Questioning Doom Prophets…

Wherever I go I hear of the coming this or the coming that. “Read this book and know about this.” “God is going to do this with this nation or that with that one.”

No consideration taken if I am Christian or not but I often get approached by End time “prophets of doom” as a former priest used to call them.
Not that I like using that term I don’t mean it in an offensive way, if they do believe that they are doing God’s work and are there on the front line then that counts as some kind of faithful work…
However this stuff actually gets to me. Whether it is a good thing or bad thing I am still at the stage whereby I can abandon one Christian view on doctrine I have had in favour for another if it moves me to action. And this is why so-called prophets of doom’s material can get to me in a somewhat shattering fashion.
So it hits me that God’s word has something to say about Mr. Hussein’s Middle East conquest… Or that the Chernobyl nuclear blast was actually a trumpet in the Revelation of John… Or that we are approaching the final trumpets of the tribulation? Whatever the trumpets or tribulations actually are.
I have become something like a spectator just watching views and interpretations being flung about the place, and trying not to get myself too moved into action on something I feel forced to believe. What I feel lacking most of all is accountability. If something does not take place as printed by the preachers claiming “God said” then they simply resolve to some other interpretations and leave the rest behind. Well, the amount of apologies and accountability have not to my knowledge equalled the claims made that God said something about a building’s destruction.
Well here are some two comments on End Time interpretations, which I believe, represent grounds for a reasonable debate towards narrowing down ideas about the end being flung about the place:
1) Last Days or Not?
Some responses to end time prophets of doom have been that: “these days we live in have never been better.” Many people refer to the Middle Ages as “dark times.” Convincing us with phrases like “a mediaeval burning” or “a medieval torture” as something of the past which we of today who are more sensible and humane have done away with.
It has been debated that contrary to the sayings in Paul’s famous Letter to Timothy that describes the attitudes to know the Last Days we of the present age of man have actually never been better.
This statement is based on evidence from looking at the treatment of women in western society or the treatment of people from other origins. How tolerant we have become and that we are actually getting better. Things like animal rights, democracy, abolishment of capital punishment, the vote for all genders, more moderate foreign relations, multiculturalism, toleration of religions which somehow Christianity in the past was meant to deny.
2) A typical villain of End Time evil empires, Russia.
But what is behind this fear and dislike of Russia? Is it more social than religious? If we look to 50’s films or news archive about “an incoming danger” what we will come to is the Russian threat. This hasn’t worn off. We always hear of the Russian threat. From sly news casting remarks like “The Reds Attack” to sporting fears such as “Russian tycoon” to films and games like Sega’s Soviet Strike. These feelings obviously stem from the cold war communism days, which seem to suggest that Russia is the embodiment of communism or forever communists.
Looking at Russia now its seems almost impossible that anything can take place with their economic status. Perhaps there still seems to be a tinge on Soviet xenophobia. But why is it mingled with Biblical text?