Holy warriors set sights on Iran (Asia Times)

[laststeamtrain]

Holy warriors set sights on Iran
By Bill Berkowitz

OAKLAND, California - Over the past 20 years, the US Christian Right has evolved into one of the most powerful grassroots organizing forces within the Republican Party, and a host of Christian Zionists have taken a well-earned seat at the foreign-policy table.

At the same time, their support for Israel is not only growing, it is becoming an influential political factor.

Several prominent Christian Right and conservative Jewish leaders have teamed up to found organizations that have provided millions of dollars to Israeli charities, lobbied in support of policies advanced by right-wing leaders in Israel, opposed President George W Bush's so-called "roadmap" to peace in the Middle East, and have helped defray the costs of the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel, among other activities.

While the Reverends Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell have been longtime supporters of Israel, the founding this year of Christians United for Israel by John Hagee, the pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, drew a great deal of media attention.

<snip>

"The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching," Hagee wrote in his most recent book, Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World . "Just before us is a nuclear countdown with Iran," he wrote, "followed by Ezekiel's war , and then the final battle - the battle of Armageddon."

For Hagee, best-selling author Joel Rosenberg and other Christian Zionists, Israel plays the critical role in End Time scenarios. Their books, commentaries and public statements reflect their beliefs that serial conflicts in the Middle East are a sign of the biblical prophecy presaging Armageddon, the return of Jesus Christ, and the final battle for the souls of mankind.

<more>

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HL21Ak01.html

[nealmhughes]

1. Hopefully they will all be raptured soon. Or is that tribulated?

One gets so confused...

Frankly I got lost after John said he had a dream on Patmos in Revelations.

The Isiah and Ezekial and Daniel sounded a bit too much like a schizophrenic ranting or else a bad acid trip. The Revalations was too much. Too bad it won the vote on the canon by only one vote -- had they only held out for Polycarp!

I don't advise anyone to base theology or policy on these books or the madmen who relish them.

[peacetalksforall]

2. Lots of spiritual benefits for the Christians. Lots of monetary

benefits for Israel. Made in heaven?