{"id":1972,"date":"2016-12-26T15:49:33","date_gmt":"2016-12-26T19:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/?p=1972"},"modified":"2016-12-26T15:49:33","modified_gmt":"2016-12-26T19:49:33","slug":"bad-christmas-sermon-coming-antichrist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/steelmagnificat\/2016\/12\/bad-christmas-sermon-coming-antichrist\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bad Christmas Sermon and the Coming of the Antichrist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"lucky-pig-1843032_640\"<\/p>\n

Yes, I read the RNC Christmas Greeting.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

I read the line everybody\u2019s up in arms about:<\/p>\n

Over two millennia ago, a new hope was born into the world, a Savior who would offer the promise of salvation to all mankind. Just as the three wise men did on that night, this Christmas heralds a time to celebrate the good news of\u00a0<\/em>a new King.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m just not 100% sure that line deliberately puts forth\u00a0Donald Trump as a Christ figure. I think it\u2019s sillier than that.<\/p>\n

I am a person who has listened to many bad sermons, and this statement reads like the quintessential bad sermon to me. The kind where the priest or deacon is up in the pulpit desperately trying to say something clever that links the Bible\u00a0text to their everyday lives, but they\u2019re just not up to the task and they end up with either heresy or gibberish. Usually it\u2019s a function of\u00a0the cleric presuming that his congregation is stupider than he is, while not being the smartest tack himself. I\u2019ve already mentioned that I sat through a sermon where the priest finished with something along the lines of, \u201cAnd, you know, when you go out to eat, and you go to pray? You know? And the person you\u2019re with doesn\u2019t like it, he doesn\u2019t like it, they don\u2019t like that we\u2019re doing that, and they roll their eyes? Well, that\u2019s persecution. That\u2019s a persecution we have to endure. And our reward will be great in Heaven.\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Another time, at the school I went to for undergrad, I heard a Protestant preacher explain that the beginning of the Book of Esther can be likened to the current president of the college, a stodgy-looking older man named Brent, ordering his wife to dance naked for all the faculty and then beheading her when she refused.<\/p>\n

And once I had the aesthetics of a\u00a0perfectly sumptuous Extraordinary Form Mass spoiled by a priest stammering a homily that started with \u201cSo, today we celebrate a Solemn High Mass for Christ the King. Now, in this country, it might be hard of you to think of Christ the King. Maybe you could think of Him as Christ the President, or Christ the General, or Christ the Household Coordinator.\u201d<\/em> No one sitting in the back could keep from giggling.\u00a0And before you ask, yes, that priest was employed as head of student households at the time.<\/p>\n

That statement about Christ the President and Household Coordinator brings me quite smoothly back to what I was trying to say about the RNC statement: I don\u2019t think that Mr. Priebus was actually, consciously, deliberately\u00a0proclaiming to all the world that Donald Trump\u00a0was Jesus and\u00a0a king. He was trying to compare the Gospel to our everyday lives and\u00a0it\u00a0just came out like a Fruedian slip, because Mr. Priebus privately thinks about everyday life and politics that way\u2013 and a bad sermon always tells you more about the preacher than about God.<\/p>\n

Still, it leaves us with a question that I\u2019ve heard going around, lately: Is Donald Trump the Antichrist?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here\u00a0we have a petulant, shouting,\u00a0arm-waving demagogue who\u2019s fond of gold thrones and exploitable women.\u00a0Self-professed conservative Christians are going after him in droves, making excuses for him when he violates the commandments; they truly believe that this man can save them and make us great again. We even had a priest decorating an altar with a dead baby<\/a> in Trump\u2019s honor. I\u2019m not saying that any other candidate would have been a saint. I\u2019m just saying, when you put it like that, doesn\u2019t it\u00a0sound like a description\u00a0of the Antichrist?<\/p>\n

I take people seriously when they ask if Donald Trump may be the Antichrist.<\/p>\n

I think the only answer to that question is: well, he\u2019s somebody\u2019s Antichrist.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m no expert in eschatology, but it seems to me that we\u00a0should\u00a0think about the End Times in two ways. I believe that, at some point in history, Christ will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, to separate the sheep from the goats. I believe that before that time there will be a trial, great persecution, and a literal Antichrist\u2013 someone who will deceive many with an answer to all of their troubles, if only they will follow him in place of Christ. I don\u2019t know if that will happen within my own lifetime.\u00a0No one knows that except the Father. It very well may.<\/p>\n

But I also believe that I am in my own personal End Time, regardless of where I am in the course of history. I have something less than a lifetime left before the end. At the end of my lifetime, Christ will judge me, personally.<\/p>\n

And the spirit of the Antichrist is already\u00a0here.<\/p>\n

You are the same way. Every person reading this is in their own End Times right now. You, yourself, have less than one lifetime ahead of you. You, yourself, are experiencing the trials and persecutions leading up to the end. Pretty soon, you\u2019ll appear before Christ and He will show you the course of your entire life, the choices you made, all the times when you saw him hungry or lonely or naked and what you did in response. May God have mercy on each of us, on that terrible day.<\/p>\n

But the spirit of the Antichrist is already among you.<\/p>\n

The spirit of the Antichrist is already appearing to you every day, promising all the kingdoms of the world, if only you will bow and worship him.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t tell you what your personal Antichrist is. For a lot of people, it\u2019s politics, and we\u2019ve had a good demonstration of that lately. Politics and elections are supposed to be a time to scrutinize all of your choices, vote to lessen evil as much as you can, and vote to do some good if you can. But if you honestly believe that one candidate is a new king who will save us\u2013 that he or she will bring salvation, solve all your problems, destroy your enemies, make you prosperous and bring Heaven on Earth; if you think that following one candidate makes you righteous and everybody else damned\u2013 then you\u2019re bowing to the Antichrist. And as far as any politician presents themselves as a king who will save us and make us great, he or she is voluntarily becoming an Antichrist. He or she is the Antichrist, for those who end up idolizing that politician.<\/p>\n

If\u00a0you\u2019re being tempted to sin because of a good that will come of it, that\u2019s the siren song of the Antichrist. Committing a sin against God in order to solve our problems and have good things\u2013 that\u2019s what the Antichrist wants us to do. That\u2019s how he gets us. Commit adultery so that you can find love. Abuse your child verbally or physically, so that they\u2019ll repent of their sins and come back to the Faith. Cheat your employees out of their wages and buy your wife some pearls. Deny lunch to a hungry child to teach him fiscal responsibility.\u00a0Pressure poor women to have more children so they\u2019ll be pious according to your idea of piety. Pressure poor women to get abortions so that they\u2019ll not be a financial drain on society. Join in a\u00a0pogrom against your Jewish or black or Byzantine neighbors, so that society will be peaceful and orderly. \u00a0Shout \u201cwe have no king but Cesar,\u201d have the innocent preacher crucified, and maybe Rome will not destroy you. Sacrifice someone to Molech, and perhaps\u00a0the famine will end.<\/p>\n

It wears so many different masks: progress, responsibility, level-headedness, being a grown up, being a true conservative, being a true liberal, being a good citizen.<\/p>\n

When Christ removes all masks at the end, you will see that it was idolatry and the Antichrist all along.<\/p>\n

Christ is among us. Serve Him. The Antichrist is also among us. Don\u2019t bow. You can tell the difference every time if you remain watchful.<\/p>\n

Stay awake. Keep watch. You don\u2019t know the hour or the day, but you know that we are always in the end times.<\/p>\n

May the hour not find you sleeping.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(image via Pixabay)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I read the RNC Christmas Greeting.\u00a0 I read the line everybody\u2019s up in arms about: Over two millennia ago, a new hope was born into the world, a Savior who would offer the promise of salvation to all mankind. Just as the three wise men did on that night, this Christmas heralds a time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2694,"featured_media":1973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1738,728,626,485,1988,628,897,1731,1641,1217,1739,2146,1763,651,744,1732,1733,2039,1746,896,59,71],"tags":[2503,135,2207,1716,2504,2506,2505,2488,643,2507,971],"class_list":["post-1972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-christ","category-christian-idenitity","category-conscience","category-conspiracy-theory","category-conversion","category-cry-of-the-poor","category-donald-trump","category-eastern-christianity","category-gospel","category-history","category-human-dignity","category-idol","category-interpretation-of-scripture","category-jesus","category-president","category-presidential-election","category-public-face-of-catholicism","category-scandal","category-social-justice","category-spiritual-abuse","category-suffering","tag-antichrist","tag-christ","tag-christ-the-king","tag-donald-trump","tag-end-times","tag-goats","tag-judge","tag-prophecy","tag-rnc","tag-sermon","tag-sheep"],"yoast_head":"\nA 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