Wednesday, December 5, 2007

A Catholic Responds To Attacks On Huckabee and His End Time Comments

Well since Huckabee is gaining nationally on Rudy the knives are out on Governor Huckabee. This should be expected. Last year many democrats, that know what they are talking about, recognized Huckabee as a true threat.

I was checking in on the LSU news and the political board at Tigerdroppings had all sort of comments about Huckabee and his end of the world comments.

In some ways this is amusing. The far left that never understands Christian voters is doing something again that will backfire. It is also sad. It is sad that so many Americans don't know what their fellow Americans believe. You can square that times 100 for their knowledge of Evangelicals. Evangelicals are all over the map as to what they believe about the end times. If you google "Huckabee" and " Armageddon" then you can see the overreaction by the left.

From what I can tell the whole fear campaign comes from two places.

First is this interview he did on the Glen Beck Show on CNN Oct the 19th.
BECK: You`re a biblical guy. You`re a preacher. Do you believe we are possibly facing End Times scenarios with any of the events that we`re seeing?
HUCKABEE: You know, every generation has thought that they were, and we could be, but we don`t ever act like, "OK, this is it," so we just sit back and coast and ride it out until the end. We always act as if it could be today, but we also plan as if it could be 100,000 years from now.

Wow. That is pretty traditional Christianity. In fact his answer is one that indicates that he is in fact not one of these people that plans things or his lifes actions around the "end of the world" and some final battle. What Huckabee is saying is a very Catholic attitude. More on that later.

The other reference appears to be this Rolling Stone Article.
HUCKABEE GAVE AN EVEN MORE DAMNING glimpse into his inner batsh*t self in a recent appearance at the Preston­wood Baptist Church near Dallas, where he told audiences that Christians are sitting in the pole position of the race to Armageddon. "If you're with Jesus Christ, we know how it turns out in the final moment," he said. "I've read the last chapter in the book, and we do end up winning."
Winning? I ask Huckabee when, exactly, he thinks victory will arrive. "When I was eighteen, I thought I had it pretty well figured out," he says. "I thought the end of the world was coming at any moment." But when I ask how his views have changed, he says only that he is "less adamant now." Huckabee, with the wisdom of age, apparently believes we have at least a day or two left until the end of the world.
The troubling thing about Huckabee's God rhetoric is that a man who is glad that Christians will "win" at Armageddon must be happy about the rest of us losing. When I press him on whether he believes all non-Christians are eternally damned, Huckabee is evasive. "Being president isn't about picking who goes to heaven and who goes to hell," he says. When none other than Bill O'Reilly hammered him on the same point a day later, Huckabee conceded that "I believe Jesus is the way to heaven
."

Now we see author bias all over this. Again this article mirrors his own CNN comments. This is basic Christianity. By the way we have already won. Jesus rose from the tomb according to Christian belief. If Huckabee is a nut job then so are many voters and past Presidents!! Is the far left favorite Jimmy Carter a nutjob? I suspect he believes like Huckabee. What about Bill Clinton that is of the same faith as Huckabee? Is he a nut job?

Is Pope Benedict a nut Job? Is he dangerous?

From the above Article Huckabee said:
"Christians are sitting in the pole position of the race to Armageddon. "If you're with Jesus Christ, we know how it turns out in the final moment," he said. "I've read the last chapter in the book, and we do end up winning."

The Holy Father has commented on this too as well as numerous Popes, Theologians, and Doctors of the Church. On a great talk he gave last year on the Apostle John and the Book of Revelation :
at the heart of the visions that the Book of Revelation unfolds, are the deeply significant vision of the Woman bringing forth a male child and the complementary one of the dragon, already thrown down from Heaven but still very powerful.
This Woman represents Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer, but at the same time she also represents the whole Church, the People of God of all times, the Church which in all ages, with great suffering, brings forth Christ ever anew. And she is always threatened by the dragon's power. She appears defenceless and weak.
But while she is threatened, persecuted by the dragon, she is also protected by God's comfort. And in the end this Woman wins. The dragon does not win.
This is the great prophecy of this Book that inspires confidence in us! The Woman who suffers in history, the Church which is persecuted, appears in the end as the radiant Bride, the figure of the new Jerusalem where there will be no more mourning or weeping, an image of the world transformed, of the new world whose light is God himself, whose lamp is the Lamb.
For this reason, although John's Book of Revelation is pervaded by continuous references to suffering, tribulation and tears - the dark face of history -, it is likewise permeated by frequent songs of praise that symbolize, as it were, the luminous face of history.
So it is, for example, that we read in it of a great multitude that is singing, almost shouting: "Alleluia! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready" (Rv 19: 6-7).
Here we face the typical Christian paradox, according to which suffering is never seen as the last word but rather, as a transition towards happiness; indeed, suffering itself is already mysteriously mingled with the joy that flows from hope.
For this very reason John, the Seer of Patmos, can close his Book with a final aspiration, trembling with fearful expectation. He invokes the definitive coming of the Lord: "Come, Lord Jesus!"
(Rv 22: 20).
This was one of the central prayers of the nascent
.

There is no difference in what Huckabee is saying and what the Holy Father is saying. In fact Huckabee is mirroring in his remarks 2000 years of constant Christian tradition.

What is striking about this is of course Catholics are in Advent. The readings not only take us back in time where people were awaiting Christ. They also speak to us to be watching too. Tsis past Sunday the Gospel was:
Matthew 24:37-44 Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be out in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken, and one will be left. Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

So If Huckabee is a loon then I guess all other Catholics and Christians are too. BY the way the Holy Father commented on this reading at Vespers just this WEEK!!
My sisters and brothers in Christ,
Advent is about our awareness that God is present and that our world is changing. It is also about the fact that the world will end. Most of us don’t like to think about the reality that the world will end. Many of the early Christians thought that the world would end in their own time—and they were wrong. Regularly there are groups of believers who believe that the world will end in their lifetime, but so far they are all wrong. Why should we think about the end of the world? ......Advent keeps telling us that there is more to life than the present moment. We are created in God and shall live eternally with God—but we must choose now to begin to live that life.

What does the Catholic Catechism say on this?
2818 In the Lord's Prayer, "thy kingdom come" refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return.88 But, far from distracting the Church from her mission in this present world, this desire commits her to it all the more strongly. Since Pentecost, the coming of that Reign is the work of the Spirit of the Lord who "complete[s] his work on earth and brings us the fullness of grace."89
2819 "The kingdom of God [is] righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."90 The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between "the flesh" and the Spirit.91
Only a pure soul can boldly say: "Thy kingdom come." One who has heard Paul say, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies," and has purified himself in action, thought and word will say to God: "Thy kingdom come!"92
.

Notice the Church has always viewed this stage of Salvation History as the "end times".

So what is the point? I am not really doing this post as an Apologetic piece for Christianity. However it shows that Huckabee's thoughts as a Christian man are not outside the mainstream as to the above quotes. If people think his views are dangerous. Then expect most Christian voters to take note of that perception.

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