Apocalypticism in American Culture

National Humanities Center ^ | Randall Balmer

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Americans have long evinced a fascination with the end of time and the role that they would play in such an apocalypse. Even Christopher Columbus invested the discovery of the New World with millennial significance. “God made me the messenger of the new heaven and the new earth of which he spoke in the Apocalypse of St. John after having spoke of it through the mouth of Isaiah,” Columbus wrote in 1500, “and he showed me the spot where to find it.”

Apocalyptic ideas have issued in the expectation that human history might screech to a halt at any moment and dissolve into some kind of apocalyptic judgment. Protestant Christians have been especially susceptible to these schemes, especially the more conservative Protestants known as evangelicals, because of their inclination to read the Bible literally.

They have tended to focus on the New Testament book of Revelation as well as the book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. Both texts are replete with imagery and allegory that would strike most casual readers as downright bizarre, but many Christians throughout American history have expended untold energies trying to fit these writings into an interpretive framework for understanding the end of time.

A Diversity of Apocalyptic Interpretations

Christians who agree on such issues as biblical inerrancy and church polity ...will argue bitterly over whether or not God’s elect will go through the tribulation—seven years of rule by the antichrist—predicted in Revelation. Will the rapture—Christ’s return to summon the faithful, predicted in 1 Thessalonians 4—occur before, during, or after the tribulation? Who is the whore of Babylon described in Revelation 17?

For three centuries now, columns of the faithful have mustered to wage these theological battles and to propagate what is certainly, they contend, the only possible construction of these difficult and obscure passages…

[dpetty121263]

Well we are living in the Last Days, all the signs are coming together and all one needs to do is look at the state of the World...

[Jan_Sobieski]

Anyone here planning to get a digital ID implanted into their forehead or right hand?

[Big Red Badger]

Read the Bible Literally...
Well Yes I do as I Believe the
Book of Jonah.

[PGalt]

Interesting.

[circlecity]

“ Well we are living in the Last Days, all the signs are coming together and all one needs to do is look at the state of the World...”

Every generation since Christ has been saying this and pointing to signs. Granted, eventually one will be right.

[ifinnegan]

This is why the leftists have climate change as their religion. It’s a cultic apocalyptic belief.

[Big Red Badger]

Fascinating that Jesus predicted three Days and Three nights in the Grave referencing Jonah but concerning His Triumphant Return as King of Kings ,
Jesus refers to The Father.
.
This Means Something.

[Cronos]

You’re right—every generation since Christ has looked at the chaos of their time and thought, ‘This must be it; the end is near.’ And yes, one day someone will be correct, but that’s precisely why Jesus warned us not to try pinpointing the day or hour, since only the Father knows (Matthew 24:36).6369e6 History is full of crises—wars, plagues, moral decay—that seemed like sure signs of the apocalypse, from the fall of Rome to the Black Death to the World Wars. Yet here we are, still waiting.

From a Catholic perspective, we actually are living in the ‘last days,’ but not in the way you might think. Scripture tells us that the last days began with Christ’s Incarnation, death, resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

As the Letter to the Hebrews puts it, ‘In these last days, [God] has spoken to us by a Son’ (Hebrews 1:2).d1d72b This era—spanning the past 2,000 years—is the time of the Church, where God’s kingdom is already present and growing, even amid trials.

[circlecity]

“ From a Catholic perspective, we actually are living in the ‘last days,’ but not in the way you might think. Scripture tells us that the last days began with Christ’s Incarnation, death, resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.”

That’s the dominant evangelical take too. In his Pentecost sermon Peter quotes the Prophet Joel to claim we are now in the last days. John, in revelation, also claims to be a fellow partaker in the tribulation. So, it’s been going on for a while too.

[Big Red Badger]

From a Christian perspective ...

Jesus Christ taken up from the
Mt. Olives We should be about our
Father’s business.
Like John the Baptist;
The Kingdom of God is Here!
The Lamb of God who takes away
The Sin of the World !
Make His Paths Straight !
Love God and Your Breathern !
He Shall Return as He Left!
.
Simple and Straight forward words.

.

[dpetty121263]

Right but things that were predicted could not have taken place say back in the 19th Century as now every single thing is in place...Biggest Israel becoming a nation in 1948.

[ealgeone]

Definitely one day closer!