How some evangelicals debate the end times
Will Vladimir Putin revive American evangelicals’ faith that Jesus is coming soon? He just might, Matthew Avery Sutton, Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Professor of history at WSU, says in a Washington Post article.
Over the past 150 years, evangelicals have used global chaos to propel their movement forward. Lining up world events with ancient biblical prophecies, they have offered adherents secret knowledge of the past, the present and the future. Evangelicals know how to make their beliefs relevant to the day’s headlines in a way that no other American religious group has matched.
Putin offers fresh ammunition for evangelicals’ apocalyptic views. The more unpredictable and aggressive the Russian leader becomes, the more passionately some evangelicals will preach Jesus’s imminent return. His mix of daring ambition and overtures of peace in Ukraine while hinting that he might arm Iran remind the faithful that the world is careening towards the apocalypse predicted in the book of Revelation. After all, the Apostle Paul predicted that when God’s enemies claimed peace, “sudden destruction would cometh.”