"One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast". Revelations 13:3 NIV.
And so, I watch as a huge swath of American Christians fall for the beast as prophesied in the Revelation.
This is serious.
It is time we call out our fellow Christians that they are following a false prophet. We on the liberal side of Christianity, devoted to tolerance, forgiveness, and the love of Jesus Christ, are loath to criticize our fellow brethren, but we also cannot sit idly by like Peter did as the cock crowed three times. We call the turn of the white, evangelical community, a turn to Christian Nationalism, but we need to call out that it is much, much, worse, because their very souls are at stake.
We have just watched as the most vile, repugnant, fascist claim the nomination of a major party, and elevate himself to the level of God to conservative, white, evangelical Christians.
An aside about myself and my testimony (to those who are familiar with this term). I was raised a Catholic, but my father, due to the fact that he was divorced and remarried, was forced to ply his trade as an organist in the American Baptist Church after his ex-wife told the diocese about his remarriage to my mother. I found myself spending summers at an American Baptist Camp, and adopted the American Baptist tradition and weaving it into my culturally Catholic background.
During that time at the camp, I accepted Christ as my lord and savior. I have to admit, I came to it out of fear after reading revelations in the dark cabin on summer nights at the camp. I wish I came to Jesus under more out of love than fear, but be that as it may, I learned and studied a lot about the book of Revelation.
Prophecies can be interpreted in many ways, but my view is that they are warnings about possible futures. Revelation is instructive because it outlines how false prophets can hijack and corrupt religion. Much in the way a virus or a cancer turns the body against itself, the characters in revelation do this with the church. It is my belief that the white, evangelical movement is under the spell of several false prophets led by Donald Trump. When he was nearly assassinated, my thoughts immediately went to the Beast in the revelation, and how the beast used the near-death experience to elevate himself to God.
It is well-known that the mark of the beast is the number 666. Scholars differ on the meaning of this number, but one theory is that 6 is the number for man (being created on the 6th day), and the triple 6 is a trinity. Thus, "Man making himself God"
In the Revelation story, the Beast (the Antichrist) and other false prophets hijack a religion. Evangelicals often anticipate that this would be a rogue Pope. Putting aside the anti-catholic fervor often present in these Christian sects, it does have a logical sense. The Catholic church is centralized and the pope has fairly unchecked power. However, this lazy interpretation of the prophecy leaves the evangelical church vulnerable to being charmed by a charismatic political leader. They are so blinded in what they want to hear, that they ignore the warnings in the Bible:
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds’” (Jeremiah 14:14).
"Delusions of their own minds" sounds a lot like Donald Trump, but many white evangelicals want to hear that they are right, and that they are destined to lead this nation despite its increasing diversity and competition from other peoples in our midst (minorities, non-evangelicals, atheists, etc.). Thus they fall for Donald Trump's lies.
Calling them Christian Nationalists or Fascists will not break this spell. They need to hear the Biblical interpretation of what they are doing. Most won't be convinced, but some will. I hope so, because in my belief their very souls are imperiled.