Various religions and cults have predicted the imminent end of the world for thousands of years. Some have been content to merely comment while others have actively sought to prevent it and others work to make it happen. There has been a worrisome trend among Christians who believe that we are currently in what they call the End Times and that Jesus will soon return to judge mankind. The Christian Dominionists believe that the U.S. should become a theocracy before the world ends. They have members and supporters in the U.S. Congress. Some of the U.S. support for Israel is predicated on the idea that certain things have to happen in the Middle East before Jesus can return. The reason that I bring up the subject is that I recently read about a doomsday cult in Japan that believes that nuclear war will inevitably destroy the world.
The Japanese cult called Sukyo Mahikari is said to be the fastest growing doomsday cult in the world with over a million members. They believe in Jewish Freemasons are conspiring to take over the world. The holy book of the cult is called the Goseigen or the "Book of Warnings." It was "revealed" by the "Creator God" to Yoshikazu Okada in the early 1960s. The book says that the "perishing , ending and collapse of civilization is imminent " and that "the subhumans will be destroyed in nuclear fireballs. It says that "Earth must be burnt away with the Ball of Fire in order for God to descend from Heaven" and "the production of fireballs in the world cannot be stopped." The chosen - members of the cult - will create a new holy Japanese empire after the necessary purging of the unworthy.
The cult enjoys the support of high level politicians such as the neo-nationalist Shintaro Ishihara who is featured in cult literature and referred to as a friend of Okada. In order for an organization to have legitimacy in Japan, it must be sponsored by influential people. Ishihara was the mayor of Tokyo and became a leader of the Japan Restoration Party which was founded in 2012. It is dedicated to "reasserting Japan's correct place in the world." They currently have fifty four seats in the lower house of the Japanese Diet and nine seats in the upper house. They are opposed to the close relationship of the U.S. and Japan.
Mixing politics and religions is a very bad idea. When doomsday religion intrudes into the halls of power, there is a danger that policy decisions might be aimed at bringing about the apocalypse, not avoiding it. Japan is a powerful industrial nation with mature nuclear industry. Their constitution forbids them from having nuclear weapons but there have been calls for that prohibition to end. With their plutonium reactor and their technological expertise, it would not take long for Japan to build nuclear weapons and delivery systems if they wanted to. Considering the unstable regime in North Korea which has been threatening Japan with nuclear attacks and the new belligerence of China in claiming control of disputed islands to the south of Japan, there is very real pressure on Japan to become a nuclear nation. If that should happen and the Mahikari cult continues to gain adherents and political power, the danger of a nuclear exchange in western Pacific increases.
Sukyo Mahikari Temple Number 2:
