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June 23, 2006

Playing God

The L.A. Times has an interesting article looking at the various end-times beliefs and how believers of various faiths are working to hasten the end of the world.

According to the article, many mega-churches are using global communications and aircraft to spread missionaries around the world. They believe that once the whole world has heard the gospel and been given the opportunity to accept Jesus as their savior, the messiah will come. Their goal is to reach every nook and cranny in the world with the Christian message within two decades.

Shiite Muslims also believe a messiah will return. Theirs is known as Mahdi. When Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was mayor of Tehran he spent a fortune fixing up the city to prepare it for Mahdi's return, which he expects within two years. He believes Mahdi and Jesus will both appear and will lead Muslims in ridding the world of corruption.

Some Jewish groups in Jerusalem believe the messiah will come when they have built a temple on a spot where a holy Muslim shrine now sits – and many Christians also see this as a necessary precursor to the second coming of Jesus. Some Christians are adopting traditional Jewish practices so as to be more aligned with Jews and thereby hasten the second coming. Many believe all the Jews must return to Israel and are expending vast resources to move populations of Jews there, such as those from Russia. Others are working to convert Jews to Christianity before it is too late.

Mississipi cattle rancher Clyde Lott believes that the Old Testament book of Numbers requires a perfect, pure red heifer to be sacrificed before the messiah can come. He is working to breed just such a red heifer. He actually has had one of his red heifers found by rabbis to be worthy. Unfortunately, he isn't being allowed to fly one of his perfect cows out to Jerusalem to be sacrificed.

All humor aside, the article lays out the basic Christian apocalyptic countdown:

Jews return to Israel after 2,000 years, the Holy Temple is rebuilt, billions of people perish during seven years of natural disasters and plagues, the antichrist arises and rules the world, the battle of Armageddon erupts in the vicinity of Israel, Jesus returns to defeat Satan's armies and preside over Judgment Day.

The article then asks an interesting question:

But are all of these efforts to hasten the end of the world a bit like, well, playing God?

None of these actions are particularly harmful, in my opinion. The real danger is with those who are not discussed in this article – the end-times believers who are actively seeking to bring about Armageddon. These people are taking the lives of the entire world into their own hands – so convicted of the rightness of their views that they are truly playing God.

Posted by Becky at June 23, 2006 10:08 AM