1970 Hal Lindsey, the Late Great Planet Earth

IIn 1970 Lindsey left Campus Crusade to begin the Jesus Christ Light and Power Company, a youth oriented ministry on the Los Angeles campus of the University of California (UCLA). Previous to this he had begun to compile a number of eschatologically based sermons publishing them under the title The Late Great Planet Earth later that year. The book became an overnight best seller hitting on a raw nerve of excitement concerning the close proximation of the second coming of Christ. With one eye on the Bible and one towards the daily news, Lindsey's book enchanted Christians into a wave of expectational end-times frenzy. Launched by the success of his first book, Lindsey was commissioned to begin writing others. In 1972 he published Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, a book based on the theme of worldwide satanic conspiracies.

See Also: Melani McAlister, Hal Lindsey and the Politics of Prophecy Talk

^top

1970-2003 Apocalyptic Films and Books

In the mid-1970s, a low-budget film about a group of teenagers facing the Rapture traveled widely on the church-basement circuit. Its theme song, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," became a staple of youth groups and Christian concerts for a decade. By the 1980s, several authors, including Pat Robertson, started turning the pious tracts into rollicking adventure; Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness (1986) sold several million copies; and the 1999 film Omega Code was the year's most successful independent release. In the late 1990s prophecy also moved to the Internet, with sites like raptureready.com and prophecynewswatch.com.

See Also: Heather Hendershot, Christian Apocalypic Film

^top

1980 Hal Lindsey, Other Books

After he wrote the Late Great Planet Earth, Lindsey went on to publish,

Satan is Alive and Well On Planet Earth
There's a New World Coming
The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon
The Final Battle
The Terminal Generation
Planet Earth: The Final Chapter
Rapture
Apocalypse Code
Blood Moon
Vanished into Thin Air: the Hope of Every Believer
The Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad

The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon contained a full-blown political agenda. He blamed America's ills on a group of conspirators (the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and other political liberals) who had dismantled the military and undercut free enterprise. " . . . I believe that the Bible supports building a powerful military force. And the Bible is telling the U.S. to become strong again."

See Also: Hal Lindsey, Premillennial Dispensationalism,

^top