I read The Late Great Planet Earth shortly after I began reading the Bible.
Unfamiliar with both books and new to the concept of knowing Jesus as a personal savior, the book frightened me into the Kingdom of God.
I’d been raised in a church tradition that did not emphasize Jesus as our Savior, though we certainly knew about Him.
Starting to read the New Testament on my own in a paperback Good News Bible, introduced me to many new religious ideas.
When presented with this story of the Rapture and what Lindsey believed would come, I was frightened.
In January, 1973, I decided that I did not want to risk ending up left behind, and gave my heart to Christ.
God can and will use anything to reach us.
Learning more in college
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, former Campus Crusade for Christ staff member Hal Lindsey, the author of The Late Great Planet Earth, ran JC Light & Power House ministry near the UCLA campus.
When I arrived at my assigned dorm room in 1974, my room was the only one on the long white corridor featuring a psychedelic painting above the door.
It read “Houses of the Holy,” in colorful fat lettering.
“I thought we got her out of that,” my father muttered to my mother. They were not enthusiastic about my commitment to Christ.
The painting delighted me–a welcoming presence and an easy way to find my room!
It turned out the previous year’s occupants attended Bible study at the JC Light & Power House ministry!
I didn’t visit, though I thought of it, but the connection encouraged me at the enormous campus. Lindsey still taught there at the time. The Jesus Movement was in full swing.
Maturing in my faith
I read several more Lindsey books, in particular, Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, but by my second year in college, my spiritual interests morphed.
The breathless-sounding prose didn’t inspire me any longer. I preferred Francis Schaeffer’s video series How Should We Then Live? which I saw with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship friends.
Schaeffer’s reasoning made more sense to me.
More than the Schaeffer film series, however, my own Scripture study led me away from Lindsey’s interpretations.
The concept of a pre-tribulation Rapture didn’t make sense to me anymore.
As I read the Old Testament more closely, Believers clearly endured terrible trials. All of Jesus’ disciples except John were martyred.
Why would God whisk Believers out of the world when they were most needed?
How do you deal with warnings from Jesus, that
in the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world?”
John 16:33 NIV
Jesus provides what we need to endure whatever trials arise. I can’t see him snatching away Believers when non-Believers suffer and need help.
Like other issues, however, Lindsey’s last days interpretation was not a matter of my salvation. I read it more as an interesting possibility but one I could wait to experience rather than worry about now.
Left Behind or Not Afraid?
Like many others in the late 1990s, I read Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins’ novel Left Behind.
It reminded me of those early years in my faith walk when The Late Great Planet Earth was so popular.
I read the first one and didn’t bother with any others. The Bible itself spoke to me far more clearly than those novels.
While the books meant nothing to me, I have friends for whom they meant a great deal.
Since I believe God can use any tool to His glory, I left it at that.
If reading one of the Left Behind books sent people to Scripture and a deeper walk with Jesus, they had value.
Recently, I listened to a podcast interview on the Eric Metaxas Show with author Michael L. Brown discussing his recent book Not Afraid of the AntiChrist.
Like me, Dr. Brown and his coauthor Dr. Craig S. Keener were influenced by Lindsey’s book.
Now seminary professors, Not Afraid of the AntiChrist provides plenty of information to consider in light of both The Late Great Planet Earth and the sixteen books in the Left Behind series.
How, then, should we live with these books?
The Late Great Planet Earth sold more than 28 million copies.
Who knows how many copies of the various offshoots of the Left Behind series have sold?
None of the products are the Bible. They’re three men’s thoughts on Biblical eschatology, not the Gospel itself.
If they send people to search the Scripture for truth, amen.
If they delude people into thinking they know how Jesus will return, with absolute certainty, they’re wrong.
But about that day or hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Matthew 13:32, NIV
I’m thankful my reading of The Late Great Planet Earth took me to the God of all Creation who knows the beginning and the end.
But, I don’t need to read it again.
God used it to point me to Jesus–which is exactly what I need any book to do.
Tweetables
The Late Great Planet Earth and me. Click to Tweet
How God can use a book with questionable theology to point to Jesus. Click to Tweet
I enjoyed reading this Michelle!
‘m not really that concerned
about the world to come.
Cancer’s got me so burned
out; Lord, Thy will be done.
I don’t much think of Heaven,
I’ll see it soon enough,
and must conserve my leaven
for remaining earthly stuff.
My work here is not finished
and I’ll leave it incomplete
but not, I think, diminished
and surely not in sad defeat.
What’s done with love is to prepare
for Glory, and we’ll find it there.
Hi. My whole family read the first Left Behind book when it came out—and probably the second, too. I grew up believing Pre-Tribulation Rapture from the churches we’d attended from the time I was young. I remember there being lot of things that didn’t sit right with me from those books—such as how all the characters had well paying jobs (one even in the Antichrist’s government), so they had money to buy a Land Rover, which they used to get out of a situation of chaos that normal cars couldn’t drive through. It made me think of, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it” from Lk 9:24, but the message I was seeing was the opposite: Money and position will be your friend to help you save your life if you’re stuck here in the Tribulation.
Around that time, when I was about 16, I was reading my Bible and came across Lk 17:34-37 again. “One will be taken, the other left.” I thought, “The rapture!” But I never understood Jesus’s reply in verse 37, and I would always skip it and continue reading in chapter 18. I didn’t like perpetually skipping it, and so that time I prayed earnestly that God would help me understand what Jesus meant when He said this: “Where the dead body is, there the vultures will gather.” God answered my prayer using Scripture, and it caused me to doubt Pre-Tribulation Rapture.
So, I went searching the Word, asking, “If Pre-Tribulation Rapture exists, where is it?” Probably within a month, the Lord helped me connect the dots from two passages. I concluded that not only was it not taught anywhere, it was not even possible.
I praised Him and closed the Bible and said that when I was older, I wanted to write down these passages in and orderly way and share them with people. That’s what I’m passionate about doing, and it’s why I started my website, overcomingthetribulation.com.
Your article doesn’t say it, but there’s a huge divide between “The Late Great Planet Earth” and “Left Behind” versus “Not Afraid of the Antichrist”. The first two teach that at any moment, believers will be snatched from the earth and to meet Christ in the air and go to heaven, while the unbelievers will be left behind to suffer in the Tribulation. The latter teaches that we will go through the Tribulation ourselves, and we need to prepare our hearts to stand firm. The Lord showed me that the Bible teaches the latter back when I was a teenager.
I want to tell people they can understand the basics of end times prophecy and it’s very important, too. Even young children who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit can grasp and embrace these Biblical teachings when they read the Word with a heart for truth. I was also want to warn that the impact of abiding with false teaching can be very devastating, even if it’s not seen right away. Jesus warned us frequently about deceptions surrounding His coming (Mt 24:4-5,11, 23-26, for example).
God bless all who read this. May you study the Word to know what to expect and what He expects of you, so you can prepare yourselves spiritually to overcome, should you live to see those wicked days. And may His Word help you fear God more, to keep you from sin and encourage you towards holiness, so He might use you mightily for His glorious purposes.