Thread by @crazypastor

Friendly reminder, in this time of evangelical Christianity dominating popular conceptions around what it means to follow Jesus —

The actual “end of days” that the Bible talks about is not about violence and mayhem, but peace with justice.

I have some receipts, fwiw.

Revelation, that Biblical book over which fundamentalist Christians love to (piously) orgasm, lays it out:

“See, the home of God is among mortals…death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more” (Rev. 21:3-4).

The prophet Isaiah sketches out a vision of a “peaceable kingdom” at the end of days:

“The wolf shall live with the lamb…” (Isa. 11:6)

Isaiah isn’t done:

“[The people] shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks” (Isa. 2:4).

We don’t hear about these verses, because they don’t fit into evangelicalism’s freaky obsession with Rapture theology (not in the Bible).

What we’re seeing right now with the blindingly idiotic move of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem is just the latest in the extreme evangelical enamor with a violent end to this world.

Hal Lindsey’s #TheLateGreatPlanetEarth is basically the bible to this way of thinking, and it was published in 1970.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Late,…

Since then, we’ve heard that the end of the world is being evidenced by things like hurricanes (#Katrina was because of gay people and Mardi Gras, according to evangelical leaders).

If you want to see the kind of Biblical gymnastics and theological fuckery that accompanies this worldview, I give you exhibit A, RE: the United Nations, Barack Obama, and an insane reading of Revelation:

oneplace.com/ministries/und…

This understanding sees any and all violence in the Holy Land (mostly when it involves dead Palestinians, not so much dead Israelis) as signs that the end is near, that Jesus will come back, that the “elect” will be “raptured.”

But if you ACTUALLY READ THE GODDAMNED BIBLE, you see that the arc of this collection of 66+ books is towards a peaceable kingdom, a new heaven and new earth, an illustration of justice.

Dr. King’s “arc of the moral universe” is more steeped in biblical imagery than rapture and apocalyptic fervor will ever be.

Now evangelical leaders finally have the ear of our bigoted, bloviated president — and one of their own in our creepy #HandmaidsTale VP.

All of this to say: the current evangelical freakout in Jerusalem over this idiotic move of the U.S. embassy isn’t rooted in the Bible they so profess to love and read every waking moment of every blessed day.

They have no clue about the deep, prophetic urge in the Bible towards real, collective justice.

Theirs is a Bible of a white, republican, American Jesus, and it is a golden calf of the highest order.