ISBN: 978-1888848212
Hal Lindsey is a widely known 90’s Messianic author. In The Apocalypse Code Lindsey takes on the topic of interpreting the End Time prophecies of Revelation mostly through the lens of the later 90’s which was the decade in which he wrote the book.
Lindsey lived until November of 2024, which was long enough that he probably noticed a lot more concerning this specific code as it is easy to look back at the late 90’s as being less severe in tone and tenor than where the world is now.
Nonetheless, there is enough happening then that Lindsey is able to achieve a framework whereby the apocalypse makes some immediate sense. Where the potential errors are are at least consistent.
One such error, that bears mentioning, is the often Lindsey is looking to the world of man to play a central role in the visions that John had. So, armed grasshoppers with golden crowns on their heads Lindsey likens to helicopter pilots. When something like a flaming mountain is used to turn a third of the sea into blood, Lindsey interprets this to be a nuclear warhead. Lindsey does demure where the grasshoppers are concerned and admits that it is possible that what is unleashed is simply some manner of demonic insects, but then he returns to the theme of how the world could fulfill these events without such a supernatural recourse.
Revelation, though, is all about events that defy logic. It is doubtful that YHVH will be utilizing things that man makes to bring these things into being simply because it makes more sense that He would have the tools for His judgment directly within His own Kingdom and control. It is not to say, of course, that He could not use the items that man has made for these ends, but that these devices are instruments that humanity has dreamed up–in a nightmare form–but dreamed up nonetheless.
Lindsey is a believer in the Rapture removing believers before these terrible judgments begin. He often emphasizes that if you are a believer you will not have to endure these calamitous happenings, but does not square that with the exhortation that believers are told to also “endure to the end”. “To the end” seems to imply going through more than just being called up into heaven, but personally the author would prefer it if Lindsey were correct. Nobody likely wants to live through all the events mentioned in Revelation as a life aspiration in the sense that they are terrible events to comprehend and endure. On the other hand, one should not expect an event that brings comfort without strong scriptural support.
The purpose of Lindsey’s book, though, is clearly to try to spread the message of all these terrible ordeals so that people will accept the Messiah as their pardon before they run out of time to do so. Lindsey, somewhat surprisingly, appeals to 90’s scientific views of what is happening in the world to bolster his conclusions. More than a few of the predictions advanced have not happened, of course, but that does not mean the warning has expired that they can and will.
Lindsey goes on to talk about what he supposes will happen with regard to resurrections of the dead and how they are transformed and in what phase each type of dead person can expect to be resurrected. He outlines what he thinks the Final Judgment will involve, and discusses all the various seals of Revelation and what might happen during each one as a possible fulfillment concerning when the Angels begin to pour our their respective bowls of wrath.
Also theorized is how the End Times battles between Gog and Magog will transpire–who those identities belong to is revealed–at least in terms of who Lindsey believes them to be. There are minor points of potential disagreement on how YHVH intends to bring about the End of the World, but then, perhaps the greater theme is not so much how He will do it but that He WILL do it. With this in mind, one can read Lindsey’s hypothetical battles with the idea that such a chain of events could take place without the baggage of questioning whether he has correctly intuited who is whom.
Lindsey does a great job of making his points clearly, and it is obvious why he was so influential as a writer in the Messianic Roots revival time period. The read, though now dated, is still relevant and worthwhile to consider–especially now that the clock hands have advanced another nearly 30 years since he wrote it…