Hal Lindsey, a bad disciple of ........... Augustine?

When Hal Lindsey announced that Jesus was coming by a certain time and for certain in our lifetime I knew a false prophet was here. No one knows the day or the hour. Some of us do know the hour though. Somewhere at 1:00 AM on this earth.

 

Where/when did he do this?

How do you know this? (Or maybe you're kidding?)

 

Where/when did he do this?

How do you know this? (Or maybe you're kidding?) </font>[/QUOTE]Where/when did he do this?

It seems like it was around 1974 or 75.

How do you know this? (Or maybe you're kidding?)

It always gets people's attention. But I am serious and kidding too.

At any given time it is between 1 and 2AM somewhere on this earth. You do know there are 24 time zones.

 

"The critical point in this scenario is Lindsey's concept of the "generation" of Matthew 24 (''this generation shall not pass away until all these take place''). He defined a biblical generation as 40 years, and concluded that ''all these things'' could take place within 40 years of the founding of Israel. Thus he predicted the return of Christ in 1988 and the rapture of the church seven years earlier." - www.apologeticsindex.org/l38.html

 

"The critical point in this scenario is Lindsey's concept of the "generation" of Matthew 24 (''this generation shall not pass away until all these take place''). He defined a biblical generation as 40 years, and concluded that ''all these things'' could take place within 40 years of the founding of Israel. Thus he predicted the return of Christ in 1988 and the rapture of the church seven years earlier." - www.apologeticsindex.org/l38.html </font>[/QUOTE]He may well have said that. But I can't find a direct quote in this link. This site is critical of him, but it often makes interpretive statements without direct quotes. Not having the books at hand, I guess I will do the same thing.
I read his books in the '70's and remember a lot of possibles and a lot of coulds, but I don't remember specific date-setting.

Contrary to Daniel David's opinion earlier in the thread, I find full preterism far more problematical.

Karen

 

You were referring to full preterism, right?

 

I've never heard Hal Lindsey use a day or hour either.
I'm pre-mil 1st and Pan-mil second for a backup because like Dr. Bob said on another thread it will all pan out in the end.

 

He used 1948 as the year the countdown began. He said the generation that saw the events of 1948 would see the fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy. Then I believed he changed it to the 1967 war, because it was becoming obvious that it wasn't happening in 1988. So I guess we have 3 more years. But now all the sudden a generation doesn't necessarily mean 40 years it could mean 100. And so it goes......

 

That would have made the rapture, according to dispensational teaching and using the 1967 start date, to have had to occur in 2000. It didn't happen. I think Brother David has a valid point about Brother Lindsey.

 

An exact quotation, from "The Late Great Planet Earth," pp. 53/54, first published by Zondervan in 1970:

. . . the most important sign in Matthew [24 - RCB] has to be the restoration of the Jews to the land in the rebirth of Israel. Even the figure of speech "fig tree" has been a historic symbol of national Israel. When the Jewish people, after nearly 2,000 years of exile, became a nation again on 14 May 1948 the "fig tree" put forth its first leaves.

Jesus said that this would indicate that He was "at the door," ready to return. Then He said, "Truly I say to you, this generation [italicized in original, RCB] will not pass away until all these things take place" (Matthew 24:34 NASB).

What generation? Obviously, in context, the generation that would see the signs - chief among them the rebirth of Israel. A generation in the Bible is something like forty years. If this is a correct deduction, then within forty years of so of 1948, all these things could take place. Many scholars who have studied Bible prophecy all their lives believe that this is so.

Also, on p. 62: Since the restoration of Israel as a nation in 1948, we have lived in the most significant period of prophetic history. We are living in the times which Ezekiel predicted in chapters 38 and 39.

On page 137: Someday, a day that only God knows, Jesus Christ is coming to take away all those who believe in Him. . . .

p. 145: When will the Rapture occur? We don't know. No one knows. But God knows. However, we believe that according to all the signs, we are in the general time of His coming.

And in "The Terminal Generation," Revell, 1976, he wrote: It is my unwavering conviction that this is the Terminal Generation. By this I mean that this generation is witnessing the coming together of all the prophetic signs into the exact pattern that Jesus and the other prophets predicted would immediately precede His return.

My copies of his other books are out on loan just now. As is clear, these two did not make a final and dogmatic assertion of 1948-1988, but a "generalization" strongly implying the rapture by 1988, one generation after Israel returned to her land. It's not a bad idea to check the sources from time to time! RCB - Rom. 8:28

 

Thank you, R. Charles Blair, for setting the record straight!

How refreshing!

 

Let me clarify. I realize you are pre-millennial. I was referring to your initial post when you said that Hal Lindsey had done more harm than amill, preterism, etc. all combined. I would say that full preterism all by itself does more harm than anything incorrect in Hal Lindsey's viewpoint.

Karen

 

I remember this well. I owned the book, "The Great Planet Earth" when I was a teenager, in the mid 1970s. We, (our family), were pretty excited about it. Not totally sold on Lindsey's theory, but pretty excited about it all the same.

I'm sad to say that I shared that "revelation" with many others--(and probably made a fool out of myself).

~Sandy