Dispensationalism - A Religion of Fear & Bad Politics

(WND) - Is there a spiritual, biblical connection to the BP oil catastrophe?

A new video on YouTube is suggesting a possible link to the disaster due to America's recent treatment of Israel, and at least one well-known Bible analyst, Hal Lindsey, thinks there's a valid correlation.

The video was produced and posted today by Carl Gallups of the Hickory Hammock Baptist Church in Milton, Florida...

read full story here

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Wow! This is the reaction of some Dispensationalists to the oil catastrophe in the Gulf. I suppose IF it is a direct chastisement of God (which it probably is) it has nothing to do with our national crimes of abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. I suppose it has nothing to do with our national immorality of rampant sexual license. I suppose it has nothing to do with our exploitation of cheap child labor in third-world countries to maintain our standard of living in the USA. I suppose it has nothing to do with our election of Marxists to the highest levels of government, nor our bloating national debt. I suppose it has nothing to do with banning prayer in public schools and persecuting Christians for street witnessing. I suppose it has nothing to do with the sad reality that most Americans care more about materialism than morality. I suppose it has nothing to do with the fact that we choose to exploit the natural resources of everybody else, rather than our own. I suppose it has nothing to do with us finally getting what's been coming to us for a VERY long time. Nooooo! Because the catastrophe happened to coincide with a certain date, plus 1 day, on the Israeli calendar, it all has to do with our lack of unconditional support of Israel and the Zionist agenda that has turned the Middle East into a tinderbox.

Wow! I would like to say I'm surprised but sadly I am not. Dispensationalism has now become a religion of 100% international politics, and 100% Zionist agenda. In other words, if you don't support the Israeli government unconditionally, regardless of their anti-Christian decisions, than by the hand of God, your nation will be laid waste.

Dispensationalism is a philosophy created by Freemasons in the middle 19th century and sold mainly to Protestants in the United Kingdom and the United States. Today it is primarily embraced by many Evangelicals, Pentecostals and some Baptists almost exclusively in the United States. Some US Catholics have even bought into this. The idea behind it is that the Church is not really the new Israel (as it says in the New Testament), but rather the land of Palestine is the "true Israel" only when it is occupied by people who call themselves Jews whether they practice Judaism or not. The political activity that promotes the return of Jews to the Palestinian area, and sponsors the policies of the Israeli government, is called Zionism. This was also a political ideology spawned by Freemasons in the middle 19th century. Since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 a convergence has developed between Zionism and Dispensationalism. It has now reached the point where the majority of the world's Zionists are American Christians operating under the Dispensational mindset. Yes, there are now more Christian Zionists in America than Jewish Zionists in the whole world.

As I stated in a previous blog entry, it is high time for Western Christians to get back into the business of promoting CHRISTIANITY rather than the Masonic-Zionist pipe dream that is the current State of Israel. Western Christians need to start supporting Christians in the Holy Land, and the indigenous churches of the Middle East. Only by doing this can we fulfill our Christian calling overseas, and ever hope to bring peace to that part of the world.

If you want to do your part to help Christians in the Middle East, it is possible. Yes, you really can. It's not hard. It's simple and safe. All you need do is CLICK HERE and start by making a small donation to bring the Gospel to this war torn region. 'The Catholic Knight' is a regular contributor to this cause. Why won't you enlist in Christ's army of love and join me in the battle for souls? What's stopping you?

Beyond that, it would help tremendously if we start practicing a little old fashioned gospel Christianity here at home too. Maybe if we did that, God wouldn't be so inclined to curse us with oil spills.

How Western Christianity Failed Lebanon

THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: As I pointed out in a previous story, Lebanon is the last bastion of Christianity in the middle east. A little over a thousand years ago, Christianity was the dominant religion around the whole Mediterranean, which included the areas we now call Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Jordan. That all changed with the rise of Islam, and now Christianity has been reduced to a tiny minority in all of these countries, with the exception of Lebanon. But today Lebanese Christians are not free. They’ve been controlled and manipulated by the tyrannical hand of Iran through a militant terrorist organization known as Hezbollah. So tight is Hezbollah’s grip on the Lebanese government that government officials are afraid to speak anything ill about Hezbollah, Syria or Iran. The Lebanese government is held hostage to the will of radical Islam, while Lebanese Christians can only watch in horror as their country now feels the wrath of Israel in its provoked war on Hezbollah. As I cited in a previous entry...

The priest, who works for ACN’s French branch, said that out of Lebanon’s entire population of some 4.4 million, about 3.5 million are Lebanese by birth, half of which are Christians. He added that, due to emigration, the Lebanese diaspora totals some 16 million, about 80 percent of which are Christians....

read full story here

That is a lot of Christians! To think that if just half of them were to return to Lebanon, Christianity would dominate the Lebanese landscape by a super-majority. Lebanon could potentially serve as a viable launching point for Christian evangelism into the entire middle-east. Indeed, it could have served in such a role for the last 30 years, and that’s the sad part. Though Christianity is already so well established in Lebanon, it’s evangelistic outreach is virtually zero. Why is that?

For starters, Christians in Lebanon are ill-equipped. They’re struggling to keep Lebanon from becoming an Islamic state, and that’s hard to do when the majority of its Christian population has been leaving the country for the last 30 years. Sadly, the trend for Christians in the middle east has always been to pack up and bail out. That’s been going on for over a thousand years. Honestly, who can blame them? Life is so much better for Christians in Europe and North America. Who would want to battle for the heart and soul of a tiny middle eastern state like Lebanon when such a better life can be easily acquired in the West. Why would anyone want to engage in a struggle like that when no other Christians in the world are going to help you anyway. Therein lies the tragedy. Christians in the West are aloof to the needs of Christians in the middle east. In fact, most western Christians don’t even know that such a sizable Christian population even exists in the middle east.

That’s not to say that western Christians don’t have their mind on the middle east. They most certainly do. In fact, American Evangelicals pour literally millions of dollars into middle eastern projects every year. The only problem is, it’s not to help middle eastern Christians. The dollars they generously donate are designated for Jews not Christians. Specifically Israeli Jews; everything from immigration assistance, to rebuilding the ancient Jewish Temple. Yes, western Christians (especially American Christians) are generous to their support of middle eastern interests -- it’s just that they're not Christian interests.

The phenomenon is called dispensationalism, and it’s a facet of Evangelical Christianity that relates to a common belief about the end-times. In a nutshell, dispensational beliefs center around the notion that the Christian Church and the Kingdom of God (New Israel) have absolutely nothing in common. Many Evangelicals believe the Church is nothing more than an aberration -- a 2,000 year pause in God’s time table. God’s real concern, according to dispensationalists, is reviving the old Kingdom of David (Land of Israel) in which the modern (secular) State of Israel plays an important role. They believe God intends to bring all the Jews back to the Land of Israel, destroy the Islamic ‘Dome of the Rock’ in Jerusalem, and rebuilt the ancient Jewish Temple to reinstitute the Jewish priesthood and animal sacrifices again. Only after these events occur, so say the dispensationalists, will Jesus Christ be able to return at his Second Coming. Consequently, many Evangelicals believe it is their religious duty to give money, prayers and political support to Jews within the modern State of Israel. These donations finance the return of Jews from all over the world -- particularly the old Soviet Union. They’ve also given millions to the Jewish ‘Temple Project’ which aims to set up the old Jewish priesthood and rebuild the Temple over (or near) the site of the ‘Dome of the Rock.’ Their political support of Israel is unwavering, which includes the belief that Israel should annex the disputed territories of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights for the purpose of restoring the territory of the old Davidic Kingdom. This type of Evangelical support of Jewish causes (some more radical than others) has been going on for at least 30 years now. This is the primary focus of donations to the Holy Land coming from western Christians.

Meanwhile Christians in the middle east go forgotten. Though once sizable in Palestine 50 years ago, they’ve now been reduced to a mere handful. The same goes for all regions of the middle east -- except Lebanon. In Lebanon the Christian population is still sizable enough to do something, and make a difference, if only they were properly equipped with Evangelistic materials and motivation by enthusiastic missionaries. In Lebanon, Christians could operate in relative freedom, working toward winning the hearts and minds of Arabs and Jews in that volatile region. With the conversion of more middle easterners to Christianity, much of the violence in that region can end. Jesus Christ is the solution here; not war, not diplomacy, and certianly not compromise with Islam. Arabs will have little desire to kill Jews when the God they worship is a Jew -- Jesus Christ. Jews in Israel will have little to fear from Arabs bearing bibles and rosaries seeking pilgrimage to one of Christianity’s holy sites. With the conversion of Arabs to the Christian faith, radical Islam will gradually loose ground. All of this could become reality, with Lebanon as the launching point, if only western Christians (particularly American Christians) would start supporting it. If for no other reason, you would think American Christians would consider this for their own benefit after 9/11/2001. The truly sad part is that all of this could have been happening in the decades leading up to this century, but alas, it didn’t happen that way.

The lure of dispensationalism is strong for Evangelicals. It’s hard to support your Christian brethren in a place like Lebanon, when it’s much more inviting to hasten the return of Christ by importing as many Jews as you can to Israel, and then rebuild a Temple that’s sat in ruins for 2,000 years. Even if it means that doing so will probably inflame the Muslim world and ignite yet another global jihad.

When the bombs stop falling, and Lebanon is finally liberated from the evil hand of Hezbollah, (regardless if this ignites World War III), what will western Christians do? Will American Evangelicals finally wake up and smell the coffee? Will they finally realize that while they’ve been fantasizing about hastening the return of Christ, their donated money has been squandered on Jewish dreams that have no hope of becoming reality, or bringing peace to a region that needs it so badly? Will they finally realize that their money, prayers and political support will be better spent on Christians trying to evangelize the middle east? Will they turn their attention toward rebuilding Lebanon and equipping Christians there for the missionary work ahead? Maybe it’s time western Christians think about doing what Christ told us to do, “go make disciples of all men,” instead of trying to fulfill man’s interpretation of God’s end-time prophecies.