You wouldn’t think that I would be following the Rapture movement, but I have kept somewhat current as part of writing this column. In watching several time-wasting, over-emotional television “documentaries” about the End Times, though, I have acquired knowledge about what the Antichrist is expected to be like.
You might think that living in a relatively-peaceful, laid-back community like Tucson would be a real pleasure, and it is. But we just might be in danger of allowing ourselves to be lulled into the classic false sense of security just before Texas goes up in Holy Smoke! For the Antichrist may well be on his way, straight out of the Texas political scene to New Mexico and Arizona.
Many End Times believers think that because the Book of Revelation was written in the Holy Land, probably on the island of Patmos, the Antichrist will be European. But that is just a logical extension of the author’s expectations. It is entirely possible that the Antichrist will be from somewhere in the First World, at least theoretically.
The Antichrist, it is said, will be tremendously charismatic—that is to say, good-looking and very well-spoken, in order to attract the masses to his leadership. He will have a following that is made up of fanatical people who believe that he is bringing in with him the True Religion and that there is a special urgency to spread his word. This will be no ragged Old Testament fellow in a goatskin loincloth.
That said, I think that if I were a believer in End Times, I would be inclined to believe that the Antichrist has finally appeared. I say “finally” because in drawing inferences from the Book of Revelation, many End Timers think that the actual appearance of the Antichrist is the only thing lacking in the scenario that we see around us today.
Where is the Antichrist, they ask, as they contemplate the climatic disturbances such as drought and global warming, war that seems to be everywhere, and countries like Somalia falling into complete anarchy? They await a rising confrontation between Islam and Christianity even though it doesn’t seem to be occurring, and instead of a new Crusade they point to terrorist attacks instead.
But who—who is this emerging Antichrist that is about to fulfill the last piece of the puzzle before the Rapture and the Tribulation can begin?
Well, one thing that I think is that it wouldn’t be anyone you would suspect immediately. When President Obama was elected many bigoted evangelicals decided that he might be the Antichrist, but if he is, he hasn’t done much about it yet. The Democrats, who are complaining that he is too nice for his own good in political terms, don’t offer much support to the idea of a fire-breathing Barack Obama unleashing persecution of anybody—not even Republicans. Who, then?
Enter the New Apostolic Reformation. They are the looney-tune evangelicals who appeared on the stage of last week’s Response event in Houston. They believe in a Dangerous Duo of religious propositions: one, they are the True Believers and everyone else is off the radar; and two, God has selected the state of Texas as Ground Zero for the emergence of the True Faith. And—here it is, folks—they believe that a series of prophetic revelations has designated Governor Rick Perry as their anointed New Leader.
This would be pretty harmless if Perry didn’t buy into it. But there he was, giving their preachers a forum and praying over the half-full stadium of New Apostolic believers.
Now, it is entirely possible that the collection of crazy bigots who believe that the Emperor of Japan is sleeping with the Sun Goddess (they believe in the existence of a Sun Goddess??), or that the Statue of Liberty is demonic, are still not dues-paying members of the New Apostolic Reformation. They may just like the guys up there on the stage who tell them that Adolf Hitler was a tool of God (okay, he was a tool, that’s for sure).
But this New Apostolic Reformation presents itself as The Answer to today’s troubled times—partly because Perry admits when he asks for God to intervene to save the economy and end the drought in Texas, that he is helpless. You handle it, Lord, I got nothin’.
So if there is an Antichrist, ladies and gentlemen, Rick Perry sure fits the description. He is coming out of Right Field on the flying carpet of crazy bigots who want to take over the government, the media, politics, education, entertainment and business, to name a few. They are prepared to force their theocracy on America over the dead bodies of those who disagree. And Rick Perry is their Prophet.
I am writing this in August of 2011 and I am telling you—right here, right now—that if anyone ever met the job requirements for the Antichrist, it is Rick Perry. He has it all. He’s a triple threat: blind, ignorant faith; unthinking ideology; and charisma.
Here we sit in Arizona, in the middle of our home-grown catastrophe, trying to deal with unemployed, homeless middle-class people and corrupt public officials. Soon we may well have to deal with the overflow of New Apostolic Reformers from Texas as they send us their missionaries and preach that it will henceforth be absolutely necessary to follow Perry from here to eternity.
The Southwest will be the first place besides the Internet for these people to spread out. Fundamentalists have laid the groundwork for people to join one movement after another that can preach fear and hatred, and there is no one on the Religulous Right with more charisma than Perry, whether he is talking secession or preaching his warped, distorted gospel. Add to that the ego massage that he is now getting 24/7 from the New Apostolic Reformation and let’s see if he can resist The Call (he already talks like that, by the way).
And I still say that if you are trapped in Texas through no fault of your own, get your children out of that school system and get yourself out of the way of this New Apostolic Reformation juggernaut that is about to explode out of Texas to the Southwest and beyond.
Arizona may be only a temporary refuge, but it will do until we have to start heading north or south—and I do mean north (Canada) or south (Latin America)—to get out from under this religious-cum-political melt-down that is waiting to happen.
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