What Went Wrong with The Late Great Planet Earth?

The Failure of Hal Lindsey’s End-Times Predictions

The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey was one of the best-selling books of all time. Well, until the end of the 1980s, when all of its end-of-the-world predictions turned out to be false. Lindsey took current events and read them into biblical prophecy, claiming that we were living in the days of Ezekiel 38 and 39.

Magog in Ezekiel 38 too was Russia. The King of the South in Daniel 11 .40 was from Africa. The Kings of the East in Revelation 16 .12 were China. He detailed exactly how the Battle of Armageddon would play out, with Russia setting up their command headquarters on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, according to Daniel 11 .45.

These things would happen within 40 years of 1948, when Israel became a nation. The book became a primetime TV special seen by millions, and a movie narrated by Orson Welles. So many people thought Lindsey predicted the Mark of the Beast, the Antichrist, and the end of the world.

False Prophecy and the Judgment of God

In a follow-up book, Lindsey said, the decade of the 1980s could very well be the last decade of history as we know it. Of course, all of that turned out to be wrong. But it made Lindsey a fortune. Unless he repented, he will be judged in the end as a false prophet.

Though Lindsey was a fraud, every prophecy in the Bible is still true. Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead. Be ready, he said, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

The Alleged Helicopter Locusts in Revelation

When we understand the text. Here's a bonus fact for you. The late great planet Earth is often cited as the book where Lindsey famously claimed that the strange locusts John described in Revelation 9 were actually Apache helicopters.

Where John said the locusts have crowns of gold, Lindsey said those were the elaborate helmets worn by helicopter pilots, and the women's hair was the whirling propeller. Lindsey didn't make that claim in the late great planet Earth.

It's actually in his book, Apocalypse Code, published in 1997. Yes, though he was proven wrong, he continued to publish books and make TV appearances as a prophecy expert. Deuteronomy 18 .22 says, When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if that thing does not come about or come true, that's a thing Yahweh has not spoken.

And the penalty for false prophets was death. Ironically, Lindsey quoted that verse in the second chapter of the late great planet Earth.