1. Fundamentalism
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2. Left Behind
The Left Behind books by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, are the current bestselling fiction series in the world.
These books are a fictionalised account of what may happen in the end times, including the rise of the Antichrist.
In the series Nicolae Carpathia, who becomes the secretary general of the United Nations, moves its headquarters to Babylon and lays the groundwork for mass destruction.
They reflect the powerful influence of Protestant fundamentalism, predominantly in the USA but not without its supporters in the UK.
Today around 20% of Americans describe themselves as fundamentalist.
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3. Fundamentalism
Evangelicalism is also often associated with fundamentalism, and although there are broadly three strands — fundamentalist, conservative and liberal — it is the first of these, known as the evangelical right, which is the fastest growing in the USA today.
The term ‘fundamentalist’ was coined in the early twentieth century following the publication between 1910 and 1915 of 12 paperback volumes containing essays on the Bible written by 64 British and American scholars and preachers. The ‘fundamentals’ identified as the minimum for Christian authenticity were:
biblical inerrancy
the divinity of Jesus
the virgin birth
the belief that Jesus died and rose to redeem mankind
an expectation of the second coming, or physical return of Jesus to initiate his thousand year rule of the Earth, a theory generally known as premillennial dispensationalism
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4. Origins
Three prophecy conferences were held in the USA between 1914 and 1918, which combed the Schofield Reference Bible for ‘signs of the times’, and fundamentalist Christians fought against the scientific rationalism of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that had rejected the validity of a mythological interpretation of the world.
At the same time, an obsession with social breakdown and the destruction of civilisation had emerged.
For the conservative Protestant, however, there was the anticipation of conflict that would be apocalyptic and eschatological, an approaching Armageddon, a battle between light and darkness, good and evil, which would end in the destruction of the Antichrist and the establishment of Christ’s millennial kingdom.
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5. Rapture
The secret rapture of Christians that will enable them to avoid the tribulations is based on two verses of scripture in 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17:
‘For the Lord himself … will descend from heaven … Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds … to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever.’
Associated with the rapture and the tribulations is the dispensationalist view that the Jerusalem Temple will be rebuilt before the Lord returns and that the Kingdom of Israel will be re-established.
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6. Resurgence
By the 1950s fundamentalism had lost its appeal, in part because of the Second World War.
However, in the 1970s and 1980s it became a powerful force in the USA again, promoted by television evangelists and quasi- political groups such as the Moral Majority, founded by Tim LaHaye and fellow fundamentalist preacher Jerry Falwell. The religious right emerged, their goal to fight secular humanism and liberalism.
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7. Prejudice and irresponsibility
The prejudice and irresponsibility of fundamentalist American Christianity was highlighted by Jerry Falwell, a prominent televangelist with strong links to the religious political right.
On a talk show he attacked secular and minority groups for being indirectly responsible for the World Trade Center terrorist attack: ‘Throwing out God successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way — all of them who have tried to secularize America — I point the finger in their face and say “You helped this happen”.’
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