of the saints, "a new heaven and a new earth."

As a young believer birthed during the Jesus movement, I knew nothing of Justin or Irenaeus. The model of exegesis I received, and in turn practiced myself, was a highly individualistic affair. With the help of a gifted teacher—in this case, Hal Lindsey—and supplementary interpretive tools, I felt prepared to unlock the eschatological mysteries of Daniel and Revelation. I was shockingly unaware of the Christians who had read, pondered, and interpreted these texts before me. In deed, a crippling aspect of the Jesus movement as a whole was its drastically shortened exegetical perspective, a theological and historical amnesia that continues to trouble sectors of the evangelical world. The idea of biblical interpretation as a communal, ecclesial function and practice never entered my mind. I am ashamed to admit that many of those who excitedly discussed prophetic time tables throughout the week, myself included, were asleep in bed on Sunday mornings. We simply saw little need for the church.

The teaching I received at the Light and Power House taught me much about Christ, grace, salvation, sin, human nature, and the great eschatological hope of the Christian, Christ's return. The dispensational substructure of Hal's eschatology, however, left little room for a developed ecclesiology. Most dispensationalists saw the church as a theological surprise, the unexpected result of Israel's rejection of the Messiah, a temporary characteristic of the interim "church age." It would be raptured before the Tribulation. Then God's salvific dealings with Israel would recommence during the Tribulation.

I ended up assuming that God's primary concern was with me and my personal salvation. The idea that my salvation was part of a larger, grander story, the formation of Christ's body the church—Christ's hands and feet in history and in the future—went largely unrecognized and unexpressed.

And so we waited, fine-tuning our prophecy charts but cut off by a short-sighted ecclesiology from the character-forming community of the church. Dispensational theology alone cannot be blamed for our anti-institutional bias. Many of the Jesus movement's new converts entered the kingdom deeply suspicious of institutional authorities. The great irony is that while we eagerly awaited Christ's return—an event that beckoned church fathers such as Irenaeus and Justin to issue a call to holiness and devotion—many in the Jesus movement in Los Angeles increasingly drifted into the abyss of self-indulgence: lax sexual conduct, materialism, divorce, substance abuse.

I myself battled nightmares over the divorce and remarriage of an admired teacher to a close friend. And yet my own life was in danger of drifting into moral anarchy. Eschatology and ethics had split apart. While we awaited the end, we had little idea of how to live in the present. We expected to be transported momentarily into the heavenly realms in a pretribulational Rapture, while we were simultaneously firmly nailed to this earth.

Church fathers, whether premillennialists such as Justin or Irenaeus, or amillenialists such as Augustine, would at best have been puzzled by this state of affairs—or, more likely, horrified. How could one simultaneously affirm the imminent return of Christ and live as though this world were a permanent residence rather than a pilgrim's way station? Augustine, in fact, contended in The City of God that the premillennialism advocated by earlier Christian teachers too easily fed the desire for material rather than spiritual delights. He clearly felt uncomfortable, probably because of his immersion in Platonic philosophy, with eschatological expectations that fed a desire for pleasures rooted in the material world. In referring to "Chiliasts," the ancient forerunners of the modern premillennialists, Augustine wrote:

that those people assert that those who have risen again will spend their rest in the most unrestrained material feasts, in which there will be so much to eat and drink that not only will those supplies keep within no bounds of moderation but will also exceed the limits even of incredibility. But this can only be believed by materialists; and those with spiritual interests give the name "Chiliasts" to the believers in this picture, a term which we can translate by a word derived from the equivalent Latin, "Millenarians."

Augustine, then, distanced himself from the premillennialism of Justin and Irenaeus, arguing that John's one thousand years "can be interpreted in two ways." The first possibility was that the thousand years represented the sixth day, or sixth millennium, based upon the Roman conception of history as "a cosmic week" of six ages. The second possible interpretation, one that Augustine himself seems to have supported more strongly, was that John "may have intended the thousand years to stand for the whole period of this world's history, signifying the entirety of time by a perfect number." As Brian Daley summarizes Augustine's thought, the thousand years come to represent "all the years of the Christian era." Most significantly, Augustine comes to identify the kingdom of God with the church in the world. During this thousand years the church struggles "against the forces of evil both outside and inside her own ranks."

Augustine's ecclesiological interpretation of Revelation 20 became the majority interpretive position, leading, as Daley puts it, to the "widespread tendency of later Latin theology to identify the Kingdom of God, at least in its first stage of existence, with the institutional Catholic church." Hence, while in dispensational premillennialism the church seems peripheral, in the development of Au gustinian amillenialism the church becomes identical with God's reign itself.

How could
one affirm the
imminent return
of Christ and live
as though this
world were
a permanent
residence?

 

Among all the church fathers, though, whether the premillennialist minority or the amillennialist majority, unity ruled in the call to believers in the light of Christ's imminent coming. John Chrysostom, for example, archbishop of Constantinople in the late fourth century, firmly believed that Jesus' return to Earth was soon to take place. He identified the preaching of the gospel throughout the world as a sign of Jesus' imminent return. Chrysostom warned, though, of the dangers of an eschatological curiosity divorced from a life centered in the gospel. He reminded his listeners that with the consummation of the age would come the consummation of their own lives. Were they prepared to greet their Lord? Had their words and lives faithfully reflected the life of the One they so eagerly awaited? A life of Christian integrity far outweighed the value of a detailed prophecy chart. "Is not the consummation of the world, for each of us, the end of his own life? Why are you concerned and worried about the common end?…The time of consummation took its beginning with Adam, and the end of each of our lives is an image of the consummation. One would not be wrong, then, in calling it the end of the world."

Important questions all, but deadly if contemplated ahistorically or in the midst of moral confusion. What was most significant, we had cut ourselves off from the very community—Christ's body the church—that could teach us how to live wisely and sanely as we waited for our Lord and provide the social context necessary for the developing, nurturing, and shaping of Christian character. We wanted our cake (Jesus to return) and to eat it too (to live however we wanted until he came back). Finally, this divorce between eschatology and ethics blew up in our faces.

Some walked away from the experience deeply conflicted and disillusioned. A few rejected the faith entirely. Others, after the healing of time, were able to recognize God's grace in the midst of our many mistakes and frequent hubris. Some, pastors such as Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel and Ray Stedman at Pennisula Bible Church, reaped lasting fruit, notably because of their commitment to the church built as the hub of biblical exposition and moral development.

I, for one, will always be grateful for the ex-tugboat captain who cared enough to take a wounded bird under his wing to share God's grace with him, even if I would later turn to other teachers and models—many from the earliest years of the church's history—to learn how to live in light of Christ's imminent return.

Chris Hall is associate professor of biblical and theological studies at Eastern College, Saint Davids, Pennsylvania, associate editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, and author of Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (InterVarsity Press, 1998).
 

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Date: 07 Mar 2006
Time: 16:38:22

Comments:

Thank you for the tone of charity.

Date: 08 Sep 2006
Time: 09:00:57

Comments:

I THINK THAT TBN IS A PROGRAM THAT KEEP TO MUCH CATHOLIC TRADITION,, THEREFORE YOU CAN'T SAY WHAT THE BIBLE REALLY MEANS OR YOU WILL BE IN HOT WATER,
BUT FOR HIS NAME WE WILL BE HATED BY ALL NATIONS, I AM BEING HATED BY BELIEVING WHAT THE LIBRARY HAS TO SA ABOUT BAPTISM,, 17 BOOK ENCYP,. TELL US THAT WATER BAPTISM WAS CHANGED FROM JESUS CHRIST TO THE WORDS FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH,, WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO CHANGED ANY THAT IS WRITTEN?? HIS WORD IS FOREVER SETTLED IN HEAVED, LET ALL MEN BE LIARS AND MY WORD BE TRUE,,

COULD YOU CHECK THE BAPTISM RECORDS OUT ??

YHVH BLESS HIS WORD

Date: 22 Dec 2006
Time: 04:00:02

Comments:

Bravo! This was the best and and most informative artical I had ever read ..I hope those who are awaiting the second coming would also live by the words and preaching of Jesus instead preaching fear and hate in order to stuff their pockets with the second coming of the next Dollar..Z-Kojani

Date: 27 Jul 2007
Time: 19:40:51

Comments:

Hal Lindsey has helped me also with his teachings. He is a true prophet of the Lord.

Date: 18 Dec 2007
Time: 21:27:30

Comments:

I have a lot of questions along these lines as well. I struggle with similar issues and really identify with Paul when he says that what he doesn't want to do, he does. What he wants to do, he doesn't do. This is in line with Mr. Hall's comment above regarding having our cake and eating it too. I identify with these statements. I searched out this site because I had just heard that Hal Lindsey has had 4 wives. I googled "Hal Lindsey divorce", and came upon this article. I am intrigued by prophecy and feel that we are living in the end times. I support Hal's ministry and program but was troubled with the news of the divorce and even more so when I found out that he is on wife # 4 and that one of his wives was 25 years his junior (roughly-supposedly). I am excited by the events of the day and the times we live in. I also feel some guilt because I welcome Christ's return and want it to take place sooner rather than later. I want to study more prophecy and research life's common questions about Christianity and what the Bible says about it so that I can relay this information more readily to others. However, I am consumed with job and family and the daily activities of life that keep me worn out and running on the wheel and doesn't allow enough time to study, meditate, and read God's word. I also want to find others that I could meet with that are passionate about Bible prophecy to discuss/research scripture and relate current events to it so that more souls can be won.

Joel (usrseattle@aol.com)

Date: 15 Sep 2009
Time: 16:13:57

Your Comments:

I think Hal Is a very educated man of God. (For all have sinned and fell short of the Glory of God) Thank God for his GRACE. For if we have sinned we have an advocate with the father. Without God's forgivness Peter would not have preached the day of pentecost.Istrive to know the word of God,anyone that have listened to HAl Lindsey will know that he has put a lot of time and effert into studing and knowing the word of God.

Date: 25 Sep 2009
Time: 23:10:53

Your Comments:

I think it is not for us to judge Hal Lindsay, that is up to God, I sincerily beleive that he truely loves the Lord and is sincere in his beleif. I have read just about all of his books , and he certainly does know the Bible. I have learned much from his teaching, and admire him greatly, I think we should worry about the log in our own eye before we condemn anyone else .Iris. R
 

Date: 04 Dec 2009
Time: 17:09:45

Your Comments:

I would like to comment...the attitude that today's Christians judge by is the very reason we live in a society that directs our youth to live together rather than marry to determine if it will work out! I heard a preacher say if I ask everyone to stand that had been divorced the audience would be 65% standing and then ask everyone that had had sexual relations with anyone besides their spouse to stand, another 25% and lastly to have anyone stand that had ever look at another with desire that need to say all would be on their feet!! Which group are you in? No wonder so many people live together instead of marry. We either set the wrong example or we judge those that's besetting sins differ from ours. Hal
Lindsay is a great man of God and I personally am thankful for the many years he has dedicated to studying the Word of God. If you have gained any benefit from his work, be thankful for what he gave us. This just proves that we are all sinners. We either commit the sin or judge those that do.

Date: 06 Dec 2009
Time: 10:42:52

Your Comments:

2. 9 could not help after reading this.I have to agree it explains the 80s till now.the yuppies saying that they are christians,but they want the worldly goods as well.being christien only when convient. The republican party is proof.filled with harper valley hypocrites.using fear & doom to stay in power.servicing the corp.and the rich. No man can serve 2 masters.

 

Date: 07 Jan 2010
Time: 22:50:17

Your Comments:

I ask the Lord, how come politics has to seep into a discussion about Him? The Democrats tell us that if "it" feels good we can do it. No matter what "it" is. The Independents tells us that we can have our cake and eat it too. They want to be socially progressive but fiscally conservative. Fiscally conservative means that you do not have the money to be socially progressive. And then there are the Republicans. Trying to take a stand, based on a belief system and constantly failing at it. Human to the end, all of us. God loves all of us equally. It is too bad that we cannot do the same. Unfortunately, Hal has hurt his ministry and his ability to speak clearly to all people, because the book that he teaches from teaches that we are not to divorce, unless our spouse leaves us. Oh, well, it seems that Hal is also human. By the way, Hal Lindsey, thru his book, The Late Great Planet Earth, led me to the Lord. I will always be grateful.

Date: 15 Jan 2010
Time: 19:24:13

Your Comments:

Thanks for this insightful view on the christian journey.Earthly home ....a dressing room for eternity.
Highest reward in heaven?.....the reward of worshiping God

Date: 31 Jan 2010
Time: 23:19:56

Your Comments:

i listen to Hal Lindsey at times because i enjoy TBN,But as a Seventh Day Adventist,Much of his beliefs are flawed,There is no secret rapture.God has done nothing in secret in the past, and will not do so in the times ahead of us. the people in Noah's day were warned of the coming flood no one believed,maybe one or two died believing before the Ark was finished.But when Noah and his family entered that ark,every one outside perished,they were not given a second chance,same as sodom and gomorrah,do you think that righteous Lot had not preached to those people in that city,I am sure he did.not even his other family believed what the angels had told him,When that city was destroyed who was left behind?,only ashes remained.The word of God is clear,Even Jesus warned us of false teachers and doctrines,the Secret Rapture Belief came about the 1800's when a young woman had a dream or vision seeing people taken up to heaven,did she say it was secret?Paul,Peter the other followers of Jesus never spoke of a secret rapture,look at their writings and see if there is any such doctrine.you cannot add to the word of God.The Bible contains all that Jehovah God wants us to know,and besides,One taken and one left behind means that the one that is left behind will be destroyed by the appearance of Jesus Christ. Jesus made that clear to the apostles,Why would Jesus take a group of people to heaven secretly and leave the undelievers behind?what is the purpose of telling us about the tribulation if we are not on the earth ?who is he warning of the dire times ahead,?do you think that the undelievers will suddenly believe,when believers are no where to be found.Do not be fooled and caught by surprise,The coming of Jesus will be seen by all living on the earth @ that time,his coming is literal and visual.To those who believe in him it will be surprise and a welcome and to those who never knew him it will be surprise and destruction.Tim Lahaye has made millions selling his books but it is false doctrine,and many will perish believ!
ing their writings.I was once Catholic until age 16, when i entered a baptist Church i realized that i knew nothing of the word of God even though i went to church weekly,it was the turning point in my life,but even attending other churches left me wanting something more.Until i entered a Seventh Day Adventist Church.and there i was able to decipher the Bible on a larger scale and realized that they really knew God;s Word,Adventism is a lifestyle change,and thinking change,that few want to embrace there is little pomp and circumstance.not a lot of yelling and carrying on in church,Conservative based on God;s Word,but that;s it The Church is based on Jehovah God's Word which does not change.Funny the midwife who delivered me was SDA,my Godsister who was raised with me became SDA,between the years that we lost contact with each other and i just recently found out that my Father's family is mostly SDA.My church is not made of perfect people,far from it.but their Doctrinal beliefs are Solidly based on The Word of God,Iinvite brothers and sisters to read THE NEXT SUPERPOWER BY Mark Finley,it is one of the best books i have ever read.It will truly clear things for you.Remember throughout Bible history my friends,there has always been a small group of people who knew Jehovah's Word and what was coming upon the world,it has never been a majority of those living,that is why Jesus said "Narrow is the way and few are they who find it"Take heed my friends least ye be decieved.

Date: 17 Feb 2010
Time: 17:12:50

Your Comments:

I believe Hal Lindsey is a false prophet/teacher. His divorces alone judges him by the word of God, for he is in a perpetual sin of adultry. You will know this if you read your bibles. We should all fear God and see what his word says about marriage, divorce and remarriage. Since Hal is in sin his words cannot hold true. You will know this if you read your bibles. For he casts Gods words behind him to fill his own desires. Thus stomping on our Lord Jesus Christ. Counting his blood as nothing. Please read your bibles. He is a Wolf in sheeps clothing. You will not know they are a wolf unless you read your bibles dilegently. Hal may have a form of a love for the truth but denies Christ by denying scripture for his pattern of life. Marriage is a life long covenant you make with your spouse wheither they are saved or not. That covenant is broken by sexual immorality, the only person that can remarry is a man that is innocent. The guilty party must not remarry if they do they will be judged and condemned. For the word says God will judge the fornicators and adulterers....of this world and it includes the sinners in the church. You will know this if you read your bibles.

Date: 24 Apr 2010
Time: 15:35:50

Your Comments:

Great blogpost. I too am a child of the Jesus movement (born into the kingdom December 24, 1972) after reading Lindsey's 1st book. And I remember very well how I eshewed "organizational" church and churches . . . thinking of them as spiritually inferior (to me, of course).

I went on for my BA in Bible and MA in Bible languages from a pentecostal/evangelical school. But not until DECADES later did I discover Chrisitanity did not begin in the first century, and then take a 1500 year hiatus until Martin Luther. Indeed, the early church fathers (perhaps especially St. Athenasus, but certainly too, Justin Martyr and Augustine) were the reason the Church made it through to the 16th century (the Holy Spirit, of course, notwithstanding). If not for those early church teachers and leaders (Roman Catholics(!) no less), who knows what orthodox theology would look like today.

And so, when I discovered the history of the Church, and that the Catholic Church played so a pivotal role in maintaining true faith (with arguable exceptions), I moved out of evangelical Protestant Christian faith and into (what I call) evangelical Roman Catholic Christian faith.

Some I've me consider "Roman Catholic Christian" an oxymoron. But again, I return to the historical and communal faith delivered to the Church by the apostles and early church fathers. And, as you suggest (if not tangentially) in your post, perhaps if more members of the Jesus Movement had found their way into communities of faith instead of remaining "lone rangers" more of them would have remained linked to the Body.
 

Date: 29 Apr 2010
Time: 22:22:17

Your Comments:

I been watching and learning a lot from hal. I was there with him every Sunday in church. trust me, Hal's on the right track. I know for a fact the Lord has blessed Hal with the Gift of prophecy, to prophecy. Make no mistake about it, Hal has made predictions that has already come to past. Hal is a wonderful man in the Lord. In spite of his many divorces, that's doesn't make him a bad man. Hal is a man of God.
 

Date: 11 May 2010
Time: 23:10:56

Your Comments:

Well written Dr. Hall. A happy marriage of faith and academic religion that I believe many still wrestle with today. From someone introduced to Hal's teachings in the late 70's, to a student of religion in the 90's, it was good to see a critical exegesis of the early church fathers versus the somewhat myopic view of the Dallas Theological Seminary. However, I sometimes still catch myself evaluating current events through a Lindsey type filter. . . old habits die hard.
 

Date: 19 May 2010
Time: 12:06:32

Your Comments:

God made the word flesh and theologians came along and turned it back into mere words. Stop all that! Get out there and heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, perform miracles, and spread the gospel!

 

Date: 19 Jun 2010
Time: 19:07:14

Your Comments:

I also will be grateful to Hal, Linus, Mark, Bill, and the rest of the teachers at the Powerhouse for the foundation in the faith I received. Thank you Chris for this excellent article.
Dr. Denis Otero- Olive Tree, Albuquerque
 

Date: 27 Jun 2010
Time: 08:45:00

Your Comments:

in my old age i have joined'' THE CHURCH OF HAL''' AS HE IS MY HERO. TBN IS MOSTLY ' PROSPERITY''' PEOPLE. HAL IS NOT RICH hal believes .we all have faults. hal and billy are my favorite t
 

Date: 28 Jun 2010
Time: 09:02:02

Your Comments:

This well written, and obviously well thought out article, points out the dangers of being so caught up in end time prophecies that we forget for whom we are to live today. I have long been fascinated by biblical end time events and their pertinence to today's headlines. This being said, I found myself neglecting other ares of my Christian walk, and neglecting the Great Commission of Matthew 28. Many people like to say that the church is full of hypocrites and they can worship just as well in their own way, in their own homes. This we know, is not true, nor is it the direction that Jesus gave us while we wait for His return. We (believers) are the body of Christ, lest we forget. Thank you for reminding us that we are to remain faithful while we watch and wait, and build up the body in love
 

Date: 14 Aug 2010
Time: 19:23:42

Your Comments:

I wasn't at UCLA during the 60s but Hal Lindsey definitely led me to the lord through The Late Great Planet Earth and films he was involved in. My husband and I knew Hal quite well during the late 80s as we attended his church, Tetelestai Christian Center. He was and still is a great teacher and has the gift of making sense out of the scriptures and in particular prophesy. I am pleased to say that I am exactly the same age as Israel, therefore, as a Christian and with Jewish family on my father's side feel kinship with the Israelis. On the matter of his divorces and remarriages, this is between Hal and God. All sin is the same in the eyes of God, and we must acknowledge our sin, repent, and ask forgiveness in order to be in communication with God.
 

Date: 28 Aug 2010
Time: 09:40:51

Your Comments:

thank you for your honest assessment of the jesus movement.but i don't believe in the eschatology of hal lindsey.i use to,but i have examined it in the light of scripture and have found it to be wanting.

Date: 27 Sep 2010
Time: 11:55:41

Your Comments:

John Chrysostom wasn't without his errors either. He was a raving anti-semite who hurled some of the most vile and vicious accusations imaginable at Jews. The thing to remember is that men are imperfect vessels PERIOD. It is God and His Word which are perfect and the perfect Gospel that men preach is exaxctly what it is; i.e. TRUTH even when men might preach it out of selfish, ulterior motives of self gain. I was in a Church for 2 years where the Pastor, who preaches messages that are solid in terms of sound doctrine, inspiring the faith of THOUSANDS, turned out to be a closet homosexual who preys upon weak, young men. I know this is true because he preyed upon one of my family members who was seeking a mentor. I was astonished at the level of deception that he and the elder board were/are in regarding this man's depravity. Needless to say, my wife and I IMMEDIATELY left and as far as we know, nothing has changed there. But God is cleaning up His Church and the pretenders and the fakes won't be able to pull the wool over peoples' eyes anymore.

Date: 15 Oct 2010
Time: 22:32:21

Your Comments:

David was a man after God's own heart, still he was an adulterer and murder, and God forgave him,we should not judge so we won't be judge.
 

Date: 03 Dec 2010
Time: 19:14:20

Your Comments:

Does Anyone Read the Bible these Days?

"Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery."
—Jesus Christ

In light of Jesus proclaiming that AFTER a divorce, adultery will take place if someone remarries, does that sound like they’re free from the marriage? It sure sounds to me that in God’s eyes a divorce does NOT dissolve the covenant of marriage.

How can a minister perform the wedding of a divorced person when Jesus said that very night they will commit adultery?
Most people have no idea what the Bible truly says about Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage.

Think about it...
At 6:30 p.m. the minister pronounces them husband and wife. After the minister claims that God has joined them together they go on a beautiful honeymoon and according to Jesus they commit adultery.

Huh? Yes, that is what Jesus said, after a divorce and remarriage the parties are committing adultery against their spouse whom they thought they ditched at the courthouse. If you are committing adultery on your honeymoon...how can you be married?

No truly married people commit adultery in their own marriage bed, people in the wrong marriage bed commit adultery. Remarriage puts people in the wrong marriage bed and that is why they are charged with adultery. Why did the minister pronounce them husband and wife if that very night they will be committing adultery I ask you?

They cannot be husband and wife. You can not commit adultery with your own wife!

Civil law may recognize this couple as a husband and wife but God does not. If God recognized this couple as a husband and wife, Jesus Himself would not be calling their honeymoon adultery!

After they are remarried that is when the adultery kicks in...everyone who divorces their wife and then remarries...commits adultery. God calls married sex PURE but He calls remarried sex ADULTERY, unless your spouse has died. Romans 7:2-3

Are remarried people married according to God? If you say yes, then why is God charging them with adultery? Can a real husband and wife ever be charged with adultery in their own marriage bed?
Why doesn’t God see their marriage bed as pure? God calls their remarriage bed...adultery!

"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral."
Hebrews 13:4

Ever wonder why the ONLY people that are charged with adultery when they marry are divorced people, not single people, not widowed people, only divorced people?

If someone thinks a divorced person is freed from their spouse, why then are they committing adultery when they have a sexual relationship with a new spouse?

Divorce does NOT make you single.

So the question is this...
Do you believe a civil divorce dissolves an original marriage covenant according to Jesus? If it does, then Jesus has to stop calling their remarriage honeymoon adultery!

"A wife is married to her husband as long as he lives."
1 Corinthians 7:39

Remarriage is the GREATEST Deception of our time.

cadz.net

 

Date: 05 Dec 2010
Time: 08:52:07

Your Comments:

Why do people even go to the court house to get divorce papers? Jesus said they don’t dissolve the marriage in His sight! Jesus said they will not make you single again. The papers say the “State of Illinois” has dissolved the marriage of John and Susie Smith but that is not true according to Jesus.
I have no idea why people today believe their remarriage is legitimate in the sight of God. Jesus said they are committing adultery with their so called “new spouse.” They are remarried by “the state” not by God. The church is afraid to tell them what Jesus said.
Jesus said if you get a divorce and then remarry you will be committing adultery with this person AFTER you marry them. AFTER you marry them! That is why this is NOT your spouse. A real husband and wife cannot commit adultery with each other. The divorce did not work because when you have a sexual relationship with this new person you are calling “your spouse” Jesus is calling that sex adultery. How could that person ever be your spouse if you are committing adultery with them?
The truth is shocking because over the years this has become so normal. No one reads their Bible--they listen to pastors tell them God forgives them and they do not have to give up their adultery partner, their so called “new spouse.” If Jesus says you are committing adultery with this “new spouse” how can you claim that this is your lawful spouse in the eyes of God?
We need to stop listening to everyone around us and listen to Jesus. He really meant what He said. Divorced people have no right to remarriage. Their divorce did not make them single. The only people in the Bible who commit adultery when they marry are divorced people, not single people, not widowed people, ONLY divorced people! Why is that? They are NOT FREE to marry. Most people won’t flee this kind of adultery because they have been deceived by Satan to stay in it even though God’s Word is clear. Remarriage is the greatest DECEPTION of our time.