From Nicholae Carpathia to the Mahdi: a significant shift

November 9th, 2012 by Charles Cameron

The formative influence in this pattern of thought in the last 20 years, and especially since 2001, has been Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilisations in which he argues that wars between civilisation groups rather than nation states are inevitable. This approach, which is followed by many other political scientists, has been taken up especially with regard to Islam, based on the long history of conflict between Christendom and Islam, going back to the 7th century.

Many Christian groups have almost welcomed this analysis, and seen in it the justification required to excuse many of the actions of “Christian” countries towards the world of Islam. Other have welcomed it as explaining the perceived and experienced threat. Within Protestant circles, revisionist theology has called for a syncretistic approach, in which the common values of the faiths are emphasised to the point where no distinctions can be recognised. This is also true amongst Anglo Saxon secular thinking, where it is not overtly atheist.

And yet, as I want to suggest, the Church has both the understanding and the means to face this great issue with tools and opportunities that can offer a genuine solution.

The understanding comes first. Christians understand the importance of the spiritual life, and thus should be able to relate to Islam in a way that the secular may find more difficult…

Page 2 of 2 | Previous page

Posted in Apocalyptic, Charles Cameron, christianity, Islam, Mahdist, twitter, Uncategorized | 3 comments

Previous post:
Next post:

  1. Cheryl Rofer:

    November 10th, 2012 at 4:31 pm

    So Tim LaHaye sees the 12th Imam as the Antichrist. I’m wondering why you say this is “huge,” Charles, although you do qualify it as being huge in terms of one particular wing of eschatological Christianity.
    .
    Only time will tell, of course, but I’m seeing the results of this election as greatly minimizing the influence of that group of people. Tim LaHaye has mainly been a voice howling in the wind. Yes, he’s sold a lot of books, but it seems to me that his influence on reality has been minimal.
    .
    So let us say he comes out full-throatedly for this version of the Antichrist. That would give his followers more reason to hate Islam. But it’s likely that most of them hate Islam anyway.
    .
    So could you explain “huge” a bit more.

  2. Charles Cameron:

    November 10th, 2012 at 11:53 pm

    Hi Cheryl:
    .
    I think the shift from a Euro-centered to an Islam-centered eschatology is a significant shift because those whom “semiotically aroused” end-times believers identify as the enemy are not merely dehumanized, they are rendered as unalloyed evil. “Love your enemy” is for all practical purposes inoperative under end times scenarios — which is why Tim Furnish can say in the first paragraph of his book Holiest Wars:

    Muslim messianic movements are to fundamentalist uprisings what nuclear weapons are to conventional ones: triggered by the same detonating agents, but far more powerful in scope and effect.

    Some, hopefully many, end-times Christians will take to heart Joel Richardson’s own comment, which I like enough to quote frequently: 

    unless a supernatural man bursts forth from the sky in glory, there is absolutely nothing that the world needs to worry about with regard to Christian end-time beliefs. Christians are called to passively await their defender. They are not attempting to usher in His return.

    But yes, I hear you – any “huge” difference will be small if you zoom out from it, and I just happen to have my default focal length set at “eschatological movements” because I see them as powerful undercurrents that are far too frequently ignored.

  3. Mary Imelda:

    August 21st, 2013 at 2:33 am

    see   http://www.thewarningsecondcoming.com/god-the-father-the-antichrist-is-now-ready-to-reveal-himself/