Waiting for Armageddon

In this documentary, filmmakers Kate Davis, Franco Sacchi and David Heilbroner let the faithful speak for themselves, which makes it even more frightening than it might have been. Interviews with American evangelical Christians—Bible believers who think they’ll be “raptured” up to Heaven without dying, while the unbelievers suffer a horrible tribulation leading up to Armageddon—show just how serious they are about the end of the world. One of the children is heartbreaking as she recounts all the things she’ll never get to do, because Armageddon is coming “any day now.” There are also good explanations for the threat to foreign policy posed by such true believers: Their hope to see the temple in Jerusalem rebuilt allies them with radical right-wing Jews, and antagonizes the Muslims at the Dome of the Rock. It’s a recipe for disaster—an Armageddon of sorts, even if it’s not the one these Christians expect.