WARNING - About Evangelicals and others, and the Apocalypse [View All]

[jberryhill]

About Evangelicals and others, and the Apocalypse

As many who have experience with the "bible believing" spectrum of the American Protestant landscape know, and perhaps to their exasperation are tired of explaining, those congregations specifically warn against "date setting" for end times events.  

What you are missing in these explanations is the deeper insidiousness of the general eschatological beliefs of the broad swath of evangelicals, Pentecostals, fundamentalists and assorted literalists.  

Let's face it, guys like Hal Lindsey, the "Left Behind" works, and related whatnot, capture the imagination, motivation, and beliefs of a huge chunk of what was termed in another thread "mainstream evangelicals".  That much is undeniable.  

Now, they don't set dates, but they put a lot of effort in "signs" indicating that the Apocalypse is historically imminent.  

It is what motivates support, not for Israel, but for extreme right political elements in Israel who are perfectly happy to cash a check.   

If Sarah Palin thought the world ended on a particular date, she'd be at home praying, and not being the closest approach these people have made to the big red button on the President's desk which, if pushed, they believe would make Jesus come back.  

We saw it in interior secretary James Watt who, being entrusted with our parks and natural resources, famously said we don't need to worry about future generations too much, because we don't know how many future generations are left.  

It is the belief in a "maybe not too far off" end the world which is VERY widespread, and MORE dangerous than believing the world will end next Tuesday.   

The next-Tuesdayans are primarily merely a danger to themselves and their families.  The general "end times believers" are a danger to us all, and they are much more numerous.  

And that is what you are not being told by the "oh, most born-agains (remember that one) don't believe Camping's nonsense" folks.   

While I agree it is not fair to paint all Christians as followers of Camping's nonsense, you MUST open your eyes to the real danger of the wider belief of an imminent, though not specifically predicted, apocalypse.  

I would LOVE to see a reporter grow a brain and skip the question of "How does your faith affect your approach to government?" with the bland answers of "I pray that God will help me do right and give me wisdom...blah blah blah."

I want to see them asked "Do you belief in the Biblical end times, and how does your belief shape your view of what America's priorities should be?"

That is a much more important question, and one to which we should be given an answer before we vote.  

There is a second point being missed here as well.  Again, most evangelicals don't buy into "date setting", but is is from among them that members of these cults are recruited.  You might think "how can anyone buy this stuff?". The answer is - Evangelicals DO buy this stuff, the only thing needed to make them a cult member is some Biblical handwaving to produce a date.  If I run an end times cult, I'm not going to waste my time with folks who don't believe in a particular set of views about the Apocalypse in the first place.   So it is not unfounded for people at DU to express a broader alarm about these beliefs generally, and not merely in relation to this particular cult.