Protestant Alarmists

Why? I don't know why. I have wondered.

I know quite a few of them. In one person's case, i think I understand. She seems to feel that every event she can point to that means the Lord's return is imminent - brings her that much closer to His coming. She tends to see the worst in everything, is an alarmist about all, and overall a very negative person, I'm sorry to say.

But I have to admit, perhaps 1/4 to 1/3 of the serious Christians I know IRL (nearly all Protestants) are predisposed to this sort of thing. I've lost more than one email account because of getting buried in email forwards of all the "prophecy" stuff telling how every sneeze or hiccup in any official's office is a step in "end times" events unfolding. I quit reading them years ago. If anything important DOES happen, I will probably miss it.

But I don't know the why. Some people are opposite the woman I described above - peaceful spirit and happy in their lives. Still they hang on every event that happens.

Personally I think there are a few reasons it could happen soon - but then again, I also see that so many generations have thought the same. And it doesn't matter - I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. The important thing is to try to be ready (and Lord knows I'm not as ready as I'd like to be!) whether we die or whether He comes. One or the other is going to happen sooner or later, we know that much. Just be ready, and love His appearing.

But yes, I have a number of friends who even went so far as to move and change their lives based on all this. Me, I took the opposite approach, and SOLD my farm, lol. But i'm still looking for fruit trees to plant. Just not for the same reasons.

Nowadays, every moment indicates to many that we only have a generation or more left before Jesus comes - who knows..people love feeling like it's the end and making things more epic than they may warrant....

My parents definitely fall in this category. I think part of it is that it breaks up the monotony of life adding some spice and excitement. The cynic in me (and reflecting on my own time in this camp earlier in life) also thinks it gives an often false sense of spiritual engagement without actually requiring us to do anything.

Pathetic ascetic said:

My parents definitely fall in this category. I think part of it is that it breaks up the monotony of life adding some spice and excitement. The cynic in me (and reflecting on my own time in this camp earlier in life) also thinks it gives an often false sense of spiritual engagement without actually requiring us to do anything.

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Have that same dynamic with some on my side...

why? because there is money in it.

I was caught up in this in the early 2000s. I think this type of thought was at a height of popularity due to 9/11 and a bad economy. I was a depressed kid in junior high, and the thought of Jesus returning and an end to my current state in life outweighed the horror of the events in Revelations.

All of the above. There is a market in it and there is something exciting in pointing to various signs being fulfilled.

Pathetic ascetic said:

My parents definitely fall in this category. I think part of it is that it breaks up the monotony of life adding some spice and excitement. The cynic in me (and reflecting on my own time in this camp earlier in life) also thinks it gives an often false sense of spiritual engagement without actually requiring us to do anything.

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ArmyMatt said:

why? because there is money in it.

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^ This.

Spiritual and political beliefs can function as a sort of augmented reality. People who want the end times to come soon, experience the same external world as we do, however the have a pre-set bias that the end times are coming very soon, or that we are in them now. So anything bad, or even just big, that happens just becomes a sign of the end times to them. The belief in an imminent end time is vague enough that potentially anything that happens can serve as a confirmation bias and just further entrenching their view that the end times are really coming.

What's interesting about these people though is that they often think they're being far more logical about this than they really are... and then we wonder why we're not stocking up on food stores because some new tax law passed.

I tried listening to Alex Jones once. After the show I was so scared that I was actually really surprised when the sun came up the next day. I haven't taken him seriously since.

Have a laugh and watch this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJjQMwEjC1I

My priest was asked about end times in an enquirer class. He said that for those who watch the signs (i.e. those who take Holy Scripture
seriously), every age looks like the end times, intentionally. Every age IS the end time for us. There will be a final end time, but the time for me
to prepare is now.

People get their jollies thinking the end is near because there is A LOT about life that is just a mess, sinful, and downright depressing. Not having to hear about gay "marriage" in every magazine, newspaper, tv show, and internet feed, would be pretty great. Not seeing murder, ethnic cleansing, rape, criminality, deceit, inappropriate contentography, abortion, hearing about "transgenders" all the time, not having to hear of man's inhumanity to man, it would all be pretty awesome. The end times ushers in just that...the end. No more of a debauched society.

The end times fascinates not only hardcore Protestants, it titillates just about everyone, atheists and agnostics alike. Look at the past 45 years or so of entertainment:

Planet of the Apes
Omega Man
Road Warrior
Night of the Living Dead/Dawn of the Dead/Day of the Dead
I am Legend
The Walking Dead

and a host of other shows and films I'm forgetting.

People are fascinated what it would be like for it all to end, or, in another vein, having to start over. I think fundamentalism's fascination with the end times is that it gives people an IMINENT reason to behave themselves and exercise self-control and virtue rather than how we Orthodox live our lives---TRYING to live virtuously because it is the Kingdom of Heaven here and now in our sacramental lives. We seek virtuous living because of the Gospel and drawing near to God, not because of end times. But let's face it, knowing the Four Horsemen are dropping in next week DOES make a person behave! (and mind you I'm not talking about Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, and Ollie Anderson) gurney wonders if anyone will get that last reference joke

But let's face it, knowing the Four Horsemen are dropping in next week DOES make a person behave! (and mind you I'm not talking about Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, and Ollie Anderson) gurney wonders if anyone will get that last reference joke

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I do, but I wonder where JJ Dillon and Barry Windham fit in?

And Lex Lugar!

ArmyMatt said:

I do, but I wonder where JJ Dillon and Barry Windham fit in?

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ArmyMatt said:

I do, but I wonder where JJ Dillon and Barry Windham fit in?

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gurneyhalleck1 said:

And Lex Lugar!

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I've been talking with Kate about getting a home security system lately. I don't care if it's a Protestant alarmist, a Catholic alarmist, or an Orthodox alarmist just as long as I get some kind of alarm for this home. I have a lot of guitars I'd hate to get stolen!

The majority of Christians in America- practically every Evangelical- believes in a theological system ("Dispensationalism") that encourages this stuff. This is ironic since they also believe in the Rapture and that they will all be hoovered up into heaven before anything really bad happens.

Even Orthodox monastics, who aren't Dispensationalists but are Amillennial, can get caught up in the hysteria. Just get an EO monk going on the topic of the End Times and you will get an earful. Thing is, one year, the last year, they will be right.

gurneyhalleck1 said:

...I don't care if it's a Protestant alarmist, a Catholic alarmist, or an Orthodox alarmist just as long as I get some kind of alarm for this home.

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lol!