Why Some Evangelicals Think Putin's War Is The Beginning Of The End Times
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Over the years, Pat Robertson and other fringe evangelicals and non-serious Christian scholars have become known for exegesis-ing any and all current news events into some sort of Biblical End Time prophesy. For some, COVID vaccines are the "Mark of the Beast." For others, President Obama was the anti-Christ. (Trump got that distinction, too). The legalization of gay marriage in the U.S. was believed to be a signal that some hybrid Sodom and Gomorrah/rapture-induction event was imminent.
And so I assumed it was only a matter of time before Robertson and those of his ilk smushed Russia's invasion of Ukraine together with some kind of Biblical prophesy. Like clockwork, on Monday, Robertson — the 91-year-old televangelist and 1988 presidential candidate — went on his Christian Broadcasting Network show "The 700 Club" to declare that Russian President Vladimir Putin was fulfilling a Biblical prophecy by launching an invasion of Ukraine last week.
Robertson did, for his part, acknowledge that Putin may be "out of his mind," before suggesting the Russian leader couldn't help but invade! He's "being compelled by God" to wage the largest conventional military attack in Europe since World War II.
"He went into the Ukraine, but that wasn't his goal. His goal was to move against Israel, ultimately," Robertson said, before referencing verses from the book of Ezekiel in the Christian Bible that supposedly backed up his divine claims/apocalyptic myths.
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He encouraged viewers to "watch what's going to happen next" and "read your Bible."
"God is getting ready to do something amazing," Robertson said. "And that will be fulfilled."
While Robertson's bizarre screed brought the extremist prodigy to the mainstream this week (and sparked trending #EndTimes hashtags on Twitter), talk of Armageddon/End Times/rapture has been percolating in certain evangelical corners of the internet for the last two weeks, including in parts of my Facebook newsfeed.
The Jerusalem Post published a piece yesterday, headlined: Are there biblical implications to Russian invasion? The Christian Post had something similar over the weekend: Russia's war on Ukraine: Are we living in the End Times? That article centered on comments from a California Pastor named Greg Laurie, who recently posted a video for his Harvest Christian Fellowship congregants dissecting the correlations between Russia's war on Ukraine and Christian scripture. Crosswalk.com mused on the day of Putin's war declaration: Is "Wars and Rumors of Wars" Part of the End Times?
The thinking behind the headlines is a bit chaotic and convoluted. But they have a deja vu quality for me. End Times prophesies spilling out of the 9/11 terrorist attack and war in Iraq were a big topic of discussion in some of the evangelical circles I frequented growing up. The Left Behind book and film series did a lot of work in '90s and early 2000s evangelical subcultures to fuel these themes. So here's a brief explainer on the logic behind them, drawn from many, many years of Sunday school (and some brief Googling because who can blame me for blocking the majority of this out).
In his Monday commentary, the verses Robertson referenced are Ezekiel 38 and 39, in which the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel describes an End Times war waged by the nations "Gog" and "Magog" (some scholars think "Gog" and "Magog" could also be names of individual world leaders who join forces to attack God's chosen people). It depends on who is doing the theological translating, but many believe these nations are a reference to what is either modern day Russia or Iran — or both. The scripture suggests that these nations will attack the people of Israel from the "north," signifying either the beginning of the rapture or the beginning of the seven-year battle between the rapture and Jesus' second coming — again, depends on who you ask.
Therefore, the logic leap: Putin's attack on Ukraine is a stage-setter for the ultimate Armageddon, a tipping point for the fusion of two nations that will ultimately play a role in carrying out this Revelations-style attack on Israel.
But take this all with a grain of sand (bad Bible joke) — this theory is being popularized by a man who prophesied that Trump would win in 2020 and then an asteroid would smite the earth after the election.
And most serious evangelicals will tell you this brand of End Times finagling serves no purpose other than giving fringe groups and televangelists a platform to irresponsibly warmonger and capture the attention of the vulnerable, hoping clicks and views will translate into monetary donations. (They'll also tell you that much of the End Times references in the New Testament were actually written in code in order to protect those behind the then-new Christian movement from Roman Empire persecution.)
It's also obviously a jarring and reductive account of current events, especially in the face of mass suffering and death, as Ukraine reports more than 1,500 military and civilian casualties in the first five days of Putin's offensive. Even as right-wing media and Republicans twist themselves into knots over whether to praise or condemn Putin, mainstream evangelical and other Christian groups are launching fundraisers and charities to support and provide relief to the people of Ukraine and Ukrainian American pastors trapped in the country.
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There's no cure for "Stuck on Stupid".
Has there ever been a conflict where some religious whacko hasn't told his flock to give him all their money so he can save them from "End Times"?
how is that petrified POS thumper still making noise?
It must be a miracle!!!
Beware the christian taliban. The reach of The Deceiver is long. His Shadow is longer.
I keep hoping his reach will shrink [removed]
Pat Robertson is a proven false prophet. He sucks...
I think most of you know I am a Christian. That doesn't mean I'm a prophet or even a theologian. That said, my belief is that history has always been moving toward God's design for humanity. I think Robertson, and those like him, have the same mindset. Where they go wrong, in my opinion, is in thinking they can interpret every event that happens with the specificity that they do. Specifically, that what's going on in Ukraine was predicted in the Bible beyond general trends. It wasn't, as far as I can see. If there is a sense in which what is going on in Ukraine is predicted in the Bible, it is in the sense it tells us about human nature. In that sense, it predicts every conflict ever, past, present and future. That's less of a prediction than recognition of our nature.
I think you're right.
What some of these false "men of God" do is give in to their excessive EGOs-- they think too much of themselves.
A big Ego is one telltale sign of a false prophet-- or worse!
The notion that the Bible bears truth from God and that select people can divine said truth is what has perpetuated most Abrahamic religions for millennia.
The 'wise' keep interpreting reality so as to make biblical proclamations that, of course, are wrong. But they are all too willing to continue the practice on the next major event and, sadly, so many followers will continue to listen to these false prophets.
The 'notion' that the Bible bears truth from God is a given for those who want to know the truth. That is what 'perpetuates' Christianity. Given the nature of man, Christianity is the most unlikely religion ever, especially given that it went against literally everything everyone thought about God at the time. And I mean everyone, no matter the culture.
Robertson isn't necessarily wrong. It's that there's no Biblical justification for his specific interpretation for current events, given in the Bible, that I know of, beyond generalities. The problem is...
My objection to such proclamations is that it shifts focus from how Christians should live their lives to sensationalist, and unsupportable, view of what's going on. Put another way, it shifts the focus from the practical living of a Christian life to what is essentially a light show. My understanding is that Christians should view every moment of existence as history moving toward the day of judgement and that our responsibility is to get others to understand that.
That said, I believe that what's going on in Europe is part of God's plan but I would never claim to know or tell anyone else how it fits into that plan, beyond generalities. The only thing I would feel justified in saying is that it demonstrates what the Bible says about the nature of man.
I want to believe that which is true (as close as possible) and NOT believe that which is false. The difference is that I do not merely accept that an ancient book —which is demonstrably errant and inconsistent and was known to be written by men over millennia— is somehow truth. I am not persuaded to take the Bible as the true word of the grandest possible entity (God) simply because people think it so.
Further, even if one could rationally explain the contradictions, the Bible shows no signature of a perfect, omniscient, omnipotent, etc. entity. Nowhere does the Bible make predictions of a divine nature that we (given all the time that has passed) could verify as coming true. There is nothing in the Bible that could not have been written based on the knowledge (at the time) of ancient men. When one analyzes the Bible, the content correlates with the knowledge and culture of the times. Just as one would expect if written from the imaginations of ancient men who gained absolutely no insight from the grandest possible entity who knows all.
It it is easy to see why people believe that there is something greater 'out there' — that there is a sentient creator. It is our nature to fill in the gaps of our knowledge with imagination, and 'God did it' accomplishes that (while leaving the profound gap of an unevidenced God). But we do not stop at 'a sentient creator'. We (human beings) go far beyond that and adorn our gods with all sorts of properties (and heavenly associates). The Bible has a subtext storyline of God and His associates with details that no modern human could possibly deliver yet somehow, because it is written in a collection of ancient books that have persisted due to religious belief, people simply accept that all these specific properties of God, et. al. were somehow known to ancient men yet modern human beings can only 'know' of these things through a book and lore.
To be clear, how does the modern Abrahamic believer know that God is omniscient? How does the modern Christian know that God is actually three entities in one: Father, Son and Holy Ghost? How does one know that Jesus (the Son hypostasis) was born to a human woman and engaged in the storyline offered by the Bible? How does one know that there is a Heaven and eternal life? How does one know that God cares about human beings and has a grand plan? On and on, these things are 'known' to believers based on ancient books and the master-stroke of religions: elevating faith (belief sans supporting evidence) as something good (as admirable; as something that should be strengthened).
Of course not. Anyone can make a prediction and have the possibility of lucking out and being correct.
People have read the Bible, et. al., to meet their own purposes for millennia. Given the freedom that exists in modern apologetics, the Bible can be made to mean whatever one wishes it to mean.
I share your concern. The Bible (and religious beliefs in general) continues to be exploited because it is so easy to do. If you have people who are willing to believe something on faith just because their religion (or religious figurehead) claims it so, then the practice of influencing people to believe as one instructs (simply because one claims it as truth) will continue.
That is simply a religious belief. As such, there is nothing that suggests it is even remotely close to reality. I think we should all behave in a 'Christian way' (basically be decent, caring human beings) because it is the correct (and sensible) thing to do. It is demonstrably good for all when we behave this way and bad for all when we do not. The notion of a judgement day, etc. is just another religious belief borne from the minds of ancient men who recognized that religion was a magnificent method for influencing the masses.
IMO
How many other times has that interpretation of the bible been used to forecast the "end times"? Don't you think an all-knowing being would have made the factors surrounding the of the end of the world a little more unmistakable? More specifics and fewer generalizations?
Man wants answers, when man doesn't have an answer and still wants one he invents beings/creatures to give him those answers. There is no difference between all religions in general overviews. Just in the specifics.
There are a myriad and rather endless supply of things that instruct us about human nature that have nothing to do with the Bible.
Biblically making of prophecies that prove false is a capital offense, unforgivable and the worst of sins...
Pat Robertson is still alive! Amazing!
He is wack a doodle crazy, though. Not everything that happens in the world is about fulfilling Revelation. It’s really amazing to me how year after year, we have a handful of these people who think anything that happens - from war to some random storm - is a sign of the Second Coming.
And it’s not just that they view the world through an apocalyptic lens. They. Can’t. Wait! Everything in their lives is wrapped up in eager anticipation of the End. They’re like teenagers waiting for the concert tickets to go on sale. So when the supermarket runs out of toilet paper . . . Jesus is coming!
And to people like him that means all of us "sinners" will be condemned to the fiery pits of hell and they get to sit on clouds and play harps
Tho....I think we will all suffer the fiery pits of hell if nukes get lobbed
After god drowned essentially every human, animal and plant on the earth, he said he’d never do it again. He didn’t say he wouldn’t shape shift into some wicked human to murder the planet some other way though. Asshole.
When you spend a good part of your time fixated on a thing, after a while everything you see becomes a confirmation that you were right about that thing.