You should follow @gal_suburban because she is one of the most effective researchers on Twitter and regularly comes up with mind blowing threads. We had a crazy two-hour conversation that was basically two non-believers navigating Christian Harry Potter. It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot.
She introduces a bonkers but shockingly common strain of Christian extremism — dispensationalism, which proposes that the Old Testament is a literal reading of history and one can both see the past and predict the future from it.
Interestingly, in a lot of dispensationalist doctrine, Russia’s aggression is seen as desirable because it’s supposed to happen before the Rapture, when all Christian believers will rise above the earth and be saved.
![Twitter avatar for @gal_suburban](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/gal_suburban.jpg)
Without getting too deep in the details, dispensationalists are “pre-trib” which means that the Rapture is supposed to happen before the “Tribulation” which is when all the heretics get slaughtered.
Dispensationalists often visualize themselves rising above a bloodbath of unbelievers who wouldn’t listen when they had the chance. This fellow is willing to bet his car and house on it.
![Twitter avatar for @TCK_FACTS](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/TCK_FACTS.jpg)
Here are some dispensationalists on 1/6 speaking in tongues en masse to pray that Pence would unconstitutionally overturn the election.
![Twitter avatar for @gal_suburban](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/gal_suburban.jpg)
And while it’s unclear whether Putin is intentionally using dispensationalist symbology to signal to Christian doomsday cultists, the letter “Z” certainly does have importance in the ideology.
![Twitter avatar for @gal_suburban](https://substackcdn.com/image/twitter_name/w_96/gal_suburban.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFNZJP4BXEAM2k_I.png)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFNZJP5OXIAIWEb_.jpg)
![Image](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.substack.com%2Fmedia%2FFNZJP6yXMAAj01T.png)
Please listen in! 💙
Dispensationalism with @gal_suburban