December 16, 2016 @ 6:16 AM
I recently posted a quote by Baron Roman von Unger-Sternberg, the "Mad Baron," to show how few today understand the malignant evil we are up against in this world. What the Mad Baron said about his contemporaries in the fight against Russian Bolsheviks in his day, I feel can be said of my fellow-Americans in our fight against democratic socialists in our day. Here's the Mad Baron's quote: "They cannot understand as yet that we are not fighting a political party, but a sect of murderers of all contemporary spiritual culture...those who would kill the soul of the people."
It has been well said that those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. The Bolsheviks ended up becoming not only the "majority" rule of Russia, but the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as well. As our recent presidential election proves, the majority of American voters are sympathetic to and supportive of the democratic socialism of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party. Don't forget, Hillary won the popular vote and Democratic senatorial candidates won more combined votes than Republican senatorial candidates. Therefore, the handwriting on the wall is plain to see in today's America. We are clearly headed to majority rule by democratic socialists and to becoming an antichrist nation with a profane culture.
As I've continued my fascinating study of the ten kings of Revelation chapter 17, a study within which I bumped into the Mad Baron's quote about his contemporaries' naiveté about the evil of the Bolsheviks, I've bumped into something else that is every bit as telling about our undiscerning times as modern-day Americans' naiveté about the evil of democratic socialists. What I'm talking about is Ceasarism, the elevating of the state to something divine and its leader as the embodiment of its divinity.
Caesar, the name of the Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, became a title conferred on Julius Caesar's successors, the first of whom was Julius Caesar's adopted son, Octavian. Octavian, after squelching civil war, which erupted after the assassination of Julius Caesar, was declared emperor by the Roman Senate, given the name “Augustus,” which means “Great,” and called “CAESAR DIVI FILIUS,” which means “Son of God.” Perceived as restoring and resurrecting the Roman Republic from the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, who had crossed the Rubicon, conquered Rome militarily, and declared himself, "Dictator for Life," Augustus Caesar was deified as the savior of mankind and worshiped as both "god" and "savior." Oaths were taken on the divine spirit of the emperor, the emperor’s image was publicly adored and the worship of his image became a required military duty. Rome's Imperial Cult was born and the Caesars would ironically become the greatest dictators of all time under the guise of being the tribunes of the people and the embodiment of the divine spirit of the state, the Roman Empire.
Perceived as saving our nation from the dictatorship of democratic socialists, Donald Trump is being heralded in today's America as the one who will make America great again. To speak a word of criticism against Mr. Trump is to be readily condemned by his supporters, both those within the church, as well as those outside the church, for being unpatriotic toward your country and disrespectful toward your president-elect. What is going totally undetected in today's America, even by the vast majority of evangelicals, is that this kind of fetishism of the Republican Party and mum's-the-word approach to criticism of our Republican president-elect is the same kind of thing that allowed the Caesars not only to become unrestrained and unaccountable tyrants, but the greatest dictators in all of human history.
In Revelation chapter 17, John is told that there is a final Caesar yet to come, the beast who will lead end-time Rome, the world's final Gentile superpower. Like the ancient Caesars, he too will be worshiped and his subjects forced to bow down to his image. While I'm certainly not saying that Donald Trump will prove to be the biblically predicted beast and final Caesar of the last days, I am saying that "Trumpism" is eerily similar to "Caesarism" and shows how ripe our world is for end-time spiritual deception that will sweep away to destruction all who refuse to believe and love the truth—Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:7-12). Please, I implore you, don't be one of them!