Apocalyptic Fervor

When I was in college, the hot book in the evangelical Christian world was Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth. This was not the first time that end of time fervor had hit Christians. There have been any number of occasions since the First Century CE that the 'person in the street' just knew the end of the world as we know it was around the corner. Certainly, in more recent days, the immense popularity of the "Left Behind" books has shown that the public's interest in the topic has not waned. And, many conservative pundits - both religious and political - have joined the discussion with dire predictions of the end of the world as a result of the election of President Obama.

In 2006, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life asked about people's understanding of the Return of Christ. The results were interesting for a nation filled with people who constantly read about the Second Coming in popular fiction and supermarket tabloids.

** 79% of the Christians polled affirmed their belief in the Second Coming of Christ. [I am surprised the % is not higher, given the influence of the religious right.]
** Yet, only 20% believed that this would happen in their lifetime, with 39% saying it would not happen in their lifetime. [The rhetoric of many in the Christian world is that, while no one knows precisely when this will happen, all the signs are in place for an imminent return.]
** Amazingly to me, only 33% of Christians believed that the time of the Second Coming was revealed in Biblical prophecies, which is a cornerstone of the premillenial dispensational theology, with 40% saying it was not.

So, what do you think? Or, do you think about it at all?

The Emergence of the Third Wave

Religious Dispatches, an on-line source, recently posted two stories about a major new movement in Christianity - termed the "Third Wave" or the "New Apostolic Reformation" - that is receiving little, if any, attention except for religious scholars. This movement is associated with folks like: C. Peter Wagner, Thomas Muthee, Ted Haggard, and Sarah Palin. Of these four, you have probably heard of the last two, though Wagner and Muthee are actually more important in the development and spread of the movement.

In an article entitled, "Fighting Demons, Raising the Dead, Taking Over the World" by Bruce Wilson, which can be found at: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1273/, Wilson writes,
Erupting within postdenominationalism starting in the 1980s, Third Wave Christianity claimed, by 2000, some 295 million adherents. World Christian Trends calls the Third Wave a “new and disturbingly different kind of Christian renewal.” One very distinctive characteristic of Third Wave Christianity is its emphasis that average Christians can perform the same magnitude of healing miracles described in the New Testament to have been performed by Jesus Christ—including raising the dead.

Another article from RD interviews Bruce Wilson who is one of the more knowledgeable people on this movement. That article is entitled, "The New Christianity: What the Mainstream Media Has Missed" and is written by Bill Berkowitz. It can be found at:
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1275/. Wilson is quoted as saying:
Charismatic manifestations as extreme as raising the dead aren’t what is problematic about Palin’s religious tendencies; Third Wave and NAR theology is militantly anti-pluralistic and anti-democratic, the quintessence of Christian religious supremacy.
In fact, Third Wave and NAR proponents advocate utilizing almost any means to guarantee a theocratic government, read 'Christian run' government, for the United States. In many ways, TW and NAR are akin to the dominionist movements calling for the imposition of Biblical law - remember the stonings and such - for the United States.

Let me encourage you to go to Wilson's website Talk2Action and read about this.

Easter Prayer

Let me refer you to a posting on BeliefNet.com. Paul Raushenbush, Associate Dean for Religious Life at Princeton University offers a prayer for Easter at this URL:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/progressiverevival/2009/04/easter-prayer.html.

What would you pray for or, if you don't pray, what would you hope for - for yourself, your family, your friends, your community, your nation, and all those around the world?