I already knew this having spent 10+ years as a fundamentalist, but it is interesting to hear it from the son-in-law of R. J. Rushdoony of all people...
In order for most of today’s Christians to escape physical death, two-thirds of the Jews in Israel must perish, soon. This is the grim prophetic trade-off that fundamentalists rarely discuss publicly, but which is the central motivation in the movement’s support for Israel. It should be clear why they believe that Israel must be defended at all costs by the West. If Israel were militarily removed from history prior to the Rapture, then the strongest case for Christians’ imminent escape from death would have to be abandoned. This would mean the indefinite delay of the Rapture. The fundamentalist movement thrives on the doctrine of the imminent Rapture, not the indefinitely postponed Rapture.
Every time you hear the phrase, "Jesus is coming back soon," you should mentally add, "and two-thirds of the Jews of Israel will be dead in ‘soon plus 84 months.’" Fundamentalists really do believe that they probably will not die physically, but to secure this faith prophetically, they must defend the doctrine of an inevitable holocaust.
This specific motivation for the support of Israel is never preached from any fundamentalist pulpit. The faithful hear sermons – many, many sermons – on the pretribulation Rapture. On other occasions, they hear sermons on the Great Tribulation. But they do not hear the two themes put together: "We can avoid death, but only because two-thirds of the Jews of Israel will inevitably die in a future holocaust. America must therefore support the nation of Israel in order to keep the Israelis alive until after the Rapture." Fundamentalist ministers expect their congregations to put two and two together on their own. It would be politically incorrect to add up these figures in public.
The Unannounced Reason Behind American Fundamentalism's Support for the State of Israel
I wonder what they will be saying when the children of everybody who was alive in 1948 have expired of old age and Jesus still hasn't come back...
3 comments:
And many more millions will experience eternal death in Hell. Should we quit witnessing for Christ because it would hurry up the second coming and judgment day for the hell-bound ones. I think we should just do what Christ commissioned us to do and let the Lord do all the behind-the-scenes thinking. BTW, there's a shocking article on Google titled "Pretrib Rapture Dishonesty" that you might want to consider and throw into the mix.
Marylee,
Thank you for responding. It is always nice to know someone is reading my scribblings.
I suppose I should apologize if I gave the impression that I think either pre-trib, post-trib, pre-millennialism, post-millennialism or a-millennialism is true. I don't I regard religious dogma based on the Bible to be about as worthy of consideration as Dave McPherson does John Darby, for pretty much the same reasons. I regard the Bible as being made up of as much forgery, plagiarism and outright fabrication as McPherson attributes to Tim LaHaye and Hal Lindsey.
The entire point of this post was to point out the hypocrisy of people like Michele Bachmann and John Hagee who claim to love Israel knowing full well that if what they believe is true then 2/3 of all Jews will die as a prelude to the return of Jesus Christ.
This primitive superstition would be funny if it weren't so deadly.
According to Penn Jillette the Bible contains equal parts truth and pizza.
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