Hal Lindsey, one of the wealthiest non-profit ministry executives in America, has died at 95 years of age.
Lindsey co-authored the bestselling end-times Bible prophecy book The Late Great Planet Earth with Carole C. Carlson and hosted a TV program airing on Daystar Television Network and other networks over the years. The program cost the ministry $381,000 in 2023, according to their latest Form 990.
Following the success of Lindsey’s books and TV programs centered on applying the Bible to current events, other authors including Tim LaHaye and Joel Rosenberg later found large evangelical audiences for their works.
Lindsey believed the re-establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and the generation alive in 1948 would see a pre-tribulation rapture, the tribulation and Jesus’ return.
From 2013 to 2023, Hal and his wife JoLynne Lindsey received $18.5 million of compensation from Hal Lindsey Website Ministries. During those eleven years, the ministry spent only $1,105,360 in charitable assistance to groups and individuals.
Your tax-deductible gift supports our mission of reporting the truth and restoring the church. Donate $50 or more to The Roys Report this month, and you can elect to receive “Days of Fire and Glory: The Rise and Fall of a Charismatic Community” by Julia Duin, click here.
During these eleven years less than three percent of the ministry’s total revenue was spent on charitable assistance while 32.6% of all ministry revenue was spent on compensation for Hal and JoLynne.
Excessive Compensation
In 2023, Hal Lindsey Website Ministries generated almost $2.1 million in donations and spent more than half of this money as compensation for JoLynne.
Under normal circumstances, a non-profit executive receiving more than $1 million in compensation for one year would be treated as excessive compensation and the non-profit organization would be subject to an excise tax penalty. This excessive compensation would be reported on page 5 line 15 of Form 990.
However, there is a loophole in the tax code. Ministers and non-profit executives that are compensated as independent contractors are not subject to the excise tax. Is Mrs. Lindsey an ordained minister?
According to the ministry 990s, a compensation committee determined the compensation of the ministry executives, but the identity of the committee members is unknown.
To evaluate the financial effectiveness of a non-profit organization, donors should examine Program Services Expenses which are determined by subtracting management expenses and fundraising expenses from total expenses. Charity Navigator recommends that non-profit organizations spend at least 70% of their total revenue on program services.
In 2023, more than half of all ministry expenses were administrative expenses.
When MinistryWatch publishes its 2025 list of highly compensated ministry leaders, JoLynne Lindsey will be one of the highest paid non-profit executives in America.
Housing Allowance
Hal Lindsey Website Ministries describes itself as a church on its Form 990s and Hal received a tax-exempt clergy housing allowance from 2018 to 2023, annually exceeding $100,000.
In 2014, the Lindsey family purchased a 6,000+ square foot home in the Texas hill country next to a 1,300-acre golf course. The Redfin real estate website estimates the home is worth almost $2.9 million.
For comparison’s sake, Redfin reports the median home price in America for October 2024 was $434,271.
MinistryWatch Warning
In February 2024, MinistryWatch ranked Hal Lindsey Website Ministries worst in its category:
“The organization ranks 28 out of 28 in the resource allocation rating category for the Radio/TV Station sector. The main reason for this low ranking is that while the organization spends only about $3 million a year in program services, it has net assets totaling $25 million.”
Since publication of the MinistryWatch article, those net assets have dropped to $23.7 million.
Most of the Hal Lindsey Website Ministries net assets appear to be held in a bank savings account.
However, this balance sheet raises more questions than it answers as it appears that around $5 million went to some kind of other assets.
Hal Lindsey Website Ministries doesn’t need your money. Trinity Foundation recommends donors find other organizations to support that spend more on helping the poor and less on administrators.
This article was originally published by Trinity Foundation.
Barry Bowen is a staff member of Trinity Foundation, a public nonprofit based in Dallas, Texas, that has been tracking religious fraud and helping victims for over 30 years.
English 
Spanish 
67 Responses
I’m sure Hal made a lot of his money selling books and videos. His giving will have to be reconciled between him and the Lord. I am happy with the books and videos he provides. I guess folks here are against making money.
I don’t care about anyone making money in principle.
Making a mint selling false prophecies since the 70’s (where he said we were just one generation away from the end times) and then kept moving the goal post…false prophets and false teachers, that’s what many people have problems with
These folks wouldn’t be in the fortune telling ‘industry’ if the Old Testament laws re: prophets were in place. Thank Mammon for the new covenent eh?
The Bible says Christians watching for Christ’s return will receive a reward, but unfortunately, many Post/Amillennial false teachers are fulfilling 2 Peter 3:3 warning about scoffers who would rob them of that incentive. Spurgeon said of that, “Every time a blasphemer opens his mouth to deny the truth of revelation, he will help to confirm us in our conviction of the very truth which he denies. The Holy Ghost told us, by the pen of Peter, that it would be so; and now we see how truly he wrote.” Vernon McGee called the positive influence of living as though Christ would return everyday as “perpetual expectation”. God did not give us a precise date for His return but commanded that we keep watching EVERYDAY because humans with fallen sin natures are like a person who stops looking for their loved one to pick them up in the driveway, becoming absorbed back into menial tasks of the fallen world system. Worse yet are those who start concocting their own “Kingdom” on earth heresy like all the other false religions believe they’re doing as a substitute.
Post/Amils believe Jesus will have a glorious second coming. Amils believe that it could happen any time, perhaps even today. Please do not lie about the brethren. Disagree, that’s fine, but don’t lie.
Hal Lindsey using loopholes to rake in millions from donations surely brings great shame to the name of Christ. He may have to answer to God, so be it, but we will have to answer skeptics of the faith, “That’s what you say about Jesus, but what about Hal Lindsey, who fleeced donations to get rich?”
I don’t think the concerns are as much about making money, but rather how wise and godly is the stewardship of that money.
They are against making money off the gospel and deceiving the gullible givers who frequently have little or nothing themselves.
The 990 form states the income is from contributions. Sure, he made lots of money selling his junk books and related items, but even more from the “ministry”, wink, wink.
In other words taking money, not making money
“A clergyman who engages in business, and who rises from poverty to wealth, and from obscurity to a high position, avoid as you would the plague.”
— St Jerome, 1600 years ago
Nothing wrong with making money. The problem is this entity calling itself a tax-exempt organization and not-for-profit ministry despite engaging in minimal charitable or religious activities.
Goodness, if you believe Hal Lindsey, I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you!
Eric Hoffer — ‘Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.’
Wow! Those Bible Prophecy Crystal Balls Really Work !!!
The Gospel According to Hal Lindsay (any minute now…) messed up my head BAD back in the Seventies. And some of the damage is permanent; to this day I will not look through a window facing the eastern sky.
When I was going through therapy for (among other things) this Rapture Ready Religious PTSD, the therapist mentioned she once lived in the same town and part of town as Hal Lindsay, and “he wrote those books for the money”.
My response was “Great. I’m having flashbacks like a ‘Nam Vet and he’s laughing all the way to the bank.”
P.S. During the Dispensation of Hal Lindsay, I remember the Bible having only 3 1/2 books: Daniel, Revelation, the “nuclear war chapter” of Ezekiel (the 1/2), and Late Great Planet Earth (which superseded the other 2 1/2). I even remember Bible Studies without a Bible in sight, only Late Great Planet Earth.
It is safe to say that most Americans are FOR making money. It is also safe to say most all people don’t like to get bilked out of their hard earned money. The numbers don’t lie, they tell a story of greed.
Not a story I want to share with a new believer.
Wow, the Lord gave him 95 years to repent. He was married four times. His net worth is over 40 million. He made money on the name of Christ in predicting future events he’s never seen happen and probably will never see happen.
I am so pleased that TRR shines the light on these ministries! I will be supporting this great organization so they can continue their work. Thank you TRR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Lindsey
Hal LIndsey was also married 4 times (due to divorce). It was apparently kept quiet by many of his “handlers.” I find this as concerning as his failed prophecies and financial mismanagement.
The whole thing is disheartening. I hadn’t known about a fourth marriage. His second was before he said he became a Christian. I know that that marriage ended in divorce and remarriage which, had he had proper shame and had the Evangelical churches had regard for what the Bible teaches, would have bounced him from public ministry for good.
But I want to correct you, and by extension, many others: he didn’t make prophecies, let alone false ones. He did teach what he believed to be true, dispensational premillennial eschatology, and however right or wrong he may have been, many, many people were drawn to the Lord by those down-market little paperbacks which were everywhere on the early and mid 1970s.
I am shocked about the wealth. I can’t imagine how he rationalized it. Also, once someone hits eighty, should the keeping of wealth be a big concern? Weird and very dismaying.
From the article: “ Lindsey believed the re-establishment of Israel as a nation in 1948 was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy and the generation alive in 1948 would see a pre-tribulation rapture, the tribulation and Jesus’ return.”
That seems like a prophecy to me?
Not just a prophecy, but Setting The Date without Setting a Date. A bit more crafty than William Miller or Harold Camping, as it does not get pinned down to a specific Month?Day/Year.
Because “the generation alive in 1948 would see the Second Coming” means setting a date: The death date of the last survivor who was alive in 1948. Given we’re losing the last of the WW2 vets, that would indicate a date somewhere in the 2040s.
But during the Dispensation of Hal Lindsay, there was a distinct vibe of “I’m not setting a date, but it looks like 1988”. (Kind of like “I’m not saying it’s Aliens, but It’s Aliens” on what remains of History Channel.)
Hal Lindsey was married to his 2nd wife (Jan) from the 1960s until 1976 (when he said this was before he was a Christian). During this time, the Late Great Planet Earth was published. So this former tugboat captain who was NOT a Christian at the time he wrote his most famous work on end-times and millions of people believed him?
And yes he did make prophecies and false ones. And he hoped (and did) get away with his periodic new editions of his prophecy books with new dates and theories (complete with the then-current wife and him pictured on the back), pretending his old failures didn’t exist or people would remember.
Kevin says it best thus far…a sad testimony for new and growing believers.
How much does one need? Need vs greed?
I’ve heard said re Christian ministry, “Watch out for the gold, the glory and the girls.”
Jesus said, ” What profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul”
It seems that a certain type of church or leadershio fails on these grounds.
It seems that starting a non-profit ministry website or web church will produce money to buy the things that would create a very comfortable lifestyle. If you can’t buy a mansion because you’re a blue-collar worker, become an ordained minister and start your own non-profit ministry. Of course, If God did not call you to full time ministry, and your motive is filthy lucre (love of money) you will be in trouble with the Lord. God looks at fleecing the flock for personal monetary gain as a very serious matter. We all will stand before Him at the judgment seat of Christ and give an account to him on how we lived our lives. Many will be exposed in that day and probably won’t receive any reward in heaven. That is if they make it there. There is nothing wrong with making money and having nice things, but if the money and materialistic nice things have taken over your heart, then we have a problem, Houston.
Kevin, Joe, and Nathan, I totally agree with you. It’s not about the money. It’s about the false teaching in order to, get gain, fame, power, and over indulgent lifestyles. It’s about all the hard working people who shelled out their hard earned incomes to support a man that diverted their attention from the Truth in the Holy Word of God to himself….his so-called power.
That is a lie. Find me one bit of solid evidence that Hal Lindsey ever boasted about his “power,” as you put it, and I will send you a check for five hundred dollars in care of this ministry.
Which says then, it’s all about the MONEY.
The nonsense he said and wrote – ‘means’ – ultimately for him had a desired effect – ‘ends’ – money, and all that it provides, such as status, power, and life style.
Its money and more money that keeps the desired cycle going.
The year my oldest brother died, I experienced hell for a little while. It was the most real place I have ever experienced. Much more real than this life. It was a cell reserved for goats, as per exactly what Jesus said. “Nor cheats (swindlers and thieves), nor greedy graspers, nor drunkards, nor foulmouthed revilers and slanderers, nor extortioners and robbers will inherit or have any share in the kingdom of God.” Take God at His word and where is Lindsey right now? Hal was also a false prophet. This made him rich. Can you find a verse that indicates that any false profits will be heaven? To fear God and to believe what Jesus plainly stated, Hal gained the world but lost his soul. My experience is a warning to those who refuse to “test themselves to see if they are truly in the faith.” For many will call Jesus “Lord” upon this earth, but their life proved that they never knew them. “Depart from me you workers of iniquity…”
I’d say the command to not store up treasure on earth is more literal than most Americans would like it to be. We have pretty good models of it in the lives of Jesus and the apostles. Jesus failed in every cultural expectation of His day as to the wealth he was to provide to His earthly family as the eldest son. The “Jewish Dream” was not something He strove after. . .
Paul had a good example for us and made it his rule to not take money for himself from those he ministered to among the gentiles for as long as he was able to work with his hands (he got some personal gifts in prison)
I truly think this still applies in such a money focused culture as the USA.
I guess I’ll never understand why people don’t get the simple truth: “You can’t take it with you.” He always preached how soon the Second Coming would be, but then hoarded so much money, while many missionaries and small churches in the urban and rural areas are barely making it. I just don’t get it. (Yes, I know it was his money to do with as he saw fit … )
Remember the Parable of the Bigger Barns?
Wasn’t the Rabbi from Nazareth saying “He Who Dies With The Most Toys Is Still DEAD”?
Hal Lindsay died a rich man.
A Very Rich Man.
With a Lot of Toys (look at that Furtick Mansion!)
“A clergyman who engages in business, and who rises from poverty to wealth, and from obscurity to a high position, avoid as you would the plague. ”
–St Jerome, some 1600 years ago
James this fellow lived and operated in the market place, and like so many he recognised a particular taget market which also like many he endevoured to maintain and expand.
‘”Nothing personal, just business”
I was saved in 1977 through the reading of Hal Lindsay’s lesser known books, “The Liberation of Planet Earth.” And what a marvelous and memorable experience it was when I was only halfway through the book when it suddenly dawned on me that Jesus was alive, that God existed, and that my sins could be forever forgiven. A huge weight lifted off of me and was replaced with a river of peace flowing through me. It was then I knew God was real. Nobody could have written in the kind of language and lifestyle that Hal Lindsey did to capture my interest. Although I am dissappointed to hear how he gave very little money back of what others gave to his ministry, I still can’t wait for heaven when I get to tell him how grateful I am that he made the gospel clear enough for a sinner like me to understand. In doing so, he led me to the richest gift of all – my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
Hope you get a chance to tell him that. If he actually gets through the small gate. Looks like his ‘treasure’ is what he left behind.
Nice to hear your response Larry. Hal might have given to charity without itemizing it. I often do. Lot’s of judging going on here. I have benefitted from Hal’s teaching, greatly. His teachings on the Book of John are very helpful as he unlocks the real Greek langauge. We are all sinners. Perhaps these folks will be able to reconcile with Hal in heaven.
LARRY GILL IS TELLING THE TRUTH. THE PAPER BACK BOOK ” The Liberation Of Planet Earth ” IS A SOLID BIBLICAL THEOLOGY BOOK WHICH SAYS NOTHING ABOUT BIBLE PROPHECY. MAKE MY DAY EVERYONE AND READ IT YOURSELF.
We need to tighten up the definition of “church” for tax purposes and close compensation loopholes. What these frauds earn from book sales is more of a free market thing. What they scam people out of to support their “ministry” or, rather, lifestyle, should be accounted for to the last penny.
Whenever I read about false prophets dying, Matthew 7: 22 always comes to mind:
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I really am. How can a guy who has been preaching the impending end of the world since 1970s still raise that kind of money in 2023? Too bad his donors didn’t have a money back guarantee. Hey Hal, still waiting for the world to end.
It seems to me that, given the ages of Lindsey and his wife, that current donors to Lindsey’s ministry are enriching whomever are his heirs or distributees of his will or trust. When you are paying out salaries that large given the income of the organization, the salaries are essentially a pass-through to the Lindsey’s household’s personal finances.
If Hal Lindsey was concerned about the survival of his organization and its ongoing mission, the salaries of him and his wife would be much lower.
“If Hal Lindsey was concerned about the survival of his organization and its ongoing mission, the salaries of him and his wife would be much lower.”
If he was concerned about the survival of his organization, that would just be another reason to doubt that he ever believed what he was preaching.
I have both of Hal’s books, “Combat Faith,” (1999) and “Why do we have trials,” (2001). I found both of his writings in these books to be encouraging and helpful. He was also a good Bible teacher in my opinion. I’ve been watching his teachings on the gospel of John at his website for free. You can also purchase the entire series on 38 DVDs for $600.00 which is expensive. I did at one time follow the pre-tribulation rapture theory. I got acquainted with this eschatology belief through Lindsey’s early books and preaching in the 70s. I no longer adhere to this teaching but lean to the post tribulation view. As far as his personal wealth goes, what else is new. Big name preachers and ministries have materialistic earthly treasure in this life that most of the rest of us will never see until we get to heaven. I’m careful not to pass judgement, but sometimes I do have an opinion. Like I said in an earlier post here, Mr. Lindsey will stand before Jesus’, and they will discuss his life while he was alive on earth. That is none of my business. I need to walk out my own salvation with fear and trembling in this life as I continue to grow in my walk with the Lord. Although, I’ve been a believer in Christ for 50 years, sometimes I feel like I have barely scratched the surface of Christianity.
I am baffled as to how a Christian can relapse into the Post/Amillennial ideology of fallen humans creating anything perfect, much less a global fallen human government. Looking at the flaws of “big name preachers” who are humans with a sin nature doesn’t make a the man-made “heaven on earth” ideologies to be true, it just accommodates being usurped into the Atheistic Belief System’s utopian insidious plans. In every one of their man-made “heavens on earth”, a despot human has played “god” over it.
Well, I’m baffled as to how John Nelson Darby in the 1830s started the whole Secret Rapture doctrine on the word of a young woman who was claiming Visions from God and baffled as to how this became SCRIPTURE directly from the lips of God, the Only True Plain Meaning of Revelation.
Because until I got out of the bubble, I heard nothing else.
Any Minute Now…
Any Minute Now…
Any Minute Now…
And the Secret Rapture is a part of Darby’s system of Dispensationalism, a fallen human’s system attempting to reconcile EVERY apparent discrepancy in the entire Bible by splitting them off into separate “Dispensations” over time. “By their fruits ye shall know them”; I was on the receiving end of that fruit, and I wasn’t the only one.
How do his earnings compare to others who write fiction?
I would be ashamed of myself if I had made such a cheap shot. Dispensational premillennial eschatology is one legitimate school of thought about what will characterize the times leading up to The Second Coming of Christ. I’m not really interested in what you think because on the basis of your nasty comment, I don’t like you. If you had made a respectful comment in which you said you took issue with such an eschatology, I would have been interested in knowing why.
Ask the late Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins of Left Behind fame. Another fiction series from the realm of dispensationalism. I Left Dispensationalism Behind (pun intended) a long time ago. As an aside, I wonder what all those aging boomer Jesus-People movement (who bought into the whole Late Great Planet Earth end-times) pastors and others are thinking now that they neglected to set up retirements and/or take Social Security thinking that Jesus would come back long before they would reach that age.
How well do you think Paul explained the very same discouragement to keep watching for Christ’s return when he told the Thessalonians that this plan is MUCH bigger than just a generation who passed away 2000 years ago. It’s called “perpetual expectation” and it’s actually God’s way of keeping Christians attuned to our relationship in anticipation of His arrival, even past our little life times…there’s even a promise of a crown reward for those who have lived with that life-long expectation! No one can deny that there are various Biblical testing periods with fresh testing criterion which will be presented as evidence at the Great White Thone Judgement that fallen mankind has failed his part of every circumstance (all excuses will be nullified) and those who cling to rebellion against Him (and the fallen angels) deserve the eternal punishment. Don’t look to flawed humans to validate what the Bible clearly says about His return, or those that have given-up and become Postmillennial fodder for the Atheistic Belief System’s insidious “heaven on earth” police state.
You have drunk the Kool-Aid and digested it.
Like the Mark of the Beast, that is the point of no return.
A couple weeks ago, I came across a comment in another venue from a Jew who wrote that when he took a look at the Second Coming of Christ, he was aghast at how the Christian coming of Messiah was all Death & Destruction, Fear & Terror. He had been raised with the coming of Messiah as a thing of Hope, the cosmos being repaired to what it was meant to be.
“John Nelson Darby and Hal Lindsay destroyed Protestant Christianity in America.”
— my writing partner (the burned-out country preacher)
Darrell, Jesus instructed us to pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”
That is asking for God’s kingdom to come to earth. In fact the whole of scripture ends in Revelation with the New Jerusalem coming to Earth – not off in some remote heavenly location.
We look forward to the ultimate transformation of this Earth to become a heavenly place, with no more tears no more death. An end to war and hatred. To those who have responded to Jesus by putting our trust in him – to live eternally with him.
At some point Jesus returns. But it is not some distant hope as he is within us in the present time. The end is ALSO the middle (heard that from NT Wright)
As I said the New Jerusalem becomes centered here on earth. Until that day we as you say live in perpetual expectation by following Jesus instructions to pray that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is a prayer with hope of fulfillment in the here and now. Jesus would not have called us to pray for something that we can’t expect to receive.
“Ask the late Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins of Left Behind fame. Another fiction series from the realm of dispensationalism.”
Don’t get me started on those 22 volumes of BAD Author Self-Insert Fanfic.
“now that they neglected to set up retirements and/or take Social Security thinking that Jesus would come back long before they would reach that age.”
That was a requirement of the Moses Model PASTORS of Calvary Chapel, the boomer Jesus People who demonstrated staying power (at least until Papa Chuck himself kicked off). Setting up retirement, taking Social Security, any sort of planning for the future was a Lack of Faith. Since there wouldn’t be a Future. They made the Rapture Bet and lost.
Problem is, The Future has a way of happening by itself whether YOU have a Future or not. Without a Future (only The Rapture any minute now), you’re not going to dare great things, not going to give any input to that Future, do anything that can influence and shape that Future. And when that Future happens without your input or influence, you WILL find yourself Left Behind.
“Remember when we were young and had No Future? Well, this is it.”
— Blank Reg, Max Headroom
P.S. Koinoina House Christian Fellowship (Whittier CA, which messed up my head between 1973 and 75) was another of those Boomer Jesus People One True Churches. Unlike Calvary Chapel, they did NOT have any staying power, and dissolved some time around 1980.
A Holy Spirit gift is for God’s people through an individual who is blessed to have that gift. It is not for the person who exercises it, it is a blessing for God’s Church. We will have answer to God for how we allowed the gift to be used and whatever personal benefits we accrued. Since they are “without repentance” an individual can continue to be used by Holy Spirit even after falling into serious sin. Money is the big trap and people cross the line into greed often without knowing it. God is going to make right a very wrong world and if we share in its desires…greed, fame, worldly power…we will fall with it. A believer needs to monitor the heart continually. No exceptions.
He was a best selling author. His books made money. Get over it.
Stephen King wrote books and made a lot of money and did not claim to interpret Scripture. Lindsey did and did a fair job, something of a groundbreaker. Also profited greatly from the Gospel, the Gospel proclaimed by the one who had nowhere to lay His head. Not hard to see the contradiction. Get over what? Stay on point please.
Stephen King doesn’t claim to be a “ministry” and isn’t tax exempt.
Exactly the point. Let the world be the world. And let’s expect God’s people to have higher standards.
“Grifter” is a harsh word. I think Hal started out right then was entrapped by a very devious world system. Happens to many. Let God judge…please. I want His mercy, not His Justice absent the grace of Jesus. A cynic knows the price of everything…and the value of nothing.”
And Stephen King is a better fiction writer than Hal Lindsey. Without HP Lovecraft, there would be no Stephen King, though.
Hal Lindsey was a grifter. He made most of his money selling things of little to no value. The Church needs biblical teaching, not event speculation. He wasted so many people’s time and money for decades, with basically what had no more value than silly conspiracy theories. So much cringe. He had no shame. Shame on every book publisher and TV network that platformed him.
People also need to recognise the burden many local clergy contend with because of certain ‘external’ people and organisations and the division their rhetoric, books, businesses, and self promotions, can cause to local parishes.
Yes, there are Clergy who faithfully serve their people and surrounding communities – day and night – who literally and metaphorically get their hands dirty with all soughts of issues and difficult situations which people are contending with, such as sickness, grief, unemployment, relationship breakdown – just to name a few – and then along comes a zealous individual or small group of people (within the church) who compel and harangue the minister, often on a regular basis, to preach, teach, and implement the latest book or religious fad they have discovered that tickles their religious fancy or world view.
Churches have lost good biblical and pastoral care attentive ministers because of such situations, and church communities have suffered significant heartache and division.
I see what the writer did in that headline!
Clueless to justify this by glibly writing, “so he sold books, made money, get over it”, or to otherwise give a pass to this grifter. He dishonestly used the laws to get tax breaks he was not entitled to–he was not a pastor of a church nor did he meet the intent of the law for the housing allowance. “You can do anything…” Jesus’ words on taxes no longer apply apparently, whether giving to Caesar OR to God, who got very little of Hal and all four wives’ wealth.
Many of us had parents in this dispensationalist rapture-believing group. They all firmly believed they would be that special generation that would not see death as they had, like Lindsey, seen Israel become a nation. We have buried three of our parents who were convinced they would not “pass”. Like all humans that have ever lived, they are dead. And so is Hal Lindsey.
Having hundreds of generations pass-away before Christ’s return has nothing to do with the command to “watch” for Christ’s return, which even promises a reward for those who persist. That’s why Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians 4 to explain why generations passing away didn’t mean to stop “watching”. Vernon McGee called the positive influence of not knowing when the exact day of Christ’s return as “perpetual expectation” and it’s God’s intentional way of keeping the faithful watching to not become absorbed back into the fallen world system. It’s like a person that is watching for a loved one to pick them up in the driveway; even while doing their daily chores they keep one eye on the driveway, which keeps them from becoming completely at ease with the mundane fallen world system. Those that give-up and stop watching forget about the loved one start living life as though the loved one will never come, even concocting ideologies creating a man-made “heaven on earth” kingdom that plays right into the hands of the Atheistic Belief System’s utopian global world government. Fallen humans will NEVER make a perfect government.
Good old Hal Lindsey (not). The man who was 95 when he died, but his mustache was only 40 (like Dick Clark’s hair). The man who had more ex-wives than editions of The Late Great Planet Earth (each with a picture of him and his then-current wife). The man (and his followers) who pretended that earlier editions of The Great Planet Earth didn’t exist to show that he was not a false prophet and THIS TIME he is correct.
According to Hal and others, the Rapture would be in 1981. Or was it 2000? Or 2010? The dates keep changing and expire faster than those on milk cartons. It is hard to keep track of them. What is also interesting is that end-times hysteria/sensationalism/date speculation/etc always seems to ramp up when their are times of economic/social/cultural/political upheavals and shifts. Especially when someone who is not on the same political team as Hal and other Evangelical end-times “prophets (profits)” gets elected. And just as quickly when their team gets elected, all the talk of end-times disappears like flatulence in the wind.
These are but a few of the many reasons why dispensationalism is a flawed, incorrect, and improper
eschatology.
There are even more reasons why Post/Amillennial ideologies are eschatological heresies and they have nothing to do with Hal Lindsey or the Dispensational approach to the Bible, which was developed well before he came on to the scene. Childish slurs may make a person full of indoctrinated rage feel some momentary anxiety relief, but it doesn’t make incorrect teaching truthful.
Clearing and archiving my 2024 emails and came across one referencing this article.
My final evaluation of this comment thread?
Heresy Hunters with the Mark of Hal Lindsay on their foreheads AND right hands mobilized in force to denounce all the rest of us and it turned int a free-for-all.