Dear Christians: The Antichrist is Already Here
When I was a young Christian girl in high school, I was briefly obsessed with the Left Behind book series. It’s a book series that tells the fictional story of the End of Days, according to passages in the bible. I was fascinated by the end of days. Would there ever be a rapture? How does a well-known public figure rise to power as the Antichrist?
The story of the Book of Revelations in the Bible is a complicated one but to simplify, this is what Wikipedia says about the Antichrist and the end of days: “In some Christian eschatologies, Jesus the Messiah will appear in his Second Coming to Earth to face the emergence of the Antichrist figure, who will be the greatest false messiah in Christianity. Just as Christ is the savior and the ideal model for humanity, his opponent in the end time will be a single figure of concentrated evil.”
While driving home from work the other day, it struck me: the Antichrist is already here.
In fact, people have been following the Antichrist for as long as I can remember in history. Christians already worship a version of Christ which is wholly unlike the Christ described in the bible. In fact, some could say that the Christ they worship is the antithesis of the Christ as described in the bible. They worship in the name of hate and in the name of judgement and in the name of violence: everything Christ preached against. Christians are already worshiping the Antichrist and they don’t even realize it.
The Christ described in the bible was selfless and charitable. He would never want to amass wealth of his own and regularly counseled his disciples to do the same. And yet, many “Christians” in Western society are wealth driven. John Oliver did a whole segment on televangelists that take people’s money by promising God will reward them with wealth and riches. If you were to look up some of the richest people in America, many would probably identify as Christians (The Koch Brothers and 10 of the top 20 according to this list, although I’m skeptical about the list in general since I don’t believe that Jeff Bezos considers himself a Christian). They evade taxes and only use their wealth to gain more wealth and power.
Even beyond that, there are many Christians that oppose government programs meant to help the poor or sick. In fact, they’d widely disapprove of universal healthcare. How many times have Christian Republicans tried to get Obamacare overturned? They want to keep the money they’ve earned, and certainly don’t want it going to help the poor. Does that sound like the teachings of Jesus Christ? Why would we not do all we can to help the sick be healed or the poor off the street?
Does anyone think that Jesus would approve of owning a gun? Definitely not. And he would definitely never want people going to war, especially in his name ala The Crusades. I love, for instance, that many anti gun control people think that guns aren’t the problem, mental health is and yet they do not support universal health care. They show no concern for trying to help people or make access to these deadly weapons harder. It’s cliche but, really, what would Jesus do to solve our mass shooting problem in America?
Even fear around gay marriage (or gays in general) has parents turning away their children. There are countless accounts of teens being kicked out. There are even more unheard accounts of parents not welcoming a daughter’s girlfriend or son’s boyfriend into their home. Gay and transgender people commit suicide at alarmingly high rates because all they feel is hatred in this world and a lot of that hate is coming from Christians. I’m pretty sure Jesus told us to love each other. I’m also pretty positive that he told us to leave the judgment up to God.
Many Christians are saying there’s a “War on Christmas” but look at what Christmas has become! It’s the pinnacle of materialism. People care way more about what presents they’re getting (and evidently their Starbucks cups) than the fact that it is Christ’s birthday. Some are saying there’s even a war against Christianity. If Christianity is receiving any backlash, I’d wager it’s because they aren’t acting very Chist-like in the first place!
Take Donald Trump, for instance: I found an article where Donald Trump said that if elected, he will be the “greatest representative of the Christians they’ve had in a long time.” Now think about what that means for a second: Here’s a man that actively hates other cultures, religions, nationalities. He distrusts all Muslims and doesn’t want them allowed in the country. He wants to put up a wall between us and Mexico. He regularly bullies and cuts down people. He’s said plenty of terrible things about or to women. If that’s the best representative we have for Christianity, we all need to be very afraid.
The truth is, Christianity morphed into something unrecognizable and I don’t think many modern day Christians even realize it. They’re too entrenched in what they’ve heard the church say is “bad” or “good” to even remember what Jesus said himself. But the fear, selfishness and hatred that drives Christianity today is not worshiping Jesus Christ; it’s worshiping the anti-Christ.
So no, I’m not saying that in order to be a Christian, you have to be pro-gun control and pro universal healthcare and anti-war and not support Donald Trump… But, if you aren’t all those things, maybe you should just ask yourself which version of Christ you are worshipping in your faith? Just gut check yourself and your beliefs and what you’ve been told vs what’s actually written about The Man, Jesus Christ. You may be surprised at what you uncover.
BOOM.
Kim, you have summed up all of my frustrations in one article. I struggle with how to get anyone to realize this though. Sometimes it seems that there are no reasonable people left and that everyone is filled with hate and selfishness.
Let’s take a look at the situation in Britain where a baby boy was denied life support, against his parents’ wishes. The Pope even begged the British to let the Italians treat the boy, but the socialized medical program murdered this child. And there are many cases of forced euthanasia, where the person being euthanized wants to live! So there is a fear of socialized health care. In the past, it was the Christian church who was the fountainhead of charity, supporting hospitals, orphanages and schools. But in today’s Western world, Christianity has declined, and the government has taken over the role of care of those in need.
My wife’s friend was unable to afford the “Affordable Care” she desired, as a divorced single mom with three children. So there is a great mistrust of the government taking over health care. We simply need to get the legal costs down, and punish the greedy drug companies with their overpriced medications.
So, to paint all Christians with the broad brush of being uncharitable is a mistake. The government should be cracking down on the medical industry for all the ways it gouges us. That would be a far better way to solve our health care crisis. In essence, the good news it that medical science has advanced greatly. The bad news is that it costs more money. How far can our society go in prolonging our earthly lives before it bankrupts itself in the process?
In regards to the LGBT community, my church officially professes that same-sex attraction is a sin. However, straight people stand just as guilty before God as LGBT people. All have sinned. As it is a fact that no one ever chose same-sex attraction or gender disphoria, neither did any choose to be rude, unkind or impatient. Jesus died to save sinners. Homosexuality is one of the reasons He came, to pay the price for those sins too. I attend a very conservative Lutheran church, and my pastor has been speaking with two young men who are gay. They know they need Jesus, and my pastor deals with them lovingly. There are two other Lutheran churches nearby which both support same-sex activity openly, yet these men came to our pastor. One of my cousins is openly gay, and I pray for him, hoping that God is able to forgive sins which people can’t recognize as sins. Doesn’t everyone have some sins which they may think are good things? In conclusion, I feel that it is good that gay people are no longer the targets of derision and cruelty by society. And though I may disagree with LGBT people over the rightness of their behavior, I respect their rights to live as they choose, and will never be unkind to them. And though I may disagree with them, by no means does that give me the right to hate them or tell them that they are hellbound. Without Jesus, I’d be in the exact same boat they would be. But praise God, Christ came to save not those who believe themselves righeous, but those who realize they are sinners.
Thank you for pointing out that many who call themselves Christians are not bearing the fruits of kindness, love, charity and generosity which true faith in Christ produces.