Tonight’s film Waiting for Armageddon documents a specific aspect of American Christianity, and while they are a large slice of the Christian pie in America, they are not representative of all Christians. But they are, IMO dangerous because of their influence and their agenda. Kindly keep in mind while discussing this to not paint all Christians with the same strokes.  Also please no ad hominen attacks and please as always be respectful of our guests and each other.

Too often there’s an urge to paint the tens of millions of Rapture-fixated Christians as quaint but harmless eccentrics who believe that one day a whole bunch of people, including hopefully themselves, will be sucked up into heaven to party with Jesus and eat popcorn while watching as the rest of the unbelieving sinful world suffers the Tribulations, cheering as flesh falls of people’s faces, and fires, hurricanes and other disasters destroy those who don’t accept Jesus as their savior. Heck there’s even video games about the Tribulations so you can experience what it feel like sitting on a cloud with God handling the remote control! As one Evangelical in Waiting for Armageddon says:

It’ll be fun!

But along with what is expressed as a voyeuristic, holier-than-thou desire to see other suffer for being  bad Christians–or non-Christians–is a very creepy agenda, an agenda which has been affecting Middle East policy and global politics for at least three decades. Waiting for Armagedon exposes the Evangelical, Christian Zionist agenda. Chip Berlet, Senior Research Analyst, Political Research Associates has this to say about the Christian Zionist plans for Israel, and especially the Temple Mount:

They don’t want a peace process. they want the to be Muslims evicted by the Jews, the Jews to rebuild the Temple of Solomon and then Christ to return and trump everyone.

One pastor states that once the Tribulations happen, the Jews will be happy to convert and accept Yeshua as their savior. Oy! And thus any effort for peace in the Middle East is perceived by this huge bloc of  believers as being part of the Antichrist’s bag of evil tricks.

There are at least 50 million Evangelical Christians in the United States, and you can find them at every level of government, from school boards to state and federal legislatures, and in the judicial and executive branches. When George W. Bush got tough on Israel, over 100,000 Evangelicals wrote him to complain, proving what one pastor says

There is no separation of church and state

The Christian Zionist movement is positioning themselves as persecuted members of society like the Jews under Hitler. But in reality, this group of “oppressed people” want to convert Jews to Christianity, and their activities are designed to claim Israel for Jesus so His Kingdom can be established on earth–once all the unbelievers are cast into the fiery lake. And with no irony, one pastor explains that Islam desires world domination. Well, guess what, so do these adherents of Christ.

It is astounding to hear software engineer and hardcore Evangelical Laura Bagg say,

If the Bible weren’t true, we wouldn’t be creating jet engines.

While Oklahoma resident Devonna Edwards  admits that because of the Rapture, she’ll never have grandchildren. In the meantime, pastors use a unique form of calendar math (each year is only 360 days) to prove Jesus’ return is imminent, then complain from the pulpit about post-modernism changing the meaning of words, though they  themselves have no problem completely re-jiggering ancient, lunar-based calendars to fit their agenda.

The filmmakers have allowed Christian Zionists to speak for themselves, and present as well thoughtful opposing views:

Daniel and Revelations were never meant to be scripts for those in power

There is a desire in this mindset have a self-fulfilling prophecy, and while

of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only

These Christian Zionists have no problem pushing the hands of the prophetic clock forward–and using Middle east policy to do so.

Waiting for Armageddon touches briefly on the subject of “Twelvers” the messianic Shiite belief system; that belief in the violent return of the Mahdi imam mirror the fundamentalists’ grisly scenario and shows there’s not that much difference between fundamentalist end of the world fury, whether Christian or Islamic.

Waiting for Armageddon reveals a huge subculture of war-loving, militaristic, anti-Judaism running through one of the largest Christian sects in America, a world view that is being exported around the world to 200 million people in 77 languages. And one, which if left unchecked, has very unpleasant ramifications for our world’s future.