foreign policy and biblical prophecy

February 21, 2003 7:27 PM

When U.S. Foreign Policy Meets Biblical Prophecy "Does the Bible foretell regime change in Iraq? Did God establish Israel's boundaries millennia ago? Is the United Nations a forerunner of a satanic world order? For millions of Americans, the answer to all those questions is a resounding yes" "Leaders have always invoked God's blessing on their wars, and, in this respect, the Bush administration is simply carrying on a familiar tradition."
posted by thedailygrowl (10 comments total)

George W. Bush is the AntiChrist. He doesn't mean to be. He just can't help himself.
posted by troutfishing at 8:14 PM on February 21, 2003

I feel like i'm reading out of Left Behind again from reading the FPP *shudders*
posted by jmd82 at 8:18 PM on February 21, 2003

And here I've always thought Bill Gates was the anti-Christ.
posted by Plunge at 9:34 PM on February 21, 2003

Oh heavenly Christ, someone says this same exact crap every time anything happens. EVERY TIME, since Jesus was crucified. "Does the Bible foretell the crash of the dump truck outside of my house? Does the nearby construction effort fulfill the warnings of Revelations? Is this the decline of property value, as was written?"
posted by cachilders at 11:15 PM on February 21, 2003

These are certainly nice and utterly accurate prophecies, aren't they?

Sheesh, this kind of stuff (along with so-called "psychics" ) really gets my goat. Where the hell were these people on September 10th? Eh?

The problem with relying on revelatory information is that you have to listen to the voices in your head. Or trust someone else who does that.
posted by geekhorde at 11:59 PM on February 21, 2003

Dailygrowl - nice post. There are a lot more apocalyptic millenarians out there then there are nice, rational Mefi-ites.

This post dovetails strangely with my Persian Dualism" post. I guess Mefi-ites prefer techno-widgets. Oh well. They'll learn.....later, if not sooner...

"Left Behind" series: 50 million books sold, and counting!
posted by troutfishing at 8:29 AM on February 22, 2003

Biblical prophecy never makes sense till the events happen. Till then speculation is silly. Full disclosure-I am a Christian-and theologically I don't particularly agree with the premise of the Left Behind books.

People should take the advice of Jesus who said not to worry about tomorrow - as today has enough evil of its own.
posted by konolia at 10:12 AM on February 22, 2003

Biblical prophecy never makes sense till the events happen.

But that's the thing - when it comes to certain actions, we have some control over whether or not they happen. We can't make rivers turn to blood or whatever, but we can rebuild temples, destroy cities, and breed cows. When people think about human events in terms of fulfilling prophecy, they're more likely to even be excited about the rise of an "evil world regime" of some sort because that means jesus is almost here. Instead of seeking diplomatic solutions, or ways to maintain stability, they want the "bad guys" to be pushed toward action so the holy wars can get underway. For those of us living in the real world, delusions like that are really frightening.
posted by mdn at 10:45 AM on February 22, 2003

I totally agree.

Now I do believe that Jesus is coming back, but I also believe till then we are supposed to live responsible lives. We are actually commanded to pray for leaders, so that we can lead peaceful quiet lives. Prophecy doesn't need our "help"; if it did I wouldn't call it prophecy in the first place.
posted by konolia at 1:42 PM on February 22, 2003

Interesting take on current events. I don't want to believe the Bush White House takes this stuff seriously, but many of their important constituents do. Check this thread and this comment in the thread for further, quite disturbing reading.

Oh, and what mdn said.
posted by elwoodwiles at 5:04 PM on February 22, 2003