Inciting Armageddon

There are people in America who believe that Trump is doing God's work by inciting Armageddon. They see 'signs' everywhere, based on interpretations of certain passages in the Bible, that the destruction of the physical world and the rapture of the saved are imminent. I append a few excerpts below, but do read the entire article for yourselves.



quotes

evangelical Christians [are] eagerly looking forward to the end of the world—and influencing foreign policy to bring it closer. It’s difficult to conceive of willful courting of disaster for religious reasons, but decades of modern Christian prophecy eagerly foresee mass bloodshed in the Middle East as a prelude to Christ’s triumphant return. Evangelicals of this stripe form a crucial part of Trump's base and governing coalition.


“It is obvious that Israel’s enemies do not recognize that God has given that land to the Jews and that the Jews must be in the land for the final End Time prophecies to be fulfilled,” wrote Wayne J. Edwards, the pastor of Heritage Baptist Church in Perry, Georgia, as the death toll continued to rise. “Just think! God has allowed us to see the day when His prophetic clock started running again. We are the generation to see the final biblical prophecies come to pass. Rejoice! The King is coming!”


One particularly grotesque element of Christian Zionism is the fact that while its views on Jews are intensely utilitarian—they must own the land of Israel, then die en masse, as a trigger condition for Christ’s return—their views on Palestine are even darker. Palestinians, being extraneous to the Apocalypse, are viewed as an obstacle to its coming. Evangelicals have accordingly made alliances with the most extremist elements of Israeli society, joining together in a mutual desire to expel or annihilate Palestinians from the “biblical heartland.” The necessity of such an annihilation is a major part of why Christians are so militant about “standing with Israel”: by eliminating Palestinians, Jews edge closer to the eschatological preconditions that will presage Christ’s return.

“These prophecies require three great events before the Messiah can return: the nation of Israel must be restored; Jerusalem must be a Jewish city; and the Temple, the center of worship and sacrifice in the ancient Jewish world, which was last destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., must be rebuilt… In order for the Jews to rebuild the Temple and prepare the way for the return of the Messiah they must be purified with the ashes of a red heifer.” For generations, a collection of Mississippi cattle breeders, led by a Pentecostal preacher named Clyde Lott, has sought to breed a red heifer without blemish in Israel, so its ashes may be scattered over the beginning of a new world. As recently as September 2022, five red calves were shipped by a Texan rancher and minister, Byron Stinson, to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

end quotes

source:
https://buttondown.com/theswordandthesandwich/archive/yearning-for-the-apocalypse/


There's more, and weirder--"The Mark of the Beast", you know that bit, too, from the Book of Revelations. It was the COVID vaccine! Yup, those who got the vaccine carry "The Mark of the Beast."

Need I add that, insofar as this is prophecy, it would be self-fulling one, not God's prophecy. That mankind destroys himself through his own credulity and folly is quite possible, but there will be no rapture.

@moonbus said
There are people in America who believe that Trump is doing God's work by inciting Armageddon. They see 'signs' everywhere, based on interpretations of certain passages in the Bible, that the destruction of the physical world and the rapture of the saved are imminent. I append a few excerpts below, but do read the entire article for yourselves.



quotes

evangelical Ch ...[text shortened]... estroys himself through his own credulity and folly is quite possible, but there will be no rapture.

@Suzianne said
Well said.

I see this too. The problem is that white, "churchified" America is not seeing the whole picture. They want to bring it on, but what they are "bringing on" is their own destruction. They have already been fooled. The AntiChrist has already won his souls. These people already have the Mark of the Beast in their hearts, if not their foreheads. Few, and I me ...[text shortened]...
"Rejoice! The King is coming!” Yes, and he's coming after you, ye Pharisees and hypocrites!

@KellyJay said
Are you a racist?

Well said.

I see this too. The problem is that white,

@Suzianne said
Well said.

I see this too. The problem is that white, "churchified" America is not seeing the whole picture. They want to bring it on, but what they are "bringing on" is their own destruction. They have already been fooled. The AntiChrist has already won his souls. These people already have the Mark of the Beast in their hearts, if not their foreheads. Few, and I me ...[text shortened]...
"Rejoice! The King is coming!” Yes, and he's coming after you, ye Pharisees and hypocrites!

@moonbus said
Only the 'elect' will be raptured--but no one knows who the elect are, least of all the ones who think they are the elect. The sin of presumption....

@Suzianne said
Your question shows your weakness.


Is this:

Well said.

I see this too. The problem is that white,

as far as you got?

The microcosm that you took offense to is not the whole, far from it. You, like most others, are not ready for this message. By the time you are, if you ever are, it will be too late.

@KellyJay said
If your concern is to pluck someone out for wrongdoing out of the whole human race, and your main means to single them out is their race, that is the definition of racism. The rest is just your spewing about the race you don’t like, trying to justify that sick ideology of yours. Would you be offended if someone chose your sex and the color of your skin to single you out and say it is because of those things you do evil things?

@Suzianne

What concerns me more than who the elect are, or will be, is that religion has become so highly politicized in America today, and that Trump in particular is so obviously playing to politicized Evangelicals. We both know that Trump is no model Christian, and, despite his fake peace prize, not a man of peace. He's obstreperous and factious to a fault, and he is leading the nation down the primrose path into conflict with much of the rest of the world. Much as I hate to say this, because someone is bound to call it racist, but many of the countries which signed onto Trump's fake Board of Peace are not models of good governance which observe the rule of law. The Vatican wouldn't touch it with a barge pole, and America's traditional allies are conspicuously absent from his fake BoP, too--that speaks volumes.

@Suzianne said
It's not my responsibility who is guilty of most of the evil in the world today.

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" -- Matthew 7:16, KJV

What about this do you still not get?

And I am not singling out anyone. Most who say they are saved, are not.

You know this, yet you cannot admit it.

@KellyJay said
All I see here is someone selecting out of the fallen human race people based on their color highlighting that they are some how worse than the rest. A racist hates people based on race, turning them into less than others when we are all sinners and have fallen short.

@moonbus said
That is not what this thread is about. It's about Evangelical preachers abusing religion to propagate a political ideology, specifically in encouragement of war. I defy you to find any passage in the gospels where Jesus unequivocally approves of bombing a school in Iran and killing 165 children.

Rajk probably approves of any reduction in the number of Muslims, by any means, but I hardly expect that of you.

@KellyJay said
So when the thread took this turn, you said nothing. "Why didn't you say that when this was said? "The problem is that white, "churchified" America is not seeing the whole picture." This thread was introduced with a racist theme. Why didn’t you claim that wasn’t what this was about? You seem to single out one religious faith, Christianity, and ignore others, where accide ...[text shortened]... ers. Amageddon, I suggest you read up on that battle to see who was involved and why it was fought.

@moonbus said
Trump is a racist, he's made no secret about it. Trump subscribes to the "White Replacement Theory." Trump also appeals to Evangelicals; he's made no secret about that either. There is a significant overlap between these groups. These facts are entirely relevant to the thread.

What other Christians and non-Christians believe is not the topic of this thread.

@KellyJay said
I guess you don’t see racism when it is you doing it.