Jesus Christ is coming soon.
That's not the message of a religious tract or televangelist.
It's a warning from former GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann who has called for an intensified effort to convert Jews to Christianity in time for the return of Christ.
"We recognize the shortness of the hour, and that's why we as a remnant want to be faithful in these days and do what it is that the Holy Spirit is speaking to each one of us, to be faithful in the Kingdom and to help bring in as many as we can — even among the Jews — share Jesus Christ with everyone that we possibly can because, again, He's coming soon," Bachmann said on FRC's "Washington Watch" radio show broadcast from Jerusalem last week, according to JTA News Agency.
Bachmann also said that recent violence and growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians are because "we're seeing the fulfillment of Scripture right in front of our eyes, even while we're on the ground," and claimed that the events leading to biblical End Times prophecy are being sped up.
The former congresswoman from Minnesota traveled to Israel last week as part of a tour organized by the FRC, an American conservative group.
Rabbi Avi Shafran of Agudath Israel of America, a Haredi Jewish communal organization, spoke out against Bachmann's comments, however.
"A statement like Ms. Bachmann's should serve to remind Jews that missionizing is, unfortunately, alive and well, and that we must always be on the lookout for it," Shafran said, according to The Jerusalem Post.
"It also should be a reminder of the importance of Jewish education, since the surest defense against missionizing is authentic Jewish knowledge."
Bachmann has repeatedly said in the past couple of years that Christ's Second Coming is "imminent," and has accused President Barack Obama's foreign policy of helping to hasten apocalyptic projections.
"Talk about what you see in the newspaper every single day. We can talk about God's time clock and the fact that Jesus Christ's return is imminent. Is there anything more important to talk about?" Bachmann asked back in April.
"That needs to occupy our time and our thoughts from virtually morning to night because we have very little time, in my opinion, left before the second return of Christ."
The former Republican presidential candidate also suggested that the recent U.S.-Iran nuclear deal will be a fulfillment of End Times prophecy.
Tyler Wigg-Stevenson, the World Evangelical Alliance chairman of the Global Task Force on Nuclear Weapons, told The Christian Post in an interview in August that Bachmann's statements are "nothing new," and that people have been making End Times predictions for hundreds of years.
Wigg-Stevenson, a former Baptist minister who has since become an Anglican, also insisted that the deal brokered with Iran bars the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. "So how that brings about the End Times is beyond me."
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