from Joseph Palmer's website today:

[kyburg]

So here we have a major political constituency - representing much of the current president's core vote - in the most powerful nation on Earth, which is actively seeking to provoke a new world war. Its members see the invasion of Iraq as a warm-up act, as Revelation (9:14-15) maintains that four angels "which are bound in the great river Euphrates" will be released "to slay the third part of men". They batter down the doors of the White House as soon as its support for Israel wavers: when Bush asked Ariel Sharon to pull his tanks out of Jenin in 2002, he received 100,000 angry emails from Christian fundamentalists, and never mentioned the matter again.

There is also a passage in the article that reads:

In the United States, several million people have succumbed to an extraordinary delusion. In the 19th century, two immigrant preachers cobbled together a series of unrelated passages from the Bible to create what appears to be a consistent narrative: Jesus will return to Earth when certain preconditions have been met.

That's nice. Two people - which two people, kthanx - so I can argue intelligently, okay?

Does anyone have a lead on this?

BTW, I knew this stuff was bonkers when I was 17. But it's made a whole lotta money for a whole lotta people, I see.

Comments

[bigbigtruck.livejournal.com]

this is the sound of me giving up

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

What really scares me are the people who buy those "Left Behind" books who've never stepped foot inside a church. Or opened a Bible.

That's what scares me.

[camwyn]

Most likely your two people are William Miller, founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, and John Darby, responsible for the idea of the Rapture. I could, of course, be wrong, but they're the first ones I picked up on. Miller's almost certainly one of them, since the early Adventists were pretty well known for repeatedly waiting for the Apocalypse only to find that they'd read the signs wrong.

Which two people

[coldjones.livejournal.com]

Dispensationalism, with its particular views about the nature of the Church and the role of Jews in end-times events, was created in the 1830s by former Anglican priest John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) and later systematized in the United States by C. I. Scofield (1843-1921) and Lewis Sperry Chafer (1871-1952).

At least, that's according to this article, which seems a relatively rational critique of the most recent book.

I should also point out that I found said article through this blog, which features a page-by-page criticism of the first book. Most entertaining, if you enjoy that kind of thing.

Which I do.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

Here are some some resources concerning these fucknuts. Dominionists are scary, and my worry is they are a lot more influential on America's foreign policy than most people give them credit for....

Bush's belief that he's the right hand of God and Apocalypse is peachy keen?

[turandot.livejournal.com]

Old news. At least judging by what's in this book.

The apocalypse brought to you by a bunch of well meaning but deeply misguided moderates of America. And a couple of votes on the Supreme Court (am I the only one who is deeply troubled by the fact that Justice Scalia and Cheney are really old friends)?

[orobouros.livejournal.com]

I was going to mention Scofield and Darby, but others beat me to it. You may also want to look into Hal Lindsey, as well, not to mention LaHaye (one of the Left Behind authors).

Scary scary shit.

I can't fathom why someone would want to read the Bible as the Instruction Manual To Bring Jesus Back, but that's me.

I think if Jesus were to come back, a lot of these people would be in for a rather nasty shock.

I think they're going to be in for an even nastier shock when he doesn't come back.

But again, that's me. YMMV.

[murphymom.livejournal.com]

Psst - pass it along ' "Jesus is coming = and is He ever PISSED at what's been done and continues to be done 'in His name'."
There's a lotta reasons I'm a Jew-by-choice; stuff like this is only part of it.