Armageddon: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

Will the biblical prophecy of Armageddon become self-fulfilling? It's a frighteningly real possibility.

Consider this little story, about Mr. John Brandrick of Cornwall, UK, who was told he had just six months to live. Quite sensibly, Mr Brandrick quit his job, sold everything he owned, visited his children, and spent all of his money enjoying life to the fullest. Until, that is, he discovered that the doctors had made a mistake, he was actually quite healthy, just a bit of pancreatitis.

We can chuckle at poor Mr. Brandrick's dilemma – he's happy to be alive, but financially ruined and without a job – but there are MILLIONS of Christians in America today, and many millions worldwide, who are in the exact same boat as Mr. Brandrick. They already believe the End of Times is at hand, and will arrive in their lifetimes. They'll all be taken into the sky, leaving behind all of the mistakes and disasters they've caused.

One of the most frightening examples of real people who are trashing the Earth because of Christianity was James Watt, Secretary of the Interior during Ronald Regan's presidency. Because of his Christian beliefs, Watt was a vigorous opponent of environmentalism, and vastly expanded oil drilling, logging, and mining. He believed that natural resources were put here by God for humans to use, and that it was wrong not to exploit God's gift to the fullest. He famously told Congress, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns," and an unverified source quotes Watt saying, "After the last tree is felled, Christ will come back."

How can a nation, or a world, possibly make rational decisions when a substantial fraction of its people believe that there is no future?