Waiting For the World to End - Scofield's Bible and the Christian Cargo Cult

 

Christian fundamentalists really are a sorry lot when it comes to lacking a sense of humour and the capacity for honest self reflection, let alone any appreciation of nuance or subtlety. How many times have we heard that the earth is literally six thousand years old? That we are all literally descended from the first man and woman? Then there’s the story about the talking snake, and God speaking to Moses out of a burning bush – no way any of that could be metaphorical.

No wonder they go into such fits when I mention the fact that the protestant bible was in all likelihood translated by a 33rd degree Freemason (Francis Bacon) and later annotated by a philanderer, counterfeiter and convicted felon (Cyrus Scofield), and that any shred of original meaning contained therein has been rewritten, reinterpreted and twisted so much that we've almost certainly lost all sight of it.

To be fair, dealing with ancient holy books is always going to be a matter of Chinese whispers. For starters, humans didn’t discover written language until about 3000 BCE, and even by fundamentalist standards, we were around at least a good 1000 years prior to that. So anything that came before was obviously oral tradition, handed down through storytelling, cave paintings, song and dance and suchlike. Folklore. Fairy tale. And I guess all of that can tell us a lot about ourselves if we know how to read it, just as any mythology can, I suppose. Maybe some truths that we’d rather not know. However when it comes to biblical eschatology as put forth in the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St John, I expect their hidden meaning is less a matter of ancient mystery and more of modern conspiracy.

A phrase which often turns up in reference to the illuminated ones is “revelation of the method”, supposedly a kabbalistic practice in which the elites sanction their evil plans by making them public in some indirect way, in art, in film and literature, or in the fine print of some end user license agreement, per the erudite pen of Douglas Adams...

“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes… yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

But you know why the powers that shouldn’t be really conduct their affairs in plain sight? Specifically all the hocus pocus, satanic, baby eating new world order stuff?

Because otherwise no one would notice!

In the case of biblical eschatology it's really quite ingenious how they've brainwashed the masses so thoroughly. Even if most don't believe in it, they've invariably been exposed to it, conditioned by it somewhere. It's just become part of the cultural milieu. So when Jared Kushner (Is it just me who thinks that guy looks like Damien from The Omen?) purchases 666 Fifth Avenue Manhattan for a record $1.8bn and goes on to become Middle East Peace Envoy, surely someone is going to put two and two together and come up with... The Antichrist!

Except... Where is Kushner now?

What I'm suggesting is that it's not not some rule of the craft that says they must show their hand or be disqualified. It’s simpler and even more cynical than that. They literally have to draw attention to themselves, because that is how the game is played. This cabal (and I use the term under advisement) are tiny and completely powerless when you take away their grand narratives.

Those who see current events as imminent signs of rapture and tribulation only help to perpetuate these narratives. 

Yes, all the events we are currently seeing are signs of biblical prophecy fulfilled. But only because the same psychopaths fulfilling them wrote the prophecies in the first place. Or at least they told us what the prophecies mean, through the various re-readings and re-interpretings of holy writ handed down throughout the ages.

The most recent iteration comes to us via C.I. Scofield's Annotated Reference Bible. Scofield's notes borrow extensively from the theology of both Anglo-Irish Bible teacher and father of the exclusive Brethren John Nelson Darby, and Scottish theologian Edward Irving, whose strict literalism would become one of the cornerstones of North-American Evangelicalism. The pair are credited with introducing the concepts of dispensational premillennialism as well as the separation of the Gentile Church and the Jewish People as two distinct peoples of God. While the latter idea led directly to the legitimisation of Christian Zionism within the evangelical establishment, it is the 'secret pre-tribulation rapture' doctrine which drives most modern fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals as they seek to bring about the eschaton (the final, heaven-like stage of history) in the immanent world.

 

How many times have we heard it? Obama is the Antichrist! Trump is the Antichrist! Pope Francis is the Antichrist! And my favourite of all so far, CERN used a DWAVE supercomputer to create a trans dimensional portal, thus opening the pit and releasing... YOU GUESSED IT... The Antichrist!

The vaccine is the Mark of the Beast! Well it kind of is, when you consider the part where no one will be able to buy or sell without it... But then again, I remember when Bankcard was considered the Mark of the Beast. And before that the United States Dollar. I'm sure these things are probably all archetypes. Recurring motifs. A story retold for each new generation, like a classic movie remake, with fresh faces, better special effects and a new film score. 

The bottom line is it is the ones who believe all this horse shit who give the psychopaths their power. Seriously, people need to re-watch the Wizard of Oz.

How easy would it be for the Israelis to simply demolish al Aqsa Mosque and build their new temple? But what then? What are they going to do when the promised messiah fails to make his appearance? And why would they want the Messiah to return anyway? Wouldn’t that kind of mess up their plans for creating a Jewish superstate? Nah, they will milk this as long as they possibly can. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Jews wrote this playbook, But they certainly know it, and know how to play along with it. Besides which, Solomon’s Temple, if there ever was a Solomon, and if he ever had a temple, was likely in Beersheba in the Negev desert.

This is how self-fulfilling prophecy works. The illuminated ones are not illuminated because they see and understand ancient wisdom. Rather they are the ones who control the grand narratives. And what grander narrative could there be than the inspired word of God? C’mon, does the fact that the Scofield Reference Bible was published by the Oxford University Press not ring any alarm bells? Of course this is just the most recent upcycling of the Christian mythos, tailor made to fit in with the European enlightenment, with the age of mercantilism, colonial expansion and finally capitalism (prosperity gospel, anyone?) But it’s really just the same old control grid given a facelift for a new generation. Constantine showed us how it was done when he Christianised the Roman Empire. But that was long before the printing press, let alone Hollywood - storytelling has come a long way since then.

That’s not to say there is no hidden truth in the old stories, maybe something deeply allegorical, or maybe something closer to the surface. Maybe if Christians spent more time thinking about the first coming of Christ, the instructions he left, “Love thy neighbour as thy self” and the radical example he set – hanging out with beggars and prostitutes, kicking the moneylenders out of the temple – rather than his imminent return, then we wouldn't be living in this late capitalist dystopia. Here’s a radical thought. Maybe when Christ uttered those final words, “It is finished”, that is exactly what he meant. Game over. Blood of atonement shed. Jewish law fulfilled. The veil of the temple rent in two. What an anticlimax, hey? Maybe that’s why the ptsnb decided to push judgement day out indefinitely. Or maybe not. Most of what we know about Christ comes via St Paul, who never met Jesus, if there was ever an historical Jesus to begin with.

Maybe when St John spoke of the imminent coming of the antichrist we ought to consider that he was speaking to his immediate audience. Maybe when he said "whereby we know we are in the last time", that is exactly what he meant. Likewise when Jesus said "there shall not be left one stone upon another", maybe he was talking about the literal destruction of the Jewish temple. By this logic, is it not possible that the antichrist was a reference to to Nero, "the first emperor who dyed his sword in Christian blood" (Tertullian)? and couldn't the imminent destruction of the world by fire have referred to the Great Fire of Rome (AD64)? I mean, Isn't that a reasonable hermeneutics?

Whatever the case, I’ve seen enough Antichrists come and go, enough raptures postponed, and I know what a cargo cult looks like. We live in dark times, and they’re getting darker. Our rulers continue to push the limits of evil, and it seems that no one is pushing back. Rather we see a disturbing fixation with Armageddon. It's almost as tho deep down we believe this world is too broken to ever be fixed. This is the power of powerlessness. An effective tool in the hands of psychopaths and cult leaders. But while fatalistic despair may bring a warped sense of comfort, alas it is a luxury we can't afford ourselves. The world is in grave peril, and we need to find a way to sort it out before these evil bastards have their way with us. Make no mistake, a substantial population cull is next on the agenda. 

...in accordance with the prophecy, of course.