naraburns nihil supernum
2yr ago
(text post)
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Israel-Gaza Megathread #2
This is a refreshed megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.
First off the common "Evangelical end of days" excuse is nonsense.
It was taught at my Southern Baptist church growing up when I was a believer, was also popularized by the Left Behind series, and multiple members of my family think this war is the start of the Rapture. It's not uncommon to see Israeli flags flying next to the American and Protestant flags at SBC churches.
I'd say that there have existed some people in the Evangelical movement that literally have believed the "support Israel to immanentize the Eschaton" theory, and these people and their efforts have created a wider understanding that being an Evangelical means supporting Israel, even among the Evangelicals who don't share that particular theory. This is something that's quite visible in Finland, where outright pro-Israeli views have been pretty rare (before now, at least) among the wider society, but the one, rather small sector of the society that has been visibly fervently pro-Israeli have been the Evangelicals.
The versions I've heard have all relied on the Temple having been rebuilt. So you get various arguments about how actually Al-Aqsa isn't quite on the same location as the Temple so it could totally be rebuilt next to the mosque. But until that actually happens, I don't see how the end times prophecies can possibly be viewed as relevant to today, even on their own terms.
The longer this world goes on, the more of the sinners who can be saved.
While the actual end result is a total victory, the time just before that is expected to be horrific beyond anything that humanity has ever experienced. Most people don't want to go through that sooner than necessary.
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Notes -
It was taught at my Southern Baptist church growing up when I was a believer, was also popularized by the Left Behind series, and multiple members of my family think this war is the start of the Rapture. It's not uncommon to see Israeli flags flying next to the American and Protestant flags at SBC churches.
I'd say that there have existed some people in the Evangelical movement that literally have believed the "support Israel to immanentize the Eschaton" theory, and these people and their efforts have created a wider understanding that being an Evangelical means supporting Israel, even among the Evangelicals who don't share that particular theory. This is something that's quite visible in Finland, where outright pro-Israeli views have been pretty rare (before now, at least) among the wider society, but the one, rather small sector of the society that has been visibly fervently pro-Israeli have been the Evangelicals.
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The versions I've heard have all relied on the Temple having been rebuilt. So you get various arguments about how actually Al-Aqsa isn't quite on the same location as the Temple so it could totally be rebuilt next to the mosque. But until that actually happens, I don't see how the end times prophecies can possibly be viewed as relevant to today, even on their own terms.
The most common version around here seems to be ‘the world ends when Israel falls, so don’t let it fall’.
Given that in Christian eschatology end of world is a total God victory I am confused why postponing would be a good thing.
Unless they believe in apocalypse but not in afterlife as described by Christianity? But that would be weird even for protestants.
Simple:
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TIL that there’s a Protestant flag.
It’s called the ‘Christian flag’ but in practice, it’s the Protestant flag.
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