Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christ and Antichrist



Christ and Antichrist

In this season in which the birth of Christ is celebrated, we might recall another archetypal player in the divine mystery, namely the Antichrist.

The Mayan Calendar ending in 2012 has differentiated two distinct camps of expectation: those who anticipate the beginning of a new Golden Age of bliss, and those who anticipate extreme planetary distress and destruction.

Against these another camp is finding its voice and articulating the idea that 2012 will initiate the Age of Satan. In this period, according to their model, Antichrist will be Satan’s henchman, commissioned to assume total earthly power and subjugate virtually all humanity. This viewpoint also embraces planetary upheaval as a necessary element of Antichrist’s reign.



It must be admitted that many religious traditions describe a satanic, destructive entity capable of ensnaring the unwary and initiating global catastrophe. The Christian Scriptures in particular are quite detailed in this regard and speak both of Antichrist, and of unprecedented natural calamities befalling an unbelieving mankind.




The same Scriptures also make it clear that all this unpleasantness is temporary. Christ Himself is supposed to return -- both to restore order and to justify those who have been faithful to truth in spite of tribulation.

This third “Antichristian” camp may have something valuable to contribute to the 2012 contemplation. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Ring Trilogy derives its plot energy from a culminating battle between light and darkness at the conclusion of a mythical “Third Age” of the earth. Now, according to the Mayan Calendar, we are at the endpoint of the Fourth Age. The Bible speaks unequivocally of a final battle to occur between Christ and Antichrist at Armageddon - in which evil is to be defeated once and for all.

There are those professing exact knowledge of the future satanic world ruler who have no qualms about identifying him. This is more information than the Bible offers, where only the inscrutable and mysterious “666” points to Antichrist. Many names have been associated with 666 throughout history, and though those thus associated may have been antichristian, they were evidently not Antichrist.

The tale of Antichrist’s antecedents, according to such supposed insiders, is a conspiracy of astonishing detail. It spans centuries of dark plotting and generations of careful planning. One begins to feel clammy just reading the complex intrigues.



If these suppositions are true, one might ask why generations and centuries of conspiratorial effort should be directed at putting ultimate evil into power for just a limited time. For the Bible offers many assurances that Antichrist will have a “short” reign of only seven years, and thereafter be defeated.


The most meaningful explanation is that world domination is only a means to an end. The ultimate goal is the subjugation of human souls, which would remain thereafter in Satan’s power and control. Frankly, this is a threat that should be taken seriously.

One might claim: “I believe in Jesus Christ (or Allah, or Buddha or whatever), therefore I will be impervious to Antichrist’s influence if and when he appears.” Unfortunately, conceptual belief is no defense against evil – either in the committing or receiving of it. Human history has demonstrated this fact beyond all doubt. Whatsoever the mind conjectures it can quickly un-conjecture, especially when experiencing pain or any stimulus above its comfort level.

In addition, there are varying concepts about what is morally “right” or eternally “true.” This in itself undermines the argument that belief provides either a refuge from demonic deception or a valid claim for preferential treatment from God.

Conceptual belief is a mental activity – it consists of thought forms residing in the mind. And “mind” is characterized mystically as being of the AIR element.

There is a popular notion that Satan resides underground, but the Bible plainly indicates that air is his actual realm: “In time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2).

For further substantiation of this, consider that the conclusive battle between Christ and Antichrist is to occur in AIR - the field of mentality: “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done” (Rev. 16:16-17).

This airy realm is called a “heaven” and Satan’s power therein will be diminished or obliterated after Christ’s victory: “And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken” (Mark 13:25). After this Satan will be cast out: “And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18).



However, before the satanic defeat there is prophesied to be a worldwide falling away from truth. "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition" (2 Th 2:3). The victims of the "Son of Perdition" will be anyone whose identity or sense of self comes from the air of their own mind – in other words practically everyone.

Protection cannot come from any conceptual thought or belief, for this occurs in the mental realm. The only possible escape will be through wholesale reformation of the consciousness in which one dies to the personal “self” that is vulnerable to fearful threats and coercion. St. Paul says to “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Php 2:5). This mind that “was also in Christ Jesus” cannot simply be a modification of one’s former mentality or addition to the existing belief structure, but something radically different.

St. Gregory Palamas calls it a transformation into being authentically human - by becoming consciously divine. It is an awareness that is knowingly unified with God, a partaker of the supernatural life here and now on this earth. To a person with this awareness, Antichrist is irrelevant.

9 comments:

  1. Wow... I was never really what one would call evenly 'Religious' per say, I was involved for about 5 years in the late 80's in a Church that was pretty radical because I felt a deep conviction about being a 'disciple' and searched for 'The Way'. The hearts of very many were truly sincere. Although like much of this world, the heart was suppresed with ignorance, control and corruption. Yet, the 'Wisdom' contained within the 'vast array' of the earliest Christian scriptures has always resonated in my heart. Funny, My astrological 'Stamp' so to speak, says I have no 'Air', I used to think I was somehow deficient and got ripped off lol of course I realize more now, but reading about Air being Satans realm cracked me up!


    '...a transformation into being authentically human - by becoming consciously divine. It is an awareness that is knowingly unified with God, a partaker of the supernatural life here and now...Countdown...

    always appreciate the sharing of heart! May you 'Feel' the Peace and Joy this Christmas Eve.

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  2. This whole business of Christ and anti-Christ, they have been doing for the last 2,000 years. I don't know if anyone remembered Y2K? It was all supposed to go off big time then.

    So I think that we should take all of this Christ/Anti-Christ business with a huge pinch of salt.

    I think a lot of it is wishful thinking. It is what a lot of people are wishing will happen. That all the 'good' and 'righteous' people - the elect, or the select - enjoy salvation, while everyone else, all the 'bad' people, all the 'sinners' suffer horrifically for all their sins.

    And I think that a lot of so-called New Age people are being suckered right into the whole thing. Well, it is very, very seductive.

    But it is the same principle: that all the 'right' people will be saved and all the bad eggs in our midst's will be done away with.

    The 'right' ones being those of us who are 'transformed' or 'enlightened', or even those of us who are in tune with the vibrational within us, or our felt perception.

    A lot of this is hoping that we shall once more experience the purity and the inherent and unsoiled beauty of The Garden. That everyone who is spoiling it or ruining it in any way finally gets their just deserts, and we can enjoy it's unspoiled and perfect beauty again. Or, in your words, that 'a transformation into being authentically human - by becoming consciously divine' will happen.

    I think the greatest fear for a lot of people - right across the religious, spiritual and New Age spectrum - is that, actually, that nothing much will happen. That things will carry on beyond 2012 and 2013 pretty much the same way as they have always done. For many people, who can't accept the right here and the right now, who can't accept the way things are in their present experience, they are hoping that something magical (for them - and awful for everyone else) will happen. The idea that no, it's just more of the same, will likely be unbearable.

    That's not to say that there won't be a profound transformation in 2012 and beyond, and I'm certainly not saying that things won't change markedly.

    But the more I look at this, the more it occurs to me that none of us really know what will happen in 2012. Well, I have no idea what is going to happen next week - the people I will meet, whether it will rain or not, or anything else. From that perspective, having any notion about what may or may not happen in 2012, and beyond, seems pretty darn futile, if you ask me.

    And a lot of this scaremongering that is going on, regarding 2012, reminds me of when I was growing up in the 1980s. At that moment there seemed a real danger that we would be wiped out by nuclear weapons. It could have happened but it didn't. And then I was seriously worried about getting AIDS. It could have happened but it didn't. And then there was Y2K. Sars. Bird Flu. All of which could have wiped many of us out. But didn't.

    Hell, I could have been travelling on the tube on the day terrorists blew themselves up on the London underground. But I didn't.

    So, for me, this whole thing about 2012 is very pertinent. Not because I have any idea what will happen. But simply because of everything that it is bringing up for me - the fear, the anxiety, the hopefulness and the hopelessness. And then, to the best of my ability, I be with it without condition. And all that fear and anxiety goes away.

    And then I am confronted by something deeper and darker. Real nasty stuff which is lurking in the depths of my being ...

    The beauty of 2012 is that it is bringing all of this up for me to integrate. But, on the other hand, 2012 is just a number. And it's only real significance and meaning is what WE all make it mean.

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  3. Why don't you start your own blog, Phil. It seems you take Nesia's beautiful writing and every day use it to write an essay about what you think. "So I think, I think, and I think, I think, the more I look at this, I could have been, so for me, I am confronted." Those are the topic sentences of almost every paragraph in your posts, many of which are longer than Nesia's. You say you don't think you are ahead of the curve on any of this stuff, but who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you are saying. I THINK you are using this blog because you have a captive audience and rather than developing something original, as Nesia has, you are riding on his coat tails, with just enough false humility to barely hide the fact that you are using this beautiful forum for the promotion of your own carefully crafted essays (blog comments, they are not). I know, don't read your comments. But it's kind of like a train wreck to watch you glom on like this and opine on everyone else who's on some sort of a path complete with all sorts of lables and stereotypes (New Ager, Christian, people who can't accept the now). You even purport to know what people you haven't even MET believe and which ideas they would find unbearable. Start your own blog. Get your own following. That sure seems to be what you want. Ironic considering some man in the Pacific Northwest who won't even tell us his name is writing some of the most prolific, obviously inspired content I have ever read and every day there is YOUR NAME attached to it. I don't intend to hurt you with this (though it may), but if you are really doing your work the way you claim to be, perhaps you may want to be alerted to this massive blind spot. And as far as taking one to know one, I have three of my own blogs and used to do what you are doing now before I became present enough to realize it. You are a good writer, but it's coming off as really inauthentic. Your writing feels like having a conversation with someone who is not listening, rather waiting for a pause to interject his own thoughts. That makes the good part of your writing unsavory. Like a lovely bowl of cereal but when you raise spoon to mouth you smell the breakfast you are so hungry for is ruined because the milk is spoiled. I think you may have something to say that people need to hear. I think if you get still and start writing your essays in your own forum and leave other people's blogs to them (save true comments, not essays) you may find that your writing is much easier, enjoyable and prolific. Again, my apologies if I have hurt you here but consider it telling you you have spinach in your teeth. With Love.

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  4. I accept there is validity in what you are saying. And I accept that there is something for me to integrate here.

    And perhaps there is something for you to integrate too? You mention that this is something that you used to do - well, maybe, what is showing up for you is unintegrated stuff around all of that. Maybe a wish that you hadn't acted in such a manner. And you see in me a reflection of all of that - which is bringing up uncomfortable feelings for you every time you see anything written by me. Perhaps?

    Saying that, I take what you have written as a contribution, and I thank you for that.

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  5. When one climbs a mountain and attaining one height, says 'This is the top of the mountain, let us reach it' and when they have reached that height, they see another beyond it until they come to that height from which no other height is to be seen,if they can attain it.
    Those who are in the valley see not as they on the hilltop. But to each, it is the One truth for that time, till a higher Truth shall be revealed to the same; and to the soul that recieves higher light shall be given more light. Therefore condemn not others that you not be condemned. "As you keep the holy law of love so shall the truth be revealed more and more to you and the Spirit of truth which comes from above shall guide you.
    Correction is an expression of love on the climb. All love and hold in our one heart those with the spinach, it is a common experience.

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  6. No Phil, you are wrong about my "wish that I hadn't acted in such a manner." Nor does your writing make me uncomfortable. It just reminds me of those old K-tel records where it's all the hits but not the original artists and therefore discounted. This is just spinach. Leave it or pick it out. Not mountain climbing, nor higher light nor condemnation either. Just spinach. Toothpick anyone?

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  7. Is all of what you say the truth, or is it your interpretation of the truth - "that this is just spinach"?

    Maybe it is all just spinach. And some people find spinach very beneficial for them.

    Hell, where would Popeye have been without it? Bluto would have kicked his arse ... I don't know, maybe, "Anonymous" you are, in fact, Bluto, with some deep unintegrated stuff relating to spinach ...

    BTW EVERYTHING that is written by pretty much EVERYONE is a cover version of the original. Are you telling me that either you, or Nesia, or Michael Brown or Eckhart Tolle have come up with anything that is completely original?

    No, all of what they are talking about is stuff that goes back thousands upon thousands of years. That doesn't make what they are presenting any less valid. And it is certainly something that shouldn't be discounted. As I think it is good to be reminded of these things as we, as a species, seem to so easily forget.

    And, I'll be honest with you, in some case I prefer the cover version to the original ...

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  8. Re-ally sin-ce-rely appreciate the reflection for me here,an-ominous la-test co-mment feels like an even old'er 'K'-tell, re-'cord', jarring screeching scratches and many skips, even less en-joyable. Hypo-critical, lacking insight & depth perception. Fo'cussing on words that trigger dis'cord in-stead of
    so-un-d'o'ing them or reson'ating the music in a he-art more fully o-pen to just is,
    Woo-den' st-'ache'
    an-y-one?
    In sorrowful 'mental' states i interfere,
    a cleav-er drag am i. Can't help myself sometimes.
    So-re CD!

    December 27, 2008 9:29 AM

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  9. Geeze , Is there a message for me here? yikes!
    I like all comments except for jugdgmental hypercritical ones. Yikes!
    I like Phil too!

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