View from the Pew
A look inside Hawaii's houses of worshipBy Mary Adamski
Christianity’s dark side
revealed in end-times speechA popular public speaker whose topic is the Middle East shared his vision Wednesday night with a Honolulu audience. David Hocking told 300 listeners:
"Israel will be forced into a peace process. Its leaders will be seduced into an agreement, and there will be a false peace for a while. The final superpower on Earth will not be the United States, but Israel."
Hocking is not a foreign affairs specialist nor a politician. He's a Christian preacher who interprets current events as steps toward a biblical Armageddon, the cataclysmic end of the world.
"Signposts pointing to the end times are happening in Israel, and most Christians in the world remain ignorant of them," Hocking told the crowd at Calvary Chapel of Honolulu. He was one of the speakers at nightly "End Times Outreach" sessions at the downtown church this week, following the church's annual "How to Walk with Jesus" conference at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
Hocking's line was familiar to his audience, who applauded and laughed at his earthy, wise-guy delivery. A former pastor, he is host of the California-based "Hope for Today" Christian radio show. His broadcasts in recent weeks have focused on the Book of Revelations, the last book of the New Testament, in which some see the literal blueprint for the end of the world.
A key facet of the fundamentalist Christian school of thought he expressed -- in disparaging language that didn't seem to distress the crowd -- is that Islam is the enemy predicted in Bible prophecies and that God is going to punish that religion and its followers big time.
Here is a dark side of some Christians' belief that isn't usually trumpeted in Hawaii's climate of tolerance.
Last fall, when clergy and members of nearly every belief system gathered here to express sorrow and solidarity over the Sept. 11 terrorism, there were even some Christians who stayed away deliberately.
This anti-Islamic undercurrent among some fundamentalist Christians has made headlines elsewhere. A Florida Baptist pastor, Jerry Vines, vilified Mohammed and Islam in a televised June sermon at the Southern Baptist Convention in Missouri. Mainland newspapers and Web sites have followed the spinning controversy -- Muslim groups demanding apology and mediation meetings, other Christians defending or attacking Vines' point of view.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
At the Calvary Chapel of Honolulu, Christian preacher David Hocking spoke Wednesday about the end of the world and the signs that he says point to it.
Another religious tempest involves a Lutheran minister who joined with other clergy in a September interfaith prayer service at Yankee Stadium. He was suspended in June in a vote by other ministers in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, one of the most conservative Protestant denominations. The Rev. David Benke was upheld by the Rev. Gerald Kieschnick, president of the 2.6 million-member denomination, and now he is on the orthodoxy griddle, too. At issue is the 1847 church constitution forbidding "syncretism" -- the mingling of Christian and non-Christian beliefs.
On Wednesday night, Hocking said, "I don't think much of interfaith" efforts that arose in many American communities in the past year. "You can't have unity that is above doctrinal differences. If I talk with an Islamic, I'll make him so mad. I believe Mohammed is a false prophet and Allah is not the God of the Bible.
"There are good people trapped in this religious system. ... There are peace-loving Islamics," Hocking told the crowd. "I do not believe Islam is a peace-loving religion as we are being told. The pressure in the U.S. for tolerance is a plot."
He scoffed at what he calls the "replacement theology" of mainline Christian churches, which do not take the Bible literally. "There is confusion in the Christian churches. Many believe the church has replaced Israel. They will tell us that 85 percent of Christians don't believe in the Bible prophecy."
Hocking cited chapter and verse for more than an hour, claiming that everything about the current state of Israel, right down to the species of trees planted in its reforestation projects, is predicted in the Bible.
His ideas on the world's end were well received by the Calvary Chapel crowd, some of whom echoed his unconventional views on Islam.
"I think he's dead-on accurate," said Doug Wrobel, a Calvary Chapel member, after the talk. "There's never going to be peace there.
"The United States has been blessed because it supported Israel. If it turns its back on Israel now, it will be forsaken by God."
Shelly Moseley said she thinks "the Jews are being unfairly represented" in opinion columns and letters published in the newspapers. "I believe war is inevitable. We need to stand with Israel."
As for Israel's enemies, Moseley said, "I believe every Muslim person is created by God. I think many are sincere, but they are sincerely wrong in their beliefs."
"We should reach out in love to Muslims," said Rose Hookway, "like you do when you have kids and you need to guide them. We need to show them the Bible teaching."
Andrew Johnson said talk about the end of the world isn't scary. "I put my hope and trust in what Jesus tells us." He said people need to differentiate between governments and people when they look at Islam. "Jesus died for the Muslim people and all people. He loves them as much as he loves me."
Shaw Bates said, "God's shaking up the world right now. It's a hot topic. It doesn't frighten me. It's exciting because the Lord's plan is being played out."
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Mary Adamski covers religion for the Star-Bulletin.
Email her at madamski@starbulletin.com.
