Watch Your Theology Mr President!
I am always troubled that a Christian world leader, who believes in the American pre-millennial dispensational theory (where we can contribute to bringing forward the coming of Christ, the apocalypse, Armageddon, worldwide destruction, and the end of life as we know it on earth) should also have the power to start a nuclear war and commence such a holocaust. We have had American Presidents (Reagan) who have held such beliefs, as does President George W Bush.
What would be the reaction of other countries if he should address the United Nations (as he did this month) concluding his remarks by praying that God would hasten Christ’s return and unleash the apocalypse. What do you suppose public opinion would be?
Yet that happened with another President last week. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, at the end of his September 21 address to the General Assembly, prayed that Allah would send “the perfect human being promised to all by you.” That “perfect human being” Ahmadinejad prayed for was the Mahdi, a Shiite messianic figure. What made the prayer so scary was that, in Shiite eschatology, the Mahdi’s return will be preceded by an apocalypse that leaves much of the world dead.
Since Ahmadinejad is the President of an oil-rich nation actively pursuing nuclear weapons, his prayer should have sent shivers down spines. Add to this Islam’s violent response to the Pope’s remarks in Regensburg, and the last thing the world needs to do is encourage such remarks.
Fortunately, Tony Blair, John Howard and George Bush are all Western leaders who know how to exercise restraint. We live in an incredibly dangerous world where leaders, guided by mistaken theology could bring unimaginable horrors to earth. Because we do not understand fanatical Islamic theology, we do not understand the implications of such prayers as by the Iranian President.
Christians, who understand the religious and cultural dimensions of this threat, need to help our neighbours understand the volatile world we live in—and the dangers facing Western civilization itself, and not fall victim ourselves to strange theological theories.
GORDON MOYES
October 6th, 2006 at 8:15 am
Dear Dr. Moyes,
Though I agree with your remarks concerning the threat from Iran’s president, I do not believe your view of American dispensationalism (as you call it) is accurate. Though Pre-millenial Dispensationalists, in their most radical theology, believe certain things will come to pass as a RESULT of man’s sinful, Godless actions, and that these things HAVE to happen before Christ CAN return, there has never been anything in the theology that says Christians can bring the Apocolypse about by thier own action.
Those of us (like you) that believe Christ’s reign began with the resurrection also believe He will come according to His timing and His will (we need to be ready). We have always looked ascance at dispensational theology, especially those that have been so brazen as to pick dates (Hal Lindsay).
Perhaps President Bush is a dispensationalist, perhaps not, this I do not know. He is not radical, from what I can tell at those times he has testified of his faith. President Reagan was very private in his faith and I have never read anything that indicated a dispensational view. Neither man is guilty of visions of controlling or changing the world by force.
That being said, I do see the devistating possibilities should any leader believe that he personally would have a roll, indeed a calling, to begin a holocaust (Armageddon) in the belief that it would prepare the way for Christ to return. Such madness would equal that of any Jihadist. Hopefully the true Church Militant would stand up and stop the madman. The only indication in the New Testament that Christians have any part in Christ’s return is that we must take His name to every part of the earth (not on missile heads). There is a hint in the New Testament that our diligence in missions is involved. But even this “failure” will not prevent Christ’s return as He wills, when He wills. He said He will return, and that is it. It is not dependent upon our action. In fact, He asked the burning question, didn’t He? “Will I find faith upon the earth when I return?”
I enjoy your newsletter, and find it very interesting. I have quoted you to my friends in the U.S. on a couple of occasions because I think what you have to say causes us to think. That is what a good leader should be doing.
Keep on keeping on.
In Christ,
Marc Clayton
October 6th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
An interesting article, I doubt you literally intend to infer that George Bush or any committed Christian has such a fatalistic or mistaken outlook as to actually want to unleash catastrophe to hurry the return of Christ, even so, the bible calls for his return in due time and the recent misguided invective of leaders like Iran’s president is part of a growing trend of anti-Christ’s (in its Greek sense meaning substitutes for the Christ of the Bible) pushing their own apocalypse.
I congratulate you on taking a reasoned and proportionate approach to exposing media hypocrisy (there was no such overwhelming outcry to this speech as George W Bush would have earned thus encouraging Ahmadinejad to continue and claim he was little disputed).
Dispensationalists know that we should be working with the Holy Spirit as a restraining force against such a violent and ‘mistaken’ theology.
Your article supports our freedom to speak and to be heard a vital need in the body of Christ and the wider community.
Yours In Christ,
Chris Svolos