The Church and The End Times
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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 it wasn’t for the fear that’s been sown in the hearts and minds of men and women.
If the nonsense that they’ve spread through the years was restricted to their movements, then the need for this article won’t exist.
Instead we have the National Prayer Breakfast, countless revivals and programs, which have been tools for advancing their primordial ideas and influencing governments.
And in their unique way, they have exported their toxic brand of American exceptionalism to the rest of the world.
As with all other American exports, such as Hollywood, White supremacy, state sanctioned violence and to much lesser degree, Hip Hop and Basketball, the end game is influence and power.
Once before, the teaching of accepting Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal saviour might have been the goal, but as soon as the bank account began to swell with tithes and…
