There's a culture of love and fascination with "The End of the World" (and maybe a business) (and maybe a Worholish desire for 15 minutes of fame)' a culture that treats the bible like a book of predictions. Every event parsed and compared with some line of text. And it's primarily an American phenomenon. Most, if not all of this "end of the world" (EOW) fascination is rooted in the USA. Historically, its related to the Pilgrim Fathers, and the "Great Awakening" and the "Pentecostal Revival" of the early twentieth century.
In this culture of Fascination with (EOW) history gets twisted. For instance, it is axiomatic in EOW culture that the USA began as a "Christian Nation" Well that's a big whopper. Of course most people were Christians of various kinds (and those who weren't were persecuted), but that does not mean that the USA was founded on Christian principles. The Declaration of Independence is a Rationalist Enlightenment document. There is nothing inherently Christian about " Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." nor was Jefferson trying to make it such. If the document had been based on Christian principles, there would have been an even larger fight much nastier fight in Independence Hall in 1776 about which principles to use. (think about the dilemma: Welcome of the stranger or shut up you women? Seek justice or keep a slave economy? Blessed are the peacemakers, or tar and feather Royalist sympathizers? you can see how this debate would have gone.) But in the Culture of Fascination with EOW history doesn't count.
Current realities are also twisted. The death of Osama Ben Ladin and the election of a black president are equally fodder for the sign seekers. Is President Obama the anti-Christ? Stay tuned. And if not there are other candidates who can be nominated. The Republican Party has as a large constituency, people who live in the EOW culture. It is a strong enough segment to affect the foreign and domestic policy of the Republicans. An uncritical support for Israel is based on the assumption that if Israel can get the Temple running again then Jesus will return. (clearly not something that will happen by tomorrow) And therefore attempts to build a peace process are undermined in by political members of this Culture. Peace making is perverted as nations are encouraged to war and violence by thhose who say they follow Jesus. In EOW culture Justice is perverted because people must be forced to be "righteous" according to the principles of this culture. I actually heard someone say on TV that of course Gay people would not be stoned to death, but they would be executed by the state. Far more humane, don't you think?
Most embarrassingly for Christians, the Scriptures get twisted. They are treated not like a holy book but like a fortune telling manual. The texts are gathered in to a big hopper and mixed and matched to produce a prodigious array of predictions that bear no relationship to the purposes of the writers. Calling it "taken out of context" is too small a description for the wanton stripping of the structures and meanings of the texts of Scripture. The culture of EOW is lurid, and it's easy news. Blood red moons and exploding planets play well these days. In the seventies, we didn't have such good CG effects. It's well funded too, and so gets the microphone more often (why else are we getting so exercised about them at this point?.) And most secular people are suckered. People want to believe that Christians are wackos, and these folks sustain that prejudice.. Even more, most secular people know nothing about Christianity, and so they think that EOW is it. Other Christians get splattered with this awful, death loving, self-hating, xenophobic brush.
One wonders why such a strong culture of self-hate has grown up in America. Such loathing for the culture they are part of, such loathing for their neighbours, for the generous words of the Gospel that they can only think of one response; hoping God will blow it all up and start over. What's wrong with the USA that up sets them? It might be that pluralism is hard for them to bear. EOW culture lives in the midst of a nation that people they consider as public sinners have rights. They are allowed to live, and religions other than Christianity thrive unpersecuted. It might be that "Liberty and Justice for all." turns out to mean black people, gays and lesbians, and wait for it, ...women. It might be a cultural inferiority complex.
I remember in the 70's when Hal Lindsay was moaning on about the end of the world, and compared the European Union to the Beast of the Apocalypse. The European Union was at that time growing from 6 states to 9, and somehow that made them the "Beast" mentioned in The Revelation of St. John the Divine ( a book that only barely made it into the canon). Well, the European Union is now up to 27 member nations. And I just checked; good old Hal has a web site and is still at it, completely unabashed. All that beast talk was hokum. All the talk of the Bible predicting the end of the world is hokum. By Hokum I mean WRONG. It is completely unfaithful to the Scriptures. The very nature of their self set task to make the Bible predict the end of the world perverts the Christian message. We believe that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. Yes we do, but we're not hanging around trying to make sure it happens, or saving up bits of information to see if they fit somewhere. Most Christians are just carrying on with nurturing justice, learning how to forgive, helping where they see God's spirit at work, and worshiping with anyone who will join. We're not waiting around with bated breathe. That's not what was asked. In the mean time, we're having a party tomorrow with Lobster and good white wine and fresh french bread, and if the world does end, then Jesus is welcome to come over, I hear he does some really cool things with bread and wine.
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