Related Background Info: The Iraq Effect (2007): New Study Finds 600% Rise in Terrorism Since US Invasion of Iraq
Previous Posts In This Series:
- {Reprint} God's Muslim Warriors & Blowback From Ba...
- {Reprint} God's Jewish Warriors & The Future Of Is...
“Whenever all men are...hastening to be slaves or tyrants we make Liberalism the prime bogey.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Documentary from Amanpour: God's Christian Warriors
God's Warriors: God's Christian Warriors. CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour travels to six countries on four continents to examine the intersection between religion and politics and the effects of Christianity, Islam and Judaism on politics, culture and public life. Click here to visit the original website that accompanied the documentary
Note that George Bush's "Crusade" followed by a denial was taken by the Evangelicals as a call to arms and then a cover-up for people who are NOT evangelicals. In other words, when George Bush went and gave his crusade speech after 9/11 he was activating the mislead Evangelical base (notice the leader above was still calling for a crusade but it wasn't shown on corporate TV). That's why there was so much passion to kill before an investigation could even begin. The bloodlust being promoted for years (through violent activism beginning abortion(?) to the point of actually sponsoring international terrorism) now had a foreign outlet. Picking a foreign enemy has traditionally been the safest and easiest way to start war. Even Anders Breivik has used 9/11 to not only demonize millions of people but as justification for killing his own country fellows to get to those he has demonized. Like fundamentalist Christian he also initially sought martyrdom the way early Christians did... dying for your cause is also a Neo-Nazi doctrine (or 'fundamentalist Muslim' doctrine depending on who's talking), which happens to be a form of fundamentalism on the Christian side of culture and society.
“Suspicion often creates what it suspects.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out...”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility.”
― C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters
By the way, saying that our policy is in now way because of end times prophecy(see video above)... while doing exactly what is necessary for the end times according to a 4th century book ... is VERY suspicious to begin with.
In Matthew 24:14, the Bible says that the Gospel (the news about Jesus and his offer of salvation and eternal life) will be preached throughout the world. The Bible also says that sometime after this happens, the end will come. The Bible has been preached throughout the world for a long time. But now, with the increasing worldwide availability of television and the Internet, there is greater potential for the Gospel to be preached to everyone, everywhere. - Matthew 24:14: And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
You could argue easily that these people are so religious that they are intentionally destroying the world so Jesus will return and confirm thier faith to them (not the people celebrating, they are sheep and have nothing but good intentions for Israel. If the GOP uses Evangelical positions to invade Israel they will still have ONLY good intentions for Israel. Thier leaders don't and can't. they see thier religion as greater and thier chosen beliefs - irrespective of evidence otherwise - to be the ONE PATH everyone must follow. Thier herds WILL follow them That's all they know how to do. It's reinforced by the preachers almost constantly). Jews argue allot. There is no such argument between Christian believers on policy. They just follow thier leaders obediently.
“A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all—and more amusing.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Most modern Evangelical preachers do NOT represent the teachings of Jesus as outlined in the New testament OR Gospels in any way. Unless following the basics of The Law as outlined by Jesus they are nothing but direct 'Followers of Satan' OR so self-deluded that they think that 'the whispers of the Devil' are 'Messages From God' telling him to do something!.
“[God] will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of heaven as a shortcut to the nearest chemist's shop.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
An apocalyptic conspiracy theorist uses every example of the society they are in (which has been troubled throughout our recorded history), as proof of that the end times are here. So Christian fundamentalists are by thier very nature unbalanced because they know that the end of days is within thier lifetimes. Thus a sense of foreboding, doom and pointlessness often takes over the consciousness of some Christians and Christian society, making them heartless (how caring would you be if you knew the whole world was going to end in your lifetime for sure, since childhood?).
Scripture (New Testament) on the kind of "end of days" that Christian Fundamentalists are expecting:
Luke 21:20-33 (King James Version): "And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."
All of the following quotes are taken as proof of Jesus's return in the readers lifetime (which is why Christians have been freaking out throughout the ages! - especially during millenniums)
1 Cor 7:29: The appointed time has grown very short; from now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none.
1 Cor 7:31: For the form of this world is passing away.
Phil 4:5: The Lord is coming soon.
1 Thess 4:15: We who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord.
The following article has a visual tour of apocalyptic beliefs in the Old and New Testaments (click link below to see picture)
Life goes on: Doomsday believers on the morning after
By Jessica Ravitz, CNN
(CNN) – Theirs had been an unwavering belief, the sort that inspired some to quit jobs, leave their homes and walk away from family and friends to issue a doomsday warning .
Without question, they believed May 21 would be the day that Jesus Christ would return and rapture them - and a select 2 to 3 percent of the world’s population - up to heaven. Everyone left behind would be on a crash course to final destruction, scheduled for October 21.
But now it’s May 22.
The sun rose, birds are singing and life as we know it continues. Those anticipated earthquakes that the May 21 doomsdayers said would ravage the earth on Saturday at 6 p.m. in each of the world's time zones never came.
And the faithful believers - who said the Bible guaranteed this day - are still here, trying to make sense of it all.
America’s endless apocalypse
Over the last decade, we've become obsessed with the end of the world -- and it's hurting us all
It was during the last decade, after all, that the belief in the end of the world leapt from the cultish into the mainstream of American society. Ours is an era bookended by the widespread belief in the impending collapse of society: at one end we had Y2K, the largest and most expensive mass preparation for a secular apocalypse in the history of the world; at the other end we have the growing expectation and belief that December 21, 2012 — the supposed end date of the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar — will herald either a radically transformative or utterly cataclysmic global event. Between these two bookends are pages upon pages of apocalyptic anxiety, a decade-plus-long collection that tells the tale of an America that has grown very afraid of the future.
Bush continued to push ever further the simple and powerful metaphor of apocalyptic showdown to explain the public outbreak of hostilities between the United States and radical Islamists. Regardless of whether one supported or opposed the president’s response to 9/11, it’s important to note that his framing intrinsically relied on the shared Christian cultural understanding of the apocalypse. Imagine if President Bush had stood up and delivered the same speech that he delivered to the National Cathedral to a nation of people that recognizes the struggle between good and evil as a constant and even desirable characteristic of the world. Without the deep cultural archetype of the apocalypse, and its promise of a final showdown in which good triumphs over evil, the president’s framing of the war on terror would, quite literally, have made no sense.
Thus, interest in the Rapture Index became a yardstick for measuring apocalypsy itself. Time magazine featured the Rapture Index prominently in its cover story on the end times in June of 2002; its popularity was duly noted in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and in numerous magazine articles and television reports. By 2006, according to the Los Angeles Times, “40% of Americans believe[d] that a sequence of events presaging the end times [was] already under way.” Increasingly, Americans turned to the apocalypse as a means of understanding current events—a prism that the media reflected back on the populace. By the summer of 2006, when war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon, the media’s obsession with the end times had morphed from mere (and justifiable) reporting on what fundamentalist Christians believed into a central and recurrent lens through which the media itself interpreted the conflict. In a column for USA Today, Gannet News writer Chuck Raasch declared : “You can’t look at the headlines these days . . . and not conjure up apocalyptic visions.”
One of the more recent apocalyptic fears/examples...
Conspiracy Theories: [Note: The Mayan calendar describes cycles of time based on the Sun. The end of 2012 is the end of the 'fifth sun' i.e. the fifth cycle of cyclical time as measured by the Ancient Mayans (modern example; one year is cyclical time of one spin of Earth around the Sun) ]
Mysteries of the Ancient Unknown - 2012 End of Times
Self-proclaimed Third Eagle of the Apocalypse William Tapley shares his Denver International Airport conspiracy theory.
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
It's true that the so-called long-count calendar—which spans roughly 5,125 years starting in 3114 B.C.—reaches the end of a cycle on December 21, 2012. That day brings to a close the 13th Bak'tun, an almost 400-year period in the Maya long-count calendar."Would this have been a period ending they thought was wicked cool? You bet. The biggest period endings they experience are Bak'tun endings." But "was it predicted to be the end the world? No. That's just us." Instead, for the Maya, the end of the long count represents the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new one,
“No man who says, 'I'm as good as you,' believes it. He would not say it if he did.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
(2nd Video Here:
Documentary from Amanpour: God's Christian Warriors )
The teachings of Jesus make it clear that love comes first so these hate filled policy stances are NOT Christian (see video above)...
New Testament
Matthew 5:17: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (ex. thou shalt not kill)
Matthew 22:36-40
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
What the GOP is following is rather some of the worst of the Old Testament...
Leviticus 15:19 "When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening."
Hosea 13:16 (King James) Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
Numbers 31: 17-18
17. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
18. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.
Deuteronomy 20:16
However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.
1 Samuel 15:2-4
2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
4 And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
Psalm 137:8-9
8 O daughter of Babylon, O destroyed one, O the happiness of him who repayeth to thee thy deed, That thou hast done to us.
9 O the happiness of him who doth seize, And hath dashed thy sucklings on the rock!
“Nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Gratitude looks to the past and love to the present; fear, avarice, lust and ambition look ahead.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“When they have really learned to love their neighbours as themselves, they will be allowed to love themselves as their neighbours.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the the impossible.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“What he says, even on his knees, about his own sinfulness is all parrot talk. At bottom, he still believes he has run up a very favorable credit-balance in the Enemy's ledger by allowing himself to be converted, and thinks that he is showing great humility and condescension in going to church with these 'smug', commonplace neighbors at all.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one--the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“Whatever he says, let his inner resolution be not to bear whatever comes to him, but to bear it 'for a reasonable period'--and let the reasonable period be shorter than the trial is likely to last. It need not be much shorter; in attacks on patience, chastity, and fortitude, the fun is to make the man yield just when (had he but known it) relief was almost in sight.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man's best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is took weak and fuddled to shake off.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is finding his place in it, while really it is finding its place in him.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
“The game is to have them all running about with fire extinguishers when there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
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