ARMAGEDDON IN POLITICS.

Any attempt to understand the religious right wings support of the military-industrial complex, of Zionism, and of a heavily armed United States must take into consideration the meaning of Armageddon theology. According to the Armageddon theology of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, among others, war is not only inevitable but fore-ordained by God. The catastrophic battle that will usher in the "end time" of God's kingdom will begin in the Middle East with an attack on Israel and U.S. military support of that nation.

Those who predict a battle of Armageddon, which is mentioned only in Revelation 16:16, also refer to other biblical passages, such as the one in Ezekiel 38 that speaks of a nation to the north (presumably Russia, which, of course, is not mentioned in Ezekiel) that will attack Israel. Toward the end of that chapter, God says, "I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many people that are with him, torrential rains and hailstones, fire and brimstone." According to Armageddon theology, this is a description of a nuclear holocaust.

Those who accept this theology believe that one of its fore-running signs is the creation of a new Israel in 1948, with Jews reestablished in the land promised them by God. However, Zechariah 13:8-9 says that two-thirds of all the Jews in Israel at the time of a prophesied disaster will be killed. The Jews who remain, according to Armageddon theology, must acknowledge Jesus as their lord or be sacrificed. So defense of Zionism is to eventuate in Christian anti-Semitism and another Holocaust.

In a Los Angeles Times interview published March 8, 1981, reporter Robert Scheer says to Falwell, "In your pamphlet on Armageddon you prophesy nuclear war with Russia." Falwell replies:

   We believe that Russia, because of her need for oil . is going to move in
   on the Middle East, and particularly Israel, because of their hatred of the
   Jews.... And it is at that time when I believe there will be some nuclear
   holocaust on this earth, because [the Bible] says that blood shall flow up
   to the bridles of the horses in the Valley of Esdraelon for some 200 miles.
   And it speaks of horrible happenings that one can only relate, in Second
   Peter 3, to the melting of the elements, to nuclear warfare.

When Falwell says that Russia will be "totally destroyed," Scheer asks, "Well, the whole world will, won't it?" Falwell replies:

   No, not the whole world, because then our Lord is coming back to earth and
   the church is coming with him, to rule and reign with Christ on earth for a
   thousand years.... Most of us believe in the imminent return of Jesus
   Christ. We believe we're living in those days just prior to the Lord's
   coming.... I do not think we have fifty years left.

Pat Robertson, on his June 9, 1992, 700 Club Christian Broadcasting Network program, said:

   This whole thing [the battle of Armageddon] is now in place. It can happen
   anytime to fulfill Ezekiel. It is ready to happen.... The United States is
   in that Ezekiel passage, and . we are standing by.

In 1995 Robertson wrote in a sixteen-page booklet The Harvest Begins with You that God gave him five years to take his gospel to the world--then it would all be over. He has also recently published what he calls a novel, The End of the Age, depicting his idea of how the world will end.

Grace Halsell, a former war correspondent, describes in her book Prophecy and Politics the influence of Armageddon theology on Ronald Reagan. She quotes James Mill (former president pro tempore of the California State Senate), who says of Reagan:

   Certainly his attitudes relative to military spending, and his coolness to
   all proposals for nuclear disarmament, are consistent with such apocalyptic
   views. Armageddon as foreseen in the books of Ezekiel and Revelation cannot
   take place in a world that has been disarmed. Anyone who believes it will
   come to pass cannot expect that disarmament will ever come about. It is
   contrary to God's plan as set forth in His word.

None of the right-wing religious organizations has a doctrine of peace or reconciliation. Their concept of Jesus is one of military messiah, not the "Prince of Peace." Halsell also reports that Falwell has become a leading Zionist and supporter of Israel and was given by the Israeli government a Windstream jet plane "valued anywhere from two and a half to three and a half million dollars" at the time.

What is wrong with Armageddon theology, even if one starts with the presupposition that the Bible is a key to the future? The first wrong thing is that the predictions upon which Armageddon theology is based are quite inaccurate. For example, in Ezekiel 39, if the future were predicted, the weapons listed would be tanks, artillery, bombs, or missiles--not "shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, handspikes and spears." Obviously these are not the weapons of modern war.

A second mistake of Armageddon theologians is to rely on a prophet who has made previous false predictions. In his book Prediction and Fulfillment in the Bible, Gordon C. Oxtoby, former dean and professor of the Old Testament at San Francisco Theological Seminary, describes in detail the inaccurate predictions of Ezekiel. For example, the destruction of Tyre by King Nebuchadnezzar. Ezekiel, actually recognizing that his prediction in chapter twenty-six was wrong, made a second prediction that the same king would conquer Egypt. This also failed.

A third mistake is to assume that the book of Revelation predicts a battle in the twentieth century or later. Yet the first chapter speaks about "what must soon take place ... for the time is near.... Behold, I am coming soon." The last chapter also says "for the time is near."

Hal Lindsey, in his 1970 bestseller The Late Great Planet Earth, predicts: "As the battle of Armageddon reaches its awful climax and it appears that all life will be destroyed on earth--in this very moment Jesus Christ will return and save man from self-extinction." However, Jesus is supposed to save only believers. "The unbelievers will be judged and cast off the earth." Evidently Armageddon theologians are not biblically literate or they repudiate their claim that the Bible is inerrant by reading into it assertions that are not there and by rejecting a nonviolent Jesus and replacing him with a vengeful military messiah.

There are also problems with the idea of a "second coming" of Jesus. In Matthew 16:28 and Mark 13:30, there are references to some people "here that shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom" (emphasis added). This is not the only contradiction.

Biblical scholars are aware that the scriptural accounts of the "resurrection" were written twenty to seventy years after Jesus died. Paul wrote between fifty and sixty-four years after the event, Mark around seventy years, and John about 100 years. All of them differ in describing the details of the resurrection and the "ascension" into heaven. The idea of a physical body ascending into heaven is based on a three-tiered universe and not on a post-Copernican space age. Moreover, no human body can ascend very far into space, even in a plane, without pressurized equipment.

In spite of all the false assumptions of those espousing Armageddon theology, it is essential to recognize that it is a major political problem precisely because it is espoused by a large right-wing political movement.

Neither the mainline churches that reject Armageddon theology nor humanists, Jews, and its other opponents have challenged the theological assumptions upon which right-wing religious politics are based. Instead we act defensively against each of their political proposals when we should challenge all of their pre-scientific faith assumptions, including their twisted and selective biblical literalism.

A case in point is Robertson's claim in his book The Secret Kingdom that the "successor kingdom to the Roman Empire ... could roughly parallel the current European Economic Community and could be a forerunner of what is called the Anti-Christ." Robertson then speculates about a war in the Middle East "in which oil supplies to Europe and elsewhere are cut off, setting the stage for a strongman dictator. to establish a new economic order.... The Bible says [Jesus] will come back to destroy this new economic order and his `kingdom.'"

Robertson holds to a theology about the approaching end of the world in which his brand of Christians will be protected by God and, in the struggle with groups he considers evil, he and his followers will emerge triumphant as leaders of the "kingdom of God" on Earth. Robertson believes he and his movement are given preferential treatment by God. In The Secret Kingdom, he says that God "can cause us to be preferred and chosen above others of equal talent. He can protect our children. He can guard our property. He can cause his angels to aid us."

This is the theological house of cards upon which the Christian Coalition and the Armageddon war are based. Does it not demand exposure, ridicule, and opposition?

John M Swomley has a Ph.D. in political science and international affairs from the University of Colorado and is professor emeritus of social ethics at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri.