Thoughts on Revelations

[I posted this earlier tonight as a response to a comment on an earlier post. However, as has occasionally happened before, it got big enough and had enough points I really liked that I've decided to tweak it slightly and give it top level billing, for those who read the blog but don't follow the comments. This was in response to someone who, in part, was slamming the Catholic church, but if you want to read my response to that part, you'll need to check out the comments to the "Church Lady" post from a couple of days ago. --Liam]

My recollection (and I admit it's been a while since I read it) is that my impression was that while yes, the anti-christ would be followed by the multitudes EVENTUALLY, I never felt that meant it had to be a magical, overnight transaction. My impression was always that Revelations was warning us to the seductive nature of evil and the fact that it can be smooth and charming and attract a lot of followers. And I also don’t recall feeling like the rapture would necessarily happen before the anti-christ came to prominence, only before he came to full power. If the rapture is going to happen before any of the actions in Revelations come to pass, why tell us about them? What’s the point in warning us how to recognize the end times when they come to pass, if there’s no chance at all of recognizing them and working to stop them?

If you are a believer in Revelations as a literal prophecy, then I submit that it’s important to be MORE critically thinking about your leaders rather than LESS so. Peek behind the veneer. Look for rats in the wainscoting. Our society today is RIPE for an anti-christ figure to show up, because an appallingly large percentage of our population seems to believe in leaders solely because they have managed to co-opt Christian principals and convince the electorate that they and only they are the party of Christian ideals.

When a society is so willing to follow a glib tongue based solely on that tongue’s own assurances that it’s the only truly Christian leader we have right now, based on a bit of lip service and shockingly little active evidence, it’s clear that someone with the personal magnetism of the anti-christ could easily convince them to follow him.

Whether you take Revelations as literally true or a cautionary allegory, however, there are good lessons to be learned there. Lessons which, especially in this post 9/11 United States, we would all do well to learn. Question authority. Do your best to understand, not merely follow. Consider the ramifications of actions. It’s why I continue to trumpet the baby-steps in the wrong direction with things like the Patriot Act and resistance to anti-torture legislation. Evil rarely comes in large, recognizable packages. Generally it comes in small, reasonable seeming units, eroding away our resistance slowly, inexorably, until one day we look up and think “how the heck did we get HERE?”

Whenever I hear someone say “Why do you care so much about the Enemy Combatants? You’re not a terrorist, it doesn’t effect you!” I want to scream “Open your eyes! Giving a President the power to declare someone outside the protection and purview of our laws, even in the most heinous of cases, puts a tiny crack in the foundation of our free society, and once a crack forms in the foundation, moisture and erosion will, over time, widen it.”

I have to think if Revelations comes literally true, that the anti-Christ will most likely NOT come out of a large, established church. Far more likely he will show up as some new, non-affiliated “Christian” preacher, winning people over to his brand of seductive faux-Christianity without having to overcome years of baggage and bad press. Let’s face it, it’s going to be a long time before someone in prominence at (for example) the Catholic church can gain the kind of main stream following necessary to convince a majority to willingly take the mark of the beast. There are too many people who reject the institution of the Catholic church (not rejecting Christianity, just the politics involved in any large organization made up of human beings).

Ultimately, we need to open our eyes. We need to look beyond our leaders' words to their deeds. It’s true of you subscribe to the literal word of Revelations (understand what you’re really being asked to do before accepting the mark of the beast at the behest of your leader), and it’s just as true in secular life. If you believe in (and vote for) your leaders solely due to the lip service they pay to your religion, take the time to compare their actions to the words of (in this case) Jesus and see just how closely they really match. And then ask yourself, which is really better, a sinner who attended church every Sunday (Clinton) or one who only actually gets to church when there’s a photo opportunity (Bush)?

It astounds me that the Republicans can use their fear-mongering tactics to convince the nation that freedom of religion is actually an attack on Christianity and parlay that fear (once sown) into popular support for some highly UN-Christian policies. Can you honestly say that the Republicans are more closely aligned with Christian principles than other parties? Or, if you look past the bogus “Christianity under attack” rhetoric, does it seem like it really is merely lip service designed to convince those who don’t think critically about what they are told?

Liam.