LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

In today's New York Times, an article entitled "Return of the Warrior Jesus (registration required) reflects the growing adversarial positions with the Christian mainlines that evangelicals are taking.

In their new apocalyptic novel, "Glorious Appearing," based on Dr. LaHaye's interpretation of Biblical prophecies about the Second Coming, their Jesus appears from the clouds on a white horse with a "conviction like a flame of fire" in his eyes. With all the gruesome detail of a Hollywood horror movie, Jesus eviscerates the flesh of millions of unbelievers merely by speaking.

"Men and women soldiers and horses seemed to explode where they stood," Dr. LaHaye and Mr. Jenkins write. "It was as if the very words of the Lord had superheated their blood, causing it to burst through their veins and skin.'' The authors add, "Even as they struggled, their own flesh dissolved, their eyes melted and their tongues disintegrated."

Dr. LaHaye and Mr. Jenkins did not invent fire and brimstone. But some scholars who study religion say that the phenomenal popularity of their "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic thrillers - now the best-selling adult novels in the United States - are part of a shift in American culture's image of Jesus. The gentle, pacifist Jesus of the Crucifixion is sharing the spotlight with a more muscular warrior Jesus of the Second Coming, the Lamb making way for the Lion.

Scholars who study religion in American culture say the trend partly reflects the growing clout of evangelical Christians and the relative decline of the liberal mainline Protestant denominations over the last 30 years. The image of a fearsome Jesus who will turn the tables on the unbelieving earthly authorities corresponds to a widespread sense among many conservative Christians that their values are under assault in a culture war with the secular society around them. The shift coincides with a surging interest in Biblical prophecies of the apocalypse around the turn of the millennium, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and the two wars with Iraq. And the warlike image of Jesus also fits with President George W. Bush's discussions of a godly purpose behind American military actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

A butt-kicking, punitive Christ? I wonder what he'd think about this sudden change from preacher to warrior?

Some worry that the turn toward a more warlike Jesus reflects a dangerous tendency to see earthly conflicts in cosmic terms. "I think a lot of people are looking at contemporary conflict around the world and seeing it as a kind of religious war," said Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton. "And there is no kind of conflict that becomes more intractable than when people are convinced that they alone have access to God's truth and the other side are the people of Satan."

And that's the scary part- the delusion of the sole possession or access to "God's Truth"- whatever they interpret this to be- which automatically demonizes anyone who does not think or act exactly as they do. Such delusions always have a very ugly ending.

Few liberal Protestants believed in a literal hell or talked much about the Second Coming. Their masculine but soft-spoken image of Jesus was exemplified by the once-ubiquitous portrait "Head of Christ,'' made by Warner Sallman in 1941, which depicted a handsome man looking serenely upward. "It is the classic Mr. Rogers Jesus picture," Professor Prothero said in an interview.

But a less visible subculture of more evangelical Protestants held on to a far sterner, more bellicose image of Jesus that centered on the apocalypse. Like Dr. LaHaye, they maintained a darker "pre-millennialist'' view that the Bible predicts a period of turmoil before Jesus returns in a final apocalyptic battle to overthrow the Antichrist.

Bible scholars holding this view have often sought to apply Biblical prophecy to current events, frequently taking the creation of the state of Israel as a welcome sign that history is nearing a close. Dr. LaHaye's "Left Behind" series starts when all the born-again are summoned to heaven in the Rapture. Then the Antichrist uses the United Nations to create a single world government, world currency and world religion - all signposts on the road to Armageddon, in Dr. LaHaye's view. The Antichrist establishes his global capital at the Biblical Babylon, now known as Baghdad.

It starts with cultural 'wars'- running skirmishes between sets of 'true believers' or believers and non-participants, who become the 'enemy' or 'minions' of the Devil for merely stating opposition or distaste for the ideals of the 'chosen'.

The overarching themes in such Biblical interpretation also bear a strong resemblance to contemporary talk of a culture war pitting secular liberals against conservative Christians, said Timothy Weber, president of Memphis Theological Seminary. "The culture war fits into the pre-millennialists' expectation of the end of history - the decline of civilization, the breakdown of morality, a general breakdown of order,'' he said. "The warrior Jesus returns to set everything right again."

Until about 30 years ago, evangelical Christians who leaned toward such views tended to shun engagement with politics or the larger culture as a little bit dirty and a little bit pointless, said John Green, a political scientist at the University of Akron who studies religion. But that changed around the 1970's, when many conservative Christians began to feel that their traditional values had come under attack by the secular culture around them. When conservative Christians began to join the culture war, Dr. LaHaye was on the frontlines, joining Jerry Falwell in founding the Moral Majority.

Not all evangelical Protestants agree with Dr. LaHaye, but they are much more likely than other groups to sympathize with him. "The groups that had those views are much more visible than they used to be,'' Professor Green said. "They are more politically active than they were in the past.''

And of course, these once- shunned evangelicals have scored the greatest coup of all, by securing, and hopefully keeping- the highest office of them all:

They have also helped put allies in the White House. President Ronald Reagan occasionally alluded to Biblical prophecies of a final battle at Armageddon, stirring fears among liberal Christians that he envisioned a nuclear showdown with the Soviet Union.

President George W. Bush, a born-again Methodist, has not talked publicly about Armageddon, but he has been unusually outspoken about the role of his faith in both his own life and his foreign policy, suggesting the United States was doing God's work by spreading freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Is Christ a warrior or a wimp? Does it matter? What about the historical man himself? I doubt that he could heft a sword- he was more preacher than warrior. Of course, we'll never know, since history of that time is so muddled and edited. But I doubt that he'd care to boil blood with his mere words. I think that he'd be a better person than that.

Sunfell