In Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District, Republicans this weekend chose a Pentecostal minister who has claimed in his sermons that the Biblical End of Times is coming soon, to run against U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn.
The statement is made in audio of one of Joel Demos‘s sermons at the Christian Liife Center, entitled “The Best Defense is a Good Offense.” It and three more of his sermons are available here.
In a sermon delivered in late 2008, Demos praises former President George W. Bush and says his “overwhelming legacy” will be “that we have not had an attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001.”
The primary reason for this is because “the United States has gone on the offense,” he said.
“We have taken the fight to the enemy. We have infiltrated the safe havens of terrorism. We have plowed our way into enemy territory. We have even gone to such great lengths as to occupy sovereign nations that have harbored terrorists. We have taken the fight to them.”
Demos goes on to say that war is “never pretty” and should never be entered into lightly. But he says that the United States’ invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan were necessary because “the spirit of the Antichrist is on the rise” and “we are quickly approaching the End of Times.”
Because the biblical End of Times is coming, we need not be concerned about Iraq or Afghanistan, Demos said. Rather, we need to be “more concerned, in this End Time Hour, about the spiritual battles that rage on the home front.”
What follows is a sermon warning about lust, premarital sex, materialism, pride, “foul and indecent language,” negativity, and temptation in general.
Demos remarks on the growth of the congregation in its two year existence in Golden Valley, and says “the Devil had a good thing going in Golden Valley,” before they came.
“I believe God has planted us in what you might call ‘enemy territory,'” in the western suburbs, Demos said. “And just as the United States has gone on the offensive, Christian Life Center, it’s time to go on the offense” in the Twin Cities.
Demos advises congregation members to “take on the whole armor of God,” including invoking Jesus’ name and walking in the Spirit of God, to “pull down those strongholds” of the Devil.
Oddly enough, Demos’s preliminary campaign Web site makes no mention of his ministry or his faith in his biography.
Demos is the son of missionary parents and grew up in Greece and Germany. He received a B.A. in theology in 2001 from Christian Life College in Stockton, Calif.
His grandmother was the late June Demos, who served as mayor of Roseville from 1976 to 1987.
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