Believing in Biblical prophecy and End Times as it relates to the war between Israel and Iran might make you a racist, or at least that is the idea one walks away from when reading CNN’s latest article entitled “Prophecy, not politics, may also shape America’s clash with Iran.”
According to CNN’s promoted Christian scholar, Diana Butler Bass, the Christian idea of the rapture is completely made up and the “Book of Revelation does not depict the literal end of the world. It’s an anti-Roman tract that used coded language to tell Christians that God would destroy Rome’s evil empire.”
And anyone who sees America’s conflict with Iran as primarily a spiritual battle instead of a political one, tends to be motivated by ‘White Evangelicals.’ CNN also pushes the narrative that it’s primarily “White Evangelicals” who believe that Israel is a divinely favored nation and “believe Israel’s existence is a fulfillment of biblical prophecies that would usher in Jesus’ return.”
13 times CNN uses the specific term “White Evangelical,” making a clear argument for the connection between Bible and End Time Prophecy and white Christians.
Why is this argument made?
This is a clear tactic used to connect mainstream Biblical prophecy with racism, basically making the argument that believing what the Bible says about End Time Prophecy makes you a ‘white evangelical’ (a dog whistle for racists) and the way to not be a racist is to believe CNN scholars on what the Bible says.
However, the entire premise is based on the false idea that evangelical theology is racial. It is not. This article purposefully disregards the teachings and theology of the majority of the world’s Christian body – which is not white. Today, the majority of believers are not ethnic European or ‘white.’ The majority of Christian evangelical believers today are found in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
The majority of the churches today in Africa, Asia and the Middle East are evangelical, charismatic, and hold beliefs that are not influenced by European beliefs, but are shaped by indigenous interpretations of the Bible.
The church in China for example, the largest Christian revival in the world with networks that are larger than western denominations, have beliefs that see the battle between Iran and Israel as spiritual, specifically see Israel as a nation chosen by God and these beliefs are the result of indigenous movements that did not involve any western influence.
In fact, in direct conflict with CNN’s article, some of the staunchest supporters of Israel today are the underground house churches of Iran! These are not Christians that were influenced by western evangelicals, but are the direct result of a revival coming in the form of dreams.
“The Christians are praying for Israel,” wrote Naghmeh Panahi on behalf of the house churches in Iran during the 12 day war. Naghmeh, born in Iran, came to Christ because of a vision God showed her twin brother and being from a conservative Muslim family, was secretly baptized by her uncle.
In truth, teachings of End Time prophecy, spiritual warfare between Israel and Iran, and the rapture does not come exclusively from ‘white evangelicals,’ as CNN insinuates, but from Biblical teachings that originated from the Middle East.
