The Internet has given an immediate and powerful platform to many kinds of religious and secular groups who want to advance their views on the end of the world. Dinges teaches a course at CUA in apocalyptic and millenarian thought in the American experience. Catholicism has historically taken a post-millennial approach, Dinges said. This position holds that the second coming of Christ and the final judgment will occur at the end of a figurative period of time. The post-millennial system which was prominent among most evangelical Christians in the first half of the 19th century helped foster the abolitionist movement, prison reform and other social and communitarian movements, as believers worked to change the world in preparation for Christ's second coming, Dinges says.
Dinges sees a more pessimistic view in the pre-millennial approach.
Pre-millennialists accept the scenario of an antichrist, the Rapture, Armageddon and a final judgment. And today, groups as diverse as survivalists and radical environmentalists adopt the symbols and images of the apocalypse to advance their ideas, such as naming Bill Gates as the anti-Christ, he says. Even hysteria over the Y2K computer bug has an apocalyptic connection, Dinges says. Don't miss our most recent News Releases or our on-line speech texts . The Catholic University of America, Office of Public Affairs.