Old news: Rev. Jerry Falwell's comments on Antichrist

Is the idea that Falwell thinks the Antichrist can be identified and stopped before the Antichrist gets substantial political power? Wouldn't that mean that the Bible is wrong?

...but I'm pretty sure he works for him.


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Matthew 24:36

Falwell is a false prophet mining the money book, Revelations, for all the gold he can grab.

And he is an apostate, a traitor to our country, for advocating the destruction of the United States via his false interpretation of holy writ.

The latter is the most important point about endtimes prophecy: that those who work to bring it to fruition are treasonists of the worst stripe. They want to see millions of Americans suffer and perish, and to destroy our democracy.

He is as far from Jesus' ministry as a raccoon is from the far side of Jupiter.

Even if one BELIEVES in an Anti-Christ, Falwell doesn't know any more about him than that raccoon, and arguably less because unlike the raccoon, Falwell stands for the uninstinctual, the untrue, and the uncalled for. At least the raccoon acts instinctually in the world it's in.

Instead of using the language of prophecy to exalt, uplift and affirm, Falwell twists it to humiliate, isolate, and condemn.

The slang noun 'asshole' comes to mind almost instantly.

The "Jawbone of an Ass" metaphor may also be used, as your proclivities run.

Falwell is an End-Times fundamentalist. Believing and preaching that we are in the "Tribultion Era" is not just part of his belief system, it also gives him secular power over his flock, who believe that he's giving them the inside dope on God; they don't want to be stuck here while the Antichrist turns the place into a literal Hell on Earth.

I've been reading about Fundamentalism in history lately, and was amused to learn that it really got its start in America in the early 1800s -- and it was a progressive force, not a destructive one. The early Fundies were anti-slavery, pro-emancipation, revival meetings were integrated from the very beginning, and there was much less talk of how everybody except the Chosen Few were going to burn in Hell for eternity. That came later, when the Establishment adopted it. But the earlier orientation can still be seen in many Black congregations (since Blacks were never part of the political/religious Establishment), and among some white theologians as well, such as Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo.

There was also little talk of the End Times except in the same sense the early Christians used it: to express the longing for deliverance from a corrupt political regime and culture. But it seems that this gave rise to the modern version, complete with a well-developed mythos involving modern nations, historical events, political figures, and ideologies. The real boom in end-of-the-world predictions seems to have started after the Civil War.

Since so much of the recent End Times ideology has depended on number magic relating to the year 2000, the Falwellesque theologies are living on borrowed time. (The earlier ones may have had some wacky beliefs, but at least were not as politely hateful as Falwell.) You may have asked "wouldn't that mean that the Bible is wrong?" tongue-in-cheek, but I think a less-humorous version is closer to it. Falwell and his like have set themselves up as high priests and have come to believe themselves to be the perfect channels of God. In reality, they have become a breed of vainglorious power-trippers. The rightness or wrongness of the Bible, God, Jesus, etc., do not apply. "Egotism" isn't a synonym for "God", or at least it shouldn't be.

As for God, well, God may or may not exist, and I'm of the "God does not exist" school of thought myself. But Jerry Falwell exists, and he's certainly wrong.

--p!

the history is really complex, and goes back to Puritan and Calvinist roots in New England.

The second "Great Awakening" you mention was in the early 1800's and started the Christian social movements for education, charity, human rights, etc. Baptists and Assemblies of God became strongly pacifist, and the movement seems to have lasted up to the 20th century, with a lot of confusion around the Civil War. The first Awakening in the 1700's gave us several new denominations that gained prominence later to start the second awakening.

The battles over slavery, women's suffrage, labor rights, education, prison reform and other social issues were often held in the pulpits, with the warring sides all claiming God's ear. The most famous of the old Fundie preachers is probably William Jennings Bryan, who, while better known now for the Scopes trial, was a barnstorming Socialist reformer and pacifist who resigned in protest as Secretary of State when Wilson got us in to WWI. I'm not sure just how much influence Bryan had in turning Fundies from social activists to social reactionaries, but the changes seem to have occured around that time and may partly have been a reaction to his activism.

At any rate, yeah, most of the old fundies didn't rally spend much time worrying about Revelation but spent their time working on the here and now to do what they considered God's work on Earth. There have been conmen, false prophets, and the simply delusional for 2,000 years who have claimed to have solved the puzzle of Revelation, and every one of them has been wrong.

I mean, weren't they getting funds from scared old widows signing over their Social Security checks because Bill Clinton was the Antichrist du jour?

:eyes:

never heard that

sounds rather anti-semitic to me