Jerry Falwell, leader of myriads of right-wing fundamentalist Christians, says a lot of stupid things. We'll mention just two.
First of all, Falwell claimed recently that Democrats have "irreconcilable differences" with evangelicals. I'm pretty sure I know what he'd consider to be "irreconcilable differences" but I wasn't able to learn the specifics. However, I do know a bunch of people who call themselves "evangelicals" who would take umbrage with his comment. First of all, they don't consider Falwell an evangelical, they consider him a freaky fundamentalist. And some of these real evangelicals are, in fact, Democrats. Methinks Falwell has "irreconcilable differences" with speaking the truth.
Falwell made several other stupid statements in a sermon about the so-called Antichrist. We're lumping them all together and counting them as the second really stupid thing Jerry has said recently.
Falwell gave a sermon on the "second coming of Jesus Christ" to a group of pastors in conference in Kingsport, Tennessee a week or so ago. In that sermon he "asserted" what he calls "biblically-based truths" which included the notion that Christ could return soon and "that the Antichrist may possibly be alive on the earth today." (Notice the qualifiers: "could" and "may possibly.")
Well a lot of religious Neanderthals believe this nonsense, but Falwell took things a step further. "Since Jesus came to the earth the first time 2,000 years ago as a Jewish male, many evangelicals believe the Antichrist will, by necessity, be a Jewish male. This belief is 2,000 years old and has no anti-Semitic roots. This is simply historic and prophetic orthodox Christian doctrine that many theologians, Christian and non-Christian, have understood for two millennia."
One of the things this illustrates is that Falwell (and others of his ilk) can make biblical material say just about anything they so desire. But this goofiness about the Antichrist being a Jewish male, and that this belief is 2000 years old and not anti-Semitic, and that many non-Christian theologians have believed this for two millennia is laughable--actually it's hysterical!
And the part about not having anti-Semitic roots is either an outright lie, or Falwell hasn't done his homework.
Falwell uses several passages from the Bible and the New Testament to "prove" his point, but these passages might as well be talking about a West Virginia snake handler as the Antichrist. For example, from Gen. 49:17 (I believe this is from the King James Version): "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." Whatever Falwell thinks this might mean, there isn't a competent biblical scholar anywhere who would believe it points to a Jewish male as some sort of dictator- Antichrist living in the 21st century.
Jerry also quotes from the prophet Jeremiah claiming that in Jer. 8:16 and 17, Jeremiah is prophesying about the Christian futurist fable of the "tribulation." "The snorting of horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound..."
Jerry is wrong here, too. Actually, I think it's pretty clear these biblical verses are all prophesying about Falwell. I think in the near future Jerry is going to be riding a horse with James Dobson out in Colorado, a snake is going to bite the horse's heel, Jerry's going to be thrown on his ass and that will begin the tribulation! (Hey! That makes just as much sense as Jerry's interpretation!)
Then Falwell refers to "church fathers" who "generally believed in a personal Antichrist." He tells how Saint John Chrysostom (347-407 C.E.) [Falwell doesn't call him "saint," though!] had figured out that the Antichrist would be a Jewish dictator from the tribe of Dan."
What Falwell doesn't say, or perhaps doesn't know, is that St. John Chrysostom was one of the worst anti-Semites in the history of the Christian church. He hated Jews with a passion and claimed they were depraved and degenerate. St. John C. says "...the synagogue is not only a whorehouse and a theatre: it is also a den of thieves and a haunt of wild animals...not the cave of a wild animal merely, but of an unclean wild animal."
This paragon of piety, Saint John C., calls Jews the "most miserable of all men! They are lustful, rapacious, greedy, perfidious bandits, pests of the universe...Are they not inveterate murderers, destroyers, men possessed by the devil? Jews are impure and impious, and their synagogue is a house of prostitution, a lair of beasts, a place of shame and ridicule, the domicile of the devil, as is also the soul of the Jew. As a matter of fact, Jews worship the devil: their rites are criminal and unchaste; their religion a disease; their synagogue an assembly of crooks, a den of thieves, a cavern of devils, an abyss of perdition!" (from "Six Homilies Against the Jews")
Of course if Chrysostom thought about the so-called Antichrist at all, he would think this figment of fevered imaginations would be a Jewish male! He hated the Jews!
I'm sure that Jerry would refute these anti-Semitic comments of Saint John C. Such refutation, however, immediately raises the issue as to why Jerry would accept Saint John C's notions with regard to the Antichrist? What makes one more valid than the other especially when the Jewish Antichrist is a direct result of Chrysostom's hatred for Jews? It would seem that Saint John Chrysostom does not know what he is talking about, no matter the subject? Everything he says is doggie-do?
To conclude: Falwell received a certain amount of criticism for his sermon to the pastors in Tennessee because some thought it could be construed as anti-Semitic, so on his Website he has taken extra pains to show that just because he believes that the Antichrist is living on earth right now and is a Jewish male, does not mean that he is anti-Semitic or that this is an anti-Semitic viewpoint. Oh, my goodness, no! Jerry loves the Jews and he loves Israel and he's traveled to Israel more than 30 times and met with various Israeli prime ministers, and blah, blah, blah.
Yet...you gotta wonder. You see, in spite of all his protestations of being a lover of the Jews and Israel, Jerry still believes the Jewish people are going to hell unless they accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
Now that may not be anti-Semitic, but it sure as hell ain't kosher!
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