ABSTRACT
Under the leadership of Luc Jouret, a sect called the Order of the Solar Temple had gathered under the banner of an imminent apocalypse. Terrorism is less novel, but some terrorists may be inspired by millennialism to new acts of violence—an element in outbreaks in Japan and in the Branch Davidian movement in the United States. The small but interesting series of efforts to revive the millennial myth beyond the ranks of the faithful minority actually may have trailed off after their brief surge of the late 1980s. The millennial emphasis has encouraged some ordinary Mormons to build vivid anticipations of dire occurrences to come around the year 2000. Christians, even conservatives, do not necessarily predict a specific time for the apocalypse—majority Christians never have, and for good reason. Christian extremes are on the march, and despite their good reasons to hesitate, they may certainly trumpet the most extreme Christian message about the apocalypse.
