Beware the Brew of the False Prophet

When we looked at Revelation 17 and 18, we saw God's warning to His people: that we must reject the seductive charms of materialism. Satan uses Big Money to seduce and trap people into the addictions of luxury. And as we all know, the "System" is horribly oppressive to those who serve it, as well as those who reject it.

The False Prophet of Revelation, also called the "beast from the earth", isn't known as well. When we looked at him in Revelation 13, and talked about briefly last week, is that he exists to bring glory to the Beast -- which is the Evil Empire, the political and military system Satan and his forces use to enslave the world and oppress God's people.

How does he do this? He does it by getting people to worship the government. This happened in Rome's day, it goes on today, and it will be very much the case in the last days. How can we spot it? We can see it in those governments that whip up their people to huge amounts of nationalism, the obsessive devotion to country that Satan uses to lead people to worship something other than God.

For fun, I've been reading Josef Joffe's Uberpower: The Imperial Temptation of America at bedtime. He is a German newspaper editor, and Jewish I believe, so I wasn't expecting any theological insight. After discussing the current situation in China, he gets philosophical and calls nationalism "the most powerful political glue ever invented." (page 199) My eyes popped out of my head as I kept reading:

"Its promise is the deceptive equality delivered by the one political good that comes with an inexhaustible supply: national idenity, pride, and exceptionialism. Power and wealth are by definition limited assets; what I acquire, you cannot. Not so nationalism, a bottomless well that will never run dry. All can drink from it without clashing over who gets what and how much - there is more than enough from all. Even better, as they gulp down the intoxicating liquid, all persons are alike. Whether rich or poor, mighty or meek, they are one another's equals in the community of fate that is the nation... The promise of community on the cheap explains... how eagerly such a heady brew is lapped up by a people tortured by deepening rifts of income and status." (page 199-200)

This is the cup the False Prophet offers!

Paul and Peter tell us in the New Testament that we are to respect our leaders, and generally submit and obey the laws of the government. Jesus tells us that we should "give to Caesar what is Caesar's." I think the Bible wants us to have a healhy patriotism that supports our country, pays taxes, and serves our nation. We live in a great country that allows us to criticize it as part of our civic duty.

But nationalism, or obsessive devotion, to a flag or a government is a dangerous force in our world today. Let us pray for those who are seduced to worshipping their country, and let us beware of it ourselves.

(Photo by Oliver Gruner)