"Jerusalem? The Last Days must be at hand!"
begin quote from;
Trump calls Jerusalem Israel's capital 03:31
Diana Butler Bass (@dianabutlerbass) holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of 10 books on American religion and culture, including "Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks" (forthcoming, HarperOne: April 2018). The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
(CNN)As I watched Donald Trump announce that the United States would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move our embassy to that city, I could only think of one thing: my high school youth group Bible study.
Diana Butler Bass
I
know that sounds odd. Especially coming from a liberal Episcopalian
like me. But there you have it. The President makes a world-important
declaration about global politics, and an absurdly apocalyptic thought
arises, "Jerusalem? The Last Days must be at hand!"
When
I was a teenager in the 1970s, I attended a "Bible church," a
nondenominational congregation that prided itself on a singular devotion
to scripture. We read the Bible all the time: in personal Bible study
and evening Bible classes. We listened to hourlong Sunday morning
sermons. For us, the Bible was not just a guide to piety. It also
revealed God's plan for history. Through it, we learned how God had
worked in the past and what God would do in the future.
Central
to that plan was Jerusalem, the city of peace, and the dwelling place
of God. It was special to the Jews because it was the home of Abraham
and David. It was special to us because it was where Jesus had died and
risen. We believed that ultimately, Christ would return to Jerusalem to
rule as its king. We longed for this outcome -- and we prayed that
human history would help bring about this biblical conclusion.
Jerusalem
was our prophetic bellwether. God's plan hung on its fate. Whenever
Israel gained more political territory, whenever Israel extended its
boundaries, it was God's will, the end-times unfolding on the evening
news. Jerusalem, as the spiritual heart of Israel, mattered. Jerusalem
was God's holy city, of the ancient past, in its conflicted present,
and for the biblical future.
For
many conservative evangelicals, Jerusalem is not about politics. It is
not about peace plans or Palestinians or two-state solutions. It is
about prophecy. About the Bible. And, most certainly, it is about the
end-times.
Why Jerusalem's holy sites are so significant 01:59
When
I was young, our pastor insisted that Jerusalem had an important role
to play in these end-times events. When the Jews rejected Jesus as the
messiah, he explained, God chose the church to accomplish his mission.
Soon this "church age" would end with the rapture of true believers.
But
God still loved the Jews, he told us, and wanted to redeem them. Thus,
absent the church, the Jews would experience a great religious rebirth
and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. This would spark a series of
cataclysmic events that would culminate in the Battle of Armageddon, the
last war of humanity. But it would also cause the Jews to finally
accept Jesus as their savior. After all this occurred, Jesus would
return in glory and God's kingdom -- a thousand-year reign of peace. And
it would begin in Jerusalem.
This
theology -- a literal belief that all these things must happen before
Jesus will return to reign on Earth -- is called "dispensational
pre-millennialism" and it is not the quirky opinion of some isolated
church. Although the majority of Christians do not share these views,
versions of dispensational pre-millennialism dominate American
evangelicalism.
It originated as a
small movement in the 1840s, but by the 1970s, millions of evangelical
and fundamentalist churchgoers had embraced some form of it.
Dispensationalism was popularized in a best-selling book called "The Late, Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey; and later, in the 1990s, it reached an even larger audience through the "Left Behind" novels by Tim LaHaye and
Jerry Jenkins. The theology spread via Bible camps and colleges,
through theological seminaries and revival meetings, in films and
videos, by Sunday school materials, and in daily devotional guides --
all teaching that the end of the world was near, and that Jerusalem was
the physical place where this apocalyptic drama would unfold.
Colbert: Trump can't locate Jerusalem on map 01:08
If
you know evangelicals, chances are very good that you know this
theology, whether you believe it or not. You cannot avoid it. And if
you hear the President of the United States say something about
Jerusalem, you take notice. Especially when that President won 81% of the white evangelical vote.
When
the President issued his order, I was not the only person hearing
echoes of dispensationalism. Robert Jeffress, one of Trump's
evangelical advisers, declared:
"Jerusalem has been the object of the affection of both Jews and
Christians down through history and the touchstone of prophecy."
Other evangelical pastors and teachers also praised the action as "biblical" and likened it to a "fulfilled prophecy."
While
that may sound benign (or perhaps nutty) to the theologically
uninitiated, they are referring to the "prophecy" of the conversion of
the Jews, the second coming of Jesus, the final judgment, and the end of
the world -- the events referred to as the biblical apocalypse.
I
doubt that President Trump could explain dispensational
pre-millennialism. I doubt he knows the term. But his evangelical
supporters know it. Some of his advisers are probably whispering these
prophecies in his ears. Trump might not really care how they interpret
the Bible, but he cares that white evangelicals continue to stand with
him. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem is one way to affirm his
commitment to these evangelicals -- reminding them that he, Donald J.
Trump, is pressing biblical history forward to its conclusion and that
he is God's man in the unfolding of these last days.
I
may not believe it -- anymore, at least. You may not believe it.
Donald Trump might not even truly believe it. But millions do. That
matters. Not only for American politics, of course. For the peace of
Jerusalem. And for peace for the rest of us as well.
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