by Donald Robert Clasen
Jan. 7, 2014
The Church of Jesus Christ is completely floundering in its responsibility to the world in this hour. Its problem is not that she doesn’t have a strong presence in it, especially in the West. Quite the contrary, like a huge machine she cranks out all kinds of ministry on a daily basis—church services, seminars and conferences, family ministry, youth ministry, drug counseling, charity to the poor, community outreach, education from pre-school to universities, radio teaching, TV preaching, missionary activity and on and on. She’s also up to her eyeballs in right wing politics here in America, and even the Dominionist hope is still alive and kicking. “Now if only we could get rid of Obama and the Democrats and really get on with fighting secularism and Islam and protecting Israel…”
I would say that on the whole she’s blind as a bat, and caught up in a “snare” Jesus Christ Himself specifically and sternly warned us about in regards to the last days:
“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting [banqueting], and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.” -Luke 21:34,35
In the parallel passage in Mark He commands us to “watch” and “watch and pray” three times in five verses because many would be found “sleeping” in “those days” (Lu 21:23; Mk 13:33-37).
Understanding The Times
Now think about what is going on in our day. Within American Church culture there are three different camps with three different attitudes about the times in which we are living–the Dominionist camp, the “business-as-usual” camp, and the apocalyptic camp. The Dominionists‘ attitude is that through a combination of right-wing politics, ecumenical unity and a hope in great miracles, the last days Church will convert the world, impress and evangelize Israel, and cleanse the earth of all unrighteousness to pave the way for the triumphant return of Christ. Delusional, fanatical and dangerous, this is nonetheless the juggernaut of the moment. They are also quite blind to the irony that they themselves and the nation of Israel, which they practically worship, are the two biggest factors bringing about the very Apocalypse they so passionately claim they are themselves trying to prevent.
The “business-as-usual” crowd have a “pan-millennialist” attitude, that somehow things will all “pan out.” They are quite casual about the subject of the last days and don’t regard it as a critical matter. If you pressed them about such passages some of them might tell you all those prophecies were fulfilled in the first century. These might include major denominations such as the Catholics, the Orthodox, mainline Protestants, and those embracing universalism.
But what if you’re in the third camp, the apocalyptic camp? More than likely you believe in a Pre-Trib Rapture. You have all your charts and interpretations but study current events as something of a curiosity since you won’t be here when things really start to go bad anyway. More than likely, your politics are also right wing and you just can’t seem to imagine that Western fascism could be the very thing that makes life a living hell for the people of the end times.
Behold, A Mystery
So if you belong to this camp my question to you is this. Why would Jesus be so dire in His warning about being alert and “not asleep” if you’re going to be Raptured out anyhow? Why pay attention to all that going on around you if you’re going to be rescued anyway? You might as well join the “pan-millennialists” who indeed are asleep. But if the fate of your soul depends upon your ability to discern between good and evil in those days (Heb 5:14), and if there is no Rapture until the Second Coming, then His words make sense.
In fact, what if the Dominionist model is a gross heresy and is itself the heart of that “strong delusion” of those days?:
“And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.“
-II Thess 2:8-12
As I’m updating this article it’s 2020, secular America and most of the world are appalled by Donald Trump and all he stands for, yet the Church has made a Faustian Pact with him and the Republicans for the sake of appointing more right-wing judges (as if that’s a mandate from God in the first place). If Trump is this “Wicked” one, how is it that the “godless” who have not faith can see it but the Church which claims it does, really doesn’t?
For decades the Christian Right castigated American society, passionately inveighing on behalf of the need for “men and women of character” in government. Then they end up supporting this “man of lawlessness” (II Thess 2:3 NIV) in the name of “saving America.” Did Jesus Christ ever say “go forth and have dominion over the earth through power politics? Did He not say, Go forth and teach all nations…” (Mt 28:19)?
These “end-of-the-age” prophecies also warn about a lot of deception in those days. The Apostle Paul even went so far as to call it “strong delusion” (II Thess 2:11). The problem with those who are so committed to right wing politics is that they assume the United States and Israel are the “good guys” of the end times, valiantly staving off the dark hordes driving “the darkness” of our times.
What’s Behind All This?
But what if Dominionism is itself a big part of this last days deception? Here are but two observations to consider. (I discuss the subject more thoroughly in my book American Babylon, American Antichrist). One, the “dominion” Adam was given was not over the rest of humanity. There were only two people on the earth at the time! It was over the animals (Gen 1:28), foreshadowing the modern concept of protecting endangered species and similar principles. Two, there is no hint at all that the Church of the end times will be an irresistible juggernaut on the earth, nor should aspire to be so. Instead, betrayal is what we should be expecting (Mt 24:10; Lu 21:16).
And what if the United States and Israel were actually the two biggest factors driving this deception? What if the last days beast monster that bites and devours the whole earth of Daniel 7:7, 19 were the American empire? Worse yet, what if the coming Antichrist is not a European secularist, a UN head, a “Lord Maitreya” type or some such person, but an American head of state bent on a Zionist/American Empire/Big Oil neo-con agenda? What if we have more than a problem of mere greed in our time? What if it’s actually something of an agenda of subjugation, a medieval siege by Israel hijacking America to exploit our treasure and wealth for a stealth Zionist eschatology of conquest? If so we shouldn’t be surprised when Benjamin Netanyahu announced in 2015 that tiny little Israel needed to become “a world power.”
Belief in Bible prophecy usually results in focus on the Rapture on the one hand or survivalism on the other. But as I show in my book American Babylon, American Antichrist, the Rapture is a fairly minor event that does not take place until the day of the Second Coming as a way to grant immorality to those saints who have survived the Apocalypse. As for survivalism, there will be no safe place to hide anywhere, at least within the United States should this terrible period ever come to pass. Even more to the point the Church has been given a much greater and more glorious task anyhow, to bring in the greatest harvest in history (Rev 7:9). It’s going to take a generation younger than my own to do it, but how can they do it if they don’t understand what is going on around them? If we don’t have a discerning understanding of the times, how are we supposed to know what ought to be done (I Chron 12:32)?
I wrote the book American Babylon, American Antichrist to help people understand how all these elements are inter-related. This blog is designed to give ongoing support of its thesis as future events unfold. While ministries, conspiracy researchers and political observers around the world see the problem in bits and pieces, nothing I’ve found on the web or in the bookstores comes close to putting it all together like I have. I don’t mean that as a way to brag. I claim no infallibility here, nor am I omniscient. I simply see the problem as best I can and believe I have a “take” on it all as good as anything else I’m watching out there nowadays. I hope it serves you well and motivates you to investigate these issues more intently and make sure you “watch” and pray as the future unfolds.
To get a copy of the book, click here. To learn more about it, click here.
