Of Obama, Hitler, and Antichrist types

Russia Today is a good newspaper. I often discover things about my nation that the US newspapers do not report. All that a totalitarian state needs is two things, a compliant media and a gullible citizenry. More on the latter in a second, but of the former, if the media is not accurately reflecting the government back to the population then it makes it all the easier to become gullible.

So in RT as the paper is known, there was this pictorial representation of their headline about the economic state of the US nation:

I thought that was funny. Not the default thing, which will all likelihood actually happen, but that the American electorate voted for "change" and we got it.

I mentioned before that the US citizenry are frogs slowly being boiled. That metaphor relates to the (untrue) notion that if you put a frog in boiling water, he'll howl and try to escape. But if you put a frog in cold water and incrementally turn up the water to boiling over time, he will complacently sit there until it is too late. Though scientifically untrue, the story is an apt metaphor for the inability of people to react to significant changes that occur gradually.

I've said that in order to measure progress toward the ultimate end, mentally stand in a giant bible. Look back from the end to see where we are now. We don't know what will happen tomorrow but we know for sure what the end will look like. That is when His fixed truth tells us that by the very last years, a totalitarian state will exist all over the world. There will be a one-world religion along with thought crime, one world economy along with starvation for the masses who do not comply in taking the Mark of the Beast, hyper-surveillance via technology and betrayal by neighbors and family.

It will be awful. But the fact is, it will happen. Worse, there will be technology available to support the implementation and maintenance of it all.

So look from the perspective of Revelation then, back to today and see how close we are, and even further back to before Obama was elected, then a bit further back to your youth. If you are over 50 years of age you see how quickly we have gone from the land of the free to the land of the oppressed. It is the same if you live in other countries. The UK's surveillance of private citizens has increased dramatically...Economic oppression in other nations...all lead to the same thing. We are boiled frogs about to die, metaphorically speaking.

In the early 2000s when I was a journalist, in any civic discussion where the person mentioned Hitler it was instant grounds for getting roundly drummed out of the debate. According to Godwin's Law, you lost the debate instantly if you mentioned Hitler. Also known as Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies, it states that "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches. In other words, Godwin observed that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably makes a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis. ... Godwin's law applies especially to inappropriate, inordinate, or hyperbolic comparisons of other situations (or one's opponent) with Nazis... falling foul of Godwin's law tends to cause the individual making the comparison to lose their argument or credibility." (source).

However, with the bible's prediction of a totalitarian state in place immediately prior to His Second Coming, it will happen eventually. I find it interesting that the comparison to Hitler and/or Stalin is being made quite constantly now, and no one is citing Godwin's Law.

But first let's go back to the bible. The Old Testament is replete with types of men who foreshadowed the Christ. Who, in effect, were Christ-types. Just as there were Christ-types, there were also antichrist-types. AW Pink write a book on The Antichrist, and in chapter thirteen he enumerated at least ten men who in his biblical opinion were types of antichrists foreshadowing the real one to come.

Daniel 11:21-35 predicted Antiochus IV Epiphanes, and that passage is also a dual prophecy for the final antichrist. Antiochus IV was the 8th Seleucid King of Greece and the first to call himself god. 'Epiphanes' means 'visible god' or 'god manifest.' Antiochus outlawed Jewish religious rites and traditions kept by observant Jews and ordered the worship of Zeus as the supreme god. This was anathema to the Jews and when they refused, Antiochus sent an army to enforce his decree. Because of the resistance, the city was destroyed, and many were slaughtered. (source)

We know from Roman history that the Caesars began calling themselves gods and so it was with the Greek kings too. The final antichrist will cause all to worship him and to demonstrate that worship by receiving a mark on their hand or forehead. (Revelation 13:15-18). It seems that all the best dictators these days call themselves god and require proper worship from the people. (Obama hasn't called himself a god but he hasn't refused the title when others called him one, either. Maybe he thinks of himself as a demi-god.)

In recent secular history the antichrist type that most frequently comes to mind is Hitler. By 1923 Hitler looked to Italy and saw the rising popularity of Mussolini. Taking the hint, Hitler looked increasingly to a strong man who would rescue Germany, too. He was still speaking of leaders, plural, but it soon became obvious that he meant himself as the sole rescuer, and he wasn't going to share the political power- or limelight- with anyone. On May 4, 1923, Hitler gave a speech, in which he said,

"What can save Germany is the dictatorship of the national will and national determination. The question arises, is the suitable personality to hand? Our task is not to look for such a person. He is a gift from heaven, or is not there. Our task is to give the dictator, when he comes, a people ready for him!" (Source: Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris  By Ian Kershaw)

By 8 weeks later, Hitler was saying that only a man with personality could save Germany, not the decisions of Parliament. But isn't it spooky that the path to dictatorship first involves getting a people ready to accept him? We have seen an antichrist-type in Obama in that the people who have been primed accept the cult of personality and willingly follow the one who dismisses Congress and shreds the Constitution. Nothing happened in Germany that wasn't without the vote of and later the willing acceptance of the people-at-large. It happened incrementally enough that they were frogs in boiling water before they knew it.

In preparing the people, God is sovereign. Satan is at work readying his children of darkness, but because they refused to believe the truth, it is God Who allows them to accept the lie. (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).

Now, we have gone for many years with a Congress and not a king, and the people fully understood that the twain were different. Our elected leaders were just that- leaders. But remember Antiochus- suddenly he decided that he was not just a king, but also a god, blending those two offices into a deadly combination.

That same sudden shift will occur in the Tribulation also.

"A defining moment in the general tribulation period is described by Jesus in Matthew 24:15, where He describes an incident that immediately brings about a terrible series of events: “So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination that causes desolation,' spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—“ (Matthew 24:15). Once this “abomination of desolation” occurs, “Then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will (Matthew 24:21)."

This abomination includes several things, including the sudden shredding of the covenant he'd made with the many, (Daniel 9:27; Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11) and another is that he takes his seat in the holy places and exalts himself as god. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). In effect, he does as past dictators have done, saying, "Hey everyone, I'm boss, forget the promises I've made before, I'm god and you must worship me. I'll say what happens from now on."

Back to the Hitler-references for a minute. They are occurring more often these days. For example,

Tyrants using children as props and propaganda (RE- Sandy Hook Massacre & Obama)

She survived Hitler and wants to warn America

The Hitler comparisons aren't escaping notice in Israel, either. From today's Israel's Arutz Sheva:

State School President Under Fire for Obama-Hitler Comparison
The President of the Ohio State Board of Education has come under fire for comparing policies of President Obama to those of Hitler.

In a recent piece on Washington's blog he wrote,

In the classic history of Nazi Germany, They Thought They Were Free, Milton Mayer writes:

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

Similarly, America has - little by little - gone from a nation of laws to a nation of powerful men making laws in secret. Indeed, even Congress doesn't know half of what others are doing.

Do I think Obama is the antichrist? No. Do I think he is an antichrist-type? A million times yes. The key piece in this essay is what Hitler said in 1923- "Our task is to give the dictator, when he comes, a people ready for him!" To that end, Obama, and satan, are doing an admirable job.

You might be interested in a 2007 essay by Naomi Wolf, called Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps. I wrote about it on my other blog in 2008. Calling America 'Fascist 7 years ago seemed fringe-extreme. Nowadays it is the near-reality.

You might also be interested in The Futile Search for a Secular Savior

But most of all, Christians are interested in the Savior! Far from secular futility and doomsday darkness, he is Light (1 John 1:5-10). We look to Him because He looked out for us:

The Eternal Watcher is looking over the vast ocean of life, not that he may spy out the vessels which sail along proudly in safety, but that he may see those who are almost wrecks. “He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profiteth me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.” Our Lord was more moved at the sight of sickness than of health, and wrought his greatest wonders among fevers, leprosies, and palsies. This is the end and object of the gospel, namely, to save the unrighteous; the God of the gospel is he that “justifieth the ungodly,” “for when we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly.” “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "The Sinner's Savior," delivered October 1, 1876

Pray that the world will turn their eyes from roaming futilely in the dark for a secular savior to seeing His light and salvation come for them!