Visions of apocalypse

“You will hear of wars and rumours of wars. . . .”

These words of Jesus* seem to rise off the page each time the smouldering peace in the Middle East erupts into violence. I still remember walking home from a Bible study as a 15-year-old with the ominous End Time portents of the 1967 Arab–Israeli War swirling around my head. The armies of the superpowers were poised and preachers were announcing that even birds of prey were gathered in expectation of the battle of Armageddon. It’s not a pleasant memory.

Times have evolved and the strident dispensationalism of evangelical Christianity has mellowed, slipped to the edges, become a bestselling fantasy. Still, each time a new conflict in the Middle East breaks out, Christians snap to attention.

There are those among us who continue to see portents of The End in each new outbreak of violence. Their response to Middle Eastern wars is visceral: Israel and its land interest are part of God’s design and any alliance other than with Israel is equivalent to fighting against God. Calls to support Israel ring across the land. At times they are a potent political force.

This response should not be surprising. The nation of Israel is the womb out of which our faith was born. Indeed Christianity is an eschatological faith and Israel, its territory, and its ancient rituals are the canvas on which End Time dramas play out. The state of Israel is literally a motherhood issue. We may not fully understand our reactions when our mothers are under attack, but they will be powerful.

Others among us, however, live with a different vision of The End. They define their faith by Jesus’ inaugural sermon – “he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor . . . to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18).

They still have a vision of the apocalypse, however. Their enemies, the oppressors of the poor, are the structural “forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12) that control life on earth. In this schema the Prostitute, “Babylon the Great” (Revelation 17), once representing Rome, is now the U.S. and its allies in globalism.

For these Christians, the state of Israel and her allies have become the oppressors of the downtrodden. The festering poverty, corruption, and violence of the permanently displaced peoples of the region are the direct legacy of Zionist interests mixed with western imperialism. It is their task, therefore, to stand with these poor and oppressed against their enemies. Israeli nationalism and the global agendas of her allies must be opposed.

This response may be more modern, but it too is visceral. It taps into the despair, helplessness, and injustice of those whose houses are bombed by faceless enemies fighting a war no one understands. Who deserves our allegiance: those who bomb helpless families, or orphaned children weeping in the streets? Can there be a more obvious choice?

Jesus’ words, however, came with brackets that both apocalyptic camps easily miss: “Watch out that no one deceives you. . . . Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”

It’s easy to fall into deception and even easier when a vision of the apocalypse traces the borders of our prejudices. But Jesus’ answer covers both these visions of The End.

He warns that we have neither the road map of the rise and fall of nations nor an insight into the balance of evil that international stability requires: “such things must happen.”

Those who try to read the signs of the times must not presume that they understand God’s agenda. The debacle of the Crusades was just one of countless such presumptions. We do well to be wary of those who write out grand agendas of the end of the age; they have deceived many.

But those who think they understand the mechanics of justice in the rise and fall of nations sink into the same error. Those who give names to the cosmic oppressors have their own presumptions and prejudices; they too deceive many.

The Middle East is a Pandora’s box of love and hate, hope and despair, fresh and ancient wounds. What is not needed are competing Christian voices declaring they have special insight into God’s agenda or international justice.

“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6) is both the beginning and end of what Christians are qualified to do.

James Toews is pastor at Neighbourhood Church, Nanaimo, B.C.