Directors' Statement
Each year thousands of Christians from the US travel to Jerusalem to tour the Holy Land, and to pledge
their support for Israel and the Jewish people.
The three filmmakers behind WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON all came to this project having independently contemplated the force of apocalyptic thinking in America and so it seemed natural to join forces.
At the outset there were many obstacles. We had only a sketchy understanding of what fundamental Evangelical concepts like the Rapture, the Tribulation and Armageddon really meant. None of us knew any Christian Zionists personally. And most challenging of all, we needed to earn the trust of Christian Zionists in order to gain access to their personal experiences, thoughts and feelings. Throughout, we reminded our subjects and ourselves that the goal of the film was not to pass judgment but to break through stereotypes and help spark dialogue among dissenting voices.
Part of our interest in trying to tackle this subject came from reading about the vast power of the Evangelical community both in the US and in Israel. In particular, the details of the complicated alliance between Christians and Jews, while much discussed in political journals and books, and in Bill Moyer’s PBS reports, still seemed elusive.
We wondered why so few of our friends understood how this unlikely relationship came about, or how some 50-60 million Evangelicals came to rest their deepest beliefs on a literal reading of Bible prophecy. During the filming we came to know a community of men and women who firmly believe that in order for Christ to return and redeem the planet, Israel must remain in Jewish hands and a new temple must be built on the current site of the Dome of the Rock, the third holiest site in Islam. It is a foregone conclusion in their view that until these events occur, the problems in the world - from terrorism to global warming - will increase.
Millions of Evangelical Christians rest their deepest beliefs on a literal reading of the Bible.
To many outside the Evangelical community, these beliefs may sound extreme. Yet we found these believers to be highly intelligent, sophisticated and very well organized at all levels of politics.
As we filmed, a larger political picture came into focus. For decades Evangelical leaders have influenced the power elite in Washington, helping shape policies regarding war and peace in the Middle East. Still, the prophetic underpinnings of their beliefs remained obscure, misunderstood, or simply disregarded. This situation - the gap between the political/religious reality and the general public's understanding of it - struck us as needing urgent attention. And we hoped that by bringing to light the people and theory behind the political landscape, we could help viewers see for themselves how, against the backdrop of the Holy Land, Christians and Jews have come to depend upon one another, and give us insight into the benefits and possible dangers of this paradoxical relationship.
Our goal was not to draft a polemic. We worked to tell the story of prophecy through the eyes of Evangelicals while interweaving the voices of critics from within the religious community. What followed was a memorable journey into a community that is not well understood, but one, which has shaped the nation's political and social landscape for decades, and may now be urging us toward what one Evangelical leader calls "World War III."