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Two days after terrorist assaults in New York and Washington wiped out thousands of lives, Rev. Jerry Falwell publicly blamed civil libertarians, abortionists, feminists, and gays for inciting the wrath of God. In the storm of criticism that followed, Falwell swung into full-time damage control, complaining of having been quoted out of context, insisting that the "liberal media" had excerpted a misleading soundbite from a "long theological discussion," and finally apologizing not for the content of his utterances, but for their inappropriate timing.

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he discussion at issue, which was neither long nor deeply theological, occupied the closing segment of Pat Robertson's September 13 700 Club telecast. Robertson (a Pentecostal) and Falwell (a Baptist) are competing Virginia theocrats whose joint appearances are rare. Robertson, a savvier businessman, has built a multi-billion dollar empire that encompasses the Christian Broadcast Network, Regent University, and the Christian Coalition; Falwell, best known for heading the now-defunct Moral Majority, maintains a narrower power base centered in Lynchburg at the Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University. They have disagreements of theology, conduct, and style.

But on September 13, the two came together in a cordial show of unity, finding common ground in a vision of premillennial destruction. "What we saw on Tuesday, terrible as it is, could be minuscule," said Falwell, "...if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve." With peculiar relish, Robertson added, "I think we've just seen the antechamber to terror. We haven't even begun to see what they can do to the major population."

Both men agreed that the American Civil Liberties Union's affronts to God had helped trigger the catastrophe. Falwell went on to chide the ACLU for "throwing God out of the public square, out of schools"; abortionists because "when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad"; feminists, presumably for existing; and gay men and lesbians for "actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle." Robertson's response was, "Well, I totally concur."

A history of the end of time
Beneath their readiness to blame were undertones of satisfaction. The events of September 11 had appeared to validate their conviction that the Endtime, in which the wicked will reap the whirlwind, would arrive on schedule at the onset of the 21st century. Like millions of fundamentalist Christians, Falwell and Robertson await the opening passage of an end-of-the-world scenario purportedly mapped out in the Book of Daniel, the Book of Revelation, and elsewhere in the Bible.

Apocalyptic myths have tantalized Muslims, Jews, and Christians for many hundreds of years. But most born-again Americans' expectations of the final days were formulated in the 19th century by John N. Darby-- founder of the Plymouth Brethren-- and Cyrus Scofield-- author of the Scofield Reference Bible. The belief is especially prevalent among Southern Baptists and members of the Assemblies of God.

According to the doctrine of "dispensationalism" promulgated by Darby, Scofield, and others, the Endtime script's climactic moment is the Second Coming of Christ. But first the world must endure a time of Tribulation, in which hunger and pestilence run rampant, war and disaster ravage the land, and millions perish. As civilization crumbles, a modern analogue of the Roman Empire will emerge. Its charismatic leader, the Antichrist-- variously identified as a Jew, an Arab, or a queer-- will forge a false peace, then plunge the world into Armageddon. The final battle, centered in Israel, will end in global carnage, the defeat of the Antichrist, and Christ's return. A thousand-year epoch of peace and prosperity will follow. Then the world will cease to exist.

At some point around the beginning, middle, or end of the Tribulation (the timing is a matter of debate), true Christians will ascend to heaven in the "Rapture of the Church" disappearing in the blink of an eye, leaving piles of clothing. (Falwell assures his followers that since there is no nudity in Heaven, they will instantly be swathed in white celestial robes.) Shielded from the horrors reserved for the unconverted, this elite will follow their Messiah back to Earth in triumph as the smoke clears from the final conflict.

Belief in prophecy has engendered an Endtime industry whose products range from academic courses in eschatology to pop artifacts like the Left Behind series of pulp novels by Jerry B. Jenkins and televangelist Tim LaHaye. Doomsday bestsellers like Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth and John Walvoord's Armageddon, Oil, and the Middle East Crisis have helped popularize the notion that Middle Eastern politics and Islam have integral roles to play in civilization's final act.

On the Internet, discussions of the Tribulation, the Rapture, and the Antichrist abound. Viewing the world in apocalyptic terms, Endtime cultists impose eschatological interpretations on current events and see signs and portents everywhere in automatic teller machines, the Challenger explosion, the Gulf War, OPEC, Rwandan massacres, transcendental meditation, rave parties, the Y2K bug, AIDS, the euro, the European Union, and the Satanic behavior of lesbians and gay men.

In the past decade, various individuals-- Saddam Hussein, Bill Clinton, Marilyn Manson, Osama bin Laden-- have been tentatively identified as the Antichrist. According to Radio Bible Class Ministries, the five most prevalent expectations people have about the Antichrist are that this personage or force will take the form of a popular religious leader, a 30-year-old Jew, a New Age belief system, a philosophical or social movement (perhaps the feminist or gay rights movements), or a male homosexual.

Insisting that homosexuality was the sin for which Sodom was destroyed, Boston evangelist Harold John Ockenga and others have warned that tolerance of gay sex invites calamity. "The Rod of God hath smitten Fag America!" trumpets www.godhatesfags.com, the website of Rev. Fred Phelps, pastor of Topeka's Westboro Baptist Church, in the aftermath of September 11. Pat Robertson, who claims that gay activists exemplify the "Antichrist spirit" of the times, once warned the city of Orlando, Florida, that the flying of rainbow flags during Pride Week invited earthquakes and hurricanes. Citing Daniel 11:37, which states, "Neither shall he regard... the desire of women...," many Christians are convinced that the Antichrist will indeed be gay.

For some, the effort to stamp out homosexuality is a divinely-mandated entry into the ultimate struggle between God and Satan. At the root of much contemporary religious zealotry is the wish to nudge that struggle along. In her 1999 book Forcing God's Hand, the late Grace Halsell outlined ways in which Jerry Falwell and others are pursuing practical efforts to jump-start the Endtime. Falwell, who has said he thinks the Antichrist is a living male Jew, maintains close ties to the State of Israel, and is working to fulfill prophesies that call for construction of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (Osama bin Laden, whose brand of Islam is apocalyptic, may be pursuing parallel goals in support of his own eschatological timetable.)

True believers at the helm
When the Endtime cult's adherents are elected or appointed to political office, the policy implications are chilling. Endtime believers now in government include several key members of the Bush administration, notably Attorney General John Ashcroft. A devout member of the Assemblies of God, Ashcroft is steeped in Endtime lore and the work of evangelist David Wilkinson, whose vision of the last days involves "wild, roving mobs of homosexual men" and who calls America "one great holocaust party." Ashcroft may--along with Falwell, Robertson, and millions of Christians-- view the current "war on terrorism" as the final Crusade.

On Broadway in Lower Manhattan, at a Prayer Station near the 16-acre swath of devastation that had been the World Trade Center, members of the Church of the Living Water distribute copies of the Book of John and other inspirational literature. "This is the beginning of the end," says Elizabeth, a bright-eyed middle-aged church member thrusting pamphlets at passers-by. "The last days are here. People have got to choose sides-- good or evil, darkness or light. You think this was a terrible disaster? Wait and see what happens when the Rapture comes."

Editor's note: Political Research Associates (PRA), a Somerville, Massachusetts agency dedicated to monitoring and analyzing the political right, provided source material for this article. Additional information about the Endtime and Christian Right responses to September 11 can be found at PRA's website, www.publiceye.org.