A Guest Document
by Lee Penn
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.’” [Isaiah 14:12-14]
Counterpoint:
“But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit.” [Isaiah 14:15]
An Advisory
In this postscript, I move from data analysis to speculation about the future: if the
“progressive” New World Order comes, what happens next?My aim is to give
an initial warning and to raise awareness, not to offer definitive
proof.Anyone who has a distaste for impressionistic futurism and eschatology
may safely skip this postscript.If you have come away from the body of this
book convinced that the interfaith, New Age, and globalist
movements propose undesirable goals, and that these movements should be taken seriously, and that
they deserve public scrutiny and opposition, then you have received the principal, urgent warning
that I intended to convey.
It is, nevertheless, incumbent upon me to use this postscript to give an additional, longer-range
(and admittedly speculative, impressionistic) alert.You might be prepared
for an impending tempest, a storm coming from the Left, and may have already boarded up the
windows as you hear the wind rise and see the sky
darken.Beware!From over the horizon, there may
approach a second and greater storm from the Right, a spiritual and political hurricane that could
destroy whatever is left standing after the Left has done its work.
Abnormal Times
I now begin to look over the horizon, and to speculate about the implications and sequelae of the current push for a political, social, and religious New World Order.
It is not my intent to say, as a certainty, that the Apocalypse is upon us
now.Still less do I intend the absurd exercise of setting the date
for the Second Coming of Christ.Rather, I am arguing that if a New
World Order is established (and various powerful forces are attempting to do this), the outcome
will be far more complicated – with unexpected political and spiritual perils for the unwary –
than most present-day traditionalist and conservative activists, commentators, visionaries, and
novelists now expect.
Let’s begin by stipulating that we are in abnormal times, and have been since at least 1914.In normal times, Anglican bishops would uphold the doctrine and discipline of their church, and would not raise their hands during a Wiccan-led invocation of Hekate and Hermes.[1] In normal times, billionaires would not declare themselves to be “socialist at heart,”[2] and would not fund movements that undermine the society within which they prospered.In normal times, the ravings of Helena Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, and their New Age followers would be of interest only to the physicians and ministers involved in healing the psyches and souls of these deluded people.
These are not normal times.Therefore, it is possible that, on the heels of a
social, economic, or military disaster, the proponents of the New World Order – the URI and its
interfaith associates, the globalist movements, and the devotees
of Theosophy and the New Age movement – will have an opportunity to rebuild a shattered,
disoriented world.Since some of our present-day political and spiritual
leaders see themselves as midwives of radical change, we may be very close to such a forced-draft,
global version of Reconstruction. Abnormal times, indeed.
The End of the Age? – Papal Warnings Against the Left
Are we approaching the ultimate in abnormality, the end of the age?It’s a useful question to ask, to examine the full extremity of the challenge that we might soon be facing.(Some day, of course, we certainly will face the end of the age.)An Italian Catholic commentator on the Apocalypse says, “it is completely licit for Christians to discern from various historical movements Satan’s attempts to subvert the design of God’s
Speculation about the end of the age and the Second Coming of Christ is as old as Christianity
itself.Over the centuries, saints, lunatics, and charlatans alike have said,
“the end is near.”The saints who have expected
the Parousia in their own time (or soon thereafter) have
included St. Gregory the Great, who was Pope from 590 to
604,[4]
St. Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican preacher who traveled through
France and Spain calling for Church reform and warning, around 1400, that Antichrist was then
alive,[5]
and
St. FaustinaKowalska,[6]
a Polish nun and mystic of the 1930s who was canonized in 2000 by Pope John Paul
II.I will pass over the charlatans and lunatics in
silence.However, within the last 100 years, a series of Popes have warned of
the approach of the final trial of mankind.With time, their warnings have
become more urgent.
Pope St. Pius X, in his first encyclical, warned in 1903 (more than a decade before the crisis of
the West became manifest in a world war), “Who can fail to see that society is at the present
time, more than in any past age, suffering from a terrible and deep-rooted malady which,
developing every day and eating into its inmost being, is dragging it to destruction? You
understand, Venerable Brethren, what this disease is – apostasy from
God...And as might be expected we find extinguished
among the majority of men all respect for the Eternal God, and no regard paid in the
manifestations of public and private life to the Supreme Will – nay, every effort and every
artifice is used to destroy utterly the memory and the knowledge of God.When
all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a
foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that
there may be already in the world the ‘Son of Perdition’ of whom the Apostle speaks
(II. Thess. ii.,
3).”[7]
In his 1928 encyclical on reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope Pius XI wrote: “error
has crept in and has spread far and wide, so that it might well be feared that the fountains of
Christian life might be in a manner dried up, where men are cut off from the love and knowledge of
God....in the last century, and in this present
century, things have come to such a pass, that by the machinations of wicked men the sovereignty
of Christ Our Lord has been denied and war is publicly waged against the Church, by passing laws
and promoting plebiscites repugnant to Divine and natural law, nay more by holding assemblies of
them that cry out, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us’ (Luke xix,
14)...For from all sides the cry of the peoples who
are mourning comes up to us, and their princes or rulers have indeed stood up and met together in
one against the Lord and against His Church (Cf. Psalm ii, 2). Throughout those regions indeed, we
see that all rights both human and Divine are confounded. Churches are thrown down and overturned,
religious men and sacred virgins are torn from their homes and are afflicted with abuse, with
barbarities, with hunger and imprisonment; bands of boys and girls are snatched from the bosom of
their mother the Church, and are induced to renounce Christ, to blaspheme and to attempt the worst
crimes of lust; the whole Christian people, sadly disheartened and disrupted, are continually in
danger of falling away from the faith, or of suffering the most cruel death. These things in truth
are so sad that you might say that such events foreshadow and portend the ‘beginning of
sorrows,’ that is to say of those that shall be brought by the man of sin, ‘who is lifted up
above all that is called God or is worshipped’ (2 Thessalonians ii,
4)....And thus, even against our will, the thought
rises in the mind that now those days draw near of which Our Lord prophesied: ‘And because
iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold’ (Matth.
xxiv,
12).”[8]
Pope Pius XII wrote in his 1951 encyclical on Catholic missions: “Venerable Brethren, you are
well aware that almost the whole human race is today allowing itself to be driven into two
opposing camps, for Christ or against Christ. The human race is involved today in a supreme
crisis, which will issue in its salvation by Christ, or in its dire
destruction.”[9]
Pope John Paul II has warned of a pending “final confrontation” between the “Gospel and the
anti-Gospel.”In 1976, two years before his election to the Papacy, Karol
Cardinal Wojtyla said in a speech in
the
The context of the apocalyptic Papal warnings makes it clear that the Popes have been sounding the
alarm about the rise of militant atheism, anti-clericalism, and
materialism.In this view, the Antichrist is the beast who brazenly attacks
traditional beliefs about God and Christ, who oppresses the faithful believers, and who makes war
on the Church – primarily as an external enemy.
In the imagery of Revelation: “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder. Men worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’ And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months; it opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.” (Rev. 13: 1-8)
The “progressive” Theosophists of the Lucis Trust explain,
from the standpoint of those who favor this development, how their “Christ” will
come.A present-day document from “World Goodwill,” an affiliate of
the Lucis Trust, says: “In The Reappearance of the
Christ, it is mentioned that the reappearance will not come as a result of some proclamation
or some stupendous planetary event which will force human beings everywhere to say He is there!
for that would evoke antagonism and laughter, resistance and fanatical
credulity.We will know Him through potency in leadership, through dynamic
but logical changes in world affairs, and through action taken by the masses of the people from
the depths of their own
consciousness.”[1]~1
If this open onslaught from the Left were the totality of the final contest, it is one for which
conservative and traditionalist Christians would be psychologically
prepared.This is the assault against which the Popes of the last century
warned; it would be the final conflict in the rear-guard action that traditionalists have been
waging since the French Revolution.In this framework, the emergence and
victory of the URI and other movements for religious syncretism, the rise of
“progressive” globalist government, and the spread of
anti-Christian occultism would be the immediate preparation for the rise of the beast with
“seven horns and ten heads” (Rev. 13:1).
Popular Christian writers point their radar in the same leftward
direction.Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote in
1977, “We do know that at the end of time, when the great conflict between the forces of good
and evil takes place, Satan will appear without the Cross, as the Great Philanthropist and Social
Reformer to become the final temptation of
mankind.”[1]~2 An English Catholic apologist of the last century, Ronald Knox, likewise said, “It seems
probable enough that the Armageddon of the future lies between Catholicism and some form of
humanitarianism – I mean the attempt (in some form) to produce a perfect humanity through the
external pressure of breeding, education, and legal
coercion.”[1]~3Catholic
and Protestant writers of apocalyptic fiction, from the dispensationalist Protestant Left
Behind
series[1]~4
to the Catholic authors of Lord of the
World[1]~5
and Father
Elijah,[1]~6
have painted the Final Enemy as a man of the Left.
It may be that this is, indeed, the hour before the triumph of “progressive” religious and
political globalists.Current American
foreign policy has ranged most of the rest of the world against us; weapons of mass destruction
and terrorist networks spread; Communist-ruled China is friendly with Russia now, and threatens to
recover Taiwan by any means necessary; Russia retains a huge nuclear arsenal, and is led by a
former KGB
colonel;[1]~7
imperialism, terror, and sex abuse with a religious cloak are discrediting traditional monotheist
religions; capitalist economies worldwide are built on an unsustainable combination of public and
private debt, imbalanced trade, concentration of wealth and power in few hands, and a race for the
bottom in labor costs (a trend that may wipe out the middle classes that have been the bulwark of
social stability in the industrialized nations).If this house of cards
tumbles – or is pushed – then the globalist progressives will
have their chance at creating a New World Order.
An Apocalyptic Threat From the Right, As Well?
As bad as this appears, we may face an even sterner challenge, one that will be the worse for
being unexpected by most: a global theocratic reaction that follows the New World
Order.Such a reaction could culminate in the appearance of a seemingly
orthodox Christian wonder-worker, a leader who finally puts himself forward through the Church as
the Anointed One, demanding worship as God (2 Thess.
2:4).This theocracy would establish a regime of legalism and “righteous”
vengeance, responding to leftist antinomianism by fanatically enforcing its own laws, and
by scapegoatingany individuals or groups who might be
plausibly blamed for installing or cooperating with the prior leftist, heretical “New World
Order” regime.The new purge would begin where the Nazis left off.
A present-day Catholic mystic, who calls himself “Miguel de Portugal,” sets forth this
scenario in detail: a global war, followed by the creation of a “progressive” New World Order
and an anti-Christian New Religion – and then, the rapid collapse of this system due to Divine
intervention.He expects that immediately thereafter, there will be a time of
massive conversions to the Christian faith – but
the
The prophecies of “Miguel de Portugal” do not have ecclesiastical approval, and it remains to
be seen whether future events will validate all his expectations.Many who
may read his web site could be put off by his style, if not by his content.
Nevertheless, “Miguel” has given me – and perhaps, many others – an essential
warning:as bad as a victory of
leftist globalism would be, it would not necessarily be the end
of our trials.History could well continue, with a global reaction toward a
“Christianized” form of Fascism following the brief triumph of the leftist variant of the New
World Order.
The Anglican writer C. S. Lewis describes what such a “religious” regime would be like: “The
loftier the pretensions of the power, the more meddlesome, inhuman, and oppressive it will
be.Theocracy is the worst of all possible
governments.All political power is at best a necessary evil; but it is least
evil when its sanctions are most modest and commonplace, when it claims no more than to be useful
or convenient and sets itself strictly limited
objectives.”[1]~9
He added, “The higher the pretensions of our rulers are, the more meddlesome and impertinent
their rule is likely to be and the more the thing in whose name they rule will be
defiled.”[2]~0
By exercising tyranny in the name of Christianity, a future rightist regime would perform an
ultimate defilement.In an essay that was a sequel to
the Screwtape Letters, Lewis’ infernal contact at
the
“Tempters’
In 1940, Lewis warned against “pseudo-theology” of the extreme Left and Right:
“Fascism and Communism, like all other evils, are potent because of the good they contain or
imitate.Diabolussimius
Dei.And of course, their occasion is the failure of those who left
humanity starved of that particular good....One of the
things we must guard against is the penetration of both into
Christianity....Mark my words: you will frequently see
both a Leftist and a Rightist pseudo-theology developing – the abomination will stand where it
ought
not.”[2]~2
Tolkien, a Roman Catholic, likewise offered a glimpse of what the
Deceiver’s religious dictatorship might be like.He pondered what might
have occurred in the world of The Lord of the Rings if the good wizard Gandalf had accepted
the temptation of using the evil One Ring, the talisman of power, to overthrow the Dark
Lord Sauron.In a letter written to a reader
in September 1963, Tolkien said, “Gandalf as Ring-Lord would
have been far worse than Sauron.He would
have remained ‘righteous,’ but
self-righteous....Thus
while Sauron multiplied ... evil, he left ‘good’ clearly
distinguishable from it.Gandalf would have made good detestable and seem
evil.”[2]~3If
a future regime makes “good detestable and seem evil,” then the only help for humanity would
be the Return of Christ.
A present-day Evangelical Protestant expert on religious cultism, Brooks Alexander, also warns:
“The mystery of iniquity evades any simplistic attempt to identify evil with chaos and
disruption, or with vice and
immorality.”[2]~4The
Final Deceiver will arrive on his own White Horse, a counterfeit of righteousness and justice.
The Russian Orthodox priest Alexander Men, assassinated in 1990 for his faith, warned, “When
religion becomes an instrument in the hands of those in power, when its adherents use force, then
faith loses its true nature and becomes the servant of political passions and the ‘interests’
of a particular social group.In many ways our present spiritual crisis bears
traces of that counterfeit, that metamorphosis of religion, when religion is darkened by
fanaticism and violence and becomes merged with interests of the
state.”[2]~5An
Italian Catholic commentator on the Apocalypse restates the peril of politicized religion: “The
recognition of the spiritual authority of the Church by the world in exchange for secular power
has always been a subtle temptation and a form of blackmail.(Be very careful
when political authorities begin to praise Christianity and speak well of
it.)”[2]~6
What is the value of this warning?It alerts those who value Christian faith
and human liberty that grave threats may come at us from multiple, unexpected directions –
simultaneously or sequentially.In his novel That Hideous Strength, C.
S. Lewis describes – from the point of view of the head of the secret police in the N. I. C. E.,
a Satanic group that attempts the takeover of England – how the Final Threat could transcend our
usual political categories: “Isn’t it absolutely essential to keep a fierce Left and a fierce
Right, both on their toes and each terrified of the other?That’s how we
get things done.Any opposition to the N. I. C. E. is represented as a Left
racket in the Right papers, and a Right racket in the Left papers.If it’s
properly done, you get each side outbidding the other in support of us – to refute the enemy
slanders.Of course we’re non-political.The
real power always
is.”[2]~7
Therefore, our spiritual early warning systems should scan the entire horizon, not just the
Left.We should not repeat the mistake that the French High Command made
before World War II, when they expected the next attack
from
The Two-Fold Threat: Lessons From History
It would be easily understandable that readers scoff at the notion that we face a two-fold,
potentially apocalyptic threat to our faith and our freedom, from the extreme Right and the
extreme Left alike.Below, I offer reasons (derived from theology, social
theory, history, and human psychology) to take seriously the warning against an unexpected
right-wing globalist aftermath of left-wing,
URI/Gorbachev-style globalism.
Consider the lessons of human history – especially the experience of the 1914-1989
period.Fascism, it seems, has an enduring mass
appeal.In
In the aftermath of a future global leftist regime, those outraged by the horrors of the time may
do as their European counterparts did between the World Wars, and turn toward an updated,
religious form of Fascism.Recruits to the far right of the future may
include many who helped to establish and manage the leftist “New World Order”; repentant and
disillusioned leftists may become inveterate, illiberal, and fanatical anti-leftists in revulsion
against their own earlier deeds.(This has happened before in the history of
the Left; it can easily happen
again.)[2]~9It’s
also true that persecution creates and ennobles martyrs; disreputable forces can align themselves
with the persecuted, and cover themselves with borrowed glory after the end of the
persecution.Exactly this occurred with the French Communists during and
after World War II; it could happen again with cultic religious movements during and after a
future leftist regime.
Another factor will be at work: a leftist New World Order will be, in practical terms,
atheistic.Any spirituality that it fosters will be emotionally shallow and
unsatisfying, akin to the spiritist pabulum now offered by Robert
Muller, Neale Donald Walsch, and
Barbara Marx Hubbard.
When the leftist regime collapses – whether by Divine or human action – people will seek a
more “profound” spirituality.That will be the cue for those who plan a
false restoration of tradition to offer their gilded wares to a disoriented, shell-shocked
world.It is likely that multitudes will take the
bait.The precedent for this is – again – the 1914-1989
period.Communism was established and maintained
in
A new, global religious Fascism could do something like this, or
worse.[3]~2The
historian John Lukacs said, “Compared to the untruth of
Stalin’s Communism, Hitler’s National Socialism may have been a half truth; but,
as
The Two-Fold Threat: Warnings From Scripture and Patristic Tradition
Consider the warnings that Christ issued against the Final Deceiver and his religious
precursors.In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Beware of false
prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” (Matt.
7:15)Jesus prophesied against the religious authorities who persecuted him
for healing a man on the Sabbath (Jn.
Taking these Biblical admonitions together, the nature of the Final Enemy becomes
clearer.He will proclaim himself as the Christ, will build an “ecclesial
movement” among the religious authorities and rank-and-file Christians, and will rally many to
his side with his false miracles, signs and wonders that counterfeit Christ’s own
actions.The Usurper will tempt even “the elect” – those who are (or
consider themselves to be) orthodox and obedient Christians.Such will be the
allure of the “Ape of Christ” that unless the time of trial were shortened by God,
everyone would fall.This, then, will be a peril that could ensnare
anyone – including traditionalists and conservatives.Contrast this
with the New Age “Christs” such as Share International’s
“Maitreya,”[3]~5
or with the secular utopias offered by Gorbachev and Maurice Strong, or with the silly syncretism
of the United Religions Initiative and other interfaith movements.Many
leftists, liberals, and New Age devotees love this stuff – but traditionalists of all kinds are
instinctively disgusted.If the Last Trial is to test the faith of
everybody, there will be a trap that could lure the Right as well as the
Left.[3]~6In
the time of the leftist New World Order, the Left will be tempted by seeing the realization of its
own rebellious desires; in the succeeding time of the Deceiver, the orthodox and the rightists
will be tempted via their own orthodoxy, religiosity, and instincts of
obedience.
The tradition of the Church carries forward Christ’s warning that mankind’s final challenge
may come at the hand of an imposter who acts in the name of Christ, and then falsely claims to be
Him.The Didache, a summary of Church
teaching from the end of the first century, warns of the final liar: “For in the last days the
false prophets and the corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves,
and love shall change to hate.For as
lawlessness increaseth they shall hate one another and persecute
and betray, and then shall appear the deceiver of the world as a Son of
God.”[3]~7
In his scholarly history of the Christian traditions pertaining to Antichrist,
Bernard McGinn says, “Antichrist as the false messiah, the
‘pseudo-Christ,’ is first and foremost the great deceiver, the
arch-hypocrite.”[3]~8St. Hippolytus
of
Christian Scripture and Tradition together alert us to the ultimate peril: a foe who is the
seductive Ape of Christ, and who will build his own religious and political kingdom on
Earth.[4]~2As
the Russian Orthodox theologian Vladimir Solovyov warned in 1900,
“the closing scene in the tragedy of history will not be a mere infidelity to or a denial of
Christianity, nor simply the triumph of materialism or anything similar to it, but that it will be
a religious imposture.The name of Christ will be arrogated by forces
in humanity that in their practice and in their very essence are alien, even inimical, to Christ
and his
Spirit.”[4]~3
A False Hope: the “Great King” of the West and a Future “Holy Pope”
There are traditions within the Catholic Church that may predispose some people to heed the
Deceiver.Chief among these beliefs is the notion that a global upsurge of
evil and a Divine chastisement will be followed by a time of peace and universal conversion to the
Catholic Church.In this era, there would arise a Great King to restore order
and justice worldwide; he would work in tandem with a Holy Pope, who will purify the Church and
restore the ancient disciplines.In the words of one adherent of this theory:
“The Great King to-be [sic] and the Holy Pontiff will reveal themselves to the world and fight
Communism, thus prefiguring Henoch and
Elias.Stones will fall from heaven; earthquakes and tidal waves will wreak
havoc throughout the world; famines and epidemics will be widespread.Thus
will come the end of the first stage, or ‘the Good Friday of
Christendom.’The resurrection will be spectacular; the Great King will be
the Emperor of Western Europe, and anointed by the Holy Pontiff.Many Jews
and all non-Catholic Christians will turn to the True Faith.The Mohammedans
will embrace Christianity, as also the Chinese.In short, virtually the whole
world will be Catholic.This universal preaching of the Gospel, in turn, will
constitute the first sign of the second stage [leading to the rise of Antichrist and the end of
the
age].”[4]~4
The tradition of the Great King and the Holy Pope is based on apocalyptic speculation by saints
and by anonymous
writers,[4]~5
from the fourth century
onward.[4]~6It
first emerged from the Tiburtine Sibyl, a work that
may date back to 380-400
AD.[4]~7However,
expectations for a future Great Monarch and a Holy Pope are not defined in Scripture, or in any
dogmatic Conciliar decrees, or in any other official teaching of
the Catholic
Church.[4]~8Rather,
these hopes derive from private revelation – and Catholics are free to accept, or to reject,
such visions and locutions according to the dictates of their own conscience and
reason.[4]~9(Of
course, Catholics are called upon to reject private revelations that are contrary to Scripture or
to the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church.)
Those who await the Great Monarch and a Holy Pope may be ready to fall into the trap of the
Deceiver, in a traumatized reaction against the preceding horrors of the
left-wing globalist regime.Catholic writer
Paul Thigpen warns, “Looking for the Great Monarch, then, who does not appear in Scripture,
might lead to overlooking the Antichrist, who does.It might even lead – a
more disturbing thought – to mistaking the Antichrist for the Great
Monarch.After all, lesser antichrists of the past such as Hitler and Stalin
have seduced followers with visions of grand and glorious earthly
kingdoms.Surely the Antichrist of the last days will do the
same.”[5]~0
The French metaphysician
René Guénon said likewise in 1945: “One can already see
sketched out, in various productions of indubitably
‘counter-initiatic’ origin or inspiration, the idea of an
organization that would be like the counterpart, but by the same token also the counterfeit, of a
traditional conceptionsuch as that of the ‘Holy Roman Empire,’ and some
such organization must become the expression of the ‘counter-tradition’ in the social order;
and for similar reasons the Antichrist must appear like something that could be called, using the
language of the Hindu tradition, an
inverted Chakravarti.[5]~1The
reign of the ‘counter-tradition’ is in fact precisely what is known as the ‘reign of
Antichrist.’”[5]~2(For Guénon,
spiritual growth within orthodox, traditional religions is a way to authentic “initiation,”
communion with God; those who are involved in “counter-initiation” are – knowingly or not
– attaining communion with spiritual forces opposed to God.)
The desire for a “Great King” aligned with a “Holy Pope” to
establish justice is understandable in these lawless times, when bureaucrats, venal time-servers,
mountebanks, and charlatans dominate politics and churches.However, this is
a yearning that will only find satisfaction when Christ returns.No one other
than Him is fit to fill the roles that visionaries assign to idealized future Kings
and
Religious Sectarianism: Laying the Foundation for the Final Deception
Additionally, sectarian religious
movements[5]~3
that seek political power are arising within and outside the churches.These
movements may lay the groundwork for the “spiritual” reactionary regime that could follow the
left-wing globalists.
In making the following criticism of right-wing sectarianism, I do not
mean to disparage the sincerity or good will of these movements’ present-day
followers.Many members of these movements are – as one defender recently
told me – people who are “trying to be good Catholics in these difficult
times.”[5]~4Like
Five points, therefore:
•Sincerity
and good will are positive attributes for souls, but I am not acting as a confessor
for
•Bankers
and art collectors know that the most dangerous counterfeits are those that seem real at first
glance.The same is true for spiritual
counterfeits. The more convincingly a cultic spiritual movement can
present itself as a model of probity and orthodoxy, the more dangerous it
is.
•Many
of these movements’ allies and adherents see what they want to see in the movements, and will
never learn of or foster the full agenda of the organization.In this
respect, they are like ordinary American Freemasons: sociable Protestant men who attend Lodge
parties, do some old-fashioned rituals, and network for business – and who never discover, let
alone approve of, the Theosophical and esoteric form of Masonry espoused by Foster Bailey, Manly
Hall,
and
•The
movements that I am criticizing appear to be trying to use money, political power, and spiritual
manipulation to re-mold their followers, and to re-make the world.People of
good will may enter the rank and file of these sectarian organizations, but if they are
fully re-formed in the movement’s image – or if they rise within the movement,
approaching its “inner
ring”[5]~6
– how long will their sincerity and good will
last?In Tolkien’sLord of the
Rings, the wizard Gandalf warned the hobbit Frodo about the awful transformation that will
befall any person who seeks to use the Ring of Power, even for good purposes: “Yes, sooner or
later – later, if he is strong or well-meaning to begin with, but neither strength nor good
purpose will last – sooner or later the dark power will devour
him.”[5]~7
•The
groups that I name below appear to be preparing for a “utopia of the
Right.”However, they are not necessarily the ones who will build the final
regime of the “counter-tradition.”That dubious honor may fall to
one of the present-day movements, or a coalition of these groups, or some yet-to-be established
group that takes authoritarian pseudo-orthodoxy to its last extreme.
Outside the Catholic Church, rightist movements that explicitly seek
to reunite Church and State include the followers of the Rev.
Sun Myung
Moon[5]~8
and the
Christian Reconstructionists[5]~9
(whose ideal is a theocracy based on Old Testament
Law).
Within the Catholic Church, these sectarian tendencies are exemplified
now by Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ,
the
The new ecclesial movements are growing, and exist
worldwide.The Legionaries of Christ have “500 priests, another 2,500
seminarians, 1,000 consecrated lay persons, and 30,000 active members in twenty
nations.”[6]~1As
of 2001, Opus Dei had “82,443 laity and 1,763 priests” as
members;[6]~2
another 2,000 deacons and priests were in the closely related Priestly Society of the Holy
Cross.[6]~3
More than half of Opus Dei members, about 47,000, are in
continental
All of these movements “are in practice largely autonomous
from the local
Churches.”[6]~9A
recent critique published by
La CiviltàCattolica – a
paper whose contents are reviewed before printing by
the
Opponents’ accusations against these groups are the standard charges
against cults: heretical teachings and rituals, secrecy, aggressive and deceptive methods of
recruitment, rigidly separating young adherents from their families, idolization of the founder of
the movement, overemphasis on the virtue of obedience, methods of member formation that are akin
to brainwashing, the teaching that salvation depends on loyalty to the movement, requiring members
to make their confessions only to priests who are members of the movement, demanding public
disclosure of faults (the “manifestation of conscience”) in meetings with fellow-members and
superiors, and (in the case of Opus Dei) use of flagellation and other harsh physical penances by
some
members.[7]~1It
should be a red flag that these movements have spawned groups of bruised and disillusioned
survivors, organizations such as the Opus Dei Awareness
Network[7]~2
and
REGAIN,[7]~3
and that these new ecclesial movements have a place on standard anti-cult web
sites[7]~4
– an “honor” not shared by traditional Catholic religious orders such as Benedictines,
Dominicans, and Franciscans.
Defenders of the new ecclesial movements reply to these accusations
with an appeal to
authority.Fr. RosinoGibellini,
director of Concilium, a Catholic theological journal,
said in 2003: “the movements are religious organizations. They are not sects, as above all, they
refer to the authority of the Church. What is more, it could be said that they have a direct line
with the leadership of the
Church.”[7]~5For Concilium
to praise the new ecclesial movements is, perhaps, an unexpected instance of Left/Right unity
within the Catholic Church’s
structure.Concilium says that it
“exists to promote theological discussion in the spirit of Vatican II, out of which it was born.
It is a catholic journal in the widest sense: rooted firmly in the Catholic heritage, open to
other Christian traditions and the world’s
faiths.”[7]~6Cardinal Schönbern,
a conservative, made a similar defense of new ecclesial movements in
1997.[7]~7In
2000, Cardinal Stafford hailed the movements as “among the most beautiful fruits of the
Council.”[7]~8
Some Catholic bishops have acted against these
groups.In 1981, Cardinal Hume, Archbishop of Westminster in the United
Kingdom, gave credence to charges against Opus Dei by directing that in his diocese, they must
refrain from enlisting members under 18 years of age, that they allow young people who wish to
join Opus Dei to discuss the matter with their family, that people remain free “to join or leave
the organization without undue pressure being exerted,” that members have the freedom to choose
a spiritual director inside or outside of the movement, and that Opus Dei activities be clearly
advertised as
such.[7]~9It’s
most unlikely that the Cardinal would have issued such directives if these practices were not
common within Opus Dei.Historian Michael Walsh has said, “Popes before the
present one can hardly be said to have been enthusiastic in their endorsement of Opus, and for
every bishop who welcomes Opus into his diocese it is clear that there are many who either will
not accept them, or are unhappy at finding them installed in their jurisdiction when they take up
their
appointments.”[8]~0The
Nevertheless, these movements now have Papal
favor.As Jason Berry and Gerald Renner explain, “John Paul saw the
Legionaries as a sign of Catholic restoration
in
There are two Legionary bishops: Bishop Brian Farrell, consecrated in 2003, who is second in
command at the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and “Bishop Jorge Bernal, the
prelate ofChetumal-Cancun
in
The power of Opus Dei is also growing in
the
The writings of the founder of Opus
Dei, JosemaríaEscrivá, express the
tenor of much “new ecclesial movement” spirituality and practice.In
The Way, he said, “When a layman sets himself up as an arbiter of morals, he frequently
errs; laymen can only be
disciples.”[9]~2“The
plane of the sanctity our Lord asks of us is determined by these three points: holy steadfastness,
holy forcefulness and holy
shamelessness.”[9]~3“Steadfastness
is not simply intransigence: it is ‘holy intransigence.’Don’t forget
that there also exists a ‘holy
forcefulness.’”[9]~4“If,
to save an earthly life, it is praiseworthy to use force to keep a man from committing suicide,
are we not allowed to use the same coercion – ‘holy coercion’ – to save the Lives (with a
capital) of so many who are stupidly bent on killing their
souls?”[9]~5“Who
are you to judge the rightness of a superior’s decision?Don’t you see
that he has more basis for judging than you?He has more experience; he has
more upright, experienced, and impartial advisers; and above all, he has more grace, a special
grace, the grace of his state, which is the light and powerful aid of
God.”[9]~6“Be
slow to reveal the intimate details of your apostolate.Don’t you see that
the world in its selfishness will fail to
understand?”[9]~7“There
are many people, holy people, who don’t understand your way. Don’t strive to make them
understand.It would be a waste of time and would give rise to
indiscretions.”[9]~8“Come
on! Ridicule him! Tell him he’s behind the times: it’s incredible that there are still people
who insist on regarding the stagecoach as a good means of
transportation. That’s for those who dig up musty, old fashioned
‘Voltairianisms’ or discredited liberal ideas of the nineteenth
century.”[9]~9“You
have come to the apostolate to submit, to annihilate yourself, not to impose your own personal
viewpoints.”[1]~0~0“Obedience,
the sure way. Blind obedience to your superior, the way of sanctity. Obedience in your apostolate,
the only way: for, in a work of God, the spirit must be to obey or to
leave.”[1]~0~1“It
is human nature to have little appreciation for what costs but little. That is why I recommended
to you the ‘apostolate of not giving.’Never fail to claim what is fairly
and justly due to you from the practice of your profession, even if your profession is the
instrument of your
apostolate.”[1]~0~2
The new ecclesial movements’ approach to the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church (and to
other human rights abuses) exemplifies their arrogance and indifference to the suffering of the
powerless.
In August 2002, the conservative Catholic journalist Rod Dreher
wrote in a column for the Wall Street Journal that unless the Pope took “dramatic action
to restore the church to holiness – starting with deposing this legion of bad bishops – his
criticism of modern society will ring hollow in the heart of this faithful American
Catholic.”[1]~0~3The
prominent Opus Dei priest Fr. John McCloskey replied to the Journal that a “minuscule
proportion” of “Catholic priests and bishops” were implicated in the scandal, and that
“remedies are already being put into effect. I would hope that
Mr. Dreher would be more patient in terms of the remedy. The
church has a pretty good track record. Check in again in about another thousand
years.”[1]~0~4
Fr. McCloskey’s millennial “let them eat cake” attitude toward the victims, families, and
their supporters mirrors the stance that other prominent Opus Dei and Legionary priests, and their
high-level allies, have taken.In March 2002, an Italian priest relied
on Escrivá’s maxims to attack a Catholic World
Newscolumnist’s criticismof scandal-tainted
priests.The priest also blamed parents for not teaching children to respect
the Church hierarchy: “Unfortunately not all priests live in full harmony with the Church and
with their sacred commitments. One of the prominent figures of the Church of the last century,
Blessed JosemaríaEscrivá, reminds
us accurately of the fact that any priest—whoever he might be—is however always another Christ
(The Way, 66)....Yes, there is a crisis in the
Church in many countries. And yes, many priests continue to contribute to it, but this should
inspire us to pray more for the priests and for their sanctification, rather than to publicly
ridicule them as a group or even under pseudonyms. After all, even more responsible for the
present crises are those parents who educate their children to all, but not Gospel values,
including the lack of respect and devotion to the hierarchical structure given to the Church by
Our
Lord.”[1]~0~5
In April 2002, Cardinal Herranz, an Opus Dei member whom John
Allen describes as
“the
A layman associated with Opus Dei said in early 2002, in response to the then-emerging abuse
scandal in
Eight former members of the Legionaries of Christ have formally
accused the founder of the Legion,
Fr. MarcialMacielDegollado,
of sexually molesting them in the 1950s and 1960s, and of “absolving” them
afterward.Despite their pleas for justice,
the
In
Be that as it may, these “new ecclesial movements” – and high authorities within
the
A
Should American bishops open the door as requested, they may be
letting a large and aggressive camel into the tent.As John Allen reported in
2003,
“
In 2004, Allen commented that the European Union’s rejection of any
mention of the Christian heritage
of
As an Italian commentator noted in 2003, the new ecclesial movements “refer directly to the pope
as their one connection to the Church. To different degrees they bear the distinctive features of
a sect. The risk is that they will transform the Catholic Church into a body of memberships in
juxtaposed groups that don’t communicate with each other: each movement with its own liturgy,
its own discipline, its own system of authority and
beliefs.”[1]~2~0The result
of this trend would be the fragmentation of parish life: “with the parish conceded to one of the
movements. The ecclesial community finally coincides with a determined group, the sacraments
become a service that is sometimes outsourced and sometimes produced from within, the parish
pastoral council becomes a place for the groups to negotiate over the scarce remaining resources
in the parish, intraecclesial associations lose their specific
meaning, episcopal authority becomes evanescent (eventually
replaced by the movement’s authority), while papal authority is hailed as identifying, but is
far removed and practically innocuous. At times, even administrative services (at the diocesan
level as at the regional and national levels) tend to take on the movement’s
form.”[1]~2~1
A former member of Focolare said the
same: “A Church in which the movements predominate will no longer be recognizably
Catholic.Even in the pre-conciliar period, the
sense of a common faith was strong.In the Church of the future this sense of
belonging, of identity could be fragmented into groups which have virtually nothing in common with
one
another.”[1]~2~2He
added, “It is ironic that the most pernicious and inhuman idea of the twentieth century, the
deification of the collective, has found its last refuge and most passionate proponents in the
very Catholics who fought communism so
fiercely.”[1]~2~3
If Catholic authorities restructure the Church based on the new
ecclesial movements, Catholic parishes and dioceses would cease to embody the unity of
the faithful.They would instead become recruiting grounds for competing
authoritarian, politicized sects that claim allegiance to the Pope.This
would be a radical revision of the structure and beliefs of the Catholic Church, a change that
would eclipse the revisions in doctrine and discipline now being sought by Call to Action and
other liberal dissenters.
Charles Upton draws out the parallels between the globalist syncretism of the URI and the new ecclesial movements’ replacement of traditional, local Church structures with allegiance to a movement, its specialized spirituality, and its charismatic leader.He says, “The proposed fragmentation of the once-unified Catholic Church into quasi-independent ‘new ecclesiastical movements’ appears as the reverse mirror-image of the syncretic ecumenism of the URI. The marginalization of geographically-based communities such as the parish (which is seen as too ‘parochial’) or diocese is one of the watchwords of globalization.In line with the ‘information culture’ and the global, non-localized quality of cyberspace, both ‘new ecclesial’ and New Age networks tend to de-emphasize local and national cultures and communities while striving to be global in reach. Like so-called on-line ‘communities,’ New Age networks and the ‘new ecclesial movements’ lack the geographical, ethnic, cultural and historical common ground that would relate them to other ‘communities’ formed around other areas of interest.(So much for the ‘unifying, community-building’ claims made for the information culture’s ‘global brain’ by its New Age proponents!) The resulting cultural and religious fragmentation inevitably evokes a desire for unity – consciously or otherwise.In the case of the ‘new ecclesial movements’ within Catholicism, this desire seems ready to express itself as the call for a totalitarian pope with the power to impose unity from above.”[1]~2~4
Spiritual Vulnerability: the Fetishes of Authority and Obedience
Could Catholics fall for such distortions of their ancient faith?Yes.(Here, the present heresies of the left-wing dissenters are not the issue.)
Among some conservative Catholics, the touchstone of the faith
is obedience to ecclesiastical authority.Thus, one writer for a staunchly
orthodox Catholic magazine claims that in the teachings of the early Church Fathers Clement of
Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons,
“we see the seed developing that later blossoms into the one doctrine that elevates the Catholic
Faith above all others – Papal
Infallibility.”[1]~2~5Likewise,
another book reviewer for the same magazine said, concerning a book that debated Catholic
teachings on the Virgin Mary, that prospective converts to the Catholic Church must, “at some
point,” “cease examining each point of doctrine separately, confront the issue of authority,
and simply assent to ‘all that the Catholic Church believes and
teaches.’This kind of assent is required for Catholic
orthodoxy.”[1]~2~6He
added that the book’s author “could have highlighted more the fact that Catholics accept the
Marian dogmas because they first accept the authority of the
Church....For prior to the question of specific dogmas
looms the question of where lies the authority on faith and morals for a
Christian.And here we have the clearest signposts pointing us
to
In response to the priestly sex-abuse scandal and the ensuing public
criticism of the Catholic hierarchy, various Catholic commentators propose strict obedience
and respect for the hierarchy as the solution.
Archbishop Charles Chaput of the
Archdiocese of Denver spoke for them when – as an antidote to the “prophetic” antics of
rebels in religious orders – he proposed that we follow one of the “Rules for Thinking with
the
Church”[1]~2~8
offered during the Reformation by St. Ignatius of Loyola.The “Thirteenth
Rule,” cited by the Archbishop, is: “If we wish to proceed securely in all things, we must
hold fast to the following principle: What seems to me white, I will believe black if the
hierarchical Church so defines. For I must be convinced that in Christ our Lord, the Bridegroom,
and in His spouse, the Church, only one Spirit holds sway, which governs and rules for the
salvation of souls. For it is by the same Spirit and Lord who gave the Ten Commandments that our
holy mother Church is ruled and
governed.”[1]~2~9
The Archbishop of Denver has put this viewpoint into practice in his
dealing with lay critics.Rod Dreher, an
orthodox Catholic who has written extensively about the Catholic sex abuse scandal, reports upon
his correspondence with Chaput in early 2002, when the Boston
Globe was breaking the news about the priestly sex assaults and ecclesiastical cover-up in
Boston: “Then the Archbishop chastised me for making what he considered an unwarranted
assumption that the Boston bishops were concerned about Geoghan,
but not his victims. Chaput said, ‘You don’t know that.’ He
quoted a previous letter of mine in which I said, ‘bishops don’t seem to care, except insofar
as it affects their finances.’ His Excellency said – and this I will quote directly –
‘Well, I know bishops a lot better than you do, Rod, including their many weaknesses. To suggest
that they protect their resources before they protect their people is not just insulting, but
unjust and wrong. If you really believe that, why would you remain
Catholic?’”[1]~3~0With
this comment, Chaput placed belief in the hierarchy as the
centerpiece of Catholic faith.
Leaders with such attitudes are capable of doing hideous things in
times of great crisis, with the approval of their own conscience.As the
Inner Party inquisitor told Winston, the dissident in Orwell’s 1984, “Whatever the
Party holds to be truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking
through the eyes of the
Party.”[1]~3~1Acceptance
of this irrational mind-set (perhaps, after spiritual formation in a “new ecclesial movement”)
prepares the faithful to goose-step off a spiritual cliff, if a Deceiver should become Pope – or
rather, anti-Pope.
In normal times, Catholics reject the idea that a Pope could be a
heretic or an apostate – but we are here looking ahead into the Final Days, the most abnormal of
times.And the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that in that
brief time, the Church will follow the way of Christ, through her Passion to death and burial:
“Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the
faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her
pilgrimage on earth will unveil the ‘mystery of iniquity’ in the form of a religious deception
offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The
supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a
pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and
of his Messiah come in the flesh....The Church will
enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in
his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by
a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory
over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from
heaven.God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the
Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing
world.”[1]~3~2
Outside the Church, Two Witnesses to the Dual Peril
The Nihilist’s Dark Prophecies: Friedrich Nietzsche
First, I present the testimony of Nietzsche, the declared foe of God.In
1885, in Will to Power, he saw the emergence of global politics and global governance:
“Inexorably, hesitantly, terrible as fate, the great task and question is approaching: how shall
earth as a whole be governed?And to what end shall ‘man’ as a whole –
and no longer as a people, a race – be raised and
trained?”[1]~3~3
Let’s begin with Nietzsche’s insights into the 20th
Century.[1]~3~4In
1888, when it could hardly be imagined that the then-ruling European regimes could fall, he said
in Ecce Homo that soon, “The concept of politics will have merged entirely with a war of
spirits; all power structures of the old society will have been exploded – all of them are based
on lies:there will be wars the like of which have never yet been seen on
earth.It is only beginning with me that the earth knows great
politics.”[1]~3~5In
The Gay Science, Nietzsche said in 1882, “I welcome all signs that a more manly, a
warlike age is about to begin, an age which, above all, will give honor to valor once
again.”[1]~3~6
In Ecce Homo, Nietzsche promised, accurately, that “the uncovering of Christian morality
is an event without parallel, a real
catastrophe.”[1]~3~7In
the 1887 edition of The Gay Science, he elaborated: “The greatest recent event – that
‘God is dead,’ that the belief in the Christian God has ceased to be believable – is even
now beginning to cast its first shadows over Europe;” however, few yet understood “what has
really happened here, and what must collapse now that this belief has been undermined – all that
was built upon it, leaned on it, grew into it: for example, our whole European
morality.”[1]~3~8
In Untimely Meditations, Nietzsche prophesied in 1874 about the effects of teaching moral
relativism and the lack of a fundamental distinction between humans and animals: “If, on the
other hand, the doctrines of sovereign becoming, of the fluidity of all concepts, types and
species, of the lack of any cardinal distinction between man and animal – doctrines which I
consider true but deadly – are thrust upon the people for another generation with the rage for
instruction that has by now become normal, no one should be surprised if the people perishes of
petty egoism, ossification and greed, falls apart, and ceases to be a people; in its place systems
of individualist egoism, brotherhoods for the rapacious exploitation of the non-brothers, and
similar creations of utilitarian vulgarity may perhaps appear in the arena of the
future.”[1]~3~9He
wrote in 1877 of “this coming generation” that “Perhaps this generation as a whole will even
seem more evil than the present generation – for, in wicked as in good things, it will be more
candid; it is possible, indeed, that if its soul should speak out in free full tones it
would shake and terrify our soul as would the voice of some hitherto concealed evil spirit of
nature.”[1]~4~0
In 1887, in Will to Power, Nietzsche wrote:“What I relate is the
history of the next two centuries.I describe what is coming, what can no
longer come differently: the advent of
nihilism....This future speaks even now in a
hundred signs...For some time now, our whole European
culture has been moving as toward a catastrophe, with a tortured tension that is growing from
decade to
decade.”[1]~4~1
Additionally, Nietzsche foresaw the strife that socialism and Communism would strew
across
Total up the score: in the high noon of the Victorian era, the prophet of atheism discerned the
coming of a Europe-wide catastrophe, unprecedented wars, moral collapse, nihilism, political
fanaticism, the rise of “brotherhoods for the rapacious exploitation of the non-brothers,”
Communist victories followed by enormous bloodshed, and the rise of a generation that would seem
to the men of the 19th century to speak with “the voice of some hitherto concealed
evil spirit.”That’s the briefest possible summary of the history of the
world since 1914, and it was a prospect that almost nobody of his time saw – aside from the
Popes.[1]~4~4
Now, we can turn to what the anti-Apostle saw for the following era.After
the time of war and catastrophe, Nietzsche saw a dark, majestic rebirth for
humanity.After the destructive era of nihilism, Nietzsche expected the
emergence of new values, to be defined by a new elite.
In 1887 in Will to Power, he said that there will be “a movement that in some future will
take the place of this perfect nihilism – but presupposes it, logically and psychologically, and
certainly can come only after it and out of
it.”[1]~4~5The
nihilist phase “represents the ultimate logical conclusion of our great values and ideals –
because we must experience nihilism before we can find out what value those ‘values’ really
had.”[1]~4~6In
the reaction against the destruction of tradition, “new
values”[1]~4~7
would be set up to counterfeit and replace what was
smashed.(Mikhail Gorbachev sounded a similar
note in 1993: “Revaluation of values is basic to the evolution of
civilization.”[1]~4~8)
In a section of Will to Power written in 1885, Nietzsche
described how the New Elite, the commanding apostles of the New Values, would be formed: “A
morality with such reverse intentions, which desires to train men for the heights, not for comfort
and mediocrity, a morality with the intention of training a ruling caste – the future masters
of the earth – must, if it is to be taught, appear in association with the prevailing moral
laws, in the guise of their terms and
forms.”[1]~4~9Nietzsche
found it “obvious” that “for this, however, many transitional means of deception must be
devised, and that, because the lifetime of a single man signifies virtually nothing in relation to
the accomplishment of such protracted tasks and aims, the very first thing to be done is the
rearing of a new kind of man, in whom the duration of the necessary will and the necessary
instinct will be guaranteed through many generations – a new master type and
caste.”[1]~5~0He
added, “From now on there will be more favorable preconditions for more comprehensive forms of
dominion, whose like has never before existed.And even this is not the most
important thing; the possibility has been established for the production of international racial
unions whose task will be to rear a master race, the future ‘masters of the earth’; – a new,
tremendous aristocracy, based on the severest self-legislation, in which the will of philosophical
men of power and artist-tyrants will be made to endure for millennia – a higher kind of man who,
thanks to their superiority in will, knowledge, riches, and influence, employ democratic Europe as
their most pliant and supple instrument for getting hold of the destinies of the earth, so as to
work as artists upon ‘man’ himself.Enough: the time is coming when
politics will have a different
meaning.”[1]~5~1
Let’s draw out the implications of these prophecies from the
19th Century.The creation of the New Elite, those who would rule
after modernism and socialism have spent their fury, is a project that will take
generations.These men will be trained to look as if they are “in
association with the prevailing moral laws;” they, and their teachers, will be skilled users of
many “transitional means of deception.”The New Rulers would be formed
strictly, “based on the severest self-legislation.”The New Aristocrats
will rise first
in
In Ecce Homo, Nietzsche said, “Let us look ahead a century; let us suppose that my
attempt to assassinate two millennia of antinature and
desecration of man were to succeed.That new party of life which would tackle
the greatest of all tasks, the attempt to raise humanity higher, including the relentless
destruction of everything that was degenerating and parasitical, would again make possible that
excess of life on Earth ...I promise a tragic age: the highest art in saying
Yes to life, tragedy, will be reborn when humanity has weathered the consciousness of the hardest
but most necessary wars without suffering from
it.”[1]~5~2
In 1887 in Will to Power, Nietzsche said that violence would give birth to “a stronger
species” than the “pampered, weak of will” Europeans of the 19th
Century;[1]~5~3
a “dominating race can grow up only out of terrible and violent
beginnings.”[1]~5~4Hitherto,
the world has looked for the barbarian “only in the depths.There exists
also another type of barbarian, who comes from the heights: a species of conquering and ruling
natures in search of material to
mold.”[1]~5~5In
The Gay Science, he stated that the coming “manly” and “warlike” age (presumably,
the 20th Century) “shall prepare the way for one yet higher, and it shall gather the
strength which this higher age will need one day – this age which is to carry heroism into the
pursuit of knowledge and wage wars for the sake of thoughts and their
consequences.”[1]~5~6
The new masters, those who come after the breakdown of the social system that proclaimed universal
“equality” and “social justice,” would live by the stern principles set forth in
Nietzsche’s 1888 Twilight of the Idols: “In order that there may be institutions, there
must be a kind of will, instinct, or imperative, which is anti-liberal to the point of malice: the
will to tradition, to authority, to responsibility for centuries to come, to the solidarity of
chains of generations, forward and backward ad infinitum.When this
will is present, something like
the imperiumRomanum is
founded.”[1]~5~7
The Coming Leaders foreseen by Nietzsche, the barbarians “from the heights,” will “attempt
to raise humanity higher,” and will engage in “relentless destruction” of whatever, or
whoever, opposes them or fails to meet their standard.Once again, it seems,
there will be a time when “truth” will ride under Crusaders’ arms, while “error” – no
matter how narrow and distorted the perspective used to define it
as such – will have no rights.
The Warnings of a Sufi Metaphysician, René Guénon
The universal corruption affects its opponents, as well: “those who most sincerely want to combat the modern spirit are almost all unwittingly affected by it, and all their efforts are therefore condemned to remain without any appreciable result.”[1]~6~1Therefore, Guénon says, “the very idea of tradition has been destroyed to such an extent that those who seek to recover it no longer know which way to turn, and are only too ready to accept all the false ideas presented to them in its place and under its name.”[1]~6~2He adds, “the work which has as its object to prevent all ‘reaction’ from aiming at anything further back than a return to a lesser disorder, while at the same time concealing the character of the lesser disorder so that it may pass as ‘order,’ fits in very exactly with the other work carried out with a view to securing the penetration of the modern spirit into the interior of whatever is left of traditional organization of any kind in the West.”[1]~6~3
However, just before the end, Guénon sees a sudden, brief reversal of these trends.Instead of equality, there will be a new hierarchy.Instead of atheism and materialism, there will be spirituality and religion galore.Instead of the open war against tradition, there will be a false restoration of tradition, a recovery that is in fact a perverse, infernal inversion of authentic tradition.Antichrist will claim to bring the Millennium, “the ‘golden age’ into being through the reign of the ‘counter-tradition’,” and will give it “an appearance of authenticity, purely deceitful and ephemeral though it be, by means of a counterfeit of the traditional idea of the Sanctum Regnum.”[1]~6~4In 1945, Guénon discerned only the “preliminary signs” of the “counter-tradition,” “in the form of all the things that are striving to become counterfeits in one way or another of the traditional idea itself.”[1]~6~5However destructive may be the “reign of quantity,” the age of materialism and Godlessness, Guénon says that “the merely negative ‘anti-tradition’ only represented the necessary preparation”[1]~6~6for the emergence of the final “counter-tradition.”
The Final Enemy “imitates in his own way, by altering and falsifying it so as always to make it serve his own ends, the very thing he sets out to oppose: thus, he will so manage matters that disorder takes on the appearance of a false order, he will hide the negation of all principles under the affirmation of false principles, and so on.Naturally, nothing of this kind can ever really be more than dissimulation and even caricature, but it is presented cleverly enough to induce an immense majority of men to allow themselves to be deceived by it.”[1]~6~7
Guénon says of the reign of the Final Deceiver: “He will evidently be an ‘imposter’ (this is the meaning of the word dajjâl by which he is usually designated in Arabic) since his reign will be nothing other than the ‘Great Parody’ in its completest form, the ‘satanic’ imitation and caricature of everything that is truly traditional and spiritual ... His time will certainly no longer be the ‘reign of quantity’, which was itself only the end-point of the ‘anti-tradition’; it will on the contrary be marked, under the pretext of a false ‘spiritual restoration’, by a sort of re-introduction of quality in all things, but of quality inverted with respect to its normal and legitimate significance.After the ‘egalitarianism’ of our times there will again be a visibly established hierarchy, but an inverted hierarchy, indeed a real ‘counter-hierarchy’, the summit of which will be occupied by the being who will in reality be situated nearer than any other being to the very bottom of the ‘pit of Hell’.... by reason of his extreme opposition to the true in all its aspects, the Antichrist can adopt the very symbols of the Messiah, using them of course in an inverted sense.”[1]~6~8The servants of Antichrist will possess a dark, seductive sanctity: “The last degree of the ‘counter-initiatic’ hierarchy is occupied by what are called ‘the saints of Satan’ (awilyâesh-Shaytân) who are in a sense the inverse of the true saints (awilyâer-Rahmân), thus manifesting the most complete expression possible of ‘inverted spirituality’.”[1]~6~9
In the regime of Antichrist, “the setting up of the ‘counter-tradition’ and its apparent momentary triumph will in effect be the reign of what has been called ‘inverted spirituality,’” a “parody of spirituality.”[1]~7~0With the inversion of spirituality will come the inversion of traditional symbols: “The most diabolical trick of all is perhaps that which consists in attributing to the orthodox symbolism itself, as it exists in truly traditional organizations ... the inverted interpretation which is specifically characteristic of the ‘counter-initiation.”[1]~7~1
Guénon concurs with Christian tradition in noting that the regime of Antichrist will be short: “all the prophecies (the word is of course used here in its rightful sense) indicate that the apparent triumph of the ‘counter-tradition’ will only be a passing one, and that at the very moment when it seems most complete it will be destroyed by the action of spiritual influences which will intervene at that point to prepare for the final reinstatement.Nothing less than a divine intervention of this kind would in fact suffice to bring to an end, at the chosen time, the most formidable and the most truly ‘satanic’ of all the possibilities”[1]~7~2 of the current age.
Charles Upton, a present-day metaphysician and comparative religion scholar, sums up the confusing and disorienting nature of the situation that we may be facing:“The looming One World Government shows many signs of being the predicted regime of Antichrist. But ... it’s not quite that simple, since the ‘tribal’ forces reacting against globalism are ultimately part of the same system. According to one of many possible scenarios, the satanic forces operating at the end of the Aeon would be quite capable of establishing a One World Government only to set the stage for the emergence of Antichrist as the great leader of a world revolution against this government, which, if it triumphed, would be the real One World Government. Or the martyrdom of Antichrist at the hands of such a government might be a deliberate or even staged self-sacrifice, counterfeiting the death of Christ and leading to a counterfeit resurrection. I am not saying that this will happen; I am not prognosticating. I only wish to point out that Antichrist, as a counterfeit manifestation of the Divine universality, will have the capacity to use all sides in any conflict, including a global one, to build his power – except the ultimate Messianic Conflict, called Armageddon in the Apocalypse, which is initiated and concluded by God Himself.”[1]~7~3
What Is To Be Done?
In part, and as the first step, by examining ourselves, repenting of our own sin and our participation in collective evil and deception.The prayer for our time, as for all earthly times, is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”Bernard McGinn ends his magisterial history of Antichrist thus: “Contemporary forms of deception, especially deception on a worldwide scale never possible before, might spur our meditation on the meaning of the legend of Antichrist as the image of essential human evil.The dominance of appearance over substance may not have been invented in the electronic era, but some contemporary social critics remind us that deceit has reached a new level of sophistication as we approach the beginning of the third millennium....If we are all part of a culture in which forms of deceit, both overt and covert, are present in many ways, we can admit that the most dangerous form of deceit is self-deceit, our ability to convince ourselves that we are doing what is best and for the best reasons, even when this is not the case – and somehow, however obscurely, we know it not to be the case.That is just another way of putting Augustine’s ancient message: ‘There you have the Antichrist – everyone who denies Christ by his works.’”[1]~7~4
Having removed the logs from our own eyes, we may accurately discern the specks that are in the
eyes of our opponents (Mt. 7:3-5).We should then pray on their behalf, for
their salvation and conversion to the fullness of Truth; in doing this, we are asking God to
bestow the greatest of blessings on them (Mt
In addition to repentance and prayer, it is also essential to be spiritually alert and to discern the signs of the times.As Jesus said, “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.” (Matt. 24:42)A holy priest in Michael O’Brien’s apocalyptic novel Father Elijah reminds us of the difficulties associated with this discernment: “The apocalypse is not a melodrama.If it were, most people would wake up and see the danger they are in.That is our real peril.Our own times, no matter how troubled they may be, are our idea of what is real.It is almost impossible to step outside of it in order to see it for what it is....The living apocalypse radiates a sense of normality.We are inside it.”[1]~7~5To use a business cliché: we need to “think out of the box.”Prayer and repentance are the only way that we will see beyond the confines of the “box,” to perceive what is really occurring.
Some who read this may have a calling to activism, in the churches and in the public square.I am not an organizer myself, neither a politician nor a cleric, neither a financier nor a senior executive.Therefore, I cannot venture a guess at an activist strategy that might successfully oppose or mitigate the present trends toward global religious deception, apostasy, and tyranny.(I am skeptical that social and political action can work any longer, but my assessment of the lateness of the hour may be incorrect.Such efforts might still turn the tide, and grant the world a season of peace and liberty.)Each reader who hears and receives these admonitions has his unique talents and station in life; the appropriate response will necessarily be different for everyone.
However anyone responds to these challenges, let it be a response based on love and humility.Everyone should reflect on the lessons that Solzhenitsyn learned while imprisoned in Stalin’s gulag:“In the intoxication of youthful successes I had felt myself to be infallible, and I was therefore cruel.In the surfeit of power I was a murderer, and an oppressor.In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good, and I was well supplied with systematic arguments.And it was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good.Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts.This line shifts.Inside us, it oscillates with the years.And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained.And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an un-uprooted small corner of evil.Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being).It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.And since that time I have come to understand the falsehood of all the revolutions in history: They destroy only those carriers of evil contemporary with them (and also fail, out of haste, to discriminate the carriers of good, as well).And they then take to themselves as their heritage the actual evil itself, magnified still more.”[1]~7~6Let any of us, when tempted to be crusaders, heed this wisdom bought by Solzhenitsyn at so high a price!
Sed Contra: Against Extreme-Right “Solutions” to the Crisis
The positions that I describe are held by relatively few people now, but such fanaticism can
easily spread as traumatized people react to global upheaval.Who
in
Eliphaz: You have missed the point.You
don’t seem to understand that these are the times of the end,
and
Author:Maybe you’re right, and we are in the very Final Days before
the Second Coming of Christ.Even so, what you propose makes no sense –
theologically or morally.The idea that God guaranteed
the
Jews in
The proponents of building
the
The idea that we ought to “hurry Him up” to speed the Second Coming is presumption and
blasphemy.The only way that we Christians should attempt to hasten
the
It might be that a Third Temple is destined to be rebuilt on the site of
Herod’s
Those who wish to rebuild the
Bildad:Thanks for dealing with those Christian Zionists.But you have not looked at the real problem: the entire Jewish race!“It is no right-wing extremism to claim that money is controlled by a Judeo-Masonic clique.”[1]~9~2“There is, of course, convincing bibliographical evidence of a Judeo-Masonic plot from the 18th century onwards,”[1]~9~3 a plot to destroy Christianity and morality.Indeed, “the Mystery of Iniquity will find its completion in the earthly kingdom of the Jews under Antichrist.”[1]~9~4“God hates Evil, and the Jews after they had our Lord Jesus crucified, became the greatest evil....the Jews are a band of thieves and murderers, and it is understandable that the just punishment of God is frequently bestowed upon them for their bloody misdeeds.”[1]~9~5“Duns Scotus, the Doctor Subtilis, went still further than Thomas of Aquinas and proposed to Christianity a solution to the Jewish problem on the basis of the complete destruction of this devilish sect.”[1]~9~6Therefore, “subjugation of the Jews is the theologically, morally and politically correct, rational social policy.”[1]~9~7The times are with us, and against the Jews.“A vast and violent storm is rising up in the distance, a storm that will sweep away jewish [sic] control in Western civilization as surely as it was swept away in pre-WWII Germany...and for precisely the same reasons.”[1]~9~8
Author:I regret the need to quote you, and do so only as evidence that there are those who think as you do.Although my response is brief, my revulsion against anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism is profound. I use an Eastern Orthodox manual for examination of conscience before going to confession, and it asks, “Have I honored God as my Heavenly Father by treating others as my brothers?...Have I defamed others who needed help, or failed to stand up for those unjustly treated?Have I been cruel to anyone?...Have I told lies, or added to or subtracted from the truth?”[1]~9~9These questions hold for anyone, and I can’t imagine how the anti-Semitic opinions expressed above can pass muster.
Jesus, Mary, and the Apostles were all Jewish.Jesus told the Samaritan woman
at the well, “Salvation is from the Jews.” (John
4:22)
Furthermore, the Catholic
What one Pope said privately
before
In the decree Nostra Aetate, the Catholic Church declared:
“The apostle Paul maintains that the Jews remain very dear to God, for the sake of the
patriarchs, since God does not take back the gifts he bestowed or the choice he
made.Together with the prophets and that same apostle, the Church awaits the
day, known to God alone, when all peoples will call on God with one voice
...Even though the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead
pressed for the death of Christ (cf. John 19:6), neither all Jews indiscriminately at that time,
nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his
passion.It is true that the Church is the new people of God, yet the Jews
should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed, as if this followed from holy
Scripture.Consequently, all must take care, lest in catechizing or in
preaching the Word of God, they teach anything which is not in accord with the truth of the Gospel
message or the spirit of Christ.Indeed,
the
The Council Fathers added, “We cannot truly pray to God the Father of all if we treat any people in other than brotherly fashion, for all men are created in God’s image.Man’s relation to God the Father and man’s relation to his fellow-men are so dependent on each other that the Scripture says: ‘he who does not love does not know God’ (1 John 4:8).There is no basis therefore, either in theory or in practice for any discrimination between individual and individual, or between people and people arising either from human dignity or from the rights which flow from it.Therefore the Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against people or any harassment of them on the basis of their race, color, condition in life, or religion.”[2]~0~5
This Conciliar teaching should be heeded by all Christians, whether they are Catholic or notIts truth applies to all Christian confessions and denominations alike.
It might be that, before the end, there will be a “religious” neo-Nazi regime, presenting itself as a forceful and justified reaction against decadence and secularism.This “New Order” may imitate Hitler, and unleash a global anti-Semitic pogrom.This regime – if it comes – will serve Satan, not God.
Zophar:Those
other guys are crazy, and you responded to them well.But you worry
needlessly.
But – even if the worst that you fear comes to pass, there are two answers.First, everyone should stockpile goods and prepare to retreat to the country if the Antichrist arises.Hole up and wait him out; Scripture says his reign will be short.
And if need be, we can terminate any tyrant, even the Antichrist,
“with extreme prejudice.”It’s the American
way.God, guts, and guns
made
Author:I too
love
The idea of surviving the final Tribulation by guarding a hoard of goods in a rural retreat is an illusion.Prudence is one thing; the ideology of survivalism is quite another.When the Tribulation comes, it will be global.No one can say where the natural and social disasters, as symbolically described in the book of Revelation, will strike hardest.And there is nothing in the Gospel or the Epistles that commends the amassing of possessions as a hedge against disaster.The truth seems to be otherwise.Jesus offered a parable against “reasonable” avarice: “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:16-21)
Nor does armed resistance offer a solution to an evil, apocalyptic
tyranny.Again, Scripture offers a consistent witness, from the ministry of
Jesus through the prophecy of Revelation.Jesus rejected violent resistance
to his arrest by Roman soldiers and the masters of
the
When the
Peter – who was to be one of Nero’s victims – said in a letter sent
from
In the book of Revelation, it seems that an apparently mortal attack upon the Beast does not kill him; it merely gives the Deceiver an opportunity to show his power with a false “resurrection:” “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the beast with wonder. Men worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?’” (Rev. 13:1-4).
Amidst the frightening and obscure symbols, the Revelator offered earthly advice: “If any one
has an ear, let him hear: If any one is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if any one
slays with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith
of the saints.”(Rev. 13:9-10).This is a call to
fidelity and to endure to the end – not a recommendation that the faithful
should
If we face the end times, the prudent and realistic World War II counsels of Reinhold Niebuhr and Dietrich Bonhoeffer would not hold.[2]~1~1We would be facing a different kind of battle, and would be called to use a different strategy.
Elihu:These other people are uncouth, Anglo-Saxon barbarians – Protestant heretics and Americanists, no doubt.They do not understand history or Catholic culture.
Yes, the Chastisement, and persecution of Christians, is coming soon.“The coming disaster will be of such magnitude that our whole civilization would be destroyed were it not for the presence of the Church.It is the Church that will save civilization.”[2]~1~2The Church, as a visible and hierarchical institution, a “perfect society” led by the Pontiff, the Successor of Peter, cannot fail.Ever.Remember Christ’s promise to Peter: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”(Matt. 16:18-19)The Roman See never has been, and never will be, heretical or apostate.
Even now, the ground is being prepared for a New Springtime of the Church, to be led by the New
Ecclesial Movements: Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ,
the
Out from the coming chaos, there will be a real New Order, led by a victorious Great King and a Holy Pope – a Pope who will “rule with a rod of iron”[2]~1~5 and “restore the former disciplines”[2]~1~6 of the Roman Church.“The resurrection will be spectacular; the Great King will be the Emperor of Western Europe, and anointed by the Holy Pontiff.Many Jews and all non-Catholic Christians will turn to the True Faith.The Mohammedans will embrace Christianity, as also the Chinese.In short, virtually the whole world will be Catholic.”[2]~1~7This “era of peace” may last a long time before a new apostasy ushers in the Antichrist.
So let us not be afraid, but rather follow the inspired teachings of St. Escrivá, the Founder of Opus Dei:“When a layman sets himself up as an arbiter of morals, he frequently errs; laymen can only be disciples.”[2]~1~8“Obedience, the sure way. Blind obedience to your superior, the way of sanctity. Obedience in your apostolate, the only way: for, in a work of God, the spirit must be to obey or to leave.”[2]~1~9The Church will lead; let us follow!We’ll learn soon enough that secular government and separation of Church and State are Masonic delusions, “musty, old fashioned ‘Voltairianisms’ or discredited liberal ideas of the nineteenth century.”[2]~2~0“If, to save an earthly life, it is praiseworthy to use force to keep a man from committing suicide, are we not allowed to use the same coercion – ‘holy coercion’ – to save the Lives (with a capital) of so many who are stupidly bent on killing their souls?”[2]~2~1
The dark days of the Enlightenment will soon pass.“Liberalism is a mortal sin.”[2]~2~2“If the Revolution is disorder, the Counter-Revolution is the restoration of order.And by order we mean the peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ, that is, Christian civilization, austere and hierarchical, fundamentally sacral, antiegalitarian, and antiliberal.”[2]~2~3
Author:The promise of an Earthly utopia of the Right is
a
Note, as well, that there are parallels between the ideology of left-wing utopians and the beliefs of the right-wing zealots described here.
In the late 1930s, Escrivá wrote, “If, to save an earthly life, it is praiseworthy to use force to keep a man from committing suicide, are we not allowed to use the same coercion – ‘holy coercion’ – to save the Lives (with a capital) of so many who are stupidly bent on killing their souls?”[2]~2~4The Theosophist Alice Bailey likewise exalted Life over individual lives (or, as she called them, “form”): “let us never forget that it is the Life, its purpose and its directed intentional destiny that is of importance; and also that when a form proves inadequate, or too diseased, or too crippled for the expression of that purpose, it is – from the point of view of the Hierarchy – no disaster when that form has to go.”[2]~2~5
PlinioCorrêa de Oliveira (the right-wing Catholic founder of Tradition, Family, and Property) says, “An objective view of history shows that the factor of mass is secondary; the principal factor is the formation of elites.”[2]~2~6Leninists, with their belief in the “vanguard party,” a leader of Global Education Associates, with her belief in “creative minorities,”[2]~2~7 and Ted Turner, with his disdain for the “dumb majority,”[2]~2~8 would agree on him on sociology.Their only disagreement is the end toward which mankind is to be driven – for our own good, whether we like it or not.
If you continue as you appear to have begun, you will – however sincere you are now – go straight into the arms of the Final Deceiver, the one who will counterfeit Christ.Beware!
A Challenge: Is Orthodoxy Better Than Heresy?
A few illustrations of this trend will suffice, drawn from some items recently published by those who ought to know better.
In its commentary on the deepening scandal of sexual abuse and cover-up in the Catholic Church, New Oxford Review (a steadfast, orthodox Catholic magazine) has taken to writing of “fag and/or fag-friendly priests”[2]~2~9 and distinguishes itself from Our Sunday Visitor, a centrist Catholic publication, thus: “The Visitor ‘respects the human dignity’ of active homosexuals, but we at the NOR do not....How can any Catholic respect their ‘human dignity’?”[2]~3~0
Another orthodox Catholic magazine, Culture Wars, has recently gone off the deep end
regarding the Jews.Its editor says, “If salvation comes from the Jews who
prepared the way for Christ and accepted him when he came, what comes from the Jews who rejected
Christ?The answer is clear: what comes from this group is the opposite of
salvation, namely, the work of Satan culminating in the arrival of the
Antichrist.The answer is not only clear; there is no other possible answer
to this question....the Nazi attempt to exterminate
the Jews was a reaction to Jewish Messianism (in the form of
Bolshevism) every bit as much as the Chmielnicki pogroms flowed
from the excesses of the Jewish tax farmers in
the
Catholic Answers, a mainstream group which engages in apologetics and evangelical outreach for Catholicism, sent out fundraising letters in early 2004 saying: “Islam is worse than Communism ever was....Islam is and always has been a religion of violence....it seeks to eliminate Christianity and Judaism....The great threat of the twenty-first century is Islam.”[2]~3~2
Such vituperation – and the attitude toward enemies that it manifests – will not bring victory for the cause of Christ.Instead, those who engage in it are fulfilling an apocalyptic prophecy of Christ: “And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold.” (Mt. 24:12).They are also acting as predicted in the Didache: “the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall change to hate.For as lawlessness increaseth they shall hate one another and persecute and betray ...”[2]~3~3
A Catholic and a Protestant offer salutary warnings against being possessed by the spirit of hatred during the present (and pending) conflicts.Philip Trower, an orthodox Catholic, says in his history of the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church, “It is right to feel an abhorrence for heresy....The faith has to be defended.But there are better and worse ways of doing it, and if one is not careful, love of the Church and faith can become entangled with natural bellicosity or the spirit of domination.We can forget that our opponents need prayers more than maledictions.”[2]~3~4An evangelical Protestant writer for Christianity Today related an account of her meeting with a spiritually confused, heretical man who had been raised by a zealous mother, a preacher.She concluded her tale with a warning for us all, especially those of us who consider ourselves orthodox or faithful: “For being so surrounded with Christianity, my friend knew nothing of the grace of God.All he heard and felt was judgment on his inadequacy: that he was not as fiery as mom, not as moral as church people, not as powerful as Catholics.Here was a man who needed more than anything the thoroughly orthodox word that his salvation comes by faith, not by works – in particular, not by religious works – but no one was speaking it to him.Why was the open fact of God’s inviting love the one secret he didn’t know about, and why were the heresies blazing in full neon color?I take it as a cautionary tale.If orthodoxy does not lead the hungry to the Bread of Life and the thirsty to living waters, is it any better than heresy?”[2]~3~5
As we face multiple global perils that may test us to extremity, I ask all to remember these two warnings.“We can forget that our opponents need prayers more than maledictions,”[2]~3~6 and, “If orthodoxy does not lead the hungry to the Bread of Life and the thirsty to living waters, is it any better than heresy?”[2]~3~7
Kyrieeleison! Lord, have mercy!
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
2. Mystical Manipulation.There is manipulation of experiences that appear spontaneous but in fact were planned and orchestrated by the group or its leaders in order to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or she wishes.
3. Demand for Purity.The world is viewed as black and white and the members are constantly exhorted to conform to the ideology of the group and strive for perfection.The induction of guilt and/or shame is a powerful control device used here.
4. Confession.Sins, as defined by the group, are to be confessed either to a personal monitor or publicly to the group.There is no confidentiality; members’ ‘sins,’ ‘attitudes,’ and ‘faults’ are discussed and exploited by the leaders.
5. Sacred Science.The group’s doctrine or ideology is considered to be the ultimate Truth, beyond all questioning or dispute.Truth is not to be found outside the group.The leader, as the spokesperson for God or for all humanity, is likewise above criticism.
6. Loading the Language.The group interprets or uses words and phrases in new ways so that often the outside world does not understand.This jargon consists of thought-terminating clichés, which serve to alter members’ thought processes to conform to the group’s way of thinking.
7. Doctrine over person.Member's personal experiences are subordinated to the sacred science and any contrary experiences must be denied or reinterpreted to fit the ideology of the group.
8. Dispensing of existence.The group has the prerogative to decide who has
the right to exist and who does not.This is usually not literal but means
that those in the outside world are not saved, unenlightened, unconscious and they must be
converted to the group's ideology.If they do not join the group or are
critical of the group, then they must be rejected by
themembers.Thus, the outside world loses all
credibility.In conjunction, should any member leave the group, he or she
must be rejected also.”(American Family Foundation, “Dr. Robert
J. Lifton’s Eight Criteria for Thought Reform,”
http://www.csj.org/studyindex/studymindctr/study_mindctr_lifton.htm,
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