Is Antichrist Jewish or Italian?

         The idea that the Jews would follow a Gentile, even hail him as Caesar, seems a bit far off. Yet this is exactly how the Left Behind series has presented him. The Antichrist must be Italian because he arises from old Rome. Some will say the Roman Empire must be rebuilt in order for this to happen. In Left Behind the Antichrist was a blonde headed Italian smooth talking politician from Romania. Why would the Jews follow someone like this? Because he offers peace for land and settles the Arab-Israeli conflict? Maybe he will offer to rebuild the temple? But he’s not Jewish. Jewish legend said Antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan.

        It appears remarkable to me that the Jews will suddenly lose their identity with Father Abraham. The Antichrist must be Jewish because he must embody all that is holy, pious and good; then he suddenly turns into a mad idolater.

        The identity of the beast with a Jewish politician is not Anti-Semitic. Jesus was Jewish, the Second Adam, how can we expect anything less from Antichrist? By saying, however, “We have no king but Caesar” (John 19:15 KJV), the Jews were essentially swearing allegiance to his divinity. They embraced the Antichrist as represented in Pontius Pilate or the Roman Emperor instead of the true Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Wait! Maybe the Antichrist is Italian after all?

The End of the World or New Beginning

     Modern people find the end of the world fascinating, strange because such ancient belief was supposed to disappear as technology improved society. In fact, the world has ended several times already since the late twentieth century until now. 1988, 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2012 have all been predicated dates for the end of the world. What drives our obsession with the end times? People are looking for a meaning to history because in doing so it gives their lives purpose. Prophecy buffs search for a coherent philosophy of history. Something that tells them life is not a random series of events, but has real meaning and going somewhere. The search for the end then represents only the beginning. We are not looking so much for the end itself as the new start we believe will follow. We look for a better place, an improved world. The preoccupation with the end has a bright side. It gives us hope that things will change, regardless of how bad they seem now. We can expect a new world after this one.

     Some locate this new age beyond history in the new heaven and new earth mentioned at the end of Revelation or in the millennium, the thousand year reign of Christ over the earth. History will be brought to an abrupt end as God intervenes to save humanity. Once the present order of sin dissolves God will bring us safely home to our eternal resting place. A new order of peace, justice and righteousness will reign over the world. Others find this new age in history in the current ebb and flow of events; as history progresses a better world will arise on the ashes of the old. The contemporary age will give way to a better one if we work for it. This has been called by theologians and philosophers millennialism. The belief that the present will give way to a period of time in the future that will bring in a golden age for humanity, an age of peace, harmony and prosperity for all, an age without out war and strife between nations.

     Modern thought finds itself steeped in millennialism.  The idea of progress, humanism, technicism, futurism, communism and postmillennialism amongst others expect a better tomorrow through social reform, evangelism, technology and human cooperation. These many isms aren’t looking for an end to time. The end has already happened in the past and is slowly receding away from us in the end of the old order of things. They look to the future for meaning and purpose. Technological progress will prove triumphant over the old regressive forces from the past, such as superstitious religion, tyranny, inequality, famine, disease and war. The future remains unbounded and we are witnessing the emergence of a utopian society.

     However, this positive vision of the future has stalled with the advent of many existential threats to human survival, such as nuclear war, world war, pandemics, genocide, climate change, autonomous technology and many others. All these problems are the result of the very progress we thought would save us from disaster. Our optimism for the future has waned and turned into bitter pessimism. Now history only brings finality. We have difficulty seeing beyond the horizon of our present landscape. We search beyond history to the end of the world and thus a new beginning.

     Prophecy leaves two paths open to us, put bluntly, repent or die life or death. This was the same choice Yahweh gave to the Israelites; worship the one true God or suffer terrible calamity. If we choose life God will spare us and bless the earth, if we refuse to walk in His ways sudden destruction will surely fall on us. Prophecy is not about predicting the future, but changing it. Prophecy says if we take the path of disobedience here is what will happen. We will surely perish. If we obey in faith God will bless the world and judgment will be avoided. The purpose of prophecy prevents future judgment by calling us to repentance.

     A happy future still remains open to us, if we replace our technologically centered world (idolatry) with a God centered one. If we do not repent God will wait for the last possible moment before He wreaks His vengeance on a disobedient world. I believe God will end the world right before mankind destroys itself as in the days of Noah. Until then He waits patiently for all to turn to Him. Jesus said, “if those days had not been cut short no one would be saved” (Matthew 24:22). God will intervene to save mankind from extinction. How this will happen we do not know; but until that time if we live in disobedience we can expect fearful events to dominate our world as we grow worse and worse. “People will faint from fear of what is coming upon the world” (Luke 21:26). The future appears contingent on us. What path will we take life or death?

     As postscript we need to mention premillennialism which has driven much of our preoccupation with the end. This belief asserts that the end comes before the golden age that progressives hope for. It is not located in past history but future history. Premillennialism proves pessimistic. Destruction persists as a foregone conclusion things will only get worse before they get better. But this handicaps bible prophecy. No matter what we do we can’t change the outcome. Maybe this represents the realistic view, the inescapable fact that we can’t change human nature and we know human nature is self-destructive. Premillennialism describes humanity left to its own devices. But God would not have given us a choice between life and death if there wasn’t a real possibility of turning things around.

Postmodernism and Posthumanism

Surprisingly enough the term “Modern Times” or just “Modern” as discussed in a previous blog has become obsolete. Now the buzz word is “Postmodernism.” An oxymoronic description of contemporary times that became popular in the 1990’s with the rejection of metanarratives and the embrace of historical relativism. A metanarrative is a grand story or theory that undergirds a civilization and provides it a superstructure (ideas) for the development of its infrastructure (technology). For example, during Modern Times that idea was the notion of progress. The world improves itself with each new technological advance leading history to culmination point in the creation of an ideal society or utopia. A society of equality, freedom and material prosperity for all that knows no war and lives in perpetual peace with itself, as it establishes a technological kingdom over the earth. Nature is subdued. Diseases are cured. Traditional societal differences vanish in the melting pot of technological amalgamation into a new race of people. Likewise the metanarrative of the Middle Ages was the advancement of the City of God across the earth bringing all people into the fold of the Mother Church. To say the least, Modernity proves to be secularized version of the City of God. Thus Christian stains of thought may be seen in modernity, such as universal peace and brotherhood of mankind reaching the Omega Point or the materialization of the kingdom of God on earth. Theologically speaking this is known as Postmillennialism the prevailing eschatological system of the nineteenth century.

     Postmodernism attempts to throw a monkey wrench into the engine of modernity by attacking its philosophical basis in the idea of progress. Progress, like every other metanarrative, is an illusion. Progress represents a fancifully explanation to rationalize the abuses of civilization, such as racism, slavery, war and the rape of nature. Take racism for example. The ideal society creates the ideal person or global citizen as well as a global society in the image of Western technological hegemony. Modernity is the Westernization of the world. Europe and America hold the standards the rest of the world must live up to. This involves rapid industrialization, urbanization and flattening of traditional values and distinctions in favor of globalism. Lest we forget the legacy of modern slavery and racial prejudice haunts modern society more than even the ancient world. The greatest expression of racial progress was the Nazi belief in the superiority of the Aryan race. In America this became the white race. Through technological power the ideal race would subjugate the rest of the world for its own benefit. This became true of both Eastern and Western expressions during the Cold War in their struggle to win over the Third World peoples. Today progress continues to race toward the ideal “person,” not “man” notice the blurring of distinctions between genders, in the creation of technological humanity sometimes called posthumanism or Humanity +. The Western world along with every other racial distinction is transcending itself into something new. Posthumanism then becomes the ideal Caucasian conquering the rest of the world by shaping it into its own technological image.  

In dispelling the idea of progress postmodernism hopes to loosen the stranglehold modern racism has over the world. It abandons the notion of a grand purpose in history, such as the search for the ideal person, progress or Christianity is based on in favor of a relativism which simply cannot define itself. Thus it aims to restore power to local stories, myths and cultures. Because every metanarrative is an illusion people will turn inward toward themselves and their given traditions for meaning and purpose in the world.

I was once asked if postmodernism means we must return to the horse and buggy. The answer is no. Although postmodernism attacks the superstructure of progress it offers no help in the growth of technological infrastructure. One would think that the results of progress or the technological society would begin to crumble without its ideological support. The exact opposite is happening, without a norm or purpose to guide it technological growth takes on a life of its own. It transcends the need for theoretical defense. The idea of progress is now passé along with every other metanarrative that might offer guidance. Technology moves according to its own internal logic without the need of a higher purpose to guide it. Postmodernism has failed. It has only made the problem worse by removing the grand story, now nothing restrains the Machine’s conquest of the planet. It seems fair to say that the idea of progress moves according to a latent inevitable path that would include the jettisoning or moral values and philosophical virtue. We alluded to earlier that modernism or humanism as we may also call it morphs into its end result posthumanism or the transcendence of humanity into a higher species. Modern technological racism has finally accomplished its goal. Posthuman separation of a higher and lower species will make modern slavery look like child’s play. Strangely enough humanism ends with the end of humanity.

     Postmodernism fails because it does not provide an adequate substitute to the idea of progress. Through its hermeneutic of suspicion it brings all teleological possibilities into question. Nothing will serve as a guiding light to technology. Along with postmodernism’s method of doubt we need to bring a new higher purpose to progress that entails directing it toward the good of humanity instead of our extinction and isn’t that the real goal of progress?  

The Comforts of fiction

We have guest blogger my daughter the writer Victoria Terlizzese.

Vatican exorcist, Gabriele Amorth, claims that “behind Harry Potter is the signature of the devil.” This is suggesting that Harry Potter has themes of Satanism due to its focus on witchcraft and wizardry. If you belong to any religion that opposes witchcraft;  you will have heard this at some point in your life. 

Upon reading the series and understanding the characters you will realize that this is not what J.K. Rowling intended when she wrote the Harry Potter series. One of the most basic themes in the Harry Potter series is good versus evil. This is portrayed in the sense that good is moral and evil is immoral. In the series, good is defined through character traits, actions and the overall practicing of high moral standards. Evil pertains to the exact opposite. This is a mirror reflection of the way our society functions and classifies the difference between what is right and what is wrong. 

The key difference in the world of Harry Potter and our own is that magic is highly regarded as a basic life skill that the entire world revolves around. That is the fun and fantasy of the series. It is what captivates us, because we know it is not real and we wish that it was. It is a form of escape for the creative mind. As a Christian, I would not chase after evil with the hope that I would turn out as courageous and trustworthy as Harry Potter and his friends. This is basic commonsense among Christians and other devout followers of any religion who understand the difference between spiritual integrity and the innocent joys of life. 

The importance they place on magic is similar to the importance we, ourselves, place on education in the fields of math, science, technology, basic writing skills and history. This is how their society functions. It has nothing to do with their religion or how they view the world. One can choose to use their education to achieve great things and change the world or one could choose to use their knowledge against others. 

Modern Times

     We often hear the term “Modern Times” with little explanation as to what it really means. Every generation likes to think they have reached the pinnacle of history and thus baptize themselves as “modern.” People have been calling themselves “modern” since the nineteenth century. When we look at old pictures from back then or watch documentaries or read up on that time period modern is hardly the word that comes to mind. They were primitive compared to today’s standards. They rode around in horse and buggy. They did not get electric lightening until relatively late in the 1800’s. They had no computers or smartphones or antibiotics. Life expectancy was 40 years old. They still burnt coal in their ovens. Women couldn’t vote. Minorities were overtly discriminated against. Yet historians call this time “the century of progress.”

The nineteenth century gave us the idea of inevitable progress, which means history is moving toward an irreversible crescendo. Technological progress will bring us the ideal society or utopia. Religion calls this the Omega Point and science calls it the Singularity. Like today they defined improvement technologically. As technology advances across time and space it brings with it societal evolution or the world is getting better and better with each new innovation. Technology eliminates poverty, disease, war, increases communication and with that comes peace, increases the standard of living, extends life expectancy and improves the overall well-being of humanity. Technology is civilization. Technology brings happiness. Little thought was given to the environment or minority rights. Equality and a green future for all were a twentieth century invention. A very dark side of the century of progress seldom mentioned today was the advancement of racism as concomitant with technological progress. Progress was for industrialized white people, the rest of the world was subject to their control. Today we know this as Western colonialism. The world they made is what both Western and non-Western people have inherited.  For better or worse we live in a world they created.

     Today the century of progress looks old fashioned, but its central contribution the idea of progress is still with us and undergirds the whole modern project. Thus technological progress is the driving force of any definition of modernity. If we use modern technology we are modern people as opposed to ancient people. The birth of Christ once separated the ancient world from the modern. History was divided into two halves before Christ and after Christ secularized now as BCE (Before Current Era) and CE (Current Era), but even though the name of Christ has been removed from the wording, the birth of Jesus remains the reference point between the new and the old.

     The exponential explosion in new technology witnessed today has replaced Jesus Christ as the dividing line between ancient and modern. Technological modernity is relatively new. We did not enter the modern era until around 1800 with the birth of the industrial revolution, which over shadows the American, French, Russian and Chinese Revolutions in its existential effects on twenty first century people.

     It goes without saying that our times are the height of the times and getting even higher with each passing year. What makes us different is not love of wisdom, or God or humanity but the tremendous success of our science and technology, the search for power over others and natural forces. We live in a world surrounded by the artificial as opposed to ancient people who lived in communities surrounded in a natural environment. Modern people have less and less contact with others. We have been socially atomized living in exclusive technological enclaves surrounded by gadgets and air condition. Nature is disappearing before our eyes, look at deforestation and the rapid growth in extinction of species, the disappearance of the rain forests. Progress is not free. We pay for each innovation with giving up something from our history, in our case, humanity and nature.

     Is modernity a curse or a blessing? We should know that we cannot have the good without the bad. Positive and negative consequences are inseparable. To think otherwise is simply naïve. We all love technology. What’s not to like, cars, smartphones, computers, medicine, we can’t live without them. But we must not be blinded by the idea of progress that says the world is improving because our technology is growing. Just as many problems are raised by our success as solutions. Technological progress bought us racism. War is not ending and peace beginning because we have improved the means of communication. In fact, war remains the number one threat that may very well bring the whole house crashing down on us, especially nuclear war. Yet nuclear weapons were once hailed as a further step in progress that will eventually end war. Technology is polluting the environment and disturbing the delicate ecosystem that we cannot live without. Do we really want to live in a world without trees, birds and flowers? Extended life expectancy and the eradication of disease are over populating the planet. Future wars will be fought over food and water instead of oil and ideology.

     Modernity brings both the good and the bad. So we must remain skeptical as to the belief that the world is improving because of innovation. A critical approach will help us transcend the modern world and move us toward limits. Remember progress means no limits to science and technology allowing them to go where ever they take us and because it is inevitable it cannot be stopped. This proves nothing less than a recipe for disaster. When we seek boundaries to technology we declare that all people are accountable to a higher standard and that we cannot do whatever we like for simple reason that it can be done.

Redeeming Technology

The Bible ends with the faithful living for eternity in the celestial City of God or the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9-27). Likewise, subsequent to the Fall of Adam and Eve Scripture talks about the City of Man or Babylon (Genesis 11:1-9),which represents human forces that attempt to over throw the power of God with the their religion and technological abilities. Knowledge is power. So great a threat does Babylon become that God descends to meet them in their ascendancy to heaven, “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded” (Genesis 11:4-5). When humanity rises above the clouds of their created position God comes down the see its accomplishments. This gives new meaning to the old saying, “Prepare to meet thy maker.” Humanity in its rebellion is a powerful force over the face of the earth, one that challenges God’s supremacy. God takes this encounter very seriously and recognizes the spark of divinity that he himself created in us, “God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). Humanity has extraordinary capabilities to change the world according to its own ambitions, ”nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (Genesis 11:6).

Applied to our times this means the advancement of technological progress that seeks only to reshape the world according to humanity’s fallen image; instead of following the divine likeness, which checks our development to see that it does not proceed out of control to human detriment and the defacement of God’s character. This limit is meant only for the glory of God in conjunction with the betterment of the human race.

We can think of the inherent power of genetic engineering capable of reconstructing not only the human genetic code but of every living thing on earth; or a global computer system that can monitor everyone who uses it. What will happen when the ideal person is conceived or a new view of nature is brought forth by those in power who have the ability to enforce their will on the rest of us? In Genesis the Lord took Babylon down a notch by scattering their concentration in one ideal place across the earth and confused their language to end the control of Nimord, the king of Babylon. And Revelation declares the end of spiritual Babylon, all would be aspirants to claim of universal power, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, the great city” (Revelation 14:8). Judgment awaits the City of Man, all who play God.

But there’s another side to this story. The City of God eventually triumphs over the City of Man. God chose a city as the ideal of his will for mankind. Recall that the Bible begins with the Garden of Eden, the divine habitation for Adam and Eve, but ends with the city, a human creation: ability, culture and technology. The New Jerusalem was bedecked with all kinds of precious stones, jewels and pearls. A city made of transparent gold. Now God has no use for fineries such as these. They are included in the description of the divine habitation of redeem humanity because we esteem them as valuable. We make them and accord them worth. This is our technology. And as such God recognizes its importance. God and mankind are both creators and work together for the ideal world. Our technology will be redeemed along with us. And this salvation is not for the bye and bye but begins now here on earth. Technology used for the glory of God and the progress of the human race.

What will this redemption look like? Well for starters, going back to Genesis 11, God was displeased with the one world system ruled by one man so he confused their language, so that they would spread across the face of the earth. Language is a kind of technology that should be used to create diversity and honor the differences in the human race. God is an individualist and a pluralist. He believes in and values the worth and importance of every person and cultural diversity. Technology that empowers the individual and decentralizes knowledge and power and promotes cultural differences and plurality of thought approaches redemption. I say “approaches” because redemption is always an ongoing process which like the salvation of our bodies, is never finally complete until we enter the eternal age. It begins here and now and finds perfection in the New Jerusalem. God says from his eternal throne, “Look, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). This includes human nature and human culture, all our abilities and creations. Our art, technology and great cities will be with us in heaven to the glory of God.          

Trial and Error

     The world moves forward through the process of trial and error. Science and technology need to make mistakes before it gets it right. How many different sets of wings did people try to fly with before the Wright brothers were “first in flight.” Werner Von Braun performed innumerous test flights before he perfected the rocket that reached the moon. Even in our daily routines and jobs we commit many errors in our performance. This leads us to be better workers. In school spelling, grammar and pronunciation inaccuracies help us to the correct use of language. In raising children missteps with our first child cause us to do better with our second. Wisdom means learning from our faults and blunders, not making the same mistake twice. We can only grow through recognizing our short comings and taking the appropriate steps to change them.

     But we face a serious quandary with twenty-first century technology namely: genetics, nuclear power and an entire planet dependent on a very fragile computer system. Gaffes, inaccuracies and oversights are the least thing we can afford. Genetic slip-ups can lead to horrible mutations. What happens when errors are made when genetic engineering is applied to humans? Faulty equipment and human error at nuclear power plants can cause meltdowns that lead to radiation poisoning of the environment and the death of thousands. Chernobyl is a case in point. A lapse in judgment or miscalculation might initiate a First Strike. Some believe that the use of nuclear weapons by any one of the nuclear powers is inevitable over the course of many decades and centuries. How wise is it to entrust the safety and security of our lives to a giant computer system that if it fails even a little will do untold damage? A solar storm, although rare, can affect GPS satellites. A few years ago sun spots interrupted cell phone service. People went running for the pay phones. Today those phones are gone. What will happen to our ability to communicate and preform simple transactions without our smart phones?

     I have no ready answer to these problems. I don’t think anyone does. How are we to grow in knowledge and wisdom to protect ourselves and make the world a better place, something I firmly believe in, without mistakes? We need to limit our dependence on technology use, something nearly impossible to do in this society. But if we don’t find a way to do so we could be setting future generations up for disaster.   

The War in Ukraine

     I am a child of the Cold War, as such I grew up with an innate fear of Russian aggression. The fear of global nuclear war was rampant in the 1980’s, especially during Regan’s first term in office. Some described him as a warmonger who would enrage the Soviets with his war rhetoric and nuclear bomb building programs. Others felt he was a hero who would stand up to Russian expansionism. In either case he would not be bullied by the bear.

     Today with the war in Ukraine the old fears of the Russian empire have returned, even the threat of use of nuclear weapons has not been ruled out by the Russians. Putin has laid down the challenge that he would use nuclear weapons on any nation interfering with his “special operation” in Ukraine. The whole notion of nuclear war with the Russians is unthinkable, even for Putin. There are no winners in a nuclear war. But Putin has seized upon this opportunity to flex his rhetorical might to scare us. He sees himself as a liberator cleansing Ukraine of Nazis and resisting Western exploitation. His military machine is formidable. And his nuclear stockpile has over two thousand more warheads than the US. His invasion of Ukraine demonstrates a reckless willingness to accomplish his objectives by any means necessary. He is an unstable force in the global political scene. It has even been suggested that the war in Ukraine will encourage the Chinese who have set their sights on Taiwan. He is a scary person and these are perilous times for the cause of peace, but they are not any worse than what we have experienced before.

     The NATO alliance must hold fast to its resolve to expel the Russians from Ukraine and protect the safety and integrity of its borders from aggression. Fear should have no place in our hearts. The West won the war of words before. We will do so again!