Thread by @C_Stroop

1. #YouDontKnowEvangelicals if you don’t see the Christian Right’s fingerprints all over Trump’s move to consider Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

2. But why does it matter to them? It really is all about end times prophecy associated with what’s called premillennial dispensationalist eschatology. #EmptyThePews

3. If you’re hung up on the terminology, it’s the popular version involving a “rapture” of believers at Christ’s return and before the “tribulation.”

4. This is a relatively historically new and radical understanding of the “end times,” but it’s swept American Evangelicalism. I grew up with it.

5. And the people who believe these prophecies look for clues in the Bible for “signs” of the coming of the end.

It’s generally believed that the Temple in Jerusalem must be rebuilt before the rapture.

6. That’s why an undivided Jerusalem as capital of Israel matters in this scheme, which involves mapping interpretation of scripture on to geopolitics.

6-a. I call this type of ideological politics a politics of Providentialism. It’s a dangerous, destabilizing, toxic thing.

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7. You may be thinking - These beliefs are absurdly cartoonish; surely no one worth taking seriously professes them. But people in power do. #EmptyThePews

8. For some more context on Trump’s Evangelical base’s approach to Israel, see this from #NotYourMissionField:
chrisstroop.com/2017/05/19/the…

9. See also this piece on growing up with nutty end times beliefs and the psychological damage associated with that. #EmptyThePews

chrisstroop.com/2017/09/23/who…

10. Finally, if you find my activism, educational efforts, and as free blog valuable and can afford it, your financial support via Patreon would be greatly appreciated: patreon.com/cstroop

#EmptyThePews #YouDontKnowEvangelicals