Sunday, October 31, 1999
Sunday, October 31, 1999 |
Forty percent of all Americans and 45 percent of Christians believe that the world will end, as the Bible predicts, in a battle at Armageddon between Jesus and the Antichrist, according to a new Newsweek Poll on prophecy. Fully, 71 percent of evangelical Protestants, but only 28 percent of non-evangelical Protestants and 18 percent of Catholics share that view. The poll is part of the cover package, “Prophecy: What the Bible Says About the End of the World,” in the Nov. 1 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, Oct. 25), which also includes articles by religion editor Kenneth L. Woodward, on “The Way the World Ends,” and “Millennium Madness” by senior editor John Leland. According to the poll, almost half of believers in the Biblical prophecy of Armageddon (47 percent) think the Antichrist is on earth now, and 45 percent of them believe Jesus will return to Earth in their lifetimes. But, only a modest group — 15 percent — of believers in the Armageddon prophecy — or about 6 percent of all Americans — think Jesus will return as early as the year 2000. In the poll, large majorities of believers in the second coming of Christ believe that current events such as natural disasters (83 percent), epidemics like AIDS and Ebola (66 percent) and outbreaks of violence like shootings (62 percent), are a sign that it will happen soon. An overwhelming majority of believers in a second coming (95 percent) believe that, under such circumstances, it is important to get right with God and a majority (65 percent) think it is important to convert non-Christians. However, less than half of believers (42 percent) think that converting people to the Christian faith hastens the return of Jesus to Earth. Among all of those surveyed, 57 percent expect that people will be divided between heaven and hell after the world ends. An even larger majority (68 percent) expect that they will be going to heaven. For this Newsweek poll, Princeton Research Associates interviewed 755 adults 18 and older from Oct. 21-22. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4 percent points. — PRNewswire
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