When I was growing up in a Baptist church, I was fascinated with end times theology. It was not until later in life that I realized how ahistorical and unscholarly most of that theology was.
I read the Left Behind series and watched the movies like Revelation and Tribulation that featured Jack Van Impe and John Hagee. At my church, they once brought in a man who told us he was pretty convinced the rapture was going to happen that year, which was around 1998. At that time, Bill Clinton was the enemy who was going to persecute Christians.
Will McCorkle
The movies later became somewhat entertaining for my youth group friend and me. We went as far as making our own spoofs on the movies.
It would be easy to write this off as poor but relatively harmless theology from individuals who have not studied in-depth the post-apocalyptic genre of writing that Revelation falls into. I don’t believe my church or its leaders had nefarious motives in teaching this; it was all they knew.
However, as the war and war crimes continue in Gaza, this type of theology that places Israel at the center of God’s plan for the end times has begun to directly affect our foreign policy and assisted Benjamin Netanyahu’s brutal regime.
The most prominent example of this was when Speaker of the House Mike Johnson made whatever compromises he needed to in order to obtain military aid for Israel. As he stated: “We have to make certain that the entire world understands that Israel is not alone and God is going to bless the nation that blesses Israel. … We understand that that’s our role. It’s also our biblical admonition. This is something that’s an article of faith for us. It also happens to be great foreign policy.”
Of course, this theology is a very simplified and distorted vision of Jesus’ kingdom of God, but it is strengthened by pastors like John Hagee who met with Johnson shortly before he helped to secure the military aid package to Israel. The Constitution and human rights are second to a distorted biblical view of the role of Israel.
The bad theological end-times boom of the 1990s and early 2000s is now having a devastating influence on our foreign policy and allowing Netanyahu to continue with what the world community is beginning to label as a genocide.
A distorted theology has allowed Christians in America to largely stand in opposition to the message of Jesus. It must be astounding to the rest of the world community who cannot understand how those who claim to follow the Prince of Peace can turn a blind eye toward — or worse, directly support — the war crimes of Netanyahu.
It is time for us to repent and begin to follow Jesus instead of a dangerous theology that has nothing to do with him.
Will McCorkle serves as an education professor in Charleston, S.C., and is a board member with Practice Mercy Border Ministries. He writes on the topics of immigration, peace and faith.
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