BEWARE THE DANGEROUS MAN

Biblical prophecy tell us there will come the most dangerous man ever to exist in world history, he  “who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God” (II Thessalonians 2:4). His rule will, for a while, be so absolute that he'll control the world’s economy (Rev. 13:16-17). He'll be so violently anti-Semitic, that he can only be Satan-possessed. (Dan. 11:40-41), and in fact, he will be one of only three in world history whom Scripture describes as being possessed by the devil. The iron fist of the anti-Christ's rule will richly deserve the description, a reign of terror.

Because Satan doesn’t know when the rapture will occur, he's always had someone in every generation ready to possess and take control of the world after that event, some man who will proclaim himself as God and wreak the carnage the Bible predicts Man of Sin will wreak.

MAN'S BENT

And that brings us to man’s penchant to always wanting to be God, a desire that goes back to Eden (Gen 3). When a person who desires to be God comes into power, he brings with him promises and plans to make our existence a paradise on earth. Stalin had his various five year plans. On the way to his goal of producing a Utopia, he imposed forced labor, a reign of terror, and the ruthless extermination of all who opposed him. Historians estimate that Stalin (whose name means, "Steel') was responsible for the deaths of 20 million, although Alexander Solzhenitsyn put the figure at 60 million.

Mao, who made himself the god of China, is thought to have killed somewhere between 40-75 million. He too had his five-year plans to get back to Eden.

HOW DO PEOPLE RATIONALIZE SUCH EVIL?

How do people approve of such barbaric atrocities? It’s not hard; the way they look at it is that anything and everything is justified in moving toward a man-made Utopia and man, the god, must make sure it comes. This is how, even in America, the most corrupt politicians find millions to support them, millions who know their god is corrupt. It’s because the corruption is done all in the name of a greater good—the promise of a coming man-made paradise.The proffered end justifies whatever the little god does to try to get there.

LET'S TAKE A MISERABLE TRIP

In more modern times, let’s go to Poland, a country which benefited (I use the word loosely) from communist rule. The year is 1989. Let’s visit the home a doctor. The communist officials who had promised paradise, based on the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and the philosophy of Marx and Lenin, set her salary at $17 per month, $3 less than the assigned average salary of the coal miners who earned $20 a month. (That's what they called social justice.) She had no telephone, a deprivation assigned her by the little gods in the name of social justice, or maybe they just didn't care. One wonders how any of the miners are to get in touch with her during a medical emergency, but, again, who cares? Those planners of Utopia didn't.

After we visit with her, let’s have dinner with the editor of the largest Catholic weekly in Poland. He and his wife and child live in an apartment building with no elevator. We get some healthy exercise by climbing the urine-drenched stairs to the sixth floor and enter his apartment which measures 6x10 feet. Their child is asleep in the closet; we notice a mattress on the floor next to the dining table on which the parents sleep each night. As we talk to our host, he tells us that the waiting list for an apartment like his is 20 years.This is Utopia?

Let’s go to a store and do some shopping. Not much to choose from, but we decide to purchase a few things. When we go to check out, the clerk totals our bill on an abacus. (This is 1989, for goodness sake!)

This is a culture, a monoculture. where there is no dissent, no gender, and no conflict; the little gods don't allow the unique and the great to exist. There are no offbeat weirdos nor eccentric crazies. There are no more self-made successes and inspiring figures. They're long gone. There is enforced conformity, a conformity enforced by a little god. The say what they are permitted to say; they do not say what they're forbidden to say. That's the way it was in 1989 in Poland.

THE WAY IT IS, WITHOUT EXCEPTION

The Bible and history testify to the same truth, as always: every country, nation, and culture over which someone has installed himself as God has become a dismal, depressing wreckage in the bone yard of history. Will we ever learn? No.We continue to believe their Utopian promises and excuse whatever they want to do to chase their mirage.

But always and forever, God raises up a remnant, a Daniel, a Shadrach, a Meshach, and an Abednego, a Peter and a John and thousands and thousands of others throughout history who stand ramrod straight and say, “No. We must obey God rather than men.”