Hal Lindsey (1929–2024)

I remember reading this in the early 1980s as a recent teenager hot on the heels after finishing The Late Great Planet Earth -- a prophetic prequel to Countdown to Armageddon written in the '70s -- and being hooked by the conspiratorial tone and dire predictions of gloom and doom and apocalypse that were unequivocably certain to occur no later than December 31, 1989, just as the 1970s were certain to be the decade of the Rapture and Armageddon Lindsey had initially predicted would transpire show more in his first book of contrived "prophecy."

When it comes to prophecy, Hal Lindsey's got nothing on Vegas. He's no different than the Jehovah's Witnesses and their infamous Second Coming shlock, with his false end-of-the-world edicts.

Nevertheless, The 1980s, Countdown to Armageddon, was a good, even fascinating read ... for a fourteen year old dweeb hooked on fantasy at the time (the Thomas Covenant trilogy by Stephen R. Donaldson) but in hindsight, looking back with adult eyes, I'm a bit more than dismayed by Lindsey's -- a reported "reputable" Christian evangelist with his own television audience -- repeated untrue predictions.

It's one thing to be a megolomaniacal nut job and form some U.F.O. cult and herd a horde of gullbile human-bovines out to the desert ranch (sans all their possesions) for the almighty alien's arrival and the glorious impending transformation to a higher plane of spiritual consciousness; but even as bad and sad as that conscienceless con job is, it's far worse, I think, when you're a supposed man of God with flocks of old folks under your "care," tuned into their TV sets, to completely misinterpret the Book of Daniel or Revelation and imbue prophetic meanings into contemporary happenings in Israel or Russia or wherever, as if those books of antiquity were speaking directly to the latest world crisis, when in fact they were speaking symbolically to events in their own ancient times, Mow-ron! Inexcusable. But at least he sold lots of books and made some good money.

I could get all snarky and claim that Hal Lindsey's fatuous books on "end times" and The National Enquirer bear a striking resemblance, but I'd hate to insult The National Enquirer like that. show less

Utter trash! I still can't believe how this POS swept over America during the 1970s, resulting in millions, I'm sure, for Lindsey, that asshole, as well as a horrible POS wildly fantastic, mythological horrow show of a movie that was traumatic as shit to kids like me and others I knew whose fundie parents forced them to go see it. In retrospect, it was a total joke, a hoax, and Lindsey was and remains an utter fraud. Personally, I think those of us who are "fundie survivors" from the 1970s show more -- and there are a LOT of us: read Seth Andrews -- should file class action lawsuits against Hal and his publisher, as well as those assholes responsible for that shitty movie, A Thief In The Night, which traumatized me and tons of people and kids like me, not only at that time, but to this day, resulting in decades of therapy which has never been effective, scarring me for life. Another target of a wished for class action lawsuit would be the publisher of those damn Chick tracts, which also scared the shit out of me and most of the other people I knew. All those awesome cartoons and drawings of demons, the flames of Hell, drugged out '70s hippies destined for Hell, etc. All of these and much more contributed to fucking ruining my life and tens of thousands like me, of driving us away from fundie/evangelicals forever, of feeling nothing but disgust and disdain, if not outright hatred for the hypocritical, lying fire and brimstone manipulators trying to use prehistoric rubbish to scare everyone possible into doing their damn will (and filling their pockets at the same time). I'll never forgive them and I'll never forgive Lindsey for this wretched joke of a piece of total shit book that did so much permanent damage to untold legions of people. If you wonder why people are leaving the churches in the US in droves these days and why over 20% of the American population are called the "Nones," as in no church, no mythological supernatural tooth fairy in the sky, etc., you can thank Lindsey, those responsible for the other atrocities mentioned here, and the assholes who carry on their tradition, like Tim Lehay , who field a softer brand, but still put through the same apocalyptic message (while raking in millions on the side). If it were possible, I wouldn't give this book a "0" - I would give it a "-1,000" or onward to infinity. If you value reason, logic, sanity, human decency, facts, etc., and if you frown upon or even despise those theistic religionists (particularly conservative Christians in the western world) who use terms like "love," "morals," "peace," "family values," etc., when they're too lazy and stupid to read their own holy book and discover the atrocities committed by the god of the old testament while claiming their Jesus was a holy man of peace and love, while he stated he came with a sword to split up families and turn parents against children, etc., bragged that he spoke in parables so his idiot disciples literally wouldn't be able to understand anything he said, and left no writings or proof of his existence, and none from any witnesses were ever written down so much could be said about the gospels, etc., aside from the millions of literal lies, discrepancies, untruths, fraud, etc., in their holy book and especially the new testament, then by all means, avoid this idiocy. I couldn't recommend it any less than I am doing now. Truly one of the most despicable books in history by one of the most despicable humans in history... If there were an actual hell their mythology describes, he and his ilk would be destined for it. show less

The book that brought eschatology to the masses and was huge part of evangelical culture in the 1970s and 1980s. You couldn't have the Left Behind Series without it. Of course, the implication was that the Soviet Union and hippiedom would team up to destroy the Christian West and lead to the apocalypse. Of course, that was easy to believe in the 1970s when it seemed the Soviets were winning and religion was mostly going to go bye bye. The 1980s, Reagan and a boom in fundamentalism, changed show more all that. I was amazed at how little Bible was in this "Bible book." Not a lot of scripture passages, not a lot of exegesis, not a lot of dissection of Greek words, not a lot of citations from theologians. Just a lot of: look how scary the world is, doesn't that sound like that could lead to this in the End Times. I had a prof tell me in college, that if you wanted to understand Revelation, read one book about the End Times and then never ever read anything else. Well, lots of people did that without knowing it. I didn't. show less

From the rarity of reviews, I assume this book has been largely ignored. My library had a copy, but purged it from circulation long before now. If it rarely got borrowed and read, I can figure out why. Hal Lindsey is now also largely ignored as far as I can tell; and that would be because he was rightfully discredited when his apocalyptic predictions of the 1970s and 1980s did not come to pass in those decades. I know that in the 1970s (the decade before my birth), substantial numbers of show more young Christians gave up their lives to wait for the apocalypse because people like Lindsey convinced them that the end times were coming soon. Lindsey ignored or didn't know the fact that everyone in history who has tried to predict the time of Christ's return has been made a fool of. All those discredited predicters, including Lindsey, should have paid more attention to the Bible verse in which Jesus said only His Father knows exactly when. Also the principle (not a Bible verse) that to have credibility as a prophet of God, a predictor's predictions must be correct one hundred percent of the time. In my Southern Baptist church, I have never heard Lindsey's name mentioned, although the pastors and the older members probably know who he is.

So, then, why have I read Combat Faith? Only curiosity: I am typically attracted to books by their titles, and ever since I saw it in my public library in the early 2000s, I simply wanted to know what "combat faith" meant.

It is absolutely too bad, then, that most Christians probably ignore anything Lindsey writes or says since the 70s and 80s (again, if younger Christians have even heard of him), because Combat Faith suggests that whenever Lindsey is not unwisely claiming to have pinned down the end times, he is actually an intelligent teacher and man of faith. If people think Lindsey was only the Tim LaHaye of the 1970s, they would be mistaken. There's evidently more to Lindsey than that.

Combat Faith as a concept is simply trusting God in the most difficult circumstances; there's nothing complicated about it. Lindsey explains the dynamics of it through quoting many Bible verses (often explaining their original meanings in the Greek or Hebrew), and gives various figures from the Bible as examples of this faith, particularly Abraham; Moses; and of course Jesus Christ himself.

(I understand that later editions of this book were published under some different title. Possibly the original title was misunderstood to mean "fight faith.")

The main reason I appreciate this book and plan to keep it (I didn't plan to, when I started it) is not the lessons in faith, it's the significant amount of Biblical knowledge that I didn't know. Little bits of information given in support of points Lindsey is making. For instance, when discussing the very extensive symbolism of the first Passover, Lindsey observes that when the believing Hebrews smeared blood on their doorposts (top, left side and right side), the motions they made were the sign of the cross. The sort of fact I am typically delighted to learn.

I feel compelled to read this book at least once more. Recommended. show less