{"id":5100,"date":"2022-12-28T13:10:20","date_gmt":"2022-12-28T18:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=5100"},"modified":"2022-12-28T13:13:13","modified_gmt":"2022-12-28T18:13:13","slug":"nearly-half-of-u-s-christians-believe-we-are-living-in-the-end-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2022\/12\/nearly-half-of-u-s-christians-believe-we-are-living-in-the-end-times.html","title":{"rendered":"Nearly Half Of U.S. Christians Believe We Are Living In The End Times"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new poll released by the <\/span>Pew Research Center<\/span><\/a> revealed that nearly four out of ten Americans (39 percent) believe the \u201cend times\u201d is near. That number increased to 47 percent when the respondents identified as Christians. Historically black churches came in the highest, with 76 percent believing we are living in the end times. Evangelical Protestants came in second with 63 percent. The study also looked at individuals\u2019 views on <\/span>climate change<\/span><\/a> and how that impacted their view on the current end times situation. 51 percent of US adults who believe that climate change is an \u201cextremely\/very serious problem\u201d also believe we are living in the end times, while 62 percent of those who don\u2019t believe we are in the end times believe that climate change is an extreme problem. 66 percent of all US adults agreed with the idea of stewardship of the earth, meaning \u201cGod gave humans a duty to protect and care for the Earth, including the plants and animals.\u201d 54 percent agreed with dominionism, that \u201cGod gave humans the right to use the Earth, including the plants and animals, for humanity\u2019s benefit,\u201d and 48 percent believed both. Those numbers increased to 80 percent, 67 percent, and 61 percent, respectively, for those who were religiously affiliated.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There has always been a fascination with end times predictions. In <\/span>1997<\/span><\/a>, 39 members of Heaven\u2019s Gate cult committed suicide under the belief that their souls would enter an alien spacecraft following behind the passing of Halley\u2019s comet.\u00a0<\/span>Y2K<\/span><\/a>\u00a0brought a slew of end times predictions and panic. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated doomsday prophecies in both secular and religious circles. A\u00a0<\/span>Lifeway Research poll<\/span><\/a> in early 2020 found that half (56 percent) of pastors polled believed Jesus would return during their lifetime. At the onset of the pandemic, CNN\u2019s <\/span>John Blake<\/span><\/a>\u00a0wrote a warning about the rise in doomsday prophecies as the virus began to spread worldwide. He particularly highlighted the misunderstandings and difficulties of understanding the book of Revelation, the most common source for end-time predictions. \u201cIf there was a prize for the most misunderstood source for bad predictions, it would go to the Book of Revelation. It may be the Bible\u2019s ultimate crossover \u2013 no other book\u2019s imagery and language has so penetrated popular culture. Even people who have never read the Bible are familiar with its references: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the Red Dragon, 666 and the seven bowls of plague,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The difficulty of understanding Revelation and end times prophecy has also made it difficult for Christians to agree on the order of events. The poll found that 44 percent of Christians took a premillennial view of Jesus\u2019s return in the end days, with 45 percent saying it is impossible to know the events that will lead up to Jesus\u2019s return. A premillennial view posits that Jesus will return at a bleak time of humanity, while a \u201cpostmillennial\u201d view asserts there will be a period of prosperity and peace before Jesus\u2019s return. It highlights the difficulties of observing and understanding the times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new poll released by the Pew Research Center revealed that nearly four out of ten Americans (39 percent) believe the \u201cend times\u201d is near. That number increased to 47 percent when the respondents identified as Christians. Historically black churches came in the highest, with 76 percent believing we are living in the end times.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":3175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNearly Half Of U.S. Christians Believe We Are Living In The End Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a recent study by the Pew Research Center, it found that nearly half of U.S. Christians believe that we are living in the end times.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nearly Half Of U.S. Christians Believe We Are Living In The End Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a recent study by the Pew Research Center, it found that nearly half of U.S. Christians believe that we are living in the end times.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2022\/12\/nearly-half-of-u-s-christians-believe-we-are-living-in-the-end-times.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-28T18:10:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-28T18:13:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2022\/03\/solar-storm_credit-shutterstock56052.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" 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