Re: Evangelical Christianity Wrongly Maligned (was Re: Chavez Likes Euro?)

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> This whole issue dovetails into the "Pax Americana" doctrine as the
> Zionists (of all denominations) are the ones who are the active force in
> the current series of wars.

  I'm no fan of Pax Americana ideology. Personally, I think there is good 
reasons, although I won't discuss them here to avoid starting a longer 
thread, that Evangelicals should abhor the idea.

> To the extent Evangelicals do not believe in a Greater Israel, oppression
> of the Palestinians (however incidental to a broader purpose), the
> destruction of the Dome of the Rock to enable the rebuilding of the "Third
> Temple", and eventually Armageddon (nuclear war), 

  I very strongly believe in the last two. Believe and want are two different 
things mind you. I might believe that the sandwich I just ate is probably 
going to give me food poisoning, but that doesn't mean I want food poisoning.

  Armageddon is one of the less controversial aspects of prophecy, afaik. 

  As far as the Dome of the Rock goes, there are many ways it could be "taken 
care of" to clear the way for the third temple. Tim LaHaye has a good concept 
that would seem likely in light of the Antichrist theory. His interpretation 
suggests that virtually everyone converts to a one-world-religion heresy, 
save the Jews (due to the 7 year treaty) and a few hold outs from the 
different faiths -- mostly though, people follow lock step behind the 
deceiver. If this were the case, the former Muslim leaders might agree to 
move the Dome of the Rock to receive monetary compensation, etc. 

> For example, I very strongly believe that anyone believing in Rapture
> should *NOT* have control of the US nuclear missile arsenal, that is even
> more insane than Iraq having nuclear weapons, and since I take many in the
> Bush Administration as falling into the Rapture camp, well, you do the math

  So those that hold traditional Christian views ought not to have any control 
of the United States? Isn't this discrimination? 

  Beyond that, I would note that pre-trib pre-millennial people, like me, know 
that you can't force prophecy. Look at it this way: Armageddon is one of the 
last things that happens in a pre-trib/pre-millennial view -- as such, you 
can use all of the nukes you want and it ain't gonna be Armageddon. :-)

  Anyway, Armageddon isn't about nuclear war, it's about a cosmic battle of 
Good and Evil... in the grand scheme of it, nukes will be very small indeed. 
I do believe in the annihilation of humans, but so do many scientists, 
ecologists, and many others for various reasons. Does that mean they are all 
not to be trusted?

  Most religions believe in the end times. Even those who look at time as a 
endless cycle, such as Hinduism, believe that there is destruction (by Shiva) 
before Brahma recreates the world. If believing in the destruction of the 
world makes one unfit to have positions of power in the U.S., not many people 
- -- very few indeed -- qualify to have such power.

> I did try to qualify it beyond all "Evangelicals", if you have a better
> term - Rapturists, whatever you please - I am happy to use it instead :-),

  I think you are mostly thinking about people described as "radicals," those 
who want to go out and jump start prophecy by killing people. 

> but from my vantage point the people who are the ones I truly worry about
> describe themselves in the category "Evangelicals".

  Well, just be careful not to talk in such big generalizations... perhaps 
talk about Radical Evangelicals or Radical zealots or something. 

> As to the more broad issue, I stand by my view that the belief that only
> "true Christians" will be saved is a racist one, since one cannot help but
> notice that there is a strong correlation between "race" and religion.  By

  Crunch the numbers and you'll see a lot of Christians who fit into the 
category of Bible Believing or orthodox (small "o") Christians are not of 
just one race. Christianity is hardly just a Caucasian religion these days.

> a similar token, I also think that the belief that one is a "chosen people"
> is racist as well, and other religions have similar views but you get the
> general idea.

  Well, I'll save that debate for another day.

> the line when these views lead to war and destruction.  To me the biggest
> danger comes not from Islamist fundamentalists with nuclear weapons but
> Rapturists with them at the time they think that Armageddon should be
> happening (the general danger of trying to fulfill a prophecy versus
> allowing it to happen).

  I think you're mixing up things. Very few Christians want to nuke things to 
get Armageddon going. Sure, you can find such on the web, but it isn't a 
survey of belief.

  Every religion has some people that want to do such things, but there just 
aren't many such Christians that even are vocal atm. 

> Anyway, I appreciate your other counter-points :-).

  Glad to oblige.

  -Tim

- -- 
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Timothy R. Butler       Universal Networks      www.uninet.info
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