Theocratic Sect Prays for Real Armageddon

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Theocratic Sect Prays for Real Armageddon

By Casey Sanchez, Southern Poverty Law Center. Posted August 30, 2008.

Members of Joel's Army are fighting to bring about the millennial reign of Christ.




LAKELAND, Fla. -- Todd Bentley has a long night ahead of him, resurrecting the dead, healing the blind, and exploding cancerous tumors. Since April 3, the 32-year-old, heavily tattooed, body-pierced, shaved-head Canadian preacher has been leading a continuous "supernatural healing revival" in central Florida. To contain the 10,000-plus crowds flocking from around the globe, Bentley has rented baseball stadiums, arenas and airport hangars at a cost of up to $15,000 a day. Many in attendance are church pastors themselves who believe Bentley to be a prophet and don't bat an eye when he tells them he's seen King David and spoken with the Apostle Paul in heaven. "He was looking very Jewish," Bentley notes.

Tattooed across his sternum are military dog tags that read "Joel's Army." They're evidence of Bentley's generalship in a rapidly growing apocalyptic movement that's gone largely unnoticed by watchdogs of the theocratic right. According to Bentley and a handful of other "hyper-charismatic" preachers advancing the same agenda, Joel's Army is prophesied to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian "dominion" on non-believers.

"An end-time army has one common purpose -- to aggressively take ground for the kingdom of God under the authority of Jesus Christ, the Dread Champion," Bentley declares on the website for his ministry school in British Columbia, Canada. "The trumpet is sounding, calling on-fire, revolutionary believers to enlist in Joel's Army. ... Many are now ready to be mobilized to establish and advance God's kingdom on earth."

Joel's Army followers, many of them teenagers and young adults who believe they're members of the final generation to come of age before the end of the world, are breaking away in droves from mainline Pentecostal churches. Numbering in the tens of thousands, they base their beliefs on an esoteric reading of the second chapter of the Old Testament Book of Joel, in which an avenging swarm of locusts attacks Israel. In their view, the locusts are a metaphor for Joel's Army.

Despite their overt militancy, there's no evidence Joel's Army followers have committed any acts of violence. But critics warn that actual bloodletting may only be a matter of time for a movement that casts itself as God's avenging army. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/96945/theocratic_sect_prays_for_real_armageddon/

[opihimoimoi]

1. An ARMY of TIM McVEIGHS is no laughing matter....send them to Rel Rehab

[Kutjara]

2. "Jesus Christ the Dread Champion"?

What is he, a professional wrestler?

Aren't there any nice, quite mental institutions where these people can be kept?

[Dr.Phool]

6. There are. Just not enough of them.

And people wonder why Florida politics are so screwed up? That place is only the tip of the iceberg. Florida is overrun with them.

Break out the kool-aid, and leave them to their own devices.

[lynnertic]

10. It's the humidity that encourages the reptilian part of yer brain. n/t

[ZombieHorde]

3. You should post this in the religion forum.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=214

[marmar]

4. I just did.

:hi:

[Dr.Phool]

7. I t belongs on the greatest page too. K&R

[Demeter]

5. Because the Second Coming Wouldn't Involve Peace

Why, that would be perverting the teachings of Christ!

[lynnertic]

11. He doesn't return as a warrior king/conqueror?

I quoteth:

Not only is Christ's coming shock and awe, it is destruction as we have never imagined it.

19:12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

19:14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

19:15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

WICKED!

[toddGA]

14. the Eastern Orthodox Church (russians,etc.)

with which i have a passing involvement, won't even touch this stuff in church because they don't think anybody has any real idea about what it means. the literalism about this shit is frightening...

[rosesaylavee]

8. thankfully they aren't

muslim or jewish because otherwise we would really have to worry.

:sarcasm: for those who need it.

[bemildred]

9. Cargo cult. nt

[GliderGuider]

12. The real concern is Sarah Palin's links to these guys.

The problem isn't so much the direct threat these nutballs pose to America, but the danger that Palin's involvement with them represents. Those sympathies make Palin a perfect power conduit for the corporatist crypto-fascists that are looking to consolidate their stranglehold on America.

[Shallah Kali]

13. It is only a matter of time until one of them acts

apparently so far none have probably wishing to avoid jail time but one of these days one or more will decide going to jail or dying for their 'cause' is worth it.

:hides:

but I shouldn't worry should I since according to the Bush admin. the only terrorists in the america are those who don't call themselves Christian.