A Vote for Trump Is a Vote for Apocalyptic War
Consider this a terrorist alert.
My wakeup call came last October. I was having dinner with a friend and former colleague. I will call him John in this story. John has a good job as an expert in Business Intelligence. He loves math and statistics almost as much as the Bible. Working toward his doctorate in theology, he’s been studying biblical verse intensively for the past five years. Since his youth, John has been a devoted Evangelical Christian. Now he hopes to become a minister.
After catching up on work, family, and former colleagues, the conversation innocently diverted to Trump. As one who speaks with great passion about Christ and his almost infinite miracles, I was expecting a swift rebuke of the President. However, when John quickly noted, “he’s done some good things.” I was surprised and sat up in my chair. What? I asked.
I thought John might be referring to trade policy with China and nuclear disarmament with North Korea. Both are noble objectives, although, like all things Trump, more recklessness than results. But I was wrong.
John’s mind was on Israel. He lauded the decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I was confused at first and asked my friend if he had considered the effect the Embassy move might have on the region. He explained that from a Biblical perspective, only Israel mattered. Not stopping there, John went on to describe The End Times.
Jerusalem is the biblical focal point for the End Times and the Rapture that will lift all good Christians — living and dead — through the air, to heaven.
I was in disbelief. As a person who works with numbers every day, I assumed reason and science played a role in John’s life as it does in mine. But my assumption was way off the mark.
Logic isn’t a factor in the befuddlement of biblical fantasy where everything hinges on beliefs. Forget Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Hawking, and the vast knowledge revealed by them and thousands of others through science. No, instead, our world should depend solely on a book started 3,000 years ago by a single man, Moses, who claims God spoke to him. I wonder: Is this the same God that spoke to George W. Bush and Barbara Bachmann?
Despite its absurdity, I have little problem with the idea of the Rapture so long as it stays inside the Church. A private belief of this nature, albeit bizarre, I can ignore. But when it enters the mainstream of foreign policy, I say HELL, NO!
I grew angry at the thought of Evangelical true believers being the tail that wags the dog Trump.
As he maintained his smile and pleasant character, as he always does, I realized I was speaking to a man who doesn’t see all people as equals. He’s perfectly okay with that and uses the Bible to defend his position. What is bedrock morality in my eyes, the equality of all, isn’t for John or his faith.
Those not living by the Bible, conforming to heterosexual behavior, or opposing abortion, are in danger. The Evangelical faith is here to save them.
In the days following my dinner with John, I started researching the End Times and Rapture. I had heard of the Rapture some time ago but had no idea of its impact. On announcing the Embassy move in 2018, I recalled Trump saying he was “keeping a promise.” I thought it was a promise to his party; I had no idea it was one to the Evangelical faith.
I was hoping to find something that might ease my angst, but I didn’t. I went from being upset to being scared. Here’s why.
Members of the Evangelical elite, in tandem of our Evangelical Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, have convinced the U.S. President that he’s divine and the “imperfect vessel” needed to trigger apocalyptic war to bring about the End Times.
It sounds absurd. But it’s a policy in the making and why another four years of Donald Trump may spell the end to a lot more than just democracy. Given his “winning” record, one can understand why the President might want to take on this world and the next, and usher in the Second Coming in the process.
In her January article, “Evangelicals Love Donald Trump for Many Reasons, But One of Them Is Especially Terrifying,” Stephanie Mencimer writes: “… it’s not hard to see how apocalyptic evangelicalism might be influencing the Trump administration as it seeks to mobilize the millions of evangelicals reached by televangelists and megachurch pastors preaching the End Times.”
American Evangelicals have exploited Trump's weaknesses like no other.
The man who mimicked a disabled reporter is to many Evangelicals the “modern-day” version of Cyrus, who ruled in the 6th c BC. Here’s how Evangelical leader Mike Evans described Trump at a White House faith dinner: “[Cyrus] was used as an instrument of God for deliverance in the Bible, and God has used this imperfect vessel [Trump], this flawed human being like you or I, this imperfect vessel, and he’s using him in an incredible, amazing way to fulfill his plans and purposes.”
To these Evangelicals, Trump’s utterly unpresidential behavior is proof that he’s an imperfect vessel and an instrument of the Almighty. From their paradoxical perspective, what some may see as immoral and unethical conduct is just a disguise for a much higher calling. For these God-fearing ministers of Jesus Christ, we should be ignoring Trump’s actions, not criticizing them.
Trump is the imperfect vessel needed to start thermo-nuclear war with Iran and set into motion the end times. Assuming all 85 million American Evangelical Christians are saved, it’s understood that the world’s remaining population of nearly 7.7 billion should perish in the effort to trigger the Rapture. Such is the power of the faith.
The Rapture is not recognized by any other Christian faith and not mentioned in the Bible. Yet, according to a 2010 PEW poll conducted in the U.S., “58% of white evangelical Christians say Christ will return to earth [by 2050].”
How can something not mentioned in the Bible be at the heart of the Evangelical faith? There are many biblical wormholes to this answer. My favorite comes from Proverbs 25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”
I’m sure a theologian would disagree, but this passage reads like a recipe for concocting whatever story one wants. When we start interpreting interpretations while reading between the lines, anything is possible. Now I see why the Bible is so popular. It tells people what they want to hear, running the gambit from miracles to murder, and anything in between. Indeed, it is the good book.
America aches for war.
When viewed from the perspective of Dina Nayeri, in her article “Yearning for the end of the world,” the degree of American Evangelical fixation with the Rapture and war is troubling.
Dina grew up in a secret Christian church in Iran, where the Rapture was seen as their rescue. She escaped Iran with her mother and brother in 1987 and gained refuge in Edmond, Oklahoma, two years later. When the first gulf war started in 1990 with the invasion of Kuwait, Dina observed: “my Oklahoma neighbours … behaved as if war was already at their doorstep. Some bought gas masks. I did not remember this kind of anxiety in Iran, a place where we worshipped underground, where falling mortar interrupted our meals and revolutionary guards slept a few doors away.”
“In my intimate hilltop church, discussions took on a frantic, impatient new tone. ‘We live in end times!’ our congregation often said, instead of ‘the end is near.’”
Lost souls everywhere have a strange longing for war. They see glory where there is horror. This is what happens when we have a narrow view of history and life itself. The flag, the uniform, the music and marches fill the void of indifference and ignorance and bring purpose to otherwise purposeless lives.
For many of the Evangelical faith, regardless of the cause or the result, war is America’s affirmation of God, country, and gun.
A religion that wants to outlaw abortion but that takes no account of enemy or civilian deaths in time of war is blasphemous and not in harmony with the notion of a just God. This is the American evangelical. Not all, but more than enough to do serious harm to the world.
The Rapture or bust!
The failure of past End Times predictions doesn’t seem to lessen enthusiasm for future attempts. John Hagee is CEO of John Hagee Ministries, and author of bestseller Four Blood Moons. His 2013 book predicted that the lunar eclipse of April 2014 was the beginning of the End Times. The window on this opportunity closed with the lunar eclipse of September 27–28 of 2015. But just before that date, in August, Hagee held a “Victory Conference.”
Seeing that his prediction of the End Times was about to fail (like thousands of other apocalyptic predictions since the first century AD), Hagee distracted followers by having his “Mission Accomplished” moment. While making millions from books and preaching, Hagee, like many other evangelists past and present, demonstrates no guilt in the face of misleading the faithful. He knows human frailties, how to work the crowd, and mostly how to cash a check.
Beliefs wrapped in beliefs smother reason and the need for evidence. Rather than questioning their faith when predictions of apocalyptic war don’t materialize, the Evangelical doubles down. Life is short, and understandably everyone wants a ringside seat at the Rapture.
Behind the scenes, Evangelical elites likely see Trump more as a Trojan horse than a savor. As with their vast congregations, they know weakness when they see it. And, as is standard practice in the business of religion, they’re prepared to profit from it.
Now, at long last, a golden opportunity has emerged. The American Evangelical doesn’t have to predict the end times; they can bring them on. They have Donald J. Trump and access to his arsenal. A nuclear war with the demon, Iran, and maybe Russia should work to set the stage for the Second Coming. With 6,185 nuclear warheads in the U.S. and 6,500 in Russia, there will be plenty of opportunities to kick-start it.
In her article, For many evangelicals, Jerusalem is about prophecy, not politics, Diana Bass, who holds a Ph.D. in religious studies and once believed in the Rapture and biblical apocalypse, writes: “I may not believe it — anymore, at least. You may not believe it. Donald Trump might not even truly believe it. But millions do. That matters. Not only for American politics, of course. For the peace of Jerusalem. And for peace for the rest of us as well.”
While the rest of the world is trying to prevent war, members of the Evangelical faith are trying to start one. They are the spiritual leaders of Trump’s political base. If re-elected, we should reject the notion that Trump won’t take it upon himself to play God. Some already have him believing it.
