As the majority of us sit and watch in horror as the Russian military inflicts damage on the nation of Ukraine to satisfy the deluded fantasy of Vladimir Putin that he can rebuild the Russian empire and once again be a world power, some evangelical Christians are actually hoping that the war in Ukraine might help speed up the end of the world and the Rapture.
In case you’re not familiar with the concept of the Rapture, here’s what it involves, according to Britannica:
In Christianity, the eschatological (concerned with the last things and Endtime) belief that both living and dead believers will ascend into heaven to meet Jesus Christ at the Second Coming (Parousia).
Is the Rapture found anywhere in the Bible? No. Not even once is the word used. Jesus himself never uttered the word, either.
Yet despite that, many Christian ministers are preaching that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may be the beginning of the end. Of course, they said that same thing during both Gulf Wars and after the attacks on 9/11.
The Associated Press notes that Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas (a megachurch with over 13,000 members) is one of those who believes we could be living in the last days:
“Why does God permit evil like this to continue? …. Are we near Armageddon and the end of the world?”
“We are living in the last days. We’ve been living in the last days for the last 2000 years. We don’t know, is this the end? Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?”
Wow! Nice gobbledygook, Pastor Jeffress. You managed to say so much while actually saying nothing at all other than, Hell if I know.
There’s also the website raptureready.com, which rates the chances that the Rapture is near:
Their “Rapture Index,” — on which any reading above 160 means “Fasten your seatbelts” — was raised this week to 187, close to its record high of 189 in 2016.
Or perhaps you prefer the opinion of Pat Robertson, who came out of retirement just so he could take advantage of the Russian move on Ukraine and proclaim:
“You can say, well, Putin’s out of his mind. Yes, maybe so. But at the same time, he’s being compelled by God. He went into the Ukraine, but that wasn’t his goal. His goal was to move against Israel, ultimately.
“It’s all there. And God is getting ready to do something amazing and that will be fulfilled.”
Hogwash, according to Rev. Rodney Kennedy, a Baptist pastor, who chides evangelical leaders that insist on trying to use world events for their own purposes:
“This evangelical insistence of involving the sovereignty of God in the evil of Putin borders on the absurd.
“Rapture believers fail to understand that if they assist in bringing about world war, there will be no Superman Jesus appearing to ‘snatch’ all true believers into the safety of the clouds
“The rapture is an illusion; the rupture caused by Putin is a deadly reality.”
As is so often the case, the real reason for sermons about how Russia is supposedly fulfilling prophecy is to get people in church and opening their wallets. It’s fear and grifting. Worst of all, it’s done in the name of God.