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Ärende: Endtimes?
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50 years ago, Isaac Asimov wrote and essay about the "Cult Of 
Ignorance," how popular media celebrated those who rejected 
intellectualism.

In the case of these dorks, it's the "Cult Of Stupidity."  

'End times' religious groups want apocalypse sooner than later, and 
they're relying on high tech -- and red heifers -- to hasten its 
arrival.

By Louis Sahagun

Times Staff Writer

June 22, 2006

For thousands of years, prophets have predicted the end of the world. 
Today, various religious groups, using the latest technology, are trying 
to hasten it.

Their endgame is to speed the promised arrival of a messiah.

For some Christians this means laying the groundwork for Armageddon.

With that goal in mind, mega-church pastors recently met in Inglewood to 
polish strategies for using global communications and aircraft to 
transport missionaries to fulfill the Great Commission: to make every 
person on Earth aware of Jesus' message. Doing so, they believe, will 
bring about the end, perhaps within two decades.

In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a far different vision. As 
mayor of Tehran in 2004, he spent millions on improvements to make the 
city more welcoming for the return of a Muslim messiah known as the 
Mahdi, according to a recent report by the American Foreign Policy 
Center, a nonpartisan think tank.

To the majority of Shiites, the Mahdi was the last of the prophet 
Muhammad's true heirs, his 12 righteous descendants chosen by God to 
lead the faithful.

Ahmadinejad hopes to welcome the Mahdi to Tehran within two years.

Conversely, some Jewish groups in Jerusalem hope to clear the path for 
their own messiah by rebuilding a temple on a site now occupied by one 
of Islam's holiest shrines.

Artisans have re-created priestly robes of white linen, gem-studded 
breastplates, silver trumpets and solid-gold menorahs to be used in the 
Holy Temple, along with two 6½-ton marble cornerstones for the 
building's foundation.

Then there is Clyde Lott, a Mississippi revivalist preacher and cattle 
rancher. He is trying to raise a unique herd of red heifers to satisfy 
an obscure injunction in the Book of Numbers: the sacrifice of a blemish-
free red heifer for purification rituals needed to pave the way for the 
messiah.

So far, only one of his cows has been verified by rabbis as worthy, 
meaning they failed to turn up even three white or black hairs on the 
animal's body.

Linking these efforts is a belief that modern technologies and global 
communications have made it possible to induce completion of God's plan 
within this generation.

Though there are myriad interpretations of how it will play out, the 
basic Christian apocalyptic countdown, as described by the Book of 
Revelation in the New Testament, is as follows:

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.

Generations of Christians have hoped for the Second Coming of Jesus, 
said UCLA historian Eugen Weber, author of the 1999 book "Apocalypses: 
Prophecies, Cults and Millennial Beliefs Through the Ages."

"And it's always been an ultimately bloody hope, a slaughterhouse hope," 
he added with a sigh. "What we have now in this global age is a vaster 
and bloodier-than-ever Wagnerian version. But, then, we are a very 
imaginative race."

Apocalyptic movements are nothing new; even Christopher Columbus hoped 
to assist in the Great Commission by evangelizing New World inhabitants.

Some religious scholars saw apocalyptic fever rise as the year 2000 
approached, and they expected it to subside after the millennium arrived 
without a hitch.

It didn't. According to various polls, an estimated 40% of Americans 
believe that a sequence of events presaging the end times is already 
underway. Among the believers are pastors of some of the largest 
evangelical churches in America, who converged at Faith Central Bible 
Church in Inglewood in February to finalize plans to start 5 million new 
churches worldwide in 10 years.

"Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples to go to the ends of the Earth 
and tell everyone how they could achieve eternal life," said James 
Davis, president of the Global Pastors Network's "Billion Souls 
Initiative," one of an estimated 2,000 initiatives worldwide designed to 
boost the Christian population.

"As we advance around the world," Davis said, "we'll be shortening the 
time needed to fulfill that Great Commission. Then, the Bible says, the 
end will come."

An opposing vision, invoked by Ahmadinejad in an address before the 
United Nations last year, suggests that the Imam Mahdi, a 9th century 
figure, will soon emerge from a well to conquer the world and convert 
everyone to Islam.

"O mighty Lord," he said, "I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your 
last repository, the promised one, that perfect and pure human being, 
the one that will fill this world with justice and peace."

At the appropriate time, according to Shiite tradition, the Mahdi will 
reappear and, along with Jesus, lead Muslims in a struggle to rid the 
world of corruption and establish justice.

For Christians, the future of Israel is the key to any end-times 
scenario, and various groups are reaching out to Jews, or proselytizing 
among them, to advance the Second Coming.

A growing number of fundamentalist Christians in mostly Southern states 
are adopting Jewish religious practices to align themselves with 
prophecies saying that Gentiles will stand as one with Jews when the end 
is near.

Evangelist John C. Hagee of the 19,000-member Cornerstone Church in San 
Antonio has helped 12,000 Russian Jews move to Israel, and donated 
several million dollars to Israeli hospitals and orphanages.

"We are the generation that will probably see the rapture of the 
church," Hagee said, referring to a moment in advance of Jesus' return 
when the world's true believers will be airlifted into heaven.

"In Christian theology, the first thing that happens when Christ returns 
to Earth is the judgment of nations," said Hagee, who wears a Jewish 
prayer shawl when he ministers. "It will have one criterion: How did you 
treat the Jewish people? Anyone who understands that will want to be on 
the right side of that question. Those who are anti-Semitic will go to 
eternal damnation."

On July 18, Hagee plans to lead a contingent of high-profile evangelists 
to Washington to make their concerns about Israel's security known to 
congressional leaders. More than 1,200 evangelists are expected for the 
gathering.

"Twenty-five years ago, I called a meeting of evangelists to discuss 
such an effort, and the conversation didn't last an hour," he said. 
"This time, I called and they all came and stayed. And when the meeting 
was over, they all agreed to speak up for Israel."

Underlining the sense of urgency is a belief that the end-times clock 
started ticking May 15, 1948, when the United Nations formally 
recognized Israel.

"I'll never forget that night," Hagee said. "I was 8 years old at the 
time and in the kitchen with my father listening to the news about 
Israel's rebirth on the radio. He said, 'Son, this is the most important 
day in the 20th century.' "

Hagee's message is carried on 160 television stations and 50 radio 
stations and can be seen in Africa, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and 
most Third World nations.

By contrast, Bill McCartney, a former University of Colorado football 
coach and co-founder of the evangelical Promise Keepers movement for 
men, which became huge in the 1990s, has had a devil of a time getting 
his own apocalyptic campaign off the ground.

It's called The Road to Jerusalem, and its mission is to convert Jews to 
Christianity, while there is still time.

"Our whole purpose is to hasten the end times," he said. "The Bible says 
Jews will be brought to jealousy when they see Christians and Jewish 
believers together as one, they'll want to be a part of that. That's 
going to signal Jesus' return."

Jews and others who don't accept Jesus, he added matter-of-factly, "are 
toast."

McCartney, who only a decade ago sermonized to stadium-size crowds of 
Promise Keepers, said finding people to back his sputtering cause has 
been "like plowing cement."

Given end-times scenarios saying that non-believers will die before 
Jesus returns, and that the antichrist will rule from Jerusalem's 
rebuilt Holy Temple, Jews have mixed feelings about the outpouring of 
support Israel has been getting from evangelical organizations.

"I truly believe John Hagee is at once a daring, beautiful person, and 
quite dangerous," said Orthodox Rabbi Brad Hirschfield, vice president 
of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership in New York.

"I sincerely recognize him as a hero for bringing planeloads of people 
to Israel at a time when people there were getting blown up by the 
busloads," Hirschfield said. "But he also believes that the only path to 
the father is through Jesus. That leaves me out."

Meanwhile, in what has become a spectacular annual routine, Jews, hoping 
to rebuild the Holy Temple destroyed by the Romans in AD 70, attempt to 
haul the 6 1/2 -ton cornerstones by truck up to the Temple Mount, the 
site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock shrine. Each year, they are 
turned back by police.

Among those turned away is Gershon Solomon, spokesman for Jerusalem's 
Temple Institute. When the temple is built, he said, "Islam is over."

"I'm grateful for all the wonderful Christian angels wanting to help 
us," Solomon added, acknowledging the political support from "Christians 
who are now Israel's best lobbyists in the United States."

However, when asked to comment on the fate of non-Christians upon the 
Second Coming of Jesus, he said, "That's a very embarrassing question. 
What can I tell you? That's a very terrible Christian idea.

"What kind of religion is it that expects another religion will be 
destroyed?"

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

Some Christians, such as Roman Catholics and some Protestant 
denominations, believe in the Second Coming but don't try to advance it. 
It's important to be ready for the Second Coming, they say, though its 
timetable cannot be manipulated.

Hirschfield said he prays every day for the coming of the Jewish 
messiah, but he too believes that God can't be hurried.

"For me," he said, "the messiah is like the mechanical bunny at a 
racetrack: It always stays a little ahead of the runners but keeps the 
pace toward a redeemed world.

"Trouble is, there are many people who want to bring a messiah who looks 
just like them. For me, that kind of messianism is spiritual 
narcissism."

But some Christian leaders say they aren't playing God; they're just 
carrying out his will.

Ted Haggard, president of the National Assn. of Evangelicals, says the 
commitment to fulfilling the Great Commission has naturally intensified 
along with the technological advances God provided to carry out his 
plans.

Over in Mississippi, Lott believes that he is doing God's work, and that 
is why he wants to raise a few head of red heifers for Jewish high 
priests. Citing Scripture, Lott and others say a pure red heifer must be 
sacrificed and burned and its ashes used in purification rituals to 
allow Jews to rebuild the temple.

But Lott's plans have been sidetracked.

Facing a maze of red tape and testing involved in shipping animals 
overseas, and rumors of threats from Arabs and Jews alike who say the 
cows would only bring more trouble to the Middle East, he has given up 
on plans to fly planeloads of cows to Israel. For now.

In the meantime, some local ranchers have expressed an interest in 
raising their own red heifers for Israel, and fears of hoof-and-mouth 
disease and blue tongue forced Lott to relocate his only verified red 
heifer, a female born in 1993, to Nebraska.

Cloning is out of the question, he said, because the technique "is not 
approved by the rabbinical council of Israel." Artificial insemination 
has so far failed to produce another heifer certified by rabbis.

"Something deep in my heart says God wants me to be a blessing to 
Israel," Lott said in a telephone interview. "But it's complicated. 
We're just not ready to send any red heifers over there."

If not now, when?

"If there's a sovereign God with his hand in the affairs of men, it'll 
happen, and it'll be a pivotal event," he said. "That time is soon. Very 
soon." 

Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times

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