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- NEW YORK (PRNewswire)- Forty
percent of all Americans and 45 percent of Christians believe that the
world will end, as the Bible predicts, in a battle at Armageddon between
Jesus and the Antichrist, according to a new Newsweek Poll on prophecy.
Fully, 71 percent of Evangelical Protestants, but only 28 percent of non-Evangelical
Protestants and 18 percent of Catholics share that view.
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- The poll is part of the cover package, "Prophecy:
What the Bible Says About the End of the World," in the November 1
issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, October 25), which also includes
articles by Religion Editor Kenneth L. Woodward, on "The Way the World
Ends," and "Millennium Madness" by Senior Editor John Leland.
According to the poll, almost half of believers in the Biblical prophecy
of Armageddon (47%) think the Antichrist is on earth now, and 45 percent
of them believe Jesus will return to Earth in their lifetime. But, only
a modest group --15 percent -- of believers in the Armageddon prophecy
-- or about 6 percent of all Americans -- think Jesus will return as early
as the year 2000.
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- In
the poll, large majorities of believers in the second coming of Christ
believe that current events such as natural disasters (83%), epidemics
like AIDS and Ebola (66%) and outbreaks of violence like shootings (62%),
are a sign that it will happen soon. An overwhelming majority of believers
in a second coming (95%) believe that, under such circumstances, it is
important to get right with God and a majority (65%) think it is important
to convert non- Christians. However, less than half of believers (42%)
think that converting people to the Christian faith hastens the return
of Jesus to Earth. Among all of those surveyed, 57 percent expect that
people will be divided between heaven and hell after the world ends. An
even larger majority (68%) expect that they will be going to heaven.
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- For this Newsweek Poll, Princeton Research Associates
interviewed 755 adults, 18 and older from October 21-22. The margin of
sampling error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.
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- (Read Newsweek's news releases at
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- http://www.Newsweek.comhttp://www.Newsweek.com
- Click "Pressroom."
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- SOURCE Newsweek Web Site: <http://www.newsweek.comhttp://www.newsweek.com
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- Photo Notes:
- http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19991023/HSSA009
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- or NewsCom, 213-237-5431;
- AP PhotoExpress Network, PRN1;
- PressLink Online, 800-888-6195
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