[trilbyglens]

There's also a lot of wacky christian folklore that is very popular in evangelical America that has to do with Israel being involved in the "end days". Some nutjobs feel that a strong Israeli state will hasten the rapture or some nonsense like that. There are a good number of those folk in elected positions, but also the evangelical crowd is inordinately influential in US politics, so it weasels it's way into many different facets of policy making. It's just one aspect of a complex picture though.

[WeylandYutani]

Is it nonsense if half of Americans believe it?

I live in a post religious society and it's easy to forget that these things still matter for the rest of the planet.

[qwytw]

> Is it nonsense if half of Americans believe it?

They don't though and there are way more sensible reasons which would explain US support for Israel.

[ethanbond]

80% of US Christians believe Jesus will return (https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2009/04/09/christians-v...)

The mainstream Christian theology is that Jesus will return in order to wage war on non-believers and secure earth as the heavenly dominion of the believers (https://www.bibleref.com/Revelation/19/Revelation-19-11.html)

This grand battle and ultimate plundering of the spoils takes place in/near Jerusalem (https://www.bibleref.com/Zechariah/14/Zechariah-14-1.html)

One apparent prerequisite to this battle happening is the construction of The Third Temple which would, of course, require control over the region in which The Third Temple must be rebuilt -- Jerusalem. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_in_Jerusalem)

Also they need to find a red cow. Then Jesus can come with his flaming sword and slaughter ~billions of people.

[qwytw]

> The mainstream Christian theology is that Jesus will return in order to wage war on non-believers and secure earth as the heavenly dominion of the believers

That's really not the case, not in the literal sense anyway. Also pretty much all mainstream Christians do not spend any significant amount of time thinking about when will Jesus return and and what will happen then.

> Then Jesus can come with his flaming sword and slaughter ~billions of people.

I bet if you asked the pope what he thinks he'd say that's not what the Catholic faith teaches and he's literally infallible (well technically only in very specific cases but let's just ignore that since we're just saying stupid edgy stuff for no reason).

[gettodachoppa]

You must think you're deboonking by linking random Bible verses and obscure theory most people have never heard of?

I'm agnostic but I was raised Christian in different communities and on different continents and I have never been taught that Jesus's return is anything but a peaceful end-time where the just go to heaven (and yes, the wicked to hell). Zero mentions of Jesus waging war, if anything it's taught as the end of war and strife.

Not a single person I know associates Jesus with doing violence. I'm sure someone must believe this, but calling it "mainstream" is bad faith. What sort of "mainstream" theology is it if neither me nor anyone I know has been taught this?

[ethanbond]

> Jesus’s return is a peaceful end-time [when billions of people are sent to eternal torture]

This is why it seems like an obscure theory, because people don’t actually think about the words they’re saying.

Here’s Joel Olsteen, whose weekly sermon has 10,000,000 viewers, saying we should be happy about the bad things happening in the world because they’re a sign of the end times (after which he and his followers get to divide the spoils of the earth): https://www.charismanews.com/us/32276-joel-osteen-discusses-...

[gettodachoppa]

Peaceful end-time for good people, eternal damnation for bad people, yes. How many Christians do you think consider a good person of another religion to be going to hell? Jesus' main teachings were compassion and loving your neighbor.

When I read Wikipedia's page on the Second Coming, at no point does it mention Jesus waging war. So much for being "mainstream theology"...

[qzx_pierri]

>Is it nonsense if half of Americans believe it?

https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/log...

[bmicraft]

I think what they meant to say is not that this isn't nonsense, but that it can't simply be discarded as nonsense when such a big part of the country believes it.

[qwytw]

I have no reason to think that the number of people who believe that "strong Israeli state will hasten the rapture" is not in the single digits (%) or more likely even way less than that.

[SauciestGNU]

Facts are not consensus based. It's complete nonsense.

[mvdtnz]

Yes it is nonsense.