Hal Lindsey, ‘Late Great Planet Earth’ author, dies at 95

(CHRISTIANITY TODAY) – Hal Lindsey, who popularized end times theology by connecting biblical prophecy to current and near-future events, died on November 25 at the age of 95.

Lindsey became a household name in America in the 1970s with the success of The Late Great Planet Earth, which he cowrote with journalist Carole C. Carlson. The book sold an estimated 35 million copies by the end of the century, and several follow-up titles, including Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth and Planet Earth Two Thousand AD: Will Mankind Survive? were also bestsellers.

Lindsey’s books demonstrated an incredible appetite for apocalyptic speculation in America and paved the way for many other prophecy writers, including Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins, and Joel Rosenberg. He brought the once-obscure theology of dispensationalist premillennialism into the mainstream, introducing wide audiences to the concepts of the Rapture, the Antichrist, and the mark of the beast.