This one is going to be short, and to the point. Fanatics, such as Jim Bakker and, believe this, Franklin Graham, have been saying that “All Hell is breaking loose”. Bakker repeats it on almost every show, while, according to Bakker, Graham first said it when asked what the death of his father, Billy, meant. Bakker quotes Graham as saying “all hell” would break loose following his father’s death. Of course, I cannot corroborate that Graham actually used these very words myself, but, judging from recent statements that he has made, I suspect that he said something fairly close to this.

Aside from the sheer lunacy of thinking that the death of one man would cause “all hell” to break loose (and supposed Christians actually repeating this over and over again), there is a deeper issue at play here. I strongly suspect that most of these televangelist fanatics know that the world is not about to end and the Tribulation period is not about to take place. Their aim is simply to scare people into giving them more money, period. After all, that has been their mantra ever since the beginning. Christians have literally been tricking people into giving them their hard-earned money ever since the first century. So, why would they stop now? And, what better way to do that than to con people into believing the end is near, so they don’t need to leave anything for their families when they die (Bakker has recently even gone so far as to say that people should leave his so-called “ministry” money in their wills – really). “I will to Jim Bakker half of my estate….” Really? Can you imagine being THAT family? Or, better yet, “Grandma, what did you do with all the money you had in the bank? Now you don’t have enough to live on. ‘I sent it to Jim Bakker because he told me God would bless me if I did'”.

Anyway, the truth from history is that the initial spread of Christianity took place during that which is known as the Pax Romana (Roman peace). During that time, fanatical Christians went around all over the empire, stirring things up and ranting about the end of the world. The Romans thought they could ignore Christians, and they would eventually go away – and so they tried that. It didn’t work. Even today, there are those who try to simply ignore the fanatics, thinking that they will just go away. I have a cousin like that. He absolutely refuses to grasp what is happening.

What is happening, you ask? The fanatics are at it again in force, that’s what’s happening. The exact same scenario that took place during the Pax Romana is happening today, only now they have TV, radio, and the internet to help them spread this “superstition”, as the Romans called it. They sometimes used worse terms than that too.

The truth…. Religious fanaticism only spreads during times of relative peace and prosperity. During times of hardship, it simply does not spread the way it does during better times. That is a fact from history that they do not seem to have grasped. It is only during times of peace and prosperity that they can screech that things are going to get so bad that nothing like it has ever happened before in history. Why? Because people tend to forget former times – times when things were so bad they could not recall a time like it. But, trust me, there have been many, many, many instances in history when times were far, far worse than they are today, or are likely to be in the near future. Yet, these fanatics will continue to stir people up, and any little thing that happens will be pointed to as a sign of the end.

Thus, according to Bakker and others, earthquake frequency is increasing (he says he actually has an app on his phone that lets him know when an earthquake takes place anywhere in the world – believe it), and that is a clear sign that the end-times are upon us (so, naturally, you should buy all of the slop buckets he sells that you can). He constantly cites (unnamed) “scientists”, and has had Michio Kaku (or, at least clips of him talking) on his program to prove his point. BUT, as soon as climate change is brought up – well, that’s just a plot to distract us from what is really happening! After all, “God” told him so! Climate change is a hoax, no matter how many scientists say otherwise! After all, the earth won’t be destroyed, somehow, the Bible says so (please, don’t make me get into their lunatic theology on this).

This is all sad, but true. The contradictions are too much for these people to fathom. If you follow them (or give them money), I feel sorry for you. And I don’t mean just the Jim Bakker types, I also mean the Franklin Graham types, because he is just as fanatical. If you listen to what he says, you will see this. 

No, the world is not coming to an end and “all hell” is not breaking loose upon the earth. Every day I return home from my work to a pleasant environment, free of human conflicts and issues. I see events taking place on the news, but, frankly, just in this country things were worse during the late 60s and early 70s, when we actually had home-grown terrorists, constant bank robberies, and even members of the National Guard killing citizens in one case. The economy was lackluster, at best. All kinds of things were wrong then – things that we have generally gotten past now.

There are always going to be good times as well as bad times. That is a fact. No “God” is pulling the strings of history, manipulating things so that the end-times can take place. It is only humanity – the fanatical religious-types – who are doing that. But, if you have been paying attention, you might have noticed that they are already creating an “out” for themselves. While they rant on about the end and the rapture and such, they are also beginning to say things like, “Jesus could not come back until now because everything had to be set just right for his return”, and “if he doesn’t come back, it’s because the forces of evil, inspired by Satan, prevented it”.

Finally, the truth is that it doesn’t matter how many earthquakes, floods, fires, blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, or anything else we see, these are NOT signs of any end-times scenario and they are NOT signs that Christ will soon return. Literally nothing has changed with respect to any of these things, with the exception that fraking has probably caused an increase in earthquakes, as well as the fact (and it is a fact) that human-caused climate change is taking place. THESE are the types of things we need to be addressing, NOT prayer in schools and other issues that the fanatics want us to focus on.