Interview with Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb, Palestinian Lutheran pastor of the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethelehem

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Rapture and Apocalypse: How Real is the Evangelical Hold on U.S. Foreign Policy?

A British/Iranian PhD student ponders the phenomenon of Christian Zionism in America

by Sadegh Kabeer

That religion plays a prominent role in American politics is undeniable. The pollsters at the Pew Research Center have found that 85% of Americans regard religion as an important part of their lives. Moreover, the separation of religion from the political sphere doesn’t feature highly on their list of priorities. In the same set of polls, 70% of Americans stated they desire their President to be a person of faith.

Several presidents have been unabashed in their use of religious nomenclature, symbolism and allusion. Edifying homilies, packed with open professions of faith by Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and more recently George W. Bush were inveterate features of their respective presidencies. Though the separation of church and state remains the writ of the land, recent decades have seen a resurgence in religiosity and, to use a somewhat oxymoronic phrase, “postmodern-revival” of the role of religion in public life, whereby ancient symbols are refashioned and packaged to suit contemporary needs and agendas. An unrepresentative, but powerful coalition of groups have since the eighties been aggressively pursuing their politico-theological program with a hitherto unparalleled vigor. Though the situation is hardly as alarming as some commentators would have us believe, there is, o little doubt that the Christian Evangelical movement has emerged as a powerful and highly influential group with a wish-list they expect their political representatives to translate into policy.

Leaders of this movement include the late Jerry Falwell, Gary Bauer, Pat Robertson and John Hagee, and politicians such as former House Majority Leaders Tom DeLay (R-TX) and Richard Armey (R-TX), and Senator James Inhofe (R-K). The growing pervasiveness and political tenor of televangelism, e-vangelism (internet-vangelism) and religious activism have been part and parcel of the aforementioned trend and its recent buoyancy. The pervasive influence of the Christian Right is by no means a figment of “liberal America’s” imagination. In fact it’s very real, with some experts contending the provenance of American exceptionalism and unilateralism is to be found in Evangelism and its political cognates. For example, Professor Duane Oldfield of Knox College has argued that:

“Although the Christian right's unilateralism is not new, its proximity to power is. Three developments have helped make the Christian right a significant player in U.S. foreign policy: the election of a president with close ties to the movement, the growth of the Christian right's grassroots organizational strength, and the development of an alliance with neoconservatives, who have come to play a crucial role in the present administration.”

An important subset of the politically-minded Christian Right are the so-called Christian Zionists. The origins of Christian Zionism reside in the theology of dispensationalism which emerged in nineteenth century England, largely through the efforts of Anglican ministers Louis Way and John Nelson Darby. Dispensationalism constitutes a form of premillenarianism which asserts that the world will experience an era of turmoil, hardship and catastrophe before Christ returns.

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Afraid You’ll be Left Behind? The Rapture Trap. from the National Review online by Rod Dreher

n 1980, I was 13 years old, and someone had given me a copy of Hal Lindsey's mega-selling The Late Great Planet Earth to read. The Soviets were in Afghanistan, the American hostages were in Tehran, I had become fixated on the fear of nuclear war and — suddenly, thanks to Late Great, the chaos all made sense. There was no need to be afraid. This was all part of God's plan. Accept Jesus as your personal savior, and you wouldn't have to suffer through the worst of what was to come, for you would be spirited away in the Rapture. And if you didn't — well, too bad for you when the Antichrist comes knocking.

The premillenial Rapture is the belief, held by many Protestant Christians, that believers will, "in the twinkling of an eye," be taken body and soul into heaven to meet Jesus Christ — this, just as the world is on the brink of seven years of unprecedented suffering and strife, preceding the Second Coming and the end of history. If you think the end of the world is upon us, it's easy to see why believing you won't have to suffer the worst of it would be calming. On the other hand, you might exchange one set of fears for another. When I was in Late Great's grip, I would wake up every morning in a mild state of panic, wondering if the Rapture had happened while you were sleeping, and I'd been … left behind!

I don't believe in the premillenial Rapture anymore, but it's easy to see why so many people want to. For Christians and others whose religious beliefs predict an apocalyptic final act (even Islam and the New Age have their own versions), these days are unusually anxious. It isn't difficult to find in today's headlines — wars, rumors of wars, natural disasters, plagues, religious strife and technology run amok — evidence for the belief that history is quickening toward some sort of climax.

No wonder, then, that the same sensational theological teachings that excited believers in the 1970s and earlier are more popular than ever. The Left Behind fiction series, whose title refers to those who weren't raptured before the Apocalypse, may well be the best-selling Christian books of all time, not counting the Bible.

Given the amount of popular publicity given to the Rapture and its attendant doctrines, it may surprise (and disappoint) many Christians to learn that this set of beliefs, generally called "dispensationalism," is not explicitly taught by the Bible, nor has ever been widely held by Christians.

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