"We are very near the final climactic events that end with the Second Coming of Christ"
About this Quote
Apocalypse, in Hal Lindsey's hands, isn’t a distant theology lesson; it’s a deadline. “We are very near” turns an ancient, unfalsifiable promise into a time-sensitive briefing, the kind of language that collapses centuries of Christian eschatology into the urgent tempo of a breaking-news crawl. The phrase “final climactic events” borrows the structure of pop storytelling - setup, rising action, payoff - making history feel legible, even cinematic. If the world is a narrative, Lindsey implies, then the plot is converging and the audience should stop checking their phones.
The intent is partly devotional, partly managerial. Proximity creates moral pressure: now is when you choose sides, now is when complacency becomes culpable. It’s also a persuasion engine. Specific dates can fail; “very near” is elastic. It sustains readiness, fundraising, book sales, and political engagement without ever committing to the kind of prediction that can be decisively disproven. The subtext is less “God is coming” than “you are living at the center of the story,” a powerful antidote to modern anonymity.
Context matters: Lindsey rose to prominence in the 1970s, when Cold War dread, oil shocks, and Middle East conflict made end-times frameworks feel like interpretation rather than projection. Prophecy talk offered a map for chaos and a thrilling sense of insider knowledge. The rhetorical trick is that it makes anxiety productive: fear becomes meaning, and meaning becomes momentum.
The intent is partly devotional, partly managerial. Proximity creates moral pressure: now is when you choose sides, now is when complacency becomes culpable. It’s also a persuasion engine. Specific dates can fail; “very near” is elastic. It sustains readiness, fundraising, book sales, and political engagement without ever committing to the kind of prediction that can be decisively disproven. The subtext is less “God is coming” than “you are living at the center of the story,” a powerful antidote to modern anonymity.
Context matters: Lindsey rose to prominence in the 1970s, when Cold War dread, oil shocks, and Middle East conflict made end-times frameworks feel like interpretation rather than projection. Prophecy talk offered a map for chaos and a thrilling sense of insider knowledge. The rhetorical trick is that it makes anxiety productive: fear becomes meaning, and meaning becomes momentum.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
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