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Egantry47
Starlite Member
Username: Egantry47
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 05:28 pm: | 
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Fundamentalism again!
by Peter Espeut
Christian Zionists believe that Israel will set the stage for prophetic events such as the rise of the Anti-Christ, the Battle of Armageddon and Christ's 1,000-year reign, and these fundamentalist views have steadily gained popularity in the U.S. (and in Jamaica) since the rise of the Christian right in the 1970s and '80s. In the most gruesome scenario, these evangelicals envision a global battle breaking out when a 200-million-man army invades Israel from the east and Jesus returns to take on the Anti-Christ. Jews and other non-Christians will then face a choice: conversion to evangelical Christianity, or death. In the past, some fundamentalists predicted that the armies would come from Russia or China, but after the end of the Cold War, many foresee an Islamic army led by Iran.
Wars of religion tend to be the most brutal and uncontrollable of all wars. The war in Lebanon and Palestine is a religious war, but maybe not the war you might think. The combatants have been Jews-vs-Muslims, but it is much more complicated than that. There is no way that Israel could do what it has done without the support of the United States, and it is hard to understand the behaviour of the U.S. outside of fundamentalist Christian Zionism.
It is not a secret that the present U.S. Government is in the hands of the religious right, despite the philosophy of 'separation of church and state' which gave birth to the U.S.A. in the first place. Over the past months, the White House has convened a series of off-the-record meetings about its policies in the Middle East with leaders of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a newly formed political organisation that tells its members that supporting Israel's expansionist policies is 'a biblical imperative'. They believe that the present borders of the state of Israel are much smaller than the Biblical boundaries, which leaves no room for a Palestinian state - a two-state solution. CUFI's representatives pressed White House officials to adopt a more confrontational posture toward Iran, to refuse aid to the Palestinians and to give Israel a free hand as it ramped up its military conflict with Hezbollah.
Christian Zionists believe that Israel will set the stage for prophetic events such as the rise of the Anti-Christ, the Battle of Armageddon and Christ's 1,000-year reign, and these fundamentalist views have steadily gained popularity in the U.S. (and in Jamaica) since the rise of the Christian right in the 1970s and '80s. In the most gruesome scenario, these evangelicals envision a global battle breaking out when a 200-million-man army invades Israel from the east and Jesus returns to take on the Anti-Christ. Jews and other non-Christians will then face a choice: conversion to evangelical Christianity, or death. In the past, some fundamentalists predicted that the armies would come from Russia or China, but after the end of the Cold War, many foresee an Islamic army led by Iran.
The 'Rapture Index'
In a commentary on July 22 last year, the Rev. Jerry Falwell predicted present-day conflict in the Middle East will "serve as a prelude or forerunner to the future Battle of Armageddon and the glorious return of Jesus Christ." Wars and rumours of war are a prelude to 'the rapture', and a group of fundamentalists have developed the 'Rapture Index', a calculation of the global rise in natural disasters, war and inflation billing itself as the 'Dow Jones industrial average of end-time activity'. An index below 85 signifies a week of 'slow prophetic activity'. Anything above 145 signals the apocalypse is near.
For these fundamentalists, the murder of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1990s was fulfillment of prophecy and divine retribution because Rabin was transferring Israeli lands to Palestinians; since Israel had a divine right to the land, to give it away was an act of treason against Israel and an abomination against God. By the same token, the coma into which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fell earlier this year after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza was nothing less than divine retribution.
Intolerance and bigotry
And so to allow Israel time for victory over Hezbollah and the Palestinians despite horrible civilian casualties is to hasten the end-times. It is frightening that the most powerful country in the world - possessing more weapons of mass destruction than the rest of the world combined - should be guided by views such as these. Many times have I warned in this column that religious fundamentalism - whether Christian or Islamic - will lead only to intolerance and bigotry and war and death.
And so the present religious conflict in fact is a Christian Zionist-vs-Muslim war intended to bring on the end-times. Of course, it is all fundamentalist nonsense, but some people actually believe it. The popularity of these views based on mis-interpretations of sacred scripture, is evidence of failure of the guardians of sacred scripture to widely communicate biblical truth. To think that thousands of innocent people are losing their lives in the cause of hastening the second coming of Jesus is an abominable travesty!
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Thethinman
Starlite Member
Username: Thethinman
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 07:47 pm: |
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Thethinman
Starlite Member
Username: Thethinman
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 12:03 am: |
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