Over at Slate, Molly Olmsted writes about the apocalypse. That is, the real apocalypse:
If you peruse the list of recent releases in Christian publishing, you’ll get the sense that “the end times” are upon us. This summer saw the release of survival guides, books about current events, and prayer manuals all oriented around a rapture, a second coming of Christ, or an otherwise cataclysmic event at the hands of God.
According to Publishers Weekly, this spate of end-times books is being printed to meet demand. It’s what the readers want....There’s no denying that the apocalypse is currently having a moment, culturally and politically. It could be driven partly by the pandemic and fears of climate change. Those are actual, frightening apocalyptic scourges. Russia’s war has also set off alarm bells for certain evangelicals, as there was a Cold War tradition of identifying the country, variably, with Gog or Magog.
Back in the mid-80s I had a friend at work who was really into this stuff. When I first met him he was convinced that the Ayatollah Khomeini was the Antichrist. He could reel off all of Khomeini's similarities to the biblical description and he could equally easily reel off all the reasons that the current era (i.e., 1985) matched the biblical prophecies of the apocalypse.
That never really worked out, and by the time of the Gulf War he had changed his mind and decided that Saddam Hussein was the Antichrist. He even wrote a whole book about it that he made me read.
I got a new job shortly after that and mostly lost touch with him. But we still ran into each other occasionally, and the last time I saw him he had switched horses again to Osama bin Laden. There was no book this time, but he had no trouble describing in detail how Osama fit descriptions of the Antichrist and how the events of 2001 fit descriptions of the end times.
Because of this I'm not so convinced that interest in the end times is especially new. As Olmstead acknowledges, The Late Great Planet Earth was published in 1970 and sold 28 million copies, while the Left Behind series was published starting in 1995 and sold 65 million copies. Evangelicals have long loved Israel not because they love Jews, but because they believe its existence is necessary in order for it to be destroyed to fulfill biblical prophecies. Beyond that, millenarianist cults have been common in American history for the past couple of centuries. The fact that their predictions never turn out to be true never stops them. New cults just spring up with different dates for the end of days.¹
Apocalyptic thinking seems to come in waves, but the current wave does seem a little different. In the Left Behind series, for example, the Antichrist turns out to be the Secretary General of the UN. But there's no Antichrist this time around. Apocalyptic thinking instead focuses on the man who's going to fight the Antichrist, our good friend Donald Trump.
Trump might seem an odd candidate for this role, but there you have it. During the first 15 years of the 21st century evangelical Christians became increasingly despondent about their fate. Membership was down; secularism was growing; the old guard evangelical leaders were dead or retired; and liberals seemed to be winning cultural battles all over the place. By the time the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, they were close to despair.
And then Trump showed up. And he fought. And he told them not to despair, because we could fight the liberals and their wokeism and libertine values. Evangelicals rejoiced at having a new champion, and that's why they love him even though he's hardly a poster boy for family values. Sinners can be forgiven, after all.
It's also why they don't care when liberals point out every new episode of non-Christian behavior on Trump's part. It's small potatoes. When you're fighting the coming of the Antichrist, you need someone tough, not someone perfect. Trump may be a bastard, but he's their bastard.
Unfortunately, this resurgence of end times-ism among conservative Christians has recently been matched by a secular version among many liberals. For them, Donald Trump is the Antichrist and the end times are marked by the overturn of democracy; the horror of climate change; and a string of conservative cultural victories (of which Dobbs is just the beginning). This is one of the things that has made American politics so polarized: to a large extent, both sides are no longer just fighting over politics, but over literal apocalypses that have them scared shitless. It's a big problem.
¹This should come as no surprise. Human history is full of evil and tragedy, and practically any decade you pick has people who are pretty good candidates for Antichrist-hood, along with plenty of terrible events that seem apocalyptic indeed (wars, famine, disease, earthquakes, etc.).
I mean come on, of course Trump is the Antichrist. He's literally the Prince of Lies, and his followers all happily wear the Mark of the Beast, sorry, MAGA hats, on their foreheads.
Besides, can anything else explain the demonic cloak that has protected Trump from any accountability for 9000 scandals and counting, any one of which would have destroyed anyone else's political career?
If Trump declared (in the middle of 5th Avenue) that he in fact was the Antichrist, what would evangelicals do?
a. Abandon Trump
b. Abandon Christ
I think the answer is obvious.
Actually, I think biblical scholars are pretty much agreed on who the author of the Book of Revelation had in mind for the anti-Christ - it was the Roman emperor Nero. That book was written about the first century AD, not about our time.
Every age since has had it's own anti-Christ, or a series of them.
I have a little trouble with "both siderism" when one side is basing their beliefs on a book written by pre-scientific people a couple of thousand years ago for which there is no evidence at all and the other side is basing it on well established and tested properties of atmospheric gases and radiation. That said, it isn't anything new. Galileo and Copernicus had to look out for the church for pointing out that the earth wasn't the center of all creation, Jenner had to deal with skeptics when he showed you could prevent smallpox by infecting people with cowpox, Darwin had to deal with them for coming up with a theory that was pretty obvious to anybody with eyes, etc. The church, every church, has long been a powerful force for political division.
What's the batting average now? .001?
There's always an apocalypse: http://www.dorktower.com/tag/mayan-calendar/
I might support your reasons for seeming more positive & hopeful than many of your readers can see their way to understand or excuse, but since many evangelicals & even some "mainstream" Christians seem not to give much thought to actual Christian teachings - which one might expect "red-letter" Christians to do - I would still like to see their secular "saviour" on a "Most Wanted" FBI poster at the post office.
That would give me hope that he had departed for the Russian Federation prior to Putin's elimination from power, since neither of those putative Christians is going to be raptured.
He & his enablers feel no pity for anyone but themselves, so explaining their behavior always feels more like excusing it because they feel threatened by fear of loss of status & power due to others' very existence, when others have far more legitimate reasons for fearing them.
I had been reading Kevin as one alternative to the both-sides proclivities of the mainstream media. No more. Kevin actually uses the words "both sides", as in "both sides are no longer just fighting over politics....".
I consider it journalistic malpractice by Kevin to equate the quite possible (further) loss of democracy in the US and the scientifically nearly certain threat of severe climate change to the coming of the Antichrist. Or with whatever similar evidence-free shit that thinking-challenged people can come up with.
Oh well, I guess one should not read a blog article with the expectation of being impressed, convinced, entertained or amused. I am none of these after being sucked in to this one.
Remember, Kevin thinks everything is better than ever. He's childless, well off and a member of the dominant group. Hell he got cancer and only a few years later there's a super effective treatment for his specific one!
Don't get it twisted, I am happy for that, I don't want him to suffer and die! But the man has been quite fortunate and it skews his perspective
And he owns property in the LA metro area.
There is no mention of an Antichrist in Revelations. The Antichrist is, however, best epitomized by Trump. He has constantly demonstrated a lack of knowledge of Christianity, of humility, of contrition, of charity, of good will towards all. There is no demarcation between God's Children and The Others, but Trump loves to make this distinction as do many other "Christians".
The threat of the Apocalypse of Revelations, is meant to keep people in line with the covenant with God -- be good and get into Heaven.
You cannot stop the Apocalypse, full stop.
Even if you assume one of the Four Horsemen is the Antichrist, we are not meant to stop the Apocalypse. The Apocalypse wipes the Earth of Evil, to pave the way for Jesus' return.
In parallel, there are people like Steve Bannon who are not even Christian, but embrace something very similar to the concept of the Apocalypse, in the form of Russian Nihilism. In this case, he very clearly and publicly stated that Trump was his tool to destroy the world to rebuild a better society.
Therein demonstrates that Trump is the Antichrist, the tool of destruction.
People miss a lot....like things that are in the Bible....
"Render unto Caesar..." missed, but somehow "Christian Nationalism" is a thing.
Of course, they always miss this:
"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (and that's exactly how Jesus spoke...)
back on topic...
People will be concerned about the apocalypse, but not the fact that they're human and are going to die--at which point you can't make amends so you can get into heaven.
The proper Christian response to the apocalypse is that it is in God's hands, keep the faith and concern yourself with loving your neighbor not the end times.
Kevin, you almost got it right, until you veered into both-siderism at the end.
Yes. Delete the final paragraph and it would be a decent post.
Comparing delusional concerns about the Antichrist and real concerns about Trump, climate, and the end of democracy is about as bad as bothsiderism gets.
A better comparison would be delusional worries about the singularity. But that would hit too close to home for KD.
The last paragraph is the point Kevin tries to make. The rest is, as you say, decent but also very old news and well known to most of us who read this blog.
There is a conviction among centrists that US democracy is invulnerable. Where does that com from? Beats me. Our constitution is more fragile than most in this respect--right now the Supreme Court can do unlimited damage without anybody being able to do something about it for example.
Those damn Romans - they had one ONE job. And they blew it.
I sort of think that looking at your own stuff and owning it is the sign of a mature adult, indeed, of liberalism.
I am a Democrat. I support the left. AND, I get regularly baited by left-leaning media about how terrible the latest turn of events is.
Make no mistake, Trump's election was a terrible turn of events. I am glad to have him out of the office. But man, the hype sometimes really gets to me.
It does feel like every argument has to be turned into an existential fight now, which has grown in parallel with increasing nihilism. I don't think either trend is helpful in getting real progress on our biggest issues. It just ends up causing internal fractures and turns some people off entirely.
It's easy to feel like you're powerful and doing something when you're fighting an imaginary apocalypse, and it's easy to hide behind that instead of think about an actual apocalypse that might actually happen that you can't do anything about, like climate change, or death --and that's why they love Trump, he's keeping them alive in the face of the inexplicable power beyond their control.
Correction. The Christians are not fighting the imaginary apocalypse. They are not even eagerly awaiting it. They are actively working to make it happen.
"For them, Donald Trump is the Antichrist and the end times are marked by the overturn of democracy; the horror of climate change; and a string of conservative cultural victories (of which Dobbs is just the beginning)."
I don't know about Trump as the antiChrist and the string of conservative cultural victories. I imagine they will look a lot less menacing in a decade or two. But looking at what climate change has done in the last fifty or so short years, and how hard it is to stop, let alone reverse it, apocalyptic seems to be the right description for it.
There may be something in Kevin's take, but Trump is the representative of *White* Christian Supremacy. Evangelicals as religious fanatics could have backed many other more fitting representatives of religion who would have promised them what they wanted, instead of someone who is obviously totally unfit. How about Mike Pence? He has never had much national backing. Trump has made it clear he will promote the secular power of religion, but he has never actually made more than a few bumbling remarks about religion itself, let alone End Times.
But racism is inseparable from the White Christian movement, which is not exactly the same as the MAGA movement. What unites all Trump backers, who do not benefits from tax cuts for the rich and deregulation, is racism. Maybe the End Times movement is partly just another of the excuses that Trump backers use to avoid admitting they are racists.
Biden himself spoke tonight of the prospect of Armageddon, in the form of nuclear war with Russia. So there's that to consider too.
I’ll worry about the “end times” when the evangelicals get sucked up to heaven. Otherwise I figure we are still safe.
The same reason everyone else in the baboon colony supports him, psychopathic narcissism.
If Gog and Magog represent Russia, why to evangelicals support Russia?
In the article, Olmsted links to an article that talks about the Gog/Magog stuff from a Jewish writers perspective. I found it o be pretty interesting and as a person who has only read a few portions of the Bible I was unaware of the Ezekiel stuff:
https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-701004
I had thought the whole thing was from Revelations (which was something I.could never read without going into MEGO. (My Eyes Glaze Over)
I was a fan of the band Genesis in the early 70’s and my favorite song was Supper’s Ready. When I read about end times stuff my brain automatically supplies the soundtrack from a portion of that song, Apocalypse in 9/8.
Human history is full of evil and tragedy.
But it can’t happen here so chill.
I have an evangelical colleague at work who believes Trump represents the re-embodiment of the Persian emperor Cyrus. Totally wacky stuff. He even made an internet site dedicated to it!
As far as the both-sidesing of things by Kevin goes, I don't believe Trump is the Anti-Christ, but he sure is a criminal, and by that alone poses a threat to our country as long as he hasn't been prosecuted.
Bring on the End Times!!! End times of stories about the previous guy and evangelicals.
My grandfather was hooked on Mormonism back in the day. The real Mormons not those jackleg Utah variety. The RLDS!
She was 11 at the start of WW1. Grandfather held services at home. Mom would sneak downstairs to listen to the talk. Lotsa talk about End Times!! Scared the shit out of her. She said that is why we never got any religious indoctrination.
In the Donbass, Biden is considered the Antichrist.
Apocalypse is the Greek word for revelation. It could be referring to something unseen just sitting there in plain sight, then someone notices and everyone realizes that we were all fighting with each other over nothing. I have a suggestion for what that something might be.
The Wikipedia article about the scientific method doesn't begin by describing the method. It begins by describing the scientific principle, which is to subject cognitive assumptions to rigorous skepticism so they don't distort how empirical evidence is interpreted. Some people do their best to be skeptical of their own assumptions. I wish the people with science degrees would return the favor, but not many of them do.
Matthew 7:12 says that "do unto others as you would have others do unto you ... sums up all the Laws and the Prophets." A few people do their best to adhere to that principle. I wish the people that call themselves Christians would return the favor, but not many of them do.
The Wikipedia article about Adam Smith's book "The Theory of Moral Sentiment" unambiguously states that the theory that underpins capitalism involves operating "through a logic of mirroring, in which a spectator imaginatively reconstructs the the experience of the person he watches." A few people try really hard to understand people they disagree with. I wish people that call themselves capitalists would return the favor, but not many of them do.
Maybe "apocalypse" is just the revelation that what most people need to do is set aside their practiced skill at identifying the hypocrisy of others in favor of a mirror so as to use what they learn so they can start being who they say they are.
On the other hand, that's seems too simple. Maybe I'm missing something and just can't see it. I must be missing something.
First let me stand with Inigo Montoya: "I don't think that word means what you think it means." So let me say my pedant thing: "Apocalypse" technically only means "revelation" or "unveiling," and good scholars cringe at its acquired meaning of "end of the world." If talking about end time ideas, I will talk about "eschatology" (last things), or will use "End of the World" and "EotW" Nevertheless, I realize not everyone has gotten the memo, Indeed, not everyone has read genuine apocalyptic literature that isn't focused on EotW. So, just as Kimberly Clark Co. has had to live with the generic use of "Kleenex," so I will grit my teeth and acknowledge that most people conflate the two.
Now that I've said my pedantic piece, I do think we generally overlook the main dynamic in EotW literature. The main concern about the End of the World is almost always the fear of the End of Us, whoever Us might be. This is true whether the source of the fear is science (think climate change, think asteroids), religion, or culture (think zombies). Thus the big End is almost never presented as actually an END; there's a continuation beyond the EotW of at least a remnant of Us.
So the question is: Who is Us? And that's where the dynamic really kicks in. Us and Them can be deceptive. Them are pretty wily after all. So--the literature so very often turns on discerning the "true" line that separates Them and Us. The Left Behind series clearly played this up. But again, even scientific EotW literature focuses on adaptability. Same for AI nightmare literature, zombie lit, etc.
And that is where Ms. Olmstead, who does a wonderful job of picking up the nuances of Christian eschatologies, misses the point underlying them. "Jews will not replace us," pretty clearly sets out the nationalist concern of the End of Us. Certainly anit-LGBTQ+ violence draws from the fear that Us straight cis heteronormative people will be replaced. Having women of color on the SCOTUS is a mark of how white men (Us) are coming to an End. Yeah, Christian apocalyptic (in the colloquial sense) has been around forever. It's because the sense of threat to Us persists. In our own age, you have the religious leaders of movements with vast secular powers asserting the "threat" that comes from any resistance to those powers. Trump just knows how to touch on that sense of threat and use it.
I'm not sure that this diagnosis helps us to treat the situation. But we do need to be aware of it. It's not odd. And it's not going to go away.
I'm not sure precisely what point is being made here, but I agree that an end isn't, by definition, a bad thing. My read of the Bible's book of Revelation is that the author (who could be a screenwriter if alive today) is describing bad things happening that end up good.
My point, put more succinctly, is that the bad thing worth ending is people's "do as I say, not as I do" treatment of each other, which is causing all the bad things happening now, including Trump. That is literally the source of his power.
The good thing worthy of taking its place would be everyone's "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" treatment of each other. Is there an alternative? Maybe I'm missing something, but I assume that those are our only two options.