Dr. David Jeremiah's Economic Armageddon and Christian Political Hypocrisy
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/435-dr-david-jeremiahs-economic-armageddon-and-christian-political-hypocrisy-.html
Kato Mivule | October 5, 2010
We live in very interesting times with lots of events taking place on a daily basis sometimes with global implications. However, more interesting to me is how Christians and the Church at large respond or react to current natural catastrophes, economic downturns, wars and rumors of wars, terrorist attacks, Islam, and other challenges, especially the Church in America.
Most interesting is watching how Evangelical leaders in the USA respond and react to many of the global challenges, the sad part is that it has been mostly a fear based reaction rather than a legitimate response. Of lately, ever since Obama took office, it has been like the world ended for some Evangelical Christians, first, it was the rapture was about to happen anytime soon, now it is an Economic Armageddon.
One interesting gentleman I have been following is Dr. David Jeremiah and his Turning Point Program. Around about the end of 2008 and start of 2009, Dr. David Jeremiah published a book about the End times, kind of explaining the reason behind the global economic meltdown, and other global events that were happening then. Dr. Jeremiah's book titled “What in the World is Going On?: 10 Prophetic Clues You Cannot Afford to Ignore” sought hard to use Bible Prophecy scriptures to “explain” global “events” that were happening including the economic downturn, with all signs pointing to a soon coming rapture.
I remember reading through that book, not letting it down, with great interest, as it was among the top ten christian selling books at the time, and I was thinking to myself, what a misdirection, distraction, and a bunch of scare-mongering this book is.
At that time, the Tea Party was not yet fully “formed” but many folks, especially Christians had labeled the then President elect, Obama, the Antichrist. Reading the book gave you a sense that the rapture was about to happen anytime soon and the Lord would “rescue us” out of the hand of this then popular antichrist called Obama.
I then tuned in to Dr. Jeremiah's Turning Point Radio Program and on listening you could sense that there was a disappointment in his sermons that someone he did not agree with politically was elected by a bunch of crazy liberals into the highest office in the land and that somehow this was God's judgment on America and therefore a precursor to the long awaited rapture.
Yet with all due credence, I don't suspect that Dr. David Jeremiah is out to make money and sell books, I have listened to him for years now but I just believe that he like many other Evangelical leaders refuse to separate Church and State and therefore see the USA as a “Christian Nation” that must be governed by Christian Laws, a Theocracy at best. It is this disappointment and frustration that Dr. David Jeremiah et al find themselves in – “How to Take America Back for God”.
As if that was not enough, lately Dr. David Jeremiah came out with another Evangelical Christian Blockbuster Book titled, “The Coming Economic Armageddon: What Bible Prophecy Warns about the New Global Economy”. Now this time Dr. David Jeremiah takes the gloves off and removes any mask. The book has been released in conjunction with the series on the book title being aired on the Turning Point Program.
If you have listened to Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and any other Tea Party activists, you would think that Dr. David Jeremiah was hired to spiritually head the Tea Party team. In his radio broadcasts, Dr. David Jeremiah throws lines that he is somewhat a centralist, only concerned about US deficits, and non partisan. Yet when one reads his new book and listens to his Radio show, you get away with sure that as an Evangelical Christian, you must go and vote for all Tea Party Candidates and stop the so-called US deficit from ballooning, otherwise China would soon enslave the USA – the borrower serves the lender.
Dr. David Jeremiah laments that in his generation the word Trillion was never used when it came to money, now it is thrown around carelessly, yet Dr. Jeremiah forgets that at the start of his generation, the phrase “Six Billion people” in the world was not so easy to come across. In other words the world is much more complicated than as portrayed by the Evangelical Preacher.
Yet even more telling is the hypocrisy with which the Evangelical Preacher uses in “preaching” his end time gospel. Why not tell people simply to go vote for the Tea Party Candidates rather than 'using' and exploiting Bible Prophecy for political gain? This is what I fail to understand about this gentleman called Dr. David Jeremiah, why the christian political hypocrisy?
Why go to length and concoct prophecies so as to push the “Take America Back” political agenda? Why pretend to sound Evangelical yet you sound more like a full blown Tea Party Activist on your Radio Show? Why not be authentic and tell folks you wrote this book to help Tea Party Candidates get elected to office and that your current Turning Point Program is simply a tool now to campaign for “God's Candidates” - the Tea Party Candidates during this election season?
Why not stick to the Gospel and Preach about the Cross and Repentance? On the contrary, why are you so worried about deficits if you are going to be raptured away very soon? It is you who has written a number of books about the soon coming rapture, so now why not get ready to be “raptured away” instead of lamenting about financial deficits that the “heathen” have to deal with? Is this not political hypocrisy at its best on the pulpit?
Why was Jesus Christ and Paul the apostle never worried about Rome's National Debt? Jesus Christ and Paul could have easily focused on “Changing” and “Taking Back” the collapsing political structure of Rome but they did not, instead they focused on preaching the Gospel. I think perhaps the best course is to Preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, care for the poor and widows instead of worry about US ballooning deficits.
Before all is said and done, the USA is going to be a far more secular nation than current Evangelicals phantom, and Christians had better worry about how to stay relevant and still preach the gospel of Christ effectively in such a very post evangelical America.
Kato Mivule
Notes
Dr. David Jeremiah's website
http://www.davidjeremiah.org/site/default.aspx
Dr. David Jeremiah's Turning Point Radio Messages
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/turning-point/
Jon Stewart and Bible Prophesy: Are These Hard Times Not End Times?
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/438-jon-stewart-and-bible-prophesy-are-these-hard-times-not-end-times.html
Kato Mivule | November 1st, 2010
Jon Stewart held a rally this past Saturday at the National Mall in Washington DC in an effort to his credit, trying to “restore sanity” in the current political discourse in the USA.
America has become so polarized that even some Christians are caught up in the negative partisan politics, often siding with Tea Party activists, who of late have gained the reputation of being uncivil and “extreme”. Yet Jon Stewart made an astonishing statement as I watched the “Sanity” rally on TV, that “ these are hard times and not end times”. The statement of course refers to Evangelical Christians in America who preach and teach Bible Prophecy on TV, Radio, and Churches.
However, of lately TV and Radio personalities mainly on Fox News, like Glenn Beck have taken on the mantle of political Bible prophecy teacher, injecting apocalyptic scenarios and Bible prophecy references in their speech to persuade their listeners that if the Obama administration continues in power, then we are really in the end times and doomed. It is a tactic used to scare mainly old citizens, and Christians in forcing them to take political action.
Many 'real' Bible Prophecy Teachers like Dr. David Jeremiah have appeared on Fox News in promotion of their end Time Bible Prophecy books, the most popular being “The Coming Economic Armageddon” by Dr. David Jeremiah, and Fox News to their credit has used such fear mongering techniques to increase their business base as any astute businessperson would do. The politicians, especially Republicans have not left this fear mongering technique to go to waste.
To avoid being labeled extremists, Republican strategists have used the Tea Party as a proxy to scare any Evangelical Christian to vote for them, using Bible Prophecy as a tool in this fear mongering endeavor. In such circumstances, Bible Prophecy is viewed as an event that can be controlled by Man in order to appease Man's goals. If you have a democrat in the White House, then Bible Prophecy is sure coming to pass and swiftly with the “destruction of America”, a phrase that Tea Party activists love to use as a talking point. However, if you have a Republican or a Tea Party Christian in the White House, then Bible Prophecy is somehow withheld. Such abuse and misuse of Bible Prophecy by Political Christian activists is what is turning Bible Prophecy into a laughing matter and a thing to be joked about by comics.
The difficulty is not Jon Stewart's thinking that 'hard times are not end times', the issue is Christians who manipulate bible prophecy for political gain. Any serious Christian knows that Bible Prophecy is not controlled and timed by Humans but by God in Heaven who will fulfill all things in His own time regardless if the President in the White House is a Christian or not.
Yet still living in hard times does not necessarily mean that we are in the end times as spoken of in the Book of Revelation for example. Just because you lost a job does not mean the world is ending tomorrow or the Antichrist will appear the next day. Any responsible Bible Prophecy teacher and any serious student of Bible Prophecy must separate the irrational fear-mongering from Bible Prophecy studies. Fear, paranoia, irrationality have nothing to do with Bible Prophecy, especially for Christians; Bible Prophecy, especially the Book of Revelation was written as an encouragement and hope for Christians going through hard times, that they were conquerors together with Christ Jesus who conquered death and is alive forevermore.
On the contrary, to respond to Jon Stewart, yes, hard times are part and parcel of the end times and New Testament scriptures make it clear on that. Yes, it makes sense to question if we are really in the end times, if the hard times take on a global nature combined with global catastrophes, and convulsions of nature, then Christians have an obligation to discern so. Therefore hard times could be a very good indicator that we are in the end times or at least getting into the end times. Yet fear has nothing to do with it except for those who don't know The Lord, as the New Testament states how mens hearts will fail for the fear of those things that will come upon them.
I believe in the Bible, I believe in the New Testament scriptures, I believe in Bible Prophecy with Timings and Seasons in the Hand of The Lord and not controlled by man. Yes, we are in the last days but these last days have nothing to do with the political manipulation of political christian activists who are unashamedly using and exploiting Bible Prophecy for their own selfish political gains and it is a shame that they disgrace the Name and Word of The Lord.
