Bill's Views on Most Everything

Radicalism seems to be common among Republican Presidential candidates.  Radicals want to make sweeping changes in government rapidly rather than progressive change. 

The most radical is Donald Trump.  He seems to want to create a warring dictatorship, with no room for dissent.  The word for that is fascism, accompanied with the lowest form of demagoguery.  There is precedent for those people in American politics.  George Wallace, Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, David Duke, and Huey Long are examples.  

The current crop of radicals have a different agenda.  They are fundamentalist Christians who are believers in a doctrine common for over two thousand years.  They see the turmoil of human affairs as signs that we are in the end times.  The turmoil will escalate into the battle of Armageddon, followed by the rapture and the second coming. 

Apocalyptic literature has always been with us, but The Judeo-Christian literature is especially rife with dire prophesies.  Today’s Christian radicals take most of their inspiration from the books of Revelation and Matthew, written around the end of the first century predicting the fall of the Roman Empire.   There is a lot of ancient apocalyptic literature, the Bible is not unique in this.  There is also a lot of allegory not exclusive to the Bible.   

When I was engaged in extensive Bible study, I also watched televangelists talking about the end times, and how biblical prophesy is about to be fulfilled.  People have been talking about the end times since the latter part of the first century, when the New Testament was written.  Rome destroyed the Temple in 70 AD.  That catastrophe was the beginning of the Jewish diaspora, and turmoil continued in Palestine.  The prophesies were written then, and referred to Rome.   

My view is that attempting to apply those prophesies to today is repeating the mistake Christians have been making since the New Testament was written.  There was end time hysteria in the first and second centuries, around 1000 AD, and beginning in the nineteenth century when mostly American writers began looking into biblical prophesy.  Many dates chosen for the rapture, Armageddon, and the Second Coming have come and gone.  Christ continues to tarry.  The establishment of the State of Israel was seen as the biggest portent, and that it would all happen within a generation.  Nope. 

Now it is the continuing conflict in the Middle East which will culminate in a climactic battle between the U.S. and Russia at Megiddo.  This is the reason for fundamentalist support for Israel.  They see Israel as the flash point for a general war and then Armageddon. 

Most of the Republican candidates subscribe to this view.  Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin have spoken explicitly about this view.  Most of the current candidates who call themselves evangelicals believe in the end times, but don’t talk about explicitly, remembering what happened to Bachmann and Palin. 

Radicalism dominates Republican Presidential nomination campaigning.  The idea is as radical as forming European Christian armies to take Jerusalem in 1099 AD.  The enemy is the same, Islam.  The goal is the same, establishing Christian rule.   A secondary goal is establishing a Christian theocracy in the U.S.  We don’t hear a lot of talk about these overall strategies, but the specific policy statements point in that direction.  Abortion, gay marriage, invading Iraq and Syria to destroy ISIS and confront Putin, increasing defense spending, and defunding the opposition (Working People), are the real goals.  Oh, and making rich people richer.

Watch out, folks, read between the lines, and watch Trump confound everyone with his flag waving racism.  Be especially aware of the prophesy believers.  They want to impose their religious beliefs on the world.