An Evangelical at Armageddon

[Scurrilous]

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"It's quiet at Armageddon, these days, with only the wind racing like invisible war chariots across its grassy plains. But lately, the northern Israeli site — also known as Tel Meggido — designated in the New Testament as the field of the final battle has become a popular tourist destination. Christians arrive by the busload eager to see the battleground where the world as we know it will end. At the souvenir shop, they flock to buy maps of where Jesus walked, and tiny vials of water from the Jordan River. The river may now be mostly a murky rivulet, but thousands of Evangelical Christians insist on being re-baptized in its waters.

Armageddon was a brief stopover a few days ago for a contingent of Christians led by the Texas televangelist Pastor John Hagee, who believes that doomsday is nigh. In his recent book Jerusalem Countdown, which sold 1.4 million copies, Hagee uses contemporary news events, such as the threat of a nuclear Iran, to describe the lead-up to a war in which the Russian and Arab armies invade Israel and are destroyed by God in a terrible battle on this very spot.

Hagee, whose views on Catholicism caused controversy for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain when he endorsed the Arizona senator, didn't charm many Palestinians, either — not even the Christians among them — when he said that "turning all or part of Jerusalem over to the Palestinians would be tantamount to turning it over to the Taliban." So much for the fate of Jerusalem being on the agenda of the Bush Administration's peace initiative.

Hagee's remarks, however, have certainly endeared him to Israel's hawks. Ex-Premier and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at Hagee's rally in Jerusalem, calling the American Christian Zionists Israel's best friends.

Other Jews, in Israel and in the U.S., are less comfortable in the embrace of the American Evangelicals. They cite a verse from Revelations claiming that Jesus will return only after two-thirds of the Jews are killed and the rest are converted to Christianity. "They are not supporting us out of love," says one opponent, Rabbi Shalom Dov Lifshitz from the anti-missionary group Yad La'achim, "but because they believe that if we convert out of Judaism to Christianity, it will bring on the Apocalypse." And that, he says, is "a danger to the people of Israel."

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Rapturous night for US evangelicals in West Bank

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"The speakers throbbed as teenage girls in buckskin fringe and cowboy hats danced a hoedown in an occupied West Bank gym packed with American evangelicals keen to show support for Israel.

The more than 100 Christians who travelled to the Ariel settlement in the heart of the occupied territory last week were led there by biblical prophecy and by megachurch pastor John Hagee, the evening's guest of honour.

Evangelical Christians may feel they have been left out in the cold by US election fever, with none of the three remaining candidates generating the excitement of President George W. Bush's successful 2004 run.

But in Ariel they received an enthusiastic welcome, not only because of the millions of dollars they have given the settlement, but because of pastor Hagee's firm opposition to giving anything to the Palestinians.

"They believe in God's word in the Bible, and in God's promise to the Jewish people that the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel," master of ceremony and head of the Ariel Development Fund Dina Shalit told the crowd.

Ariel's mayor Ron Nachman added, "And only to the people of Israel!" to a thunderous roll of applause."

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[crikkett]

1. I want photos of the hoedown.

[nels25]

2. Great big SIGH!!

I remember in th 70's there was much made of this being the last generation (mainly because Israel had become a nation and there by fulfilling the last of the major prophesies).

However I read in one of the Gospels (can not quote it verbatim) that one of Christ's disciples asked him (since he was the son of God and therefore should know) when he would return to earth following his death then signaling the end of the world.

Christ stated that the father had seen fit to tell him

I have alway figured that if God would tell his son who made the ultimate sacrifice for man when he would return then he sure as any thing good was not going to tell me.

So I have alway taken these so called I know when the world will end jerks with the merit they deserve which is none.:crazy: