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 This book was literalist tripe when it was first published in the 1970s, and it hasn't improved any with age. Mr. Lindsey made a series of predictions, none of which have come true, but this hasn't prevented him from continuing to write one book after another. What's amazing is that no matter how wrong he is, no matter how shoddy his scholarship, and no matter how ludicrous his predictions, his books keep getting published and the dumb sheep out there just keep on buying this stuff. The end of the world is always just around the corner for these guys, but the fact that it never gets here never seems to affect such fanatics or their faithful readers. Lindsey forces vague, symbollic and apocalyptic writings into the Procrustean bed of his own fundamentalism, deliberately ignoring any sense of the history of the times that books like Revelations were written in. His out-of-context analyses are laughable, and it is this entertainment value that provides the one-star that this book has earned. The anti-intellectual, historically ignorant, and theologically untenable positions that Lindsey takes in his prophetic rantings makes one wonder about the state of religion in America and the sanity of the faithful in this pre-Millennial era. All I can say when I read stuff like this is "No wonder I'm not a Christian." If you own this book, give it away -- to the dumbest person that you are acquainted with. Only the ignorant could find such a pile of misinformation illuminating.
Lindsey's argument is straightforward. The prophets of the Bible predicted the rebirth of Israel in a single day. It happened (14 May 1948). The same prophets predicted Israel would again possess Jerusalem. That also happened (June 1967). So it makes sense to explore the other assertions made by those same prophets, such as the establishment of a Third Jewish Temple and the ascendance of a powerful individual who will shortly thereafter "rule over every tribe and people and language and nation" on the earth (Revelation 13:7). Lindsey explores the personality of this man, traditionally identified as the Antichrist, and also delves into prophecies of predicted political alliances and major end-times events. Overall, this is a great book - although some of the more speculative parts are quite dated. My version is from 1993, and I don't know if the book has been revised, but the speculative parts and statistics from the early 1970's are few and far in between. Most of the book focuses on scriptural prophecy, only commenting to inject clear references to the Biblical meaning of words and phrases. "The Late Great Planet Earth" is one of the best starting points for those who wish to learn more about what the Bible has to say about humanity's future, and I highly recommend it to students of Bible prophecy. Britt Gillette
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This book is magnificent! I read it back in the 80's and it had a very profound effect on my life. I have had an intense interest in Biblical Prophesy since I read this book. I have had a hunger for anything that Hal Lindsey writes. If you are interested in the TRUTH about what the Bible says about the "latter days", this or any book that Hal writes is a must! Hal Lindsey has definately been called by Our Lord and Savior to help us understand what was written thousands of years ago. For the Christian, these books are the comfort we seek while the world seems to spiral out of control.
