March 30, 2005 -- Christian Identity pastor Peter J. Peters of the LaPorte Church of Christ has an interesting Biblical interpretation of the War in Iraq initiated by the United States in 2003. Peters is a white separatist who believes that the so-called Aryan Nations, the whites of the United States and Northern Europe are the tribes of Israel (for more on Peters and the Christian Identity movement, click on this link to a related essay on the Christian Identity movement and related anti-Semitic and racist organizations).

In preparation for the above-linked essay, I read a number of newsletters published by the LaPorte Church of Christ, and while some of the arguments made by Peters are simply a religious justification for bigotry. He has a remarkably consistent anti-government view. While most members of the Religious Right in the U.S. are compelled to support President Bush's military, foreign and domestic policy blunders, Peters is not so inclined. He has consistently argued against government power grabs like the Patriot Act, and the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. He obviously likes Bush more than he did Clinton, whom he called a communist. I got the feeling he called Clinton a communist because he was unable to find any evidence he was Jewish. On the other hand, he has implied that Bush is at least part Jewish.

What got my attention at first was Peters' uncanny prediction about the upcoming war in Iraq five years before it happened. He wrote in newsletter volume one in 1998 (the newsletters are available at http://www.scripturesforamerica.org/) that Clinton fell out of favor with the Jews because he wouldn't go along with an economic bailout of southeast asia, or go to war with Iraq. He argues that the Jews control the media, the government and that they wanted war with Iraq to eliminate Iraq as a threat to Israel.

In Newsletter Vol. 6 2001, Peters criticizes the war on terrorism, calling the U.S. government a false god: “... his god declared war on drugs and now there are more drugs than ever before. In spite of all this, he now believes his god will win the war against terrorism, not realizing that now there will be more terrorism than ever before,” Peters wrote.

He again predicts the war in Iraq, two years before it happened, saying that Shinar, one of the ancient words to describe the area around Babylon in Iraq can be translated to read, “Bush country.”

He also relates the war to scriptures relating to the fall of Babylon (2 Kings 19:35 and Exodus 12:29. “A prison of every unclean spirit (Abu Grabe?) a prison of every unclean and hateful bird (avian flu?). “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues (Revelation 18:1-4).” If Peters is right, the Iraq war will result in a plague against the U.S., maybe the deadly avian flu. Pretty scary.

Peters also writes, “The present war benefits these so-called chosen people by having their enemies, i.e. the Christians and the Moslems, fight each other just as they did in the Crusades. It makes men rich from oil and it borrows money into existence, thus making the parasite International-Jew bankers rich ... ”

Well, you get the idea. While key members of the Religious Right in the United States are Christian Zionists, Peters is definitely not one of those. He is prone to see Jewish conspiracies behind everything. So his take on Iraq is decidedly different.

According to an online religious tract by the First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Naperville, IL, “Christian Zionism equates the actions of the government of Israel with the word of God as it is revealed in the Bible. Christian Zionism condones and encourages violence on the part of one side in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.” This view, embraced by the Bush administration in practice, if not in fact, has greatly hampered the peace process between Israel and Palestine. It has also been a strong factor in the decision to go to war in Iraq.

All of the above is based on Biblical prophecies, according to the First Congregational Church, this is a mistake:
“We believe that scripture teaches us to be wary of predictions about the future. The prophet declares, 'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord' (Is. 55:8-9). Jesus points out, '…you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah (Mt. 16:3-4).' As Jesus was preparing to ascend into the heavens after his resurrection, speaking of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, he said, 'It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority (Acts 1:6-7).'

“For two thousand years, Christians have continually been predicting an imminent Second Coming of Christ. However, for 2000 years, Jesus has never once been wrong in stating that the predictors would be wrong.”

Copyright © 2005 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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