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The Church and The End Times
Another Sunday rant.
The greatest stock in trade of the Pentecostal and evangelical movement is fear.
The fear of eternal damnation, the fear of hell fire, the fear of not having one’s name in the book of life are themes which feature quite heavily.
Anyone who has read the book of Revelations will readily recognize how easily the words of that particular chapter in the bible have been misinterpreted and manipulated to represent what the ‘end times’ would look like.
Remember, then, what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know the hour when I will come upon you.
And if you were like me as a 13 year old, with an incredibly fecund imagination, the literal interpretation of the final book of the new testament was one that is guaranteed to keep you awake at night or leave you completely paralyzed with fear of being totally unprepared for Jesus’ second coming.
The weaponization of this irrational fear has created an industry all of its own; a multi billion dollar industry.
It isn’t an exaggeration to state that Billy Graham, Kenneth Higgins and the protagonists of the evangelical and Pentecostal movement wouldn’t have achieved the level of prominence, wealth and fame, if…