Matthew Avery Sutton: American Apocalypse. A History of Modern Evangelicalism

Apocalypse now or never

The national motto of the United States of America is: "In God we trust." In this strange country, politics and religion are mixed in a completely different way than in Europe. American Apocalypse. A History of Modern Evangelicalism is about, among other things radical evangelical apocalypse, and is unfortunately disappointing reading for anyone who defends reason and enlightenment philosophy. The only encouraging part of the book is that some of the aforementioned groupings have gone in defense of the Jews. The Age of Enlightenment, which had such an important influence on the formation of the United States' independence, still boils in the same soup pot as different extremist religious directions. Radical evangelism emerged in the late 1800s, and took strong roots in the early 1900s. Priests, evangelists, businessmen, television and radio people, Bible followers, professors, and printers preached the inevitable apocalypse. According to this book, the notion of the apocalypse could not be linked to either a particular economic class or a specific level of education. The apocalyptic could be identified at all levels of society, in the form of, for example, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, congressionalists, Pentecostal friends, and millennialists. One might think that the conviction that God has predetermined everything, that is, the doctrine of predestination, which is very much part of radical evangelism, would lead to passivity. Exactly the opposite is the case: The movement showed, and shows, an incredible amount of activity. Eternal life. Evangelism is, in short, a form of Christian preaching, both through word and deed, which consists in spreading the Christian message in the same form as it was written down in the four gospels, and it is to be preached to the end of the world. The Christian message of salvation can sum up this way, with a quote from the Gospel of John: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his Son, the only begotten, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The belief in eternal life, if it is to be taken literally, must necessarily continue after the end of the world. Radical evangelism preached and proclaimed an eternal end-time faith. The apocalypse is always imminent, and is naturally reinforced in times of war, distress, hunger and misery. As is well known, the American Revolution was the beginning of a comprehensive process of democratization, which would also have a great impact on, among other things, Norway's independence. But there were, and still are, forces in the United States that have always been in opposition to secularization and the Enlightenment tradition. The radical evangelical faith means that Jesus will not return again in the distant future; his second return is always imminent. The end time is a constant threat to those waiting for the apocalypse. So extreme was the movement that it looked at the atomic bomb as a sign of God's just punishment. Strong influence. American Apocalypse takes an excellent look at the history of evangelism in American society. First and foremost, modern evangelism is about spreading fear and opposition to modern society. At the same time, the evangelists used modern means of communication such as radio and television to spread their message more effectively. It was not retrospective – it was really radical. In 1878 William E. Blackstone published the book Jesus Is Coming, to warn as many people as possible against the coming end time. He wrote: "We believe that godlessness is on the rise, in the form of the trio communism, socialism and nihilism." The book came under the shadow of the American Civil War, and gained tremendous circulation. The war claimed 600 lives, and the United States underwent major changes after it ended, not least because slavery was abolished. Millions of emigrants, including Catholics and Jews, poured in over the country, creating foreign fear among white Protestants. The rapid growth of big cities underwent a whole new demographic breakdown, in a country that did not have or have any official language or any official religion. In this crucible, theological modernism developed, and was expressed, among other things, in modern gospel evangelism, which spread the message of Jesus' return through song and preaching. The evangelists not only preached evangelism and the inevitable coming of the end – they regularly drove political activism, and infiltrated the political corridors of Congress and the Senate. They influenced educational institutions, formed political groups, made political decisions – in short, they greatly changed the basic structures of society.

Radical evangelism preached and proclaimed an eternal end-time faith. The apocalypse is always imminent, and is naturally reinforced in times of war, distress, hunger and misery.

Biological politics. The Millenniumists and other fundamentalists' most important doctrine was to change society according to new Christian guidelines, with a clear distance from the practice of sex between two of the same sex. This form of stereotypical thinking made its strong entry into the United States after the First World War. The radical evangelists criticized the use of short skirts, as well as education for women, based on the Bible, and justified this in a thinking where biology and politics blend: The woman's relationship with the man should be based on the birth of children, a view that represented a typical defense of the ordinary white middle class family. Evangelicals had specific, reactionary opinions about how children should be raised and interfered with debates about proper schooling, while fears of massive immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe threatened the traditional Protestant foundation. The right way. The fundamentalist movement has definitely had its charismatic leaders bring the message to the people, such as J. Frank Norris and John Roach Straton. Together, these two original, almost cartoon-like characters managed to merge US northern and southern religious politics. They formulated a set of rules of life that combined a radical political message with extremist religious thinking, and influenced the Republican Party with its views. Norris and Stratchon did not see first and foremost the downward signs of modern technology, but of the general immorality of people. They proclaimed the impending doom of culture, and fought, for example, Catholic presidential candidates. The war was used as a metaphor for, and symbol of, God's just punishment. The war was both evil and good; just what people deserved, and so the war also became a tool for evangelists to create repentance and force people to go "the right way." Antichrist. American Apocalypse has become a very interesting and well-written book, which addresses all conceivable themes related to the modern radical evangelist movement. For example, the development of the armageddon view in the 1930s is well and thoroughly described. The evangelist movement grew stronger with the extremist forces elsewhere in Europe and the United States – and it tells how it regained its power while Mussolini's came to power Italy: Evangelist Baumann identified Mussolini as the personified Antichrist. According to the book, Mussolini himself had no idea how closely he was followed up by preliminary and other end-time evangelists. Ralph and Edith Norton, probably the most ardent fundamentalists in the United States at the time, traveled to Italy to interview Mussolini, as they related to the ancient Roman Empire, and thus to the devil. Mussolini, for his part, did not mind being identified in this way. American Apocalypse is sharply told, and has many exciting angles to the theme. Since 1980, the United States has had two evangelical presidents: Ronald Reagan and Georg W. Bush. And of course, the movement has not become less robust after September 11, 2001.

Matthew Avery Sutton: American Apocalypse. A History of Modern EvangelicalismHarvard University Press, 2014