End-Time beliefs

[thecrow]

A must read... our government is being hijacked with End-time beliefs.

Their constituency's cherished beliefs may lead to the most dangerous and destructive self-fulfilling prophecy of all time.

Long article:
http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2004/10/27/scherer-christian/index.html

[InvisibleBallots]

1. this is a distraction

The environment is not threaten by superstition, it's threatened by corporations who are polluting it. Yet, instead we've somehow convinced ourselves it's really the religious beliefs of rural Christian fundamentalists that's the key to the issue?

This fundie vs. secular fight is the greatest red herring of them all - meanwhile, they are about to steal the Social Security money.

[Skidmore]

2. Corporations are manipulating those who believe this

doctrine.

[InvisibleBallots]

5. yes, and manipulating those who do NOT believe the doctrine too

Democrats can name all of the various televagelists and keep a close eye on what the fundies are doing.

Which CEO is the biggest polluter? How many threads about that on DU, compared to ones about fundies?

The fundies aren't the only ones getting manipulated here.

[Warpy]

3. Actually, it's a combination

and those fundies aren't all rural. I know all too many of them in the city.

The belief that it's the end times allows corporations free rein to poison the earth and everyone on it because the fundies sincerely believe they're going to go to heaven, body and all, before the shit finally hits the fan. They have absolutely no stake in protecting the earth that god gave them. In fact, they applaud its destruction, because that's going to send them off to paradise.

The corporate are so busy chasing every penny to add to the bottom line so they'll look better and get more pennies of their own to hoard away so that they can win a numbers game that they have completely lost sight of what they're doing.

Both are in for a rude shock as the rapture turns out to be fiction and a poisoned earth turns out to be fact.

[pelagius]

4. Reframing the debate: the "Armageddonists"

I don't call people who hold the point of view espoused in the "Left Behind" books Christians, I call the Armageddonists. Their beliefs, though quite popular in the US, are way outside the normal eschatology (beliefs about the end times) of Christians worldwide.

[thecrow]

6. Very well said

:)

[indigobusiness]

7. The Hopi, and many other cultures have End Time prophecy...

It is everywhere you look, throughout the world.

You make an important point with the term "Armageddonists". It helps make an important distinction in the milieux.

It is one thing to warn of End Times, another thing entirely to facilitate their arrival.

[pelagius]

8. Exactly!

It is one thing to warn of End Times, another thing entirely to facilitate their arrival.

It is important to point out that the Armageddonists do not wait for God to act in his own time; they believe themselves to be the agents of the divine who must push the world in war to facilitate their own escape via the "rapture".

In other words, they are anxious to bring the world to the point of complete destruction so that they can get carried off to heaven and leave the whole mess they encourage behind.

That's about as "unchristian" as I can imagine. That's why it's more accurate to call them "Armageddonists". Their beliefs (which are about a 150 years old) have little to do with historic Christian belief and practice.

[indigobusiness]

9. Could the engine of the Antichrist

be more self-evident?

[donhakman]

10. sloppy fingers on the button

are a hazard no matter what religion.

End times theology sells lots of books tapes and survivalist goods.
but it ranks

A big rock from the Kuyper belt has a better chance of killing the Earth on an immediate basis.


PS I write this from DC where it has been in the 60's and 70's this December. No global warming here despite the fact that the Antarctic glaciers are melting 8 times faster than they did 10 years ago.

[indigobusiness]

12. The undoing of the cultural fabric is Armaggedon enough for me.

Death by a thousand cuts is death just the same.

[Carson]

11. "are way outside the normal eschatology....of Christians worldwide."

Precisely. These people are the kooks of the Christian world and, let's not forget, a minority.

[eek]

13. Isn't it some rather large sin

to believe that you can "push" G-d into anything?

How can a mere human have power to "bring about" something that is from
the Divine's plan?
Hu-frickin-bris!

[indigobusiness]

14. That's just

one brick in the wall of absurdity.

Are we doomed by proxy?

[A Simple Game]

15. So much for being the Shepherds of the Earth.

Didn't God mention something about taking care of the Earth?

It's been a long time since I studied the bible.

[indigobusiness]

16. They're calling it "DOMINION" these days...

Which, seems to mean..."Piss on the garden, let's eat!".

[A Simple Game]

19. Thank you for tweaking my curiosity.

I have read the word dominion(ism) often lately, your reply to my post finally put me over the top to research just what it meant.

This is truly scary stuff, these people are true evil, justifying the means for the end.

If there is a God, these people will have their own intensified hell. They are certainly creating one on earth for the rest of us.

[DinahMoeHum]

17. "The Rapture is a racket" - So sayeth Barbara Rossing. . .

in her book "The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation"

Link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0813391563/qid=1102456238/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-5889107-2779824?v=glance&s=books

(snip)
"...Rossing, who teaches New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, begins her sparring by taking on the widely popular Left Behind series and all it presumes to communicate about the future of the world. Claiming that the Left Behind authors' interpretation of prophetic biblical verses is "fiction," Rossing firmly asserts that the Book of Revelation has a completely different purpose than to predict upcoming world uprisings and the eventual end of the earth. Instead, Rossing believes that this biblical vision is meant to inspire humanity to seek out "repentance and justice." Rossing also maintains, somewhat unfairly, that rapture enthusiasts extol a careless, abusive attitude toward God's created world, since rapture theology declares that the followers of Christ are soon to be removed from it. More significant is Rossing's belief that Revelation does not offer a prophetic look at Jerusalem as the inevitable battleground between good and evil, but rather extends the promise of a New Jerusalem that will open its arms to all nations in peace..."
(snip)

more...


:think:

[indigobusiness]

18. I thought 'Beatlemania' was 'The Rapture'?

The sky split open, and I was borne away.

I don't know about the rest of you sinners.