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Prophecy and the End-Times The Popularization and Media Activism of End-Times Belief The popularization of premillennialism has a long history in the religious market (see timeline), but it is since the 1970s that it has reached a mass-market audience. In 1970, Hal Lindsey wrote The Late Great Planet Earth, which explained biblical prophecies about the last days in light of contemporary politics. In 1972, Mark IV Films, produced the feature film, A Thief in the Night about a woman who realizes the end of the world is coming when her husband suddenly disappears as part of the rapture. The fictional Left Behind series of eleven books, first published in 1993, is a more recent spin on the ideas Lindsey developed. The basis of Hal Lindsey's books, the Left Behind series, Apocalyptic films and the many websites devoted to prophecy is three-fold. First, they espouse the premillennial theory of Christ's second coming using popular media. Second, they interpret present world political trends as signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Finally, they use innovative media forms as a proselytizing mechanism to gain a wider audience and community of believers for their theories about the end of the world.
The images below are from
a cartoon based on Hal Lindsey's book, There's a New
World Coming (1973), and an image from the
Left Behind graphic novels for kids (1995). The illustrated
format continues to be a successful strategy for reaching a wider
audience with the message of premillenial dispensationalism. |
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Websites that explain current events in the light of end-times theology |
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