Christian soldiers prepare for Y2K

Come earthquake, Y2K or Armageddon, members of Word of Grace Christian Church are prepared.

They have stocked up on food -- eight tons of whole wheat, trucked in from California in rented trailers -- along with wheat grinders, two-way radios, and flashlights.

Pastor Clint Glenny sees the church itself as a "command center" in his Las Vegas neighborhood should the lights go out or Jesus face off with the Antichrist. "I'm not saying Jesus is coming tomorrow," he said. "But I feel like Y2K is a parable saying, 'Get ready.' "

Glenny, an evangelistic Christian who has been a pastor in Las Vegas for 10 years, said he is more Boy Scout ("Be prepared!") than alarmist, charged like everyone else with wading through the avalanche of millennial hype that somehow links the turning of a calendar page with planetary disaster. But as Christians, Glenny and other Las Vegans were contemplating the "end times" long before the media tuned in.

Apocalypticism -- the belief that God will someday intervene in the course of human affairs by destroying the wicked, ending the world as we know it, and starting his kingdom on Earth -- is central to Christian thought.

Biblical apocalypticism manifests itself in a scenario that includes Jesus Christ returning to Earth to slay the Antichrist in the Battle of Armageddon on a hill in Israel.

A 1999 Newsweek poll found that 40 percent of American adults believe the world will one day end in the Battle of Armageddon between Jesus and the Antichrist as described in the Book of Revelation.

"Especially evangelical Christians," said Richard Taylor, pastor of Calvary Foursquare Church in Las Vegas. "Most evangelical Christians believe Jesus is going to come back literally and reign. We also believe in a time of tribulation preceding that -- a period where God pours out his wrath on an unbelieving world ...

"The Antichrist will come and declare himself God. He will come on the scene as benevolent, as a savior, as an imitation of Christ, and sometime in his authority would declare himself to be God and demand the worship of man," Taylor said.

"Then the church would suffer persecution under him, up until the time Jesus Christ returns. The Lord will destroy the Antichrist... Then most of us agree that will be followed by 1,000 years of reign by Christ."

Speculation about the identity of the Antichrist runs far and wide -- there are Internet websites that insist Microsoft's Bill Gates is the Antichrist, and some Prostestants have asserted that the Pope is the Antichrist.

"John Kennedy was at one time thought to be the Antichrist because he was Catholic. And of course Adolf Hitler and (Benito) Mussolini were also thought to be the Antichrist at one time ...

"What I share with our congregation is that it may start out as a political figure. This man is not just going to be evil but have the power of Satan himself," Taylor said. "Satan himself becoming flesh."

The big question for most Christians then, is not whether the world will end, but when.

The Bible says the apocalypse will happen after certain signs have taken place -- earthquakes, wars and famines, among others.

And although some argue that those signs are here -- for example, the recent deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Taiwan -- it is debatable whether the year 2000 has any relevance in the Christian apocalyptic scenario.

Millennialists believe that the Book of Revelation says Christ will establish a kingdom on earth for a 1,000-year period, making each turn of a millennium a potential time for his return -- but others say the date is irrelevant.

"As far as I'm concerned, I see little significance of the turning of the millennium. It's a man-made date. We're probably several years off," Taylor said.

"But the 'end times' are here. Many Christians believe we are in the last of the last days," Taylor said. "But who knows? I remember when I was first saved 25 years ago -- I thought we had 10 more years at the outside -- and that was 25 years ago."

"I tell my congregation to prepare themselves spiritually," said Luis Rius, pastor of the Alpha and Omega Pentecostal Church in Las Vegas. "I know that everything the prophets said would happen has been fulfilled, and now we just wait."

Millennial potluck

But if the Bible doesn't pinpoint New Year's Day 2000 as the day the world will end, why is apocalypticism so pervasive as we approach the next millennium? (Although the next millennium doesn't actually begin until Jan. 1, 2001, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C., the nation's official timekeeper.)

"(Apocalyptic groups) are always crowing. The question is, when do they get attentive audiences?" said Richard Landes, founder of the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University, in a recent interview with the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. "Millennial moments are just particularly 'charged' moments."

Similar fervor was recorded 1,000 years ago, and at various times religious groups have picked dates for the return of Christ, creating an understandable stir. For example, the Seventh Day Adventists awaited his return in 1843, and when he didn't arrive, the event (or lack thereof) became known as The Great Disappointment.

As this generation's novel date approaches, pop culture has usurped and reinterpreted the old story of the end of the world. Millennialism -- now stretched by our collective imagination to mean that the year 2000 has simply some kind of supernatural significance, be it aliens or the Antichrist -- abounds.

Apocalyptic literature is the fastest-growing segment of the $3 billion Christian book industry. Mainstream movies, commercials, and talk shows about the millennium are unavoidable -- from Y2K disaster movies on major television networks to documentaries on religious apocalyptic thought on PBS.

Even the atheists are in on end-of-the-world hype: "In Case of Armageddon, This Is Your Last Issue," reads the tongue-in-cheek cover of the December issue of The Humanist magazine.

The hundreds of websites devoted to some kind of apocalypse or millennium-related belief range from a page asserting a connection between NutraSweet and the Antichrist, to the "Post Rapture Survival Guide" page, which laments, "Let me be real frank with you. If you are reading this manual and the rapture (Christ's removal of Christians before the period of tribulation) has already occurred, then you probably are not going to physically survive." Still, many mainstream Protestant Christian pastors say that they have no Armageddon-oriented expectations of the turning of the millennium, and are recommending that their congregants merely stay out of harm's way in the New Year's celebrations -- the same advice they give every year.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops teaches that the year 2000 calls for a "Jubilee" celebration of the 2,000th anniversary of the Messiah's birth, a holy year, but no end of the world.

Mormons, known for their preparedness, believe that Christ will return, but place no significance on the year 2000 -- except "heightened awareness" of the potential Y2K computer glitch.

"We do believe (Jesus Christ) is coming back to dwell personally among mortals for a literal millennium, but we have no specific directives with regard to the year 2000," said Will Stoddard, Las Vegas spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "As for preparedness, we believe in self reliance, and always have supplies on hand."

Still others, such as Jews and Hindus, follow different religious calendars and place no significance on the Western calendar turning 2000.

But Landes said that the idea of a judgment day, a time when the pious will be rewarded and the evil persecuted, is appealing to humans on a deep psychological level.

"Some people would even argue that the millennial impulse is not only universal, it is at the core of the religious impulse," Landes said.

"On a psychological level, millennialism combines, intensifies, and collectivizes two of the most fundamental and specifically human emotions: hope and fear about what the future holds," Landes said.

"On a purely conceptual level, millennialism is amazing: no social phenomenon is more completely the product of the human imagination than millennial thinking. Because God never has brought about the end of the world, the impact of the phenomenon is purely the product of human desire and communication. There is no other religious belief about which we can safely say that, in the terms that they themselves enunciated, all apocalyptic prophets have been wrong," Landes said.

Millennial madness

But while most revel only in the thoughts, some turn their millennial beliefs to extreme actions.

A former Las Vegas stripper identified only by her first name, Karen, appeared on NBC's "Dateline" this month as she walked the streets of Jerusalem anticipating Christ's return -- one of many who have raised the concerns of Israeli officials.

According to the Bible, a temple must be built in Jerusalem for Christ to return, and the possibility of religious zealots descending on the Holy Land to cause conflict in their attempt to force the conditions of his return is real.

One American group, Concerned Christians, was arrested in Jerusalem and deported last January. Karen, too, was deported in October, and was last known to be living in New York.

"But the Lord told me that I will go back to Israel," Karen told "Dateline."

The Anti-Defamation League is keeping an eye on groups whose apocalyptic beliefs might cause them to take actions -- be it descent on Israel or violence in the United States.

"Anti-government militia groups, far-right religious fundamentalists and violence-prone political extremists are among the hundreds, and possibly thousands of extremists hoping, expecting or preparing for the worst as the next millennium nears," says an October report by the Anti-Defamation League.

"The heightened expectations of the year 2000, mixed together with the widely reported possibility of computer meltdown, have generated a barrage of predictions and hysterical propaganda from those on the farthest fringes of society," the report says.

It identifies groups such as the Christian Defense League, which believes the Y2K computer glitch is actually a Jewish plot to take over the world, and the House of Yahweh, an Abilene, Texas-based group that is stockpiling arms in anticipation of the return of Jesus. The FBI is also monitoring such groups, and recently compiled its own report on millennial extremist groups. The report, called Project Megiddo (for the hill of Megiddo in Israel where the Armageddon battle is supposed to take place,) was released last month.

"Almost uniformly, the belief among right-wing religious extremists is that the federal government is the arm of Satan. Therefore, the millennium will bring about a battle between Christian martyrs and the government. At the core of this volatile mix is the belief of apocalyptic religions and cults that the battle against Satan, as prophesied in the Book of Revelation, will begin in 2000," the FBI report says.

"Religiously based terrorists use the New Testament's Book of Revelation -- the prophecy of endtime -- for the foundation of their belief in the Apocalypse," it says.

The FBI is monitoring many groups around the nation, including the Christian Identity movement and the Black Hebrew Israelites -- both of whom see themselves as divinely endowed with superior status and responsible to fight those forces which they deem evil -- Jews, other races, and the federal government, among others.

Local FBI agents are not tracking any such groups in Southern Nevada, according to Kevin Caudle, FBI spokesman in Las Vegas.

"I'm not aware of any (dangerous) religious groups in Las Vegas per se," Caudle said. "There are militia groups in central and Northern Nevada who we work to keep open lines of communication with, but none that we're aware of in Las Vegas.

"That doesn't mean something couldn't happen here -- we had no idea that (the) Oklahoma City (bombing) was going to happen. But from what we do know, there is nothing going on here," Caudle said.

As the year 2000 approaches, Harvest Rock pastor Lavala says the message he is giving his Las Vegas congregation is based not on fear, but faith.

"The Bible doesn't teach us to panic, it teaches us to trust in the Lord," Lavala said. "If something happens, he will take care of us."

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