Man of Lawlessness

Mikhail Gorbachev is the anti-Christ!

...Or maybe not.

When I was growing up, Russia was the great bug-a-bear. The end of the world was going to happen when Russia attacked and yada yada yada. By the time Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power, Russia's days as a super-power were numbered, though this wasn't obvious at the time. How ironic, then, that we saw the blotches on his forehead and shouted, "Aha! The mark of the beast!"

OK, so I didn't shout it, but goofballs discussed it occasionally, and I did take note. 30 years later, I laugh now at other people's certainties and even at the things I speculated about at the time.

It has always been thus. Humans have a gift for seeing patterns that are not there. ("I saw the face of Jesus on my toast this morning!") Christians are great at this. We have an enormous Bible which affords all sorts of opportunities to link extremely confusing and mystical prophecies to the latest world events. And I'm about to embark on that course right here.

With all that as prefatory disclaimer (!) I've been reflecting on what Paul was referring to when he spoke of the Man of Lawlessness.

To say I'm going out on a limb would suggest I think I am still on the tree. Perhaps I'm beyond the last limb and in fact now falling to the ground. But I am pondering what truths (if any) can be gleaned if I were to pretend for a moment that the Internet is what Paul was prophesying about.

The Internet Is The Man Of Lawlessness. There. I said it. That way I can be the first hit on Google (presuming this page gets indexed eventually) to match these words.

Do I know that the Internet is the Man of Lawlessness? No! Needless to say, I haven't got a clue. Paul himself probably only had a prophetic notion of what he was speaking about. His words were no doubt inspired by God, but that doesn't mean he himself knew quite what he was saying.

But suppose the Internet were the Man of Lawlessness. Just as a thought exercise. How does that match up with scriptures? Probably 9 theologians out of 10 would say, "Not at all." And I'd have to grant that they know more about the matter than I do.

So, that being the case, why am I playing with the notion? Because even if it's not true, it's certainly thought-provoking.

And theologians have been wrong before. Jewish theologians, for example, did not and do not accept that Isaiah's reference to a virgin with child had anything to do with a certain Jesus being born of Mary. And Isaiah himself would have been surprised to find that one out. But God knew.

A simpler question: Why am I blogging about this topic today?

Flash back – I blogged a few weeks ago back about why the Internet is so dangerous. Then my Book of Common Prayer readings just a day or two after that blog brought me up against 2 Thessalonians 2, which refers to this mystical Man of Lawlessness. I couldn't help but see the connection, but at the time just let the notion bounce around in my head.

Flash forward – Last night (against my better judgement, I might add...) I went to YouTube with two of my little ones to view a funny clip I knew was there. To find it, I searched for "dog" and, sure as the sun rises in the morning, up popped autocomplete options ranging up through and including bestiality. I'm upset not because I believe YouTube offers actual videos of such things up. Presumably the links went to nothing quite so graphic – though I made it a point not to check! What drives me bonkers is that such horrifyingly sick stuff is on my autocomplete list.

All I wanted to view was the clip of the dog running in his sleep. And I had two youngsters on my lap. So again I find myself bumping up against what this Internet is and what it means for humanity. If the Internet is not the Man of Lawlessness, it's certainly the Land of Lawlessness.

Bestiality? Sure. If you want to.

Lest I start to sound unhinged I'll bring this thought to a close quickly. Well, maybe not that quickly. I did a bit of research on the Man of Lawlessness – and I do mean just a bit. From this passage in 2 Thessalonians the notes in my study Bible sent me directly into Revelations. Oddly enough, I found myself viewing the famous Revelations passage in chapter 14 that indicates that, in the last days, the power to buy and sell being restricted to those who take the mark.

Hmmm. Not that the Internet has anything to do with buying and selling.

Now don't get me wrong. I do have most of my bills handled electronically. I don't even get receipts through the mail on most of them. So it's not that I am calling these things wicked. I love the ease of use, the reduced paper waste and all that. I wouldn't want to go back. But, that said, I'm just taking note of where things are going. Soon there will be only one way to pay for things. And if I get excluded from it for some reason... well, you can draw the dotted lines.

This may truly be the most conspiratorial blog I ever write, but I'll press on to make one last point. the next verses in that passage from Revelation have to do with 666. Yeah, good ole' 666. As I read the passage with the Internet hot in my head, I became suddenly curious if 666 had any link with www – the lovely prefix to web pages.

It does.

I got what I'm about to write from here and this author does not buy into this flight of fancy. But ironically he convinced me that there is a case for such a crazy notion. In short, the Hebrew numbering system assigns the value 6 to the letter vav which itself is the letter often used for the English W. vav-vav-vav... www... 666...

And vav, it turns out, also has the meaning hook in Hebrew. Is the Internet a hook?

Naw... I'm just seeing the face of Jesus in my toast. That's all.

Conspiracy theorist Brian signs off with this note... while searching around, (and again I swear it was all of 30 minutes work) I ran across someone's "sign-off" post.

Some people have poetry. Others have inspirational words. This sign-off quote was as follows:

"The Internet is the last light of truth and hope...it is truly of the people, by the people and for the people. We must not let it be subverted for any purpose other than the truth. And that truth shall spread to every man woman and child across the globe. No longer will those in power carry the sole means to decide for us, yet we now shall have the power to decide to tune them out."

My rejoinder to words like these would be this:

2 Thessalonians 2
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

And, oh by the way, speaking of counterfeit miracles... Life itself is commonly acknowledged as a miracle. We just counterfeited it for the first time. I wonder if Paul had that in mind. The link I provide in this paragraph will no doubt go cold, but it points to an editorial on the dubious wisdom of creating synthetic life, which, as of last week, we can now do.

As the character Malcolm noted in the book Jurassic Park, we asked not whether playing with DNA should be done but simply if it could be done. Anybody who saw the movie should have walked away with a morality lesson on what happens when you do that...