http://www.globalismnews.com/hideous.html
No longer do the image-fakers depict
the Saviour of humanity as meek and mild, white-robed with golden aura and
upturned spaniel eyes. Move over wimp-face, as the newly recreated
testosterone-tough tyrant-killer descends from the clouds like Zeus from a
prayer breakfast on Mars, with a mission of Messianic Redemption.
Flags are waving, crowds cheer,
adulation unrestrained heralds the glad tidings that the revolutionary Empire
Builder with a Moral Mandate has arrived to depose dastardly dictators, to end
states that sponsor terror and to foster freedom and democracy for the
soul-dead and the captive blind.
The insidious tentacles of the
octopus of globalist control, fictionalised in C. S. Lewis’ book, That Hideous Strength, pictures the
rebirth in our times of Lucifer's Babylonian System, which began on the Plain
of Shinar, now Iraq, shortly after Noah¹s Flood. Enticed by power, a young
journalist is used to distort truth and promote the Luciferian Empire to the
mind-controlled and manipulated masses:
“The time was ripe. From the
point of view which is accepted in Hell, the whole history of our Earth had led
up to this moment. There was now at last a real chance for fallen Man to shake
off that limitation of his powers which mercy had imposed upon him as a
protection from the full results of his fall. If this succeeded, Hell would be
at last incarnate. Bad men, while still in the body, still crawling on this
little globe, would enter that state which, heretofore, they had entered only
after death, would have the power of evil spirits.”
Like the propagandist in Lewis’
futuristic novel, whose only aspiration is to belong to the clique of Insiders,
how many more have fallen prey to the strong delusion which perpetuates the
goals of that Hideous Strength?
Pastor David Meyers, a former
occultist, writes in the Last Trumpet:
“Never has there been such a blindness and lack of discernment among the
vast majority of the people of this so-called "Christian" nation and
the entire world. It is truly that strange time of gross darkness and deception
when you can sell lies, but you cannot give the truth away. The reason for the
existence of this strange condition is simple; people in ever-increasing
numbers have been continually rejecting the true knowledge of God and have been
going through a deceptive orientation of a false light of satanic origin. We
must remember that Satan was once Lucifer, which means "holder of the
light" or "son of the morning." Something very strange happens
to people when they enter into the realm of that strange light. Everything
looks different when it is back-lighted by Satan, and people find themselves in
the realm of half-truths, deceptions, misunderstandings, and ambiguity. It is
upon these destructive building blocks that Satan has built his kingdom with
its religions, governments, economic systems, schools and universities, and all
other endeavours. People have bought one lie after another for so long that
they cannot recognize truth when it is laid directly before them. They are
under a different light, a light that Jesus called darkness; in fact, He said,
"How great is that darkness."
Meyers dares to denounce the
delusion: "While many ministries are taking the side of President Bush and
endorse war as some kind of a 'holy Christian war', the truth is that it is an
Illuministic war designed to bring forth a new world order and a new Aquarian
age of witchcraft."
Ingenuous
Christians, lured by the promise
of faith-based federal funding, have been lulled into the conviction that at
long last a true Believer has taken up the mantle as leader of the imperial
superpower, one who would lead the world in truth and righteousness. But is
President George W. Bush truly a Christian, or is he a well-scripted pretender?
Remember Christ’s admonition,
“by their fruits you shall know them.” Not all who claim to be
Christ’s “born-again” followers are recognised by Him. We are
judged not by our mendacious claims, but by what in fact we do. ”Beware
of false prophets,” Christ said, “who come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their
fruits. Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in
your name have cast out devils? And in your name done many wonderful works? And
then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work
iniquity.”
According to Bush's biography, Charge to Keep, there was no magic
moment of decision in 1984-1985, when, he says, “Jesus changed his
heart”. By his own admission, the experience didn’t at all change
his drunken lifestyle. During the pre-election debate George Bush claimed that
he considered Jesus to be the “greatest political philosopher”, but
he has never, ever, publicly affirmed - as a true born-again believer would -
that "Jesus Christ is my Lord". Consistent as this testimony may be
with liberal ecumenicalism, it is certainly not a genuine fundamentalist
Christian expression of repentance, restitution and transformation.
William Rivers Pitt, in a perceptive
Truth out article, “George W. Christ?” observes that the same man
who pretends “conservative compassion” yet viciously mocked
reformed Texas death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker, is now intent upon making
war on as much of the Muslim world as he can put his hands around, while
wrapping around himself the image and prophesies of Jesus Christ.
Bush donned another mask on the deck
of that aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham
Lincoln, one whose implications are dire and disturbing: In his remarks,
Bush closed with a paraphrasing of the Book of Isaiah: "In the words of
the prophet Isaiah, 'To the captives, 'come out,' and to those in darkness, 'be
free.¹"
This was a misapplied quotation of
the words Jesus Christ used when He presented Himself as the Son of God,
proclaiming that Isaiah’s messianic prophesies had been fulfilled.
It has been oft-reported that Bush
witnessed the attacks of 9/11 and came to believe that God Himself, and not
Scalia and the rest, put him into the Presidency for the sole purpose of
pursuing this war against terrorism. It has likewise been oft-reported that
Bush is an evangelical Christian of the vigorous Billy Graham stripe. We have
witnessed the failure of every rationalization for making war on Iraq -- the
WMDs, the terrorist connections -- and are left now with the rhetorical
argument that we did the whole thing to 'save' the Iraqi people. Ergo, Bush
positioned himself on the deck of that aircraft carrier as a saviour. “We
are talking about a man who wears masks for the sake of political opportunism,
and to survive moments when he has to address himself in the bathroom mirror.
Does this newest mask have George W. Bush taking on the mantle of Jesus Christ,
Saviour and Redeemer?”
Another hideous mask was revealed
during his May tour of Poland to further promote his “war on
terror”. Former Justice Department prosecutor, John Loftus, has well
documented the scandalous history of the Bush family’s support for Adolph
Hitler. In 1942 The New York Tribune described Bush¹s grandfather,
Prescott Bush, as “Hitler’s Angel” and, under the Trading
with the Enemy Act, the US Congress seized the holdings of several companies
directed by Prescott Bush that, as fronts for the Nazi party, had channelled
hundreds of millions of dollars to the Third Reich and IG Farben. It was IG
Farben that built the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and forty other
extermination camps. According to classified documents from Dutch intelligence
and U.S. government archives, Prescott Bush also made considerable profit from
Auschwitz slave labour. President G.W. Bush has inherited his
grandfather¹s obscene Holocaust profits, which are held in a trust for his
benefit, yet he still has the brazen audacity to shed a tear for the cameras
while visiting the remains of the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau.
George Bush
may attend religious services,
fold his hands in prayer and bow his head together with the leading religious
authorities of the day, but so did the Pharisees in their time. He may quote
and misquote scripture, and so did Satan tempt Jesus in the same way. He may
have promised to uphold a “conservative” agenda on moral issues
such as abortion and homosexuality, but promises are easy to make and easier to
break.
Bush has claimed, "I could not
be governor if I did not believe in a Divine Plan that supersedes all human
plans" yet Illuminists also believe their Plan to stage Antichrist is
"Divine". Bush may claim a Divine Mandate, yet who asks from which
“god” he takes his orders?
Don’t let the warning of Psalm
36 go unheeded: “For he flatters himself in his own eyes, until his
iniquity is found to be hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit:
he has left off to be wise, and to do good.”
David Bay of Cutting Edge Ministries
has documented how Bush¹s presidency has all the hallmarks of Illuminist
Satanism and his warmongering actions are flagged by Illuminist symbolism and
numerology. Like his father, former President George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush
has indeed been born again, but not in the way many followers would like to
believe. As an initiate of the Order of the Skull and Bones he participated in
a ritual that he has never denounced, during which he symbolically died to the
world and was born again into the ranks of an Illuminist Black Magick cult with
Nazi connections.
During his occultic
initiation, Bush is known to
have taken a satanic oath that absolved him from any allegiance to his nation
in obedience to the goals of the cult. David Bay comments: “When an
initiate enters the coffin of their initiation, he is considered to have died
to self and to this world” When the leader of this coven takes the
initiate by the hand and pulls him out of the coffin, that initiate is said to
have been Born Again to the newness of life. It is a slick and counterfeit
experience.
Usurping Christian
terminology in the same way,
Adolph Hitler also claimed to have been born anew after his ritualistic induction
into the Thule Society, another Brotherhood of Death cult closely related to
the Skull and Bones, which also took as its motif the emblem of the
double-cross, the Skull and Crossed Bones. However distasteful this truth may
be, it is a matter of well-documented fact that, like Hitler, both Poppy and
G.W. Bush have received occult training at the darkest altar of satanic
doctrine, as they were groomed by loftier powers for prominent roles in
establishing a Luciferian World Government. Deception, the double-cross, is
accepted practice as a means to achieving the ³higher² goals, and
this ³fruit², this hallmark of the Bush administration, must by now
be clearly evident even to the least discerning.
Antichrist comes as a mimic, making
himself out to be Christ, and is recognised by fraudulent signs and 'lying
wonders'. The Devil is a liar, a usurper, a deceiver. His preferred guise is a
glitzy imitation of the glorious mantle of light which emanates from the
Creator’s Throne. The company Bush keeps, notably his embrace of Satanic
Hard Rocker, Ozzy Osbourne, who he has repeatedly honoured with private White
House dinners and a White House Ball, also reveals his true occultic
affiliation.
Philip Farruggio describes “The
Devil’s Time”: Use the remote control inside your minds and rewind
back to the 2000 Republican Presidential primary. Look at this President, then
candidate Bush, answer as to "who is your role model?" He boldly
stated "Jesus Christ". Then, all of you out there who support this
President's current "undeclared war” ask yourselves if his
"role model" would pre-emptively strike another nation. Would Jesus,
the "role model", change the regime of a sovereign country (however
brutal) by bombing, destroying and killing innocent human life? Would he have
promised "reconstructing Iraq" contracts, before such a war, to
certain "friendly" US companies? Finally, would any of you out there
send your 18, 19, 20 year old kids, grandkids, brothers or sisters, into harm's
way to overthrow a regime that this nation supplied with arms and biological
weapons components for years? The receipts are there for all to read - the
history of "deals with the devil" are fact not fiction.
As that Hideous Strength once again
grinds its jackbooted heel in the face of the impoverished people of yet
another nation, all in the name of Christian values and morality, let the
sleeping remnant awaken! There have, throughout history, been many pretenders,
but for those who love and seek the real face of Jesus Christ, He is the
embodiment of the only true God, Creator and Redeemer. Certainly the role model
He set for us to follow is not the validation of wars for Empire and bloodshed
for black gold. The true Christ’s role model is exemplified by Truth,
sacrificial Love, Forgiveness and Reconciliation, not the sweet and fuzzy
pseudo kind that allows injustice to roll unchecked over the meek and humble,
but the overwhelming power of grace to resist exploitation and desist from
vengeance, despite injustice. The true Christ overturns the tables of the
wealthy who exploit the poor and take their resources for selfish gain. The
true Christ is the one who stares in the face of arrogant, self-righteous
religious leaders, and fearlessly denounces the filthy, rotting corpse of
hypocrisy hiding beneath the whitewashed sepulchres of deception.
Do we see in George Bush a genuine
disciple of the living Christ? The reality is that we see Christianity debased
and Christ given a bad name. Justice is redefined, the Dark Side becomes the
Light Bearer, and Truth lies fallen, the first crippled casualty of battle.
This mighty crusade, so boldly fought in Jesus’ name, is but a slick
façade, a pretender’s coup de grace. This is no grand victory for
Christ, lift the mask and you will see the Devil had his day.
Now we see the dancer, but behind the
thrones of earth, concealed by cloaks of silence, invisible powers pull the
strings, and men are but marionettes. Out of the shadows and the radioactive
dust, the New World Empire in all its dimensions begins to reveal its vain
glorious face with spiritual, political, economic and social reform for all.
While the Empire parades its
pretentious self righteousness in the name of Christ, the Son of God, the Arab
world has no such illusions; that Hideous Strength, in their eyes, is no less
than the ³Great Satan². Why? Because Satan poses as an Angel of
Light, attempts to usurp the Throne of God, twists truth into a lie, and
exploits the poor and the weak for gain. President Bush is waging unending
pre-emptive wars in the name of Christianity, while all the time he remains an
active member of a satanic cult with aspirations of global domination. By
supporting the great deception of this Hideous Strength, the undiscerning
faithful are doing the true Christ the greatest injustice of all.
http://www.globalismnews.com/hideous.html
I believe that insiders will initiate
a world crisis only if they feel it is necessary to get the public to accept
their New World Order. The mere threat of a major world conflict could be
enough to scare the public into accepting such a change - especially when
coupled with the existing problems of world hunger and global debt, and the
created panic over the environment. As their campaign slogan openly proclaims
"Global Problems Demand Global Solutions!"
Historically, however, wars have been
effective in advancing the cause of world government; the fact is, major
changes occur more easily during times of crisis.
Unlike the previous world wars in
which Germany was the main instigator, the world's next major conflict will
undoubtedly be sparked by the hotbed of tensions surrounding the Middle East.
If not Iraq a second time then perhaps Iran or Syria.
The writer believes that Syria might
play a significant role in ushering in a new world order, if not as an
instigator of war, then as a middle man for negotiating peace. It is too
critical a nation to remain on the sidelines for very long and, contrary to
popular belief, Syria - not Iraq - is the most powerful Islamic military state
in the Middle East. It therefore merits close watching.
During the past several years, Syria
appears to have been laying the groundwork for its own attack against Israel.
Syrian troops now hold long sought after positions in Lebanon and have been
prepared for such an invasion since early 1987. According to the U.S.
Department of Defense publication, Soviet Military Power, Syria has also
become the site of the largest Soviet arms build-up in the Third World, having
contracted for $19 billion in military hardware. It currently boasts the
largest number of Soviet military advisors of any Third World Country (1)
The Syrian government, meanwhile, has
effectively turned the tables by falsely warning its people of a coming Israeli
attack on Syria, although Israel has repeatedly denied such allegations. (2) According to the Jerusalem Post, during one of Syria's
propaganda campaigns several years ago, it took a personal statement from
Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir, to maintain peace. Shamir voiced his
"incomprehension" at Syrian "nervousness, which", he said,
"had triggered several strong Soviet warnings to Israel in recent
days." (3) I believe the Syrian government was
deliberately misleading its people in order to justify its own
"pre-emptive" strike against Israel down the road. For these reasons,
I have chosen to use Syria as our example in this scenario (although a similar
scenario could be constructed using Iraq, Iran, or even Libya).
If the powers-that-be were to move
Syria against Israel, it would be Syria's fatal mistake, planned this way by
the conspirators in order to precipitate a world crisis. Unlike previous
invasions, the Jewish state this time would have almost no time to respond. Its
back would be to the wall quickly as Syrian MIGs would streak over Jerusalem
within four minutes. Israel would be faced with a very difficult decision -
either allows itself to be conquered, or else launch its nuclear arsenal
against Syria and possibly Iraq. In late 1986, "London's Sunday Times
printed an article stating that Israel may have a stockpile of as many as 200
nuclear warheads." (4) So we know that a nuclear exchange
is a very real possibility.
There is an Old Testament prophecy
concerning Damascus, the capital of Syria, which has yet to be fulfilled.
Isaiah proclaimed: "See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become
a heap of ruins" (Isaiah 17:1). As it is Damascus is the oldest standing
city in the world, never having experienced mass destruction. This prophecy
must be fulfilled before the return of Christ.
Having lost several thousand of its
military advisers in the exchange and with world opinion seemingly turned
against Israel for her use of nuclear force, the Soviet Union could seize this
opportunity to do what it has long desired - move against Israel. Arab pressure
on the Soviets to invade Israel would add to the temptation.
If the Soviet Union came to the
rescue of Syria, it would suddenly find itself on opposite sides with the
United States. What could happen next is unthinkable. Mankind will have been
brought to the brink of destruction.
Wicked men in high places have been
contemplating such a crisis for years. In a letter to the Italian revolutionary
leader Guiseppe Mazzini dated 15 August 1871 Albert Pike, the leader of the
Illuminati's activities in the United States and the head of Scottish Rite
Freemasonry at the time, described a distant final war, which he felt would be
necessary to usher in the New World Order. (5)` According to
Pike, this conflict between two future superpowers would be sparked by first
igniting a clash between Islam and Judaism. He went on to write:
We shall unleash the nihilists and the atheists and we shall provoke a great social cataclysm which, in all its horror, will show clearly to all nations the effect of absolute atheism, the origin of savagery and of most bloody turmoil. Then, everywhere, the people, forced to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilisation; and the multitudes, disillusioned with Christianity whose deistic spirits will be from that moment on without direction and leadership, anxious for an ideal but without knowledge where to send its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of Lucifer, brought finally out into public view; a manifestation which will result from a general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.(6)
See note on Arab Freemasonry
Should such a crisis be permitted to
occur, the amount of destruction would be staggering. Humanity would tremble
with fear believing that man is about to destroy himself. For even if the
Soviet Union or the United States were eliminated as military powers, over
thirty countries would still have nuclear capacity. It would be a time of
despair and mass confusion. Add to this the resulting chaos of global financial
markets, which are already on the brink of disaster; the economic turmoil would
only contribute to the world's state of panic.
Once such a war began, there would be
no guarantee that the United States or Europe would remain entirely unscathed.
But, it is important to remember that no matter how much the powers of darkness
plot and scheme, in the end, they can only bring about what God allows. Only he
knows with certainty what the future holds. Thus far, God has prevented the
hidden forces from making their move. But the time could soon come when the
world will have become so wicked and abominable in the eyes of God that he will
say "enough is enough" and he will permit the powers of darkness to
succeed for a time (Daniel 11:24).
As a result, man would be
disillusioned and searching for answers. Many would blame God for the
devastation, not even considering the fact that it was man's own wickedness and
willingness to deceive that brought it about. For one professing to provide the
solutions, the time would be ripe. The real crisis is about to begin.
The moment for which Satan has so
long awaited and for which his disciples have diligently laboured, will have
finally come. The conspirators will submit their power to one whom they will
recognise as their undisputed leader. Their complete allegiance and devotion
will be given to him - truly a first since the Tower of Babel. He will be Satan
personified and will have all the powers of darkness at his disposal - capable
of performing every sort of sign and wonder imaginable. He is also referred to
in the first letter of John as the Antichrist.
For a while, he will remain in the
background; his servants overseeing the final phase. Tens of thousands of
New Agers will appear on the world scene, fully organised, demanding that a
one-world government be established. This restructuring of the old order, they
will claim, is necessary to deal with existing global problems and to prevent
any future catastrophes from taking place. The international media will give
full coverage to this unfolding drama. Most of the public will be unaware
that this network had been organised specifically for this purpose years
in advance; it will simply appear to be a spontaneous democratic grassroots
movement, held together by people with a common pursuit - the desire for world
peace and unity.
Every problem, no matter how small
(or how fabricated), will suddenly become a reason why we need a world
government. The most convincing arguments will have to do with the environment,
global debt, world poverty, and the prevention of war. A New World Order, they
will say, is needed because individual nations are no longer capable of dealing
with these complex problems on their own.
A New World Order will appear to come
from the bottom up, as something that the people of the world want. It will
come in the name of democracy, non-threatening - not as a system being forced
upon us by our politicians. Too many people would become suspicious, otherwise,
sensing that they are being manipulated. Instead, the inhabitants of
"Mother Earth" will believe that they are in control of their own destiny,
unaware of the hidden agenda of those really in charge behind-the-scenes.
Most of those initially involved at
the core of this movement will in some way be connected with the secret
societies, having in common an obsession with mysticism and the occult - a fact
not readily apparent to the public. One popular battle cry among New Agers is,
"If you build it I will come." More clearly put, if you build the New
World Order and put all the pieces into place, then I (The Antichrist) will
come and take my seat of power.
Once this movement goes public, it
will gain momentum rapidly; many unsuspecting citizens who are not involved
with the occult will join the effort, simply because it seems like the most
logical thing to do. The call for a democratic world government will sound most
appealing.
At some point, the beast, or one of
his representatives, will step forth with what will appear to be a brilliant
plan for Mideast Peace. The initiative will include some kind of settlement
between the Jews and the Palestinians, claiming to ensure permanent peace in
the war-torn region. The agreement would probably guarantee Israel's security
and would allow the Jews to rebuild their long-anticipated temple, in exchange
for allowing the Palestinians to have their own homeland with autonomous rule.
The beast will succeed where others before him have failed.
His appearance will most likely be as
a democratic leader, riding into power on the back of the democracy movement,
appearing as a genuine man of peace. Whether he first emerges as a world
diplomat or as a religious leader (such as the Pope or the Dali Lama) remains
to be seen; remember, he could be someone who is still unknown to the world.
However, once he and his main accomplice, the false prophet, take their
positions, discerning Christians will recognise them for who they are.
The Antichrist will come to reside
over an empowered United Nations or, perhaps, over a newly created global
authority, such as the Federation f Earth, at first a loosely knit federation
of nations. However, it would most likely emerge rapidly into a powerful
structure administered on the basis of (probably) ten world regions.
A world constitution will be
proposed, and a "democratic" World Parliament will be created. World
citizens will believe they have a say in matters, not realising that
occult-based secret societies are really the ones in control. If the New World
Order, for example, were to be based on a two or three party system, all that
new age occultists would have to do is control each of these parties -
something easily accomplished since they were the ones responsible for
proposing the world government in the first place. These insiders would
determine the tempo of change and the rest of the world would follow their
lead.
The public would be content because
it would retain its right to vote and choose candidates, seeing itself as part
of a representative government. But in reality, it wouldn't matter who was
elected; the result would always be the same: supporters of the Antichrist
would be running the system unchecked. As a worldwide system, there would be no
place to run.
Sovereign nations would cease to
exist. A single global economic system would be established and anything left
from the old order of things would be purely superficial, such as languages,
cultures, names of countries, etc. Any real authority would now rest with an
international body controlled by Satan himself.
The disputing world religions will
become unified, and as he will be a master of spiritual intrigue, it is not inconceivable
that, at some point in his ascent to power, he declares himself to be "The
Christ" (Unbeknown to many, the term "Antichrist", in 1 John
2:18, may also be interpreted as "in place of Christ") If this were
to be the case, he might also claim to be the long awaited Messiah to the Jews.
To the Buddhists he would be the fifth Buddha; the Moslems, the Imam Mahdi; to
Hindus, Krishna. Those Christians accepting this lie would unfortunately see
him in the fulfillment of the second coming of Christ.
But regardless, Scripture tells us
that a majority of the world's inhabitants will be deceived (Revelation 13 and
2 Thessalonians 2); thus, the rise of the Antichrist will be extremely
convincing to those who are unprepared and who are not firmly grounded in God's
word.
New Age principles, which have subtly
worked their way into many churches disguised as sound biblical teachings, will
prevent unsuspecting Christians from recognising the Antichrist. If he would
come proclaiming to be a servant of Satan, few would be foolish enough to
follow him. Instead, he will come in the name of Christ, posing as an angel of
light. Discerning Christians will be astonished at who steps forth to head the
New World Order - possibly the last person ever suspected.
1. U.S. Department of Defense, Soviet Military Power 1986, Washington DC: U.S. Government printing office, 1986, p.133.
2. Post Diplomatic Correspondent, "Jerusalem Incomprehension at Syrian Nervousness," The Jerusalem Post, 12 April 1984, p.1, Col. 1-2.
3. Ibid.
4. "Israel's Nuclear Prowess - A Leak by Design?" U.S. News and World Report, 10 November 1986, p.8.
5. Salem Kirban, Satan's Angels Exposed, Rossville, GA: Grapevine books, 1980, pp. 158-161.
6. Myron Fagan, The Illuminati - CFR, Emissary Publications, TP-107, 1968. This letter between Pike and Mazzini is now catalogued in the British Museum in London (according to Salem Kirban, Satan's Angels Exposed, p.164). Parts of this letter are also quoted in Descent into Slavery by Des Griffin.
Is it a pure coincidence that the most powerful figures of the Middle East are Freemasons? Have they been destined to trigger the conflict about which Albert Pike wrote? A prominent Arab-Christian leader recently informed me that according to his contacts in Lebanon, King Assad of Syria and King Hussein of Jordan are both Freemasons. If this is true, we could be closer to the New World Order than people realise. (He was uncertain about whether Saddam Hussein belonged to the same secret society.) A few months ago the son of the same Arab-Christian gave me a Masonic document - a membership certificate - which he found in Lebanon. However, the document notes that the lodge is under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Jordan, which is under the authority of the Arab Supreme Council. For at least several centuries, Jordan has been a bastion for the secret societies in the Middle East and has much more influence in the region's behind-the-scenes politics than most people realise. The same Masonic symbol appearing on our dollar bill and found on ancient occult worship sites throughout the world, the all-seeing eye, is prominently displayed on the certificate.
There is an ancient battlefield in
the modern state of Israel called Megiddo. It was celebrated in an exultant
victory song by the prophetess Deborah as the place where kings fought but
gained no spoils of war. It was remembered more soberly as the place where
Josiah the Devout, the sixteenth king of Judah, was fatally wounded by the
soon-to-be-defeated Pharaoh Neco. By the time of the prophet Zechariah it was a
byword for anguish and the bitter harvest of battle.
But its greatest notoriety derives
from an event yet to come, which some believe is imminent and others say will
never happen. Armageddon, the mount of Megiddo, the hill of plagues, is the
most famous name in the history of the future. It has come to mean disaster
beyond repair, the final conflict in which defeat is guaranteed to all.
And that is only part of the story.
Armageddon, no matter how terrifying, is only a fragment of a larger vision
unique in the Bible for the savagery of its warnings and the ferocity of its
promises. The final battleground belongs to the book of Revelation, the
Apocalypse, the last book of the Bible, which weaves an intricate web of
allegory, hidden meanings and cryptic numbers to entrap mans instinctive fear
of a future doom and turn it into irrational hope.
*
There are many mysteries in the book
of Revelation, with its horsemen and its whore, its seven-headed beast, and its
woman clothed with the sun. It is a journey into the beginning of eternity and
to the end of time. It starts in a cave on the island of Patmos where John the
Divine saw the past and the future rolled into the present:
I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lords day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, `Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamun and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.`
Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the golden girdle round his breast; his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters; in his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, `Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Now write what you see, what is and what is to take place hereafter...' (Revelation 1:9-19)
It is still possible to visit the
cave, now called Aghia Anna, where John looked upon an emerald rainbow and a
crystal sea. The cave of the vision is surrounded by the plain ramble of a
whitewashed monastery. The spot where John's head lay, while his mind was full
of monsters, trumpet calls and a New Jerusalem, is encircled by a simple band
of metal. The only other feature in the cave is a desk formed out of the
natural rock where, according to the local monks, John's disciple Prochoros
took down some of the most unfathomable dictation ever given.
John tells his readers that he has
been exiled on Patmos for preaching the word of God. That much fits with
historical possibility. Exile was a favourite punishment for troublemakers, and
Patmos with its deadly barrenness was a favourite place for dumping political
exiles throughout the 1st century AD. That is where historical certainly ends.
Until 250 AD there was no doubt that John the Divine was John the son of
Zebedee, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and the only disciple credited with
achieving a non-violent death. Jerome says that John survived into extreme old
age. Finally, unable to preach, he had to be carried to services and would just
say, `Love one another, that is enough'. Irenaeus, one of the best theologians
of the 2nd century, knew people who had known John the Beloved in his last years
in Ephesus, and was sure of Revelations apostolic authorship. Melito of Sardis,
Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Hippolytus all shared that
conviction.
But the book has always attracted
controversy. Luther and Erasmus did not like it. The heretical sect, the Alogi,
found its teaching too harsh and so attributed its authorship to Cerinthus,
another heretic. The most reasoned doubter was the 3rd century Dioysius of
Alexandria, who pointed out quite rightly that the book bore little resemblance
to the style of the Gospel of John. So either the book of Revelation was
written by John the Divine, not an apostle, a Jewish Christian with detailed
knowledge of Asia Minor who happened to fall foul of Rome and ended up in exile
on Patmos.
Whatever the doubt about the
authorship there was never any doubt about the identity of the vision-bearer,
the one like the Son of Man with eyes like flame and a two-edged sword issuing
from his mouth. John was certain it was the Word of God, present at the beginning
of time, present at its end and made visible to him as the risen glorified
Christ whose words are like the sword of wisdom brought down on a corrupt age.
*
But which corrupt age? When precisely
was the Patmos vision written down? According to Dr Sophie Laws, the generally
held view is that it was in the reign of the Emperor Domitian at the end of the
1st century. This is not just a guess by 2oth century scholars. It was stated
as early as the 2nd century by Irenaeus, and there is a good deal to support
it. The book anticipates an attack on the Christian communities launched by the
Roman State, and part of that attack comes through the consistent demand of the
state that the emperor, who represents the state, should be worshipped. It is
emperor-worship that provokes the crisis for the churches, and we know that the
emperor Domitian towards the end of his reign did go off his head and required
to be addressed as God. The cities of Asia Minor responded enthusiastically to
this hint. A massive temple was built to Domitian, the living god, in Ephesus,
a city very much associated with John. We may imagine the impact on a 1st
century Asian Christian of the erection of this massive temple on the main
street of Ephesus, which was to contain a statue of the emperor as god about
seven metres high. Imagine the shock, the emotional and religious horror, of
being confronted with that in your own city, your own province. What the state
is requiring is the worship of a living man as god. What the church is
developing is the worship of a man who lived and died and rose again. There is
a head-on religious collision here.
The book of Revelation is about more
than the clash between a madman's empire and a kingdom which belongs to fools
and children. However much he loathed Rome and all it stood for, John does not
begin on a note of self-righteous hostility. His vision opens with a practical,
and at times critical, message for the Church itself. With a voice like rushing
water, the figure of the glorified Christ warns seven local Christian
communities in what is now Turkey about their imminent trials and past
failings.
The church at Pergamun, he says, must
stand firm against false teaching. The church at Thyatira has been beguiled by
a prophetess as corrupt as the evil Jezebel. The Christians of Ephesus, Sardis
and Laodicea must revive their lukewarm love and compromised faith. Only the
churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia are praised for their energy and belief.
These messages to local churches pave
the way for a more startling vision. John describes nothing less than the
majesty of God who is older than time. Heaven shines more brightly than the
most precious jewels known to man. It is more fragrant than incense burning in
golden bowls and at its centre angels and elders worship not a symbol of power
but a sacrificial lamb bearing the wounds of death conquered. From beneath the
altar of the Lamb, the souls of the martyrs cry for vengeance.
Is such imagery with its insistence
on revenge completely Christian? Is it a throwback to Daniel and to the more
violent visions which comforted the Jews persecuted a hundred and sixty years
before Jesus was born? Dr Carroll thinks that though it may look like a
throwback it is more than that. When you are facing the Romans (and, he points
out, they were not Christian gentlemen, in spite of what Paul writes in
Romans), you need something stronger than `the magistrates are ordained of
God'. You need something very much stronger. The old visions that were created
to oppose the Greek invasion were revitalised in Christian terms. So the slain
lamb leads his people against the enemy and defeats them, and Rome ends up in
ruins. That goes right back to the attacks on Baal in Isaiah and Jeremiah. It
is almost unchanged, and clearly represents a deep need. It is important either
to believe that your enemies are going to suffer or to entertain visions in
which they do, because, even if they do not, at least you still have the
visions to keep you warm at night, or in prison, or at the stake. It is a way
of transforming and giving a voice to those who now have no power.
But why was it necessary to express
comfort to the persecuted in such arcane and terrifying language? John paints a
nightmare canvas of the disasters which alone will loosen mankind's grip on
this world. He promises a future at the mercy of conquest, war, famine and
death - the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
For Professor Dun the problem of the
interpretation of this vision is the mirror image of a question posed much
earlier in the Bible. When you come to the New Testament equivalent of Genesis,
he says, which is the book of Revelation - the end, as Genesis is the beginning
- you have the same problems, as in Genesis, there is a dispute about how you
understand the language, so in Revelation you have the problem of how to
understand the symbols and the bizarre imagery. Christians have had widely
divergent views on that for centuries.
From its earliest days there has been
contention over the book of Revelation. Many have felt that its description of
the last days, when the sun would turn as black as death and the moon as red as
blood, and the sky would vanish and the mountains move, was too brutal and
fantastic to be included in the New Testament. However logical its position at
the end of the Bible may seem to us now, after generations of scholars have
explored its symbolism and its promise of a tree of life which would undo the
harm of the tree of knowledge, Sophie Laws believes that John was allowed the
last Biblical word by default, not by human design.
It is an accident of history she
says, that Revelation is at the end of the Bible. It is because so many people
of a more scholarly turn of mind felt uncomfortable with it. Although they were
bound, by its popularity, to include it in the Bible, they tucked it as far
away as they could. It is a book that people either read obsessively, and know
everything about, or have never touched. It is an unloving book. There are only
two references to the love of God or Christ in the whole of its twenty-one
chapters. On the other hand, it is a salutary book. It leaves one at the end of
the Bible regarding this world as provisional, and it is perhaps as well to end
on a note of discomfort.
John sees a dying world where power
has become meaningless and even kings and great men lie cowering in caves and
rocky fortresses longing to be no more. For those from the tribe of old Israel,
and those from the new Israel gathered from all the nations, all that will
matter is the seal of faith, the only guarantee of a new life beyond the horror
of a ravaged earth. When the final seal on the scroll of destiny is broken by
the Lamb, there is even silence in heaven.
How can modern theologians swallow
John's vision? Is not Jesus the healer, who taught his friends how to pray, all
but obliterated in Johns vision of a Lamb transformed into a symbol, not of
gentleness, but of fearsome majesty? Dr Thiselton says that Christ is actually
prominent in the book of Revelation, but it is not the pre-resurrection Christ
of the Gospel stories, it is the living Christ through whom God rules his
church. So Christ is there, but not as we see him in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.
John was not the only one to believe
that the world will come to a sudden and violent end. It was an intuition shared
by the Gospel writers. In Mark, Jesus warns of a time of wars and rumours of
wars. Famine and earthquake will herald the beginning of the end. In Matthew,
Jesus says that false Messiahs and false prophets and the coldness of men's
hearts will be a sign of the close of the age. Death, in the final days,
according to Luke, will be unpredictable and certain. The last days will be
beyond human understanding, coming, says the writer of Peter's second letter,
like a thief in the night.
John the Divine tries to prepare his
readers for the worst that persecution or disaster can throw at them. He gives
his imagination free and fruitful rein. In the last days seven trumpets will
announce three woes. The natural world will be destroyed. Trees will be
shrivelled up by fire, the sea will turn to blood, the fresh water of rivers
will be polluted, the sky will be darkened by smoke from a bottomless pit,
monstrous locusts will ravage the earth and horsemen armed like the Parthian
cavalry, riding beasts with lions heads and serpents tails, will cut a swathe
of destruction through men longing for death. No matter how fevered John's
imaginings, Professor Dunn believes they are necessary for the balance of the
Christian message. It is, he says, recognition of the wholeness of the human
person and human society. We cannot simply function on the level of the mind
and body. There is an element of imagination, and it is important for any
religion, for Christianity in particular, to have scope for that imagination,
that ability to perceive and speak in a vision, because it is operating on a
different level from the purely cerebral.
Nowadays we are more cerebrally
inclined. Geologists, astronomers and ecologists who explore John's world of
the final days are read compulsively. Doom is a best seller. Theological
naivety may have replaced John's scientific naivety and his paranoid hatred of
the Roman emperors who killed believers and counterfeited divinity, but the
impulse of fear and curiosity is the same. There are times when John seems more
mad than inspired, but his vision of the end has a fascination which has
outlasted the more tangible successes of his enemies.
Dr Carroll says that the apocalyptic
strand is always topical. Some people think the centre of the old Bible is the apocalyptic
part, the exodus. There is something to be said for the apocalyptic, because it
allows people to go to the Emperor, like the old Quakers who would wear their
hats in the presence of the King and say: `ok you can get us now, but we will
get you in the end'.
When John saw his vision, the world
annihilation he promised could only be the figment of fanatical imagination. It
is an index of mans shame, not of Johns clairvoyant skill, that in this century
we recognise total destruction as something within mankind's ability. For all
his violent foreboding, John never foresaw that human ingenuity could make the
four horsemen of the Apocalypse redundant. John planted his feet on the
threshold of eternity. That means he belonged to the present not the future. He
was firmly rooted in the first century AD and his aim was to bolster the
Christian community battered by a hostile empire. But why should anyone think
that images of terror be encouraging? Dr Thiselton believes that much of the
message of the Revelation is that, as far as God is sovereign, questions about
judgement belong to God. The book of Revelations never says that Christians
should make judgements. It says that Christians may be confident that the world
and history are in God’s hands. There are some very beautiful passages in
the book: for instance, the passage about the river of the water of life that
flows on the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.
Much of the violence in Revelation
belonged specifically to John's own age. When he speaks of a woman clothed with
the sun giving birth to a child, he is drawing on the Jewish tradition of the
Holy Spirit as mother overlaid with the metaphor of chosen Israel as Gods
bride. The child is the Messiah, but there theology ends.
The monsters who are its enemies are
only thinly disguised. They represent all the powers who have persecuted the
Jews and Christians from Nebuchadnezzar to Nero. John is anxious that his
meaning will be clear. The monster seals people on the hand or the head with
the number 666, the mark of the beast, described by John as a human number. In
ancient times letters were used as numbers. John's clue would have been obvious
to anyone familiar with Hebrew or Aramaic. 666 is Neron Kaisar: that is, Nero
the Emperor.
*
Many fundamentalists, particularly in
the United States, believe that they will avoid the death-throes of the earth
and will return after the world carnage to enjoy 1000 years of peace - a
dangerous thought in people whose government has a nuclear capacity.
Was John seeing things he could not
understand? Is it significant that the literal translation of Chernobyl is
`wormwood', the falling star that makes water bitter? Was John predicting World
War III? Sophie Laws thinks not. John, she says, speaks in images. He is not
concerned to provoke the imagination. He does not believe that the world will
end simply as a result of human wickedness. He does not accept that man can
destroy the world by being wicked. He believes that the world will end because
God will vindicate his own people against human wickedness. What brings the end
of the world is God’s redemption of his own.
Revelation concludes with a vision of
the new heaven and the new earth and a vision of a future life in the presence
of God. That message of a new life has also been interpreted at an individual
level. For believers, the last things will stand on the brink of eternity. Over
the years there has been much debate about John’s precise meaning. After
Armageddon John paints a lurid picture of a whore dressed in scarlet and
adorned with gold and pearls. She rides a seven-headed beast and, in the manner
of the prostitutes of ancient Rome, she bears her name written on her forehead.
She is Babylon the Great, the Mother of Abominations: at one level a byword for
occultism and materialism, at another the Jewish apocalyptic codeword for
`Rome'.
Down the centuries Christians have
accorded each other the dubious privilege of identification with Babylon.
Anti-Christ and the False Prophet, the other two members of John's satanic
trinity, are constantly being re-identified. Indeed our own century, disfigured
by Nazism, has provided all too convincing contenders. John's message is
ultimately victorious: Christ will return and conquer all that is evil.
The book of Revelation is constantly
being re-interpreted. Is there any way we can pinpoint the events it describes?
Jesus warns us, he says, against date setting. He specifically tells us that no
man knows the day or hour. Those in the past who have presumptuously set dates
have all been embarrassed. However, he says, we are given certain signs of the
Lords return. One is the re-gathering of the Jewish people into the land of
Israel, which since 1948 has been a reality. Another is the increase of
knowledge and travel - the past hundred years have seen a dramatic revolution
in communication and transport. As Jesus said, we can know the times and the
seasons, but not the day or the hour, so that it is right to preach that the
Lords coming is imminent, that he could come at any time, and we should live
and work as though we were planning for the next generation. We should plan and
establish equity and peace on earth for our children and our children's
children, but we should also live with a consciousness that this may be the
crowning day when we meet the Lord face to face.
John's warnings about false prophets
and fraudulent religion have turned the Bible itself into part of the
Armageddon armoury. One American professor has gone so far as to maintain that
the Anti-Christ will be somebody like Professor Albert Schweitzer, who will
convincingly throw doubt on the literal truth of the Bible. An untenable view,
according to Professor Barr at Oxford, who argues that if you take every word
in the Old Testament literally you will prove that it is not true, because
there are many things within one part of the Old Testament, or within one part
of the New Testament, which do not agree exactly and literally with some other
part.
There is all the difference in the
world between taking the Bible seriously and understanding every word
mechanically. If literalism were taken to its logical conclusion, no
translations, or variants of the Bible should be allowed. With so many
translations, words may be different; but in the general meaning and intention
of most of the translations, they are all quite accurate. The Bible, he says,
can be relied upon whether it is speaking to theology, geology, biology,
history, or any other study.
There is a middle way of
interpretation - of evaluating each book in the Bible and developing
preferences and priorities. But Clive Calver, General Secretary of the
Evangelical Alliance, thinks there are dangers behind this picking and
choosing. Many people try to do that, he says, and they are very good at it.
One of the difficulties is that the Bible actually claims that it is a totality
of content, that the Old and New Testaments go together and that the stories
contained within the Bible are a coherent unity. The Bible claims that it
speaks as a single entity, and therefore you cannot pick and choose. He
believes that the events described did take place, and that what we have in the
Bible is men speaking what they understood to be the word of God as the Holy
Spirit inspired them. But critical belief is not such impossibility. Dr
Thiselton says that the analogy is the difference between the reader and the
critic. There is a sense in which the critic is making judgements and
assessments. They are not the same activity, but the student who is also a
person of faith combines the two roles. We might call him a critical reader. He
is both a reader and a critic. `I want to say of myself, I am both a Biblical
critic and a Christian believer. I find no contradiction between those two
things'
Many early Christians, including
John, felt that the last days were at hand. Our own last days, always are. The
last book of the Bible looks forward beyond death to a new heaven and a new
earth, where mans wickedness has burnt itself out, and day and night are no
more. In the final chapter John the visionary points to a paradise restored
where the tree of life heals all the wounds of a tree of knowledge - where
there is no need for a temple or a church because everything is alright with
the living God.
The message behind John's nightmare
vision is one of peace. A place called Armageddon is not the last staging-post
of the Bible journey. The destination of those who walk from Eden's garden is a
new city, which John calls the heavenly Jerusalem.