the world's most dangerous cult (it's not wahhabism). part i

 
Vahan Bogdasarian
 
Many people familiar with the Middle East believe that Wahhabism is the most dangerous cult in the world. Indeed, the intentions of the Wahhabists are as dangerous as they come.
But there is a cult more dangerous than this because, while ISIS is not a state actor and has no thermonuclear arms, this other cult is a major agent in manipulating the use of nuclear arms against people who are not their enemy but who they believe with all their hearts are the enemy of God and must therefore, based on a cult-like interpretation of the scriptures, be destroyed. This teaching pits the West against the Shia world (that’s the Muslims who are fighting ISIS and Al-Qaeda) and its nuclear armed allies Russia and China.
 
The danger of the cult in question lies in two areas:
 
1—their cult is alarmingly popular, particularly in the US, where over 50% of Americans polled favor Israel over the Palestinians (whose land they occupy) and, in addition, their desire for war has support from other powerful agents, both government and journalistic, in their own country and elsewhere.
 
2—Their cult teaches that God supports their desire for war and will keep them free from harm regardless of the risks and perils of the course of action – even a nuclear attack – that their government may undertake under pressure from them. Remember the soldiers in WW I sporting belt buckles with the inscription Gott mit uns. God is always for us, right?
 
The cult in question is Christian Zionism, which we will prove is in fact anti-Christian.

Past centuries have seen, in Europe, various cults strikingly similar to this modern one whose followers were fully convinced that they were executing God’s will and that He would protect them from all harm even as they marauded across Europe wantonly breaking God’s commandments not to kill or steal. This history of militant heretics is vividly portrayed with regards to numerous socialistic Christian sects by renowned Soviet mathematician and anticommunist dissident Igor Shafarevich in his book “The Socialist Phenomenon” (Социализм как явление мировой истории / Sotsializm kak yavlenie mirovoy istoriy).
 
These sects included the Cathars, the Apostolic Brethren, the Adamites, the Taborites, the early Anabaptists and numerous others, all of them imbued with a sense that certain obscure scripture verses conferred to them divine carte blanche to plunder churches and kill Christians with beliefs different from theirs. This conviction of self-righteousness is strikingly similar to the Wahhabist teachings in the Middle East.
 
Thomas Münzer,one of the founders of the Anabaptists, was a charismatic leader of the Peasants’ Revolt in Germany around the time of Luther’s Reformation. In his sermons, he railed against the local authorities, princes and church leaders, who he believed had arrogated to themselves rights that only God could wield and confer. He and his rebel followers plundered and burned churches and wantonly killed priests, citing vague scripture that he thought supported his lawlessness, though his actions violated Christ's Law of Love (more on this later).
 
At the beginning of the 14th century a “heretic” leader founded in Italy a sect that he called the Apostolic Brethren (Fraticelli Apostolici), which opposed the Catholics on several grounds. They opposed the Church not only philosophically but also militarily. According to Shafarevich:
 
“Victory in the wars with the Antichrist Pope, Dolcino foretells, will be won thanks to the interference of a foreign monarch. He pins his hope on Frederick, the King of Aragon and Sicily, who at the time was engaging in a fierce conflict with the Pope. (He had just strung up all the monks in Sicily who were suspected of supporting the papacy.)
Dolcino derived all this from his interpretation of the Biblical prophets”
He slaughtered people who disagreed with his take on scripture.
 
According to this Italian language text, Dolcino was eventually caught and made to watch as his wife was burned at the stake. Then it was his turn. Prior to this, he was subjected to unspeakable torture, such as castration, and his nose was cut off. Where was “love thine enemies” in this horrific clash of Christian vs Christian?
 
You probably will have heard of the sweet pacifistic Mennonites and Amish in Lancaster County PA. Before they were pacified, their Anabaptist forebears (we mentioned Münzer above) staged a reign of terror in Münster and elsewhere in the 16th Century. They were absolute caricatures of themselves. The first noteworthy leader, Jan Matthijs, after calling for all dissidents to be exterminated, declared war on essentially the whole non-Anabaptist world:
 
An excerpt from Shafarevich:
 
“The Anabaptists made a display of their power almost immediately in a terrible outburst of violence that took place … three days after the election. Monasteries and churches were destroyed, religious objects smashed and saints' relics thrown into the streets.”
 
To show his authority, Matthijs, personally executed one hapless citizen who disagreed with the bloody agenda. The obviously mentally disturbed leader had a vision in which he would take on single-handedly the enemy troops besieging the city. Proclaiming “God’s will be done,” he marched outside the city wall and was hacked to pieces by the lansquenets. Upon his death his comrade in arms Jan Bokelson (Jan van Leyden) announced that he would personally replace Matthijs.
 
If Matthijs was the hors d’oeuvre, Bokeleson was the main course. Once installed in power, he had himself crowned king of the world and began persecuting and killing unbelievers wholesale. He declared all things in common (communism), including all women. At one of his own frequent wedding parties, he saw an unfortunate guest whom he did not recognize and beheaded him on the spot. His pious wives stood round about the gory scene singing “Glory to God in the Highest”.
 
“One woman who refused to become the king's wife, in spite of his several proposals, had her head chopped off in the town square by the king's own hand, while his assembled wives sang "Glory to God in the Highest.’ “
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Relevant reading
 
Free download of Shafarevich’s The Socialist Phenomenon
http://robertlstephens.com/essays/shafarevich/001SocialistPhenomenon.html