Last week, a man who was oddly important in my adolescence (though I never met him) died at age 95. His name was Hal Lindsey. Beginning in 1970, he was the incredibly successful author of several books purporting to explain biblical prophecy’s relevance to contemporary world events. By far the most important of these was his first, titled The Late Great Planet Earth. It was declared the best-selling nonfiction book of the 1970s. Still in print, it has sold millions of copies and been translated into dozens of languages.

In brief, Lindsey’s book uses various apocalyptic Bible passages and recent global events to predict the consummation of history and the return of Jesus Christ. According to Lindsey, four things would precede this: the return of the Jewish people to their homeland, their recapture of Jerusalem, the rebuilding of the temple, and the rapture of believers into heaven before the great tribulation.

The first of these predictions was fulfilled, Lindsey said, with the creation of Israel in 1948 and the second with the Six Day War in 1967. The other two are yet to come, which became a problem for Lindsey as he had said they would all occur within a forty-year period (a biblical generation). When 1988 came and went with the world still much as it was, Lindsey’s star began to fade. Also problematic was the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he said would play the key role in instigating the a cataclysmic Middle East conflict.

Nonetheless, Lindsey continued to be a popular writer and speaker, downplaying the specific predictions that didn’t pan out and emphasizing the thrust of his prophetic message. Today, many evangelicals still hold to Lindsey’s general order of events, which has even drifted into American and Middle East politics.

For that reason, apocalypse-believing evangelical leaders were thrilled when the US recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved its embassy there from Tel Aviv. The prospect of rebuilding the temple, and displacing the Muslim shrine known as the Dome of the Rock, has roiled the Middle East political waters for years. And for a recent bizarre twist, try googling “red heifer.” In general, evangelical support for Israel is based on the belief that its “success” will somehow usher in Christ’s return, though the logic isn’t very clear.

But none of this is about logic. I was in high school when I and countless other teens and young adults encountered Lindsey’s first book. Prior to its publication, Lindsey had been a campus minister in California and his writing was very much geared to young baby boomers struggling to make sense of a world seemingly in chaos. The assassinations, riots, and Vietnam War debacle of the 1960s were followed by the Watergate scandal, Arab oil embargo, and economic chaos of the 1970s.

While it was theological nonsense to mainstream Christians, Lindsey’s book had an appealing message, that amidst the world’s turmoil God was nonetheless in charge. Of course, life often is in turmoil for teens and twenty-somethings, so they were a natural audience for his ideas. But mixing them in with current events added an element of excitement and anticipation. I still remember the intense conversations in our Bible study group and the wonder they built about what might be about to happen next.

By the time college rolled around, most of us fascinated by the book and the topic moved on to other interests, but the popularity of such books continued. Other authors developed the theme further, most notably the fundamentalist Baptist minister Tim LaHaye (1926-2016) who created the fictional Left Behind phenomenon. It eventually totaled sixteen books, which have also sold in the millions, five motion pictures, and a video game. Not surprisingly, Lindsey and LaHaye both became very rich men during this time.

While the specific Lindsey and LaHaye phenomena have passed on, apocalyptic fascination continues and likely will grow. As predicted, weather-related crises and disasters are increasing around the globe. The end of the Cold War has not brought about peace but a series of “hot” military crises. Economic inequality is growing is Western countries, with growing numbers feeling their personal lives are in financial crisis.

And this last point is key. The more these developments impact people directly, the more likely people will be susceptible to theories “explaining” the chaos they are experiencing. When your own life is in chaos, the more likely you will see the world around you that way. Fundamentalist apocalypticism not only explains the chaos but says that if you get on God’s side, everything will work out for you in the end.

A number of books have been written by traditional biblical scholars to debunk the notion that the Bible’s ancient apocalyptic passages are predicting modern day events. Of course, they are will written and persuasive to the small number who read such books but their impact has been minimal. In general, Catholic and mainline Protestant churches have given little attention to the upsurge in apocalyptic belief, perhaps hoping that by ignoring it, it will go away. But it’s not.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of contemporary apocalypticism is that it not only explains global chaos, but affirms it. By viewing history and current events through the lens of “God’s plan” for humanity, the upsurge in global disturbances is welcomed as the next step in establishing God’s rule through Christ’s return. Thus, trying to “fix” any of these problems can be seen as not only futile, but even contrary to God’s will.

Do many people actually believe this? Put that baldly, perhaps not. But for those exposed to such ideas from books and preachers, it can create a hazy world view which sees its problems as beyond hope. Much worse, in the case of the Middle East, it has allowed the notion to seep in that there is a divinely sanctioned foreign policy that we should be following. We seem to be stepping back into the Middle Ages. Can crusades be far behind?

Which points to a chronic problem with organized religion. For millennia, religion has been used to manipulate people’s views of the world and their attitudes towards people different than themselves. It has also blessed political authorities and their various policies and campaigns. And we don’t have to go back to the Middle Ages for examples.

God’s blessing was assumed by both sides of the American Civil War (a notion Lincoln bravely dismissed, declaring the war’s carnage instead to be God’s judgment on the whole country). Grainy film footage exists from 1914 of priests and clergy blessing departing soldiers of all sides at the start of the “war to end all wars.” And the Cold War was viewed as a struggle against “godless communism,” often with explicit church support.

All of this supplies further evidence that the notion of a human-like God “out there,” aka theism, needs to go. As long as a personal God is believed to be looming over us, we inevitably assume he will intervene in the events of our lives and of the world. We become obsessed with figuring this God out, knowing what this God is up to, and being sure we are on “God’s side.”

Belief in such a God has been fading throughout the modern era. It’s not surprising, though, that times of chaos lead to a resurgence in belief in the theistic God. But modernism has undermined most of this God’s foundations, so it’s a weak support for people to lean on, as they realize, consciously or unconsciously. The fanaticism of fundamentalism is largely a response to that perceived but unacknowledged weakness.

Sadly, the impotence of traditional Christianity is the result of it wanting to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to be modern and “with it,” but won’t cut loose from its traditions dependent on the God-out-there. To the modern world’s chaos, it offers a “gospel of hope” but is never clear what that hope is, since the modern God-out-there doesn’t intervene and its “there” has no real location.

The alternative that we desperately need is literally “a-theism,” not a denial of God but the rejection of a convoluted idea of God. In its place, we need to look to an ancient tradition, found in different forms around the world, which calls us to the experience and knowledge of God within and all around us.

Sometimes called “panentheism” (God in all things) or the “perennial philosophy” (as in a book of that name by Aldous Huxley), this is the spiritual experience of mystics of every religious tradition. Perhaps its best description in the Bible is a quotation of Paul in the book of Acts, where he says God is “the one in whom we live and move and have our being.” Speaking of his own transforming experience of this God, Paul says in Galatians, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.”

Modern people are deeply estranged from one another and from our planetary home. But both relationships are transformed when we realize the sacredness at the heart of every person and everything. Then we don’t need a divine rescuer from the great beyond but an awakening to our true spiritual identity and the divine presence which fills and surrounds us.

Christians are now in the season of Advent, which reflects on the coming of God into the world and into our lives. But what if God has been here all along? As the great medieval mystic, Meister Eckhart, said, “God is at home. It is we who have gone for a walk.” Like the prodigal son, whose story Eckhart’s saying points to, we need to come to our senses and rediscover our true identity as children of God, a God who has never left us, and is, in fact, the very heart of our being.

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