‘Forever Changed’: Hal Lindsey’s Eternal Impact On Generations Of Trusted Ministries

‘Forever Changed’: Hal Lindsey’s Eternal Impact On Generations Of Trusted Ministries

Breanna Claussen

Hal Lindsey, a best-selling author, Trusted Ministry leader, and host of “The Hal Lindsey Report,” went home to be with the Lord on November 25th at the age of 95, leaving behind a long list of individuals and ministries whose lives were changed through his labor for the Lord.

Lindsey was born in 1929 and graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary at the age of 38, the same year as the Six-Day War in Israel, which resulted in the Jewish people retaking their possession of Jerusalem after nearly 2,000 years. Lindsey’s bold stand and love for Biblical Prophecy led him three years later to write what the New York Times described as the number one best-selling nonfiction book of the 1970s, “The Late Great Planet Earth.”

Hal’s book appealed to an audience that consisted of both the saved and the lost, drawing on the search for insight into the earth’s future in a culture where astrology and fortune-telling had become heavily popularized. Instead of setting out a list of predictions from the mouths of men, Hal detailed how God had provided an understanding of the future of planet Earth with 100% accuracy.

“The Late Great Planet Earth” was powerful. It began by establishing why the Hebrew prophet’s precise predictions given by God stood in contrast to the many others who claimed to know the future through mysticism, stargazing, and drug use. Lindsey revealed the history of fulfilled Biblical prophecy and dove deeply into how future prophecies connected to events seen on the current global stage.

As a result of the book, numerous eyes became open to the relevance of prophecy today, the sound teaching of our blessed hope, and the significance of the nation of Israel. By 1990, the book had sold twenty-eight million copies and was translated into over fifty languages.

While inevitably, many attacked and scoffed at Lindsey, even after his death, “The Late Great Planet Earth” was used by God to spark widespread interest in Biblical Prophecy, eternally impacting countless individuals and helping to raise up generations of ministry leaders to study and teach on the subject.

By God’s hand, many trusted ministry leaders we know today stumbled across Lindsey’s book in their early years. In numerous cases, the impact laid the groundwork for them to take their first steps in their walks with the Lord and prompted them to begin their ministries. It is startling to discover just how many ministries would be directly affected by Hal’s service to the Lord.

Jan Markell

Jan Markell is an author, the founder and president of Olive Tree Ministries, and host of Understanding the Times radio, often described as “radio for the remnant,” which is heard on over 1,000 stations nationwide.

It was in the mid-70s that Markell cracked open Hal Lindsey’s “The Late Great Planet Earth.”

“I knew Hal fairly well, having brought him to the Twin Cities on two occasions,” Markell told Harbinger’s Daily. “His book, The Late-Great Planet Earth, was a game-changer for many, including me. He made sense of theology that few understood well at that time. But his most important contribution is that he convinced millions of readers that Israel, indeed, was the key to our past, present, and future.”

“I read his book in 1974, the same year I made my first trip to Israel, and my life was forever changed thanks to both,” she recalled. “I would not be doing what I am today without both experiences.”

Erick Stakelbeck

Erick Stakelbeck, who is the host of the Watchman Newscast and Stakelbeck tonight on TBN, recounted being in his early 20s when his father gave him a copy of Lindsey’s book.

“I was living in the world. I believed in God, and I had that old Catholic fear of God but wasn’t walking with the Lord,” he explained. “My dad was in a Bible study at his factory where he was an electrician, and a group of guys were talking prophecy and Israel. They were big Hal Lindsey fans. They gave my dad the book, and he passed the book on to me.”

Stakelbeck was astonished by the contents of “The Late Great Planet Earth,” having always had an interest in world events.

“I followed it all very closely. I said, ‘Man, the chess pieces are moving, and this is unfolding now!” Stakelbeck described. “I went to confession as a good Catholic boy at the time, and the priest said, ‘It’s been three years; why have you come back?’And I said, ‘Well, I just read this book,’ and I explained everything in it. He said, ‘You can’t take that seriously; it’s all allegory!'”

“I left the church, and that day, the gears were turning in my head,” he remembered.

Stakelbeck later moved to Washington, D.C., where he began reading the Bible. “It was like the scales were lifted from my eyes,” he said. In 2009, Stakelbeck traveled to Israel and, upon his return, gave his life to the Lord.

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