In my former life as a pastor, I often claimed that theology ("the study of God") was more than the esoteric musings of seminary students. Instead, whatever human beings believed about God had practical implications for how we all lived our lives. I was even bold enough to claim that something as abstract as our eschatology mattered. If you're unfamiliar with the term, eschatology is the study of the future, the end times, where the story of scripture is headed, how history concludes, the return of Jesus, and so on. It includes topics such as Heaven and Hell, sheep and goats, fire and brimstone, earthquakes, famine, the Four Horsemen, and for some, a peculiar phenomenon known as the Rapture. For the unacquainted, the Rapture is the idea that at a sudden moment—in the blink of an eye, if you will—believers will simply disappear from this world to be with Jesus in heaven while the rest of the world continues to operate. While the idea of Christians of a particular stripe leaving everyone else alone might sound appealing right now, we are assured that what will be left behind will be Hell on earth. Yes, even this, I argued, had something to do with our daily lives. At the risk of tooting my own horn, watching the events of this week play out, I feel vindicated.
As I begin writing this article, Donald Trump has just unilaterally plunged our nation into a war with Iran without congressional approval, coordination with our allies across the globe, clarity on our ultimate objectives, or an exit strategy for the inevitable conflict on the horizon. That the Middle East and our relationship to it is complicated is without question. Would that we had serious people making decisions, weighing considerations such as global stability, whether the "intelligence" on which this action was predicated was accurate, our having entered a war under dubious pretenses in the Middle East some twenty years ago, our failed attempts at nation-building, protecting our interests and allies, concern for the lives of civilians and our own military, the economic cost, the long-term consequences, and so on. But alas, we don't have serious people in charge of our nation. Instead, we have a president without any core convictions, serving as a useful idiot for anyone with an agenda—provided his ego is fluffed and an opportunity exists to enrich himself and/or amass ever more power. One such huckster is Mike Huckabee, former pastor, governor, Fox News pundit, and currently ambassador to Israel. In a message that would make even Kim Jong Un feel as if he's laying it on a little too thick, Huckabee wrote the following to Trump, which has now been broadcast officially by the White House:
To understand how Huckabee can be so certain that Trump listening to the voice of God (a hilarious notion, I know) aligns with his own geopolitical views, one must know a little about his theology. Huckabee, along with a great many evangelicals, reads scripture through an interpretive lens devised in the 1800s known as Dispensational Premillennialism. The basic premise of Dispensationalism is that the promises made to Israel have yet to be fulfilled—contrary to what Christians have historically held, which is that the promises made in the Old Testament find fulfillment through Jesus in the New Testament. Dispensationalists claim that the last 2,000 years of the church are essentially "Plan B" involving the Gentiles (i.e., non-Jews) since the Jewish people largely rejected Jesus as king the first time around. Therefore, in their view, the timeline has to be put back on track for those promises to be fulfilled. This realization of prophecy is believed to occur during a period known as the millennium mentioned in Revelation 20. In order for all this to take place, this parenthetical period of the "church age" must end through the Rapture, and the Jewish people must return to the land. When the current nation of Israel came into existence in 1948, dispensationalists were filled with glee as they saw the wheels in motion to usher in the end times. As a result, every geopolitical event in the Middle East over the last 75 years has been viewed as part of their scheme. While it's humorous to watch dispensationalists make predictions on the specifics and then revise those predictions again and again when they do not come to pass, there's nothing funny about what we are now witnessing.
It is one thing for the United States to support Israel as an ally with shared values and interests, particularly as it is constantly under threat of annihilation. It is quite another to hold that the United States must support the current nation-state of Israel for theological reasons, such as receiving blessing/curses and fulfilling prophecy. This is the exact argument that Senator Ted Cruz made this past week in his interview with Tucker Carlson. Cruz stated, "As a Christian growing up in Sunday school, I was taught from the Bible, 'Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed.' And from my perspective, I’d rather be on the blessing side of things." To his credit, Carlson forced Cruz to clarify what the passage he referenced from Genesis actually means, specifically whether the current nation-state of Israel and the Hebrew people mentioned in scripture are to be understood as exactly one and the same. Sadly, the conversation devolved into an accusation of antisemitism, as can be the case when anything other than unconditional support for everything Benjamin Netanyahu does is put forth. What's interesting is that any cursory reading of the Old Testament shows that God himself doesn't even measure up to this standard, as he has some strong criticism of various leaders along the way. Furthermore, the New Testament has much to say about these themes in light of Jesus with much greater complexity than Cruz’s simplistic take (see Romans 9-11). However, for Cruz and other dispensationalists, all that matters is their apocalyptic vision coming to pass. If that requires the United States—a "Christian" nation part of biblical prophecy based on various imagery in Revelation and Daniel in their scheme—to initiate World War III with nuclear implications, then God's will must be done. After all, most of those pining for this epic battle of good versus evil believe they will be raptured off this planet and, therefore, won’t have to experience the consequences.
But I'm going to go out on a limb and say there's a good chance these folks will reap what they've sown with the rest of us. One of the reasons I feel a degree of confidence here is how well (or not-so-well, I should say) Christians have done at predicting the future over the last two millennia. If we were to go back to the early 1900s, a different version of eschatology known as ‘Postmillennialism’ was all the rage as the world seemed to be improving in many respects. Whereas Premillennialism argued that Revelation 20 would begin upon Jesus’s return, Postmillennialism held that this period of history would take place prior to Jesus’s return. Though this approach viewed the pieces being put in place for Christ's return, a couple of world wars took the wind out of Postmillennialism's sails and led to the embracing of Premillennialism. This gets to the issue of basing one’s interpretation of scripture on the ‘signs of the times.’ The times are always changing. However, that hasn’t stopped Christians from doing this over the last 2,000 years. The feeling of being spiritually/intellectually superior in having advanced knowledge of how the future will play out is just too much to resist.
Perhaps there might be a better way to think about the millennium and eschatology in general. I would argue is far more biblical approach is ‘Amillennialism.’ Rather than approaching scripture in a way literalistic way, Amillennialism claims this highly symbolic passage contained in a highly symbolic book of the Bible should be interpreted symbolically as the period between Christ’s ascension and his return (i.e., the times we are living in currently). This view has been the primary view held throughout the history of the church, makes much more sense of the passage for its original audience, and better corresponds with the words of Jesus who said, "It is not for you to know times or seasons." Christians aren't called to obsess over prophecy. In fact, they are repeatedly told not to do this. Rather, believers are called to follow Jesus, love their neighbors, proclaim the good news of Christ’s kingdom, and wait for his glorious return. That approach to eschatology may not sell as many books written by end-times prophets. It may not raise as much campaign money given by those looking to politicians to get them raptured out of here. It may not help religious zealots get positions of authority like an ambassadorship to Israel. However, it does have the potential to make this world a better place while we wait for whatever comes next—a future controlled by God and not our speculation or whoever sits in the White House.