Just as the Bible is rarely read, even by its adherents, very few people outside the various fundamentalist movements take the time to obtain a detailed understanding of the hopes forwarded by those movements. The reality is that the hopes of fundamentalism in general are limited. The short version is that all of them, in some way, seek the end of the world.
We do not speak simply about fundamentalist Christians here, but about all fundamentalists (at least all fundamentalists from the three great Abrahamic faiths). As Gershom Gorenberg points out in his excellent 2002 book, The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount fundamentalist Jews seek to possess the Temple Mount (where the Islamic "Dome of the Rock" now stands) so that they can rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, which they believe will bring about the coming of the Messiah and the end of the world. At the same time, fundamentalist Christians usually support the mission that the fundamentalist Jews have undertaken because they believe that only after the Temple is rebuilt will the anti-Christ come and the messiah have his second coming, thus ending the world. Fundamentalist Moslems have a completely different scenario in which Allah sends a Messiah who defeats a Jewish Anti-Christ and then defeats Jesus, and establishes a One-World Moslem theocracy.
Do you note a certain theme here?
Well we do too. Ending the world and establishing a theocratic government are basic goals and expectations for fundamentalists. At least within Christianity however, once you get beyond that basic goal beliefs diverge radically.
There are pre- post- and a-millennial views among literalists in Christianity; and among those of the pre-millennial view there are those that are pre- post- and mid- tribulational. What does all this mean?
| Premillennialism | The premillennial interpretation claims that the tribulation comes before the millenium -- a thousand year period in which the Church rules the earth. According to this interpretation, the anti-Christ will come, the tribulation will occur, Christ will return, throw the false propeht and the anti-Christ into the Lake of Fire and imprison the devil; then there will be a thousand years of peace before the devil is loosed for a short season, misleads all of mankind yet again and attacks the Church with the help of the nations. At last the devil is defeated a final time and also cast into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone. Most, but not all, fundamentalist Churches are Premillennial. |
| Postmillennialism | The postmillennial interpretation maintains that the Church establishes the thousand year reign of the Church by itself, and that at the end of the thousand years (many post millennialists do not see the thousand years as a literal period of time) the anti-Christ comes, unites the kingdoms and is eventually destroyed together with Satan and the false prophet by the second coming of Christ, which is, therefore, after the millennium. A distinct minority of fundamentalist Churches are Postmillennial, although they are disproportionately influential in the movement. |
| Amillennialism | The amillennial interpretation maintains that there is no literal millennium. Very, very few fundamentalist Churches are amillennial, although some mainstream Christian Churches are. |
| Pretribulationalism | The pretribulational view is one wherein Christ raptures (takes away to be with him) the Church (those faithful to him) before the anti-Christ comes to power and begins persecuting those who are "Christians." |
| midtribulationalism | The midtribulational view is one wherein Christ returns in the middle of the tribulation to take away those loyal to him. Thus "true" Christians suffer some persecutions, but not all of them. |
| posttribulationalism | The posttribulational view is one wherein Christ does not rapture his "believers" until the end of the tribulation and the time of the defeat of the anti-Christ and his forces. |
Traditionally, most fundamentalist Christians have been Premillennial and pretribulational. There was an expectation that the end of the world was inevitable, that the anti-Christ's time as a ruler was also inevitable, and that Christ would protect his people. These views, needless to say, did little to encourage political activity or involvement. The fundamentalists of those times may have been as conservative as the fundamentalists of our own -- but you rarely saw it, since most of them took no part.
Now, although most fundamentalist Christians would still claim to be Premillennial and pretribulational -- just waiting for the "rapture" as it were, the realities of their actions speak of the tremendous influence a "foreign" theology has had on them. The Postmillennial views of the Orthodox Presbyterians and other Christian Reconstructionists have influenced the actions of the enormous layers of Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians that constitute the only steadily growing sector of the literalist movement in the Church.
In fact, the vast majority of such Christians are still Premillennial and pretribulational (witness the success of the "Left Behind" series of books), many of them would even consider Postmillennial views to be heretical. Regardless, their actions in becoming a politically involved force, pushing for control of national and international politics, are the actions of functional Postmillennialists, regardless of the theological trappings that cover them and of their personal beliefs.
So the hope of fundamentalism is the end of the world (or as some would say "of this system of things") and among literalist Christians, the values of a radical Postmillennialism that requires the Church to take power over the world in order for the world to end, has functionally displaced the more traditional theology of Premillennialism, as the light guiding the way to that eventual goal.