According to his web site, Hal Lindsey was once a self-confessed "devout pagan." In the early 1950s he was living the fast-life, and worked hard as a riverboat captain on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. He had attended church in his youth, had even been baptized.
He drifted away from his faith because he found no one who could provide guidance and teach him what it meant to be a Christian. Then, in 1955, something happened that got him thinking about God again. It was a very foggy night, and he needed to get his boat across the busy Mississippi River. That’s when God stepped in.
His boat was not equipped with radar or a signal alarm. He was like a blind person sailing into the unknown. Hal was near the middle of the river, when it felt like an unseen hand caused him to suddenly turn the vessel hard right. It was then he realized that he had almost collided with a large steamship. There was no doubt in his mind that the hand of God had shielded him from a catastrophic collision with the other vessel.
The incident made Hal rethink how he was living his life. He found a Gideon’s New Testament that he had kept since he was young, and he began to read it. He had kept this small Bible in his duffle bag as a kind of good luck charm. As he began to read, there still were questions he couldn’t answer and things he couldn’t understand.
Then Hal met a man known as the "crazy preacher" down at the docks. The man was actually a devout Christian, who had recently come to the waterfront. At last Hal found someone who could help him understand the Bible and answer the questions he had and help him to grown in his Christian faith! Hal became a born-again Christian!
He went on to graduate from Dallas Theological Seminary and worked with Campus Crusade for Christ for eight years. He served as the pastor of Tetelestai Christian Center in Torrance, California, and was awarded a Doctorate from the California School of Theology in 1994.
Hal Lindsey is best known for his many books on Bible prophecy and the End Times. Sales of his books worldwide now total more than thirty-six million! The book probably most widely read is The Late Great Planet Earth. In it he describes his interpretation of the End Times. It was first published in 1970 by Zondervan and it became the best-selling non-fiction book of the 70s. Some have called Hal Lindsey “The Jeremiah of Today.”
Other books he has written are: Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, The Liberation of Planet Earth, There’s a New World Coming, 1980’s-- Countdown to Armageddon, The Final Battle, The Terminal Generation, Planet Earth: the Final Chapter, The Rapture, Planet Earth – 2000 A. D., Apocalypse Code, Blood Moon, Vanished into Thin Air, and The Everlasting Hatred: The Roots of Jihad.4
Some criticize him and say that his predictions of Christ’s Second Coming have not been fulfilled. They forget that even Jesus said no one will know exactly when the End will come. “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” (Mathew 24:36).
Psalm 90:4 says, “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it passes by, or as a watch in the night.” In 2 Peter 3:8 it states, “But do not let his one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” Additionally, Christ did say that there will be signs that point to His imminent return. Many Christians feel that the time of our Lord's return is drawing near. The fulfillment of God’s prophecies is becoming evident at a faster pace than ever before.
The Hal Lindsey Report, a weekly report about how current events are fulfilling Bible prophesy, can be seen on various television stations. Further information on his ministry and his interpretation of current events, as they relate to biblical prophecy and the End Times, are available on his web site: www.hallindsey.com