Christian Fanaticism - An Antithetical Misnomer

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Oct 18, 2012 at 16:22

After reading through these exchanges from 'Quran & Violence,' 'No More Mistakes' and 'Christian Fanatics,' I first thought to leave well enough alone. After all, these are merely opinions of men (and maybe some women might share these, who knows?), and getting into a debate of opinions rarely proves useful.

But what seems to come to the forefront is that sometimes opinions are promoted as facts without sufficient justification and where Biblical matters are concerned, sometimes I just cannot move past these things without an attempt to provide a different perspective. For example, who says Moses wrote all of the Old Testament and what proof is provided?

Certainly, there is evidence that at minimum he was responsible for the Torah, whether he was its scribe or one of the others took dictation. Since we do not have the original manuscript, we rely upon its successive copies, trusting that Jehovah does in fact oversee the promotion of His WORD at every juncture.

Certainly one of the older narratives of the Old Testament is Job, where we read of a time that has the context of Abraham's epoch, telling of raiding tribal terrorists of that time marauding much in the same way we hear of in other areas of the ancients. Moses could not be the orignator of that, now could he.

Then the prophets; which of these would one point to and say that Moses wrote out those words for them when they themselves describe who the true author is. For most of those who have discerned the Master of the universe is master of His words to mankind, only He will be the last word as to how much His Word is real and how much from other sources is not: and He is not trusting any of it to the uninformed and unbelieving.

So, to cite the inconsistencies of history as it relates to Christian fanaticism and to use that as an argument to justify other actions of a similar nature that does not have true Biblical rationale is somewhat contradictory and a self-defeating argument in and of itself. Just as an aside, not all 'tea-partiers' are Bible believers. Not all disciples of Jesus Christ will justify Hiroshima and Nagasaki-but the use of nuclear force in that venue was not a matter that was decided upon a Biblical principle.

Not all who claim to be evangelicals follow the commands of Christ and are in danger of falling into apostasy if they think that pounding a civilization into oblivion is a way to promote the Gospel: ask the Roman Catholic Church how that has worked out for them?

At this present time, the appearance is that the people who have power over the nuclear arsenals are not followers of Jesus Christ; and the last one who might have been called so stated in a less than compelling revelation that he was not so convinced. Be that as it may, he is no longer there.

The people who are contemplating an 'apocalyptic' event as you are so easily wont to say are by their very actions NOT acting in a Christian manner, to the extent that if any claimed to be Christian, it is suspect. Yet, by their actions are under the current Biblical directives pronounced centuries ago and are in the preparatory stages of bringing about fulfillment of some of the last of the prophetical proclamations, like the 'harpazo.'

Now to the exclamation of the 'Rapture,' the Biblical truth of the removal of true believers as proclaimed by the prophets is not a mistake. What is a mistake is thinking that this precipitates the tribulation when that is quite different than what it really means. True Christians are told to be mindful that the removal of the church can happen at any time without advance warning, so they must be watchful; the further meaning of that warning being that the world is immediately under judgment thereafter and believers will have nothing to do with the judgment.

As a separate thought as regards to reading the Bible, one should not read it in thinking that somehow one can predict the future. The future needs no prediction; it will happen just as it was foreseen by a Holy and Righteous Almighty Sovereign God and He needs no help in discerning what judgment is called for in the determination of sinful humanity. Sin is sin: but Jesus Christ was sent to be the Redeemer for all who have sinned. That is what the Gospel is all about and not about how this world can live in peace. It cannot; not without Jesus Christ…and that is what the Bible is all about, in both the Old and New Testaments.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".