c. 1988
Hal Lindsey and the forty-year generation from 1948
Record disputed Historical record is disputed RaptureEnd TimesProphecyEvangelicalismModern Predictions
Quick facts
- Predicted date
- c. 1988
- Who predicted it
- Hal Lindsey
- When announced
- 1970
- Reasoning
- 1948 plus 40 years, presented as an approximate span and not as an exact date.
- What happened
- 1988 passed without the Rapture or the events Lindsey had described. Lindsey did not name a specific date in the book.
- Historical status
- Record disputed. Historians disagree on what was actually claimed, by whom, or how widely it was believed.
- Outcome label
- Historical record is disputed
- Editorial certainty
- Medium: reliable secondary sources
- Editorial review
- Pending. This entry has not yet been checked line by line against its sources. Treat details as provisional.
Prediction
What did Hal Lindsey predict?
The Late Great Planet Earth (1970) argued that the "generation" of Matthew 24:34 might be about forty years from 1948. Readers often took this to mean 1988, but Lindsey did not state a Rapture date.
Interpretation by the author
Why did they believe it?
Lindsey argued that the fig tree of Matthew 24:32 symbolized Israel and that the re-founding of the state in 1948 was the sign it had put out leaves. He added that "a generation in the Biblical sense is about forty years", which implied that the events of the end could be expected within about forty years of 1948.
Scripture as used by the author
Biblical basis cited
Matthew 24:32 to 34, Ezekiel 37 and Luke 21:29 to 32.
Method
How the date was calculated
1948 plus 40 years, presented as an approximate span and not as an exact date.
Historical record
Historical context
The book sold in very large numbers and set the terms for popular prophecy discussion in the United States through the 1970s and 1980s. Many other writers, including Chuck Smith and Edgar Whisenant, worked from the same generation argument but gave firmer dates.
Historical record
What happened when the date passed?
1988 passed without the Rapture or the events Lindsey had described. Lindsey did not name a specific date in the book.
Historical record
What happened afterward
Lindsey continued writing about prophecy and the generation argument was reworked by other authors in the 1990s and after.
Scripture
Passages cited
-
Matthew 24:32–34 (KJV)
"Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."
Verse 34.
Excerpts are from the King James Version (public domain). Listing a verse here does not mean this site agrees with how the author used it.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- Hal Lindsey with C. C. Carlson. The Late Great Planet Earth. Zondervan. 1970. Primary source The relevant passage is in the chapters on Israel and on the generation of Matthew 24.
- Daniel Wojcik. The End of the World as We Know It: Faith, Fatalism, and Apocalypse in America. New York University Press. 1997. Academic Scholarly background on American apocalyptic culture.
Found an error or a better source? Send a correction. See also the methodology.