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What’s the appropriate reaction to something like this? Check it out.

On the August 16 edition of Fox News’ Your World, host Neil Cavuto interviewed Christian author Joel C. Rosenberg, whom he identified only as a “Middle East analyst,” regarding a recent Iranian “Holocaust cartoon contest,” and why “many in the Western media aren’t seeing” that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is as dangerous as Adolf Hitler. During the interview, Rosenberg warned of Ahmadinejad’s “apocalyptic mind-set,” asserting that he “is saying … that the end of the world is rapidly approaching and that it’s his mission to bring it about by destroying Israel and … the United States.” But neither Cavuto nor Rosenberg disclosed, as Media Matters for America has noted, that Rosenberg is the author of a book laying out his vision of the Apocalypse, or that Rosenberg has claimed that he was invited to the White House, Capitol Hill, and the CIA to discuss the Rapture and the Middle East, with White House aides purportedly marveling over how the apocalyptic events described in his novels keep coming true.

From the interview:

ROSENBERG: He just signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to buy missiles and arms from Moscow. He is sending $100 million a year to Hezbollah. He is building the arsenal and the alliance to destroy Israel and to wipe out the United States, and that’s what’s so dangerous. People don’t appreciate yet, particularly in the media –Mike Wallace for sure — don’t appreciate or understand the evil that is rising in Iran, and that’s what I’m trying to write about in novels. That’s what I’m trying to talk about — is the religious, end-of-the-world, apocalyptic mind-set that Ahmadinejad has (my emphasis). You can’t negotiate with someone, ultimately, who believes it’s his mission to end the world.

So one of the criticisms is the “apocalyptic mind-set”. Who is this speaking again?

According to Media Matters,

On the July 19 edition of the Jay Sekulow Live! radio program, Rosenberg said his book The Ezekiel Option (Tyndale House Publishers, July 2005) is “based on a 2,500-year-old Bible prophecy — Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 — in which Russia teams up with Iran, Lebanon, Syria, and a number of other Muslim countries to destroy Israel in what Ezekiel calls ‘the last days.’ ” Rosenberg added: “It’s too soon to say, honestly, that Ezekiel 38 and 39 are coming true, but I think it’s drawing a lot of interest in what the Bible has to say about future events in that part of the world, given the parallels to those prophecies.” Additionally, in a column posted on July 17 on the leftbehind.com website, Rosenberg purported to break down the prophecy from Ezekiel by listing “what to … watch[] for.” For his final bullet point, he wrote: “Even the G8 issued a statement defending Israel’s right to exist. But the Scriptures are clear, Israel will be totally alone when Russia and Iran attack.”

And during a segment on the July 26 edition of CNN’s Live From … discussing the potential coming of the Apocalypse, as indicated by current conflicts in the Middle East, host Kyra Phillips asked Rosenberg whether she needed “to start taking care of unfinished business and telling people that I love them and I’m sorry for all the evil things I’ve done.” Rosenberg replied, “Well, that would be a good start.”

Still not convinced? Check out his blog entry for today:

ABC PREPARING PRIME TIME SPECIAL, “ARE WE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS?”: Also, Billy Graham on recent events in the Middle East

My comment:

Didn’t you just depict the “religious, end-of-the-world, apocalyptic mind-set” of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as evil? How is mirroring the same view a good, or even Christian, thing? The role of a Christian is to serve and to love others.