In no way is this a new phenomenon. Political events have always been viewed in the light of religious bias and agenda, particularly perhaps in the West over the past two thousand years of Pisces. What about the whole Seventh Day Adventist phenomenon which, from 1840 on, used the books of Daniel and Revelation, aided by the visions of its prophetess Ellen G White, to, as they saw it, infallibly interpret all world events and the meaning of history? Modern ‘end-time’ web sites and literature, such as the Left Behind series, with their blatantly apocalyptic interpretations of the book of Revelation, are simply modern millennial equivalents.

What is new, however, is the easy global coverage afforded by internet, the world wide web and other media, and the resulting mileage to be gained by unscrupulous high-profile people and groups in politics or business who choose, for their own ends, to blend religion and politics in confused and dangerous ways. All of them come from fixed positions and agendas, interpreting everything according to watertight formulas. All will twist events one way or another to fit their agendas and prophecies. Most will view religion and politics as inextricable and believe that loyalty in one area automatically demands unquestioning loyalty in the other. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the USA, where to question the validity of the Iraq war has not only branded a person as politically disloyal, but also as disloyal to Christ.

Such deliberate distortion is particularly prevalent and most dangerous at the end of an Age when ideas and belief systems which have held sway for 2000 years are being challenged by a new divine initiative. It is then, in the flux of change, that the old threatened agendas are clutched at, held onto with fierce zeal and touted as the only truth.