“What was important to these writers was just this message of hope: ‘There’s this enemy, and God is going to deliver us.’” “The biblical authors are not trying to do fortune-telling and say ‘Russia is going to invade X, Y, or Z country’ or ‘There’s this Putin guy, and you can just discern the signs,’” says Zack Hunt, author of Unraptured: How End Times Theology Gets It Wrong.
In addition to the apocalyptic threat of nuclear war, the formation of the modern state of Israel in 1948 was seen as proof that prophecy was being fulfilled and that the end times were upon us.įrom a biblical standpoint, none of this is particularly sound. as the “new Israel,” the USSR as Gog and Magog (it’s a land in the “far north,” after all), and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as the Antichrist (he even bore what many considered to be the “sign of the beast” on his forehead). It wasn’t until the Cold War that Russia entered the narrative, as many American Christians cast the U.S. Over the centuries, the Gog and Magog label has been applied to Babylon, to the Roman Empire, and to the Vikings, among others. “That is, it can be shaped and shifted to comply with particular circumstances, and it allows those who subscribe to it to claim to have a command of history, that they know how it’s all going to come out eventually.” “One of the beauties of end times theology is that it’s protean,” says Randall Balmer, a professor of American religion at Dartmouth College.
The Beatles in India: 16 Things You Didn't KnowĬertain members of every generation since antiquity have found ways to convince themselves that they lived in the end times. It also ushers in the end of the world as we know it and the establishment of a new and better kingdom of God on earth. The resulting war that follows allows a Messiah to swoop in and come to Israel’s rescue. In most of these theories - embraced by conservative evangelical or fundamentalist branches of the faith - an entity referred to as Gog and Magog descends from the “far north” upon a peaceful, reconstituted Israel, whose people had been “brought out from the nations, and all now dwell securely,” as it is described in Ezekiel. “The answer is…Yes!”įor millennia, end times Christians have tried to shoehorn current events into proof of Jesus’ imminent return, taking cryptic language from the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Matthew, and Revelation to come up with various theories as to how the world will end. “Is there any prophetic significance to what is happening in Ukraine right now?” the heading of the post posed. To much of the world, current events may look like the unhinged machinations of a megalomaniacal authoritarian intent on worldwide disruption, but to Christians of a certain ilk, Laurie argued that the war could be viewed as something else entirely: a sign of the second coming of Christ.
The day after Russia started dropping missiles on Ukraine, pastor Greg Laurie took to Facebook with a message for his flock. Here's the plot: "A graphic portrayal of the last twelve hours of Jesus of Nazareth's life." 'The Passion of the Christ' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla, Apple iTunes, Google Play Movies, Vudu, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Redbox, Spectrum On Demand, DIRECTV, Tubi TV, and Kanopy. You probably already know what the movie's about, but just in case. Released February 25th, 2004, 'The Passion of the Christ' stars Jim Caviezel, Maia Morgenstern, Christo Jivkov, Francesco De Vito The R movie has a runtime of about 2 hr 7 min, and received a user score of 74 (out of 100) on TMDb, which assembled reviews from 3,294 well-known users. Now, before we get into the nitty-gritty of how you can watch 'The Passion of the Christ' right now, here are some details about the Icon Productions drama flick. Read on for a listing of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription choices - along with the availability of 'The Passion of the Christ' on each platform when they are available.
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