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...

Power

Power. It's a strong word! But I was struck this morning by how Paul uses the word in his prayer for the church of Ephesus.

Ephesians 3:16-21

I pray that out of his glorious riches God may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

That's not the kind of power that gets much press these days. Hollywood-style power involves, inevitably, some combination of money, physical strength, and/or control over others. Furthermore, in Hollywood and in our popular imagination power is used to do things. Usually to beat up the bad guys.

Paul is clearly talking about something else. In this passage, power does not enable us to do anything at all. No baddies get wiped out. What kind of power is Paul talking about? Well, I'm not going to win any sleuthing awards here, but just from the text it is clear to see that through this power:

1. Christ dwells in our hearts, and
2. we can grasp how great Christ's love for us is

And... that's it. That's it. That's it for us, that is to say.

But we mustn't miss item #3. By this power which enables Christ to live in us and which enables us to know Christ's love.... by this power which is at work within us:

3. God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

Now the action is beginning to kick in. Here comes the action? Well, not quite. God himself (not us!) is "doing the doing."

So this is a different sort of power. It's not Hollywood power, not military power, not physical prowess, not monetary power... but on the other hand, given how these resources have been squandered and how many evils have been wrought by these means – no wonder God prefers to still be in control of this kind of power. Because this power is his power. Only God can be trusted to wield the power of God.

And therein lies the mystery, because God has chosen to do great things through us. If our deeds and words accomplish more than can be explained in human terms, then indeed it can be said that the power of God was at work within us.

So we face two choices. We can either accomplish nothing of eternal significance, and have the pleasure of pulling off that feat on our own, or we can allow God to include us in on his plans to accomplish immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.

As I write these words, I think of the scoffers of this world. Great empires, of course, have been built by godless souls. But these empires are destined for dust. God is building an eternal kingdom, and it is toward this end that all his power is being exerted. Paul's words here cannot be improved upon...

1 Corinthians 3:10-15
Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ.
Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.

God, let your power through me bring glory to yourself. May my work be empowered by you, that the fruits of my labor be deemed worthy of eternity.

Chasing Jesus

Chasing Jesus.

Those two words roll around in my mind and on my tongue like honey.

As soon as I gather my thoughts around those two words, I can almost hear his rustling robes and smell the warm, dusty Mediterranean air. No wonder crowds followed him wherever he went. Life was with him and Life went forth from him. "Stay near that man!" my heart sings.

But then I get on with my preferred activity.

The other day I blogged about Chasing Pharisees. And the truth is, I do it an awful lot. In the blog I dealt mostly with the action of chasing Pharisees. I used to do that pretty regularly, but have wised up a bit on that score in recent years.

The problem is, I still do it in my head all the time. What I no longer indulge with my body and tongue I continue to nurture in my thoughts.

Words fail me as I contemplate how many hours and days of cumulative wasted time I have spent chasing Pharisees in my head. Winning arguments. Pointing out errors. Watching evildoers squirm. Conducting scathing interviews with people who aren't even part of my life anymore.

Chasing Pharisees.

It's a bitter game with a bitter taste – and my spirit becomes bitter within seconds when I indulge the poisonous thought pattern.

Chasing Jesus is so much better. So much better. When I place the two phrases side by side, it is nothing short of amazing that I waste my time entertaining the alternative. I might as well say that chasing death is preferable to chasing Life.

Or I might as well say that I prefer to look backward than to look forward. When I chase Jesus, I am running forward after the one who can give me Life... Life Abundant! When I chase Pharisees, I am returning back to those who by my reckoning have been taking life and poisoning hearts. As a dog returns to vomit... Why would I want to do that?

I don't know. But I do it in my head every day. Not a day goes by when I don't reminisce and re-live a painful experience with someone who hurt me. Once I enter that rabbit hole, it's usually several minutes before I come back out – and it is amazing how much life can get sucked out of me after so short a time. A few minutes of poison can leave me heart-sick for hours.

Chasing Jesus. It's equally amazing how much Life can seep into me when I spend those spare minutes in fellowship with the Lord of Life. I know this because every now and then I get it right – and rapturous joys are indeed available when we turn our eyes upon him and conduct real conversations with the Lover of our Souls and the Lord of our Life. Periodic conversations like that can redeem the whole day.

Chasing Jesus!

And the best thing is?

Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus like to be caught.

Chasing Pharisees

Pharisees.

It's a great label for certain deserving folk... nice and strong.

I like to think I can smell a Pharisee from a long ways off, and I love to name one when I see one.

But... as they say... it takes one to know one. I'm not free of the charge myself. Legalistic? Well, not entirely. Judgemental? Oh, my. Yes, judgemental.

In fact, I'm so judgmental, I chase after Pharisees for the sole purpose of letting them know that they are Pharisees. Problem is, I cannot remember Jesus ever chasing down a Pharisee. They chased him down plenty! But he... I just cannot recall an incident where he went in search of one.

I suppose a few words of caution are in order here. First, it is indeed in the purview of prophets to bring God's (sometimes unpleasant) messages to (sometimes unrepentant) people. Prophets sometimes chase Pharisees.

So when I (or anyone else) play the game of chasing Pharisees, the big question is this: Am I redeeming God's name as a Prophet? Or am I redeeming my own name as a Pharisee?

Redeeming my own name? What do I mean by that? Well, when I'm a Pharisee, I chase people down for two main reasons:

1) To show them how awful they have been to me. If I can do this, my name rises as their name falls.

2) To show them how awful they are as people. If I can do this, my world-view rises as theirs falls.

In either case I'm redeeming something of myself. At their cost.

Now surely it is true that sometimes people have been awful. And sometimes their beliefs and lives are in a terrible state. Granted. But when I go after someone so as to redeem my name or my views, I'm on my business. Not God's. And it always becomes clear that this is so by the way I treat them.

That's not to say that prophets are nice by way of comparison. The difference is that Pharisees leave other people in no doubt of their own judgment. That can be ignored. Prophets leave people in no doubt of God's judgement. That can get you killed, as biblical accounts amply demonstrate.

Another observation on the difference between Prophets and Pharisees: the former risk their lives when they rebuke people, wherease the latter generally prefer to operate from a position of safety. Jesus was always quite safe when the Pharisees were feeling afraid. It is delightful to note, in sharp contrast, that Jesus did not feel (or act) afraid when the Pharisees were feeling safe.

All that to say... Our true motives in moments like these are revealed when something bigger is on the line. A candid personal observation: I note that my inclination to refrain from criticizing someone to their face is directly proportional to that person's ability to make my life miserable.

God, give me a heart to proclaim your name and your business when you call me to do so – whether it's safe or not.

And please grant me the wisdom to know better than to chase down Pharisees for reasons of my own.

One choice...

I was playing H-O-R-S-E (the basketball game) with little Luke a few days ago. I am not even sure he was winning.

Perhaps he was.

In any case, he turned to me at one point and informed me of the following:

"Daddy, you have only one choice remaining: Losing... or Failure."

Basketball aside, I've often suspected that my options in life have been along those lines too.

Choose Your Party Carefully

Ephesians 5:12
For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.

Those words have been haunting my thoughts recently. In a recent blog I noted that both Google search toolbar and Google News offer up sexually charged and deviant material even when I've done nothing to ask for them. Why?

I think St. Paul understood perfectly well how both of these phenomena have come to pass, and his insight into the matter exposes exactly why our world is on a downward spiral into debauchery. We have forgotten that it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.

The Google folk who provide both services have their excuse ready, of course. "Don't shoot the messenger!" they cry. "We don't pick the stories or the phrases. An automated algorithm decides what to display based upon what stories people are reading and what people are searching for."

This is, of course, quite true. And sexual depravity, moreover, is hardly a recent invention. What I find disturbing, is our collective failure as a society to find an Internet answer to Paul's admonition. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret, but the Pied Pipers of the Internet — the ones leading the way — are the disobedient. The tail wags the dog.

A case in point: how did "average penile length" find its way the top of the list for those typing in the word "average" into google search? I am not certain, but I have a pretty good hunch. It goes like this...

Suppose you have a sample of 100 ordinary people. For argument's sake let's assume that 70 people in this group avoid depravity altogether. Of the remainder, 25 know they shouldn't go there, but can easily be tempted. The last 5 people are consuming sexual depravity on the Internet whenever the opportunity arises. Let's call this last group of people"The Fringe Five" — or TFF for short.

What happens when an Internet search engine tracks the behavior of all 100 people? Inevitably, some of the preferences of TFF will make it onto the bottom of the auto-complete suggestions list. Maybe just barely — the last option on a list of 20. But once those search terms hit the list, even if it's the bottom of the list, a certain respectability is imputed to the behavior of TFF.

Why do I say that? Well, the big shift is that the choices of TFF are no longer hidden and not really stigmatized. What society in the past had the wisdom to shun, the Internet exposes. What wider society used to shame the Internet now allows to be nurtured. Auto-complete lists are value-neutral. 95 other people can now see what TFF are doing on the Internet, and the habits of TFF are simply more options to choose from.

The coup de grâce lies in the fact that the actual lives that make up TFF are hidden from view. Nobody sees who these people are or, critically, how their lives are impacted by their sexual addictions and licentiousness. It's not a pretty sight! But we don't see it. We just see that their sexual interests are now on our auto-complete options when we start to type. And we start to suspect that we're missing out on the fun.

I'm reminded of what I'll call "The Mardis Gras Syndrome" — the fact that women who never lift their shirts elsewhere will perhaps do it in New Orleans during Mardis Gras. Somehow devant group behavior helps individuals abandon their principles, if only for a day. The problem is, of course, that the Internet is one endless Mardis Gras.

Returning to our sample of 100 people, what happens after TFF legitimize a bad search term even just a wee bit? It's safe to say that a few of the swayable 25 souls give in. Yesterday only five fringe people were curious about average penile lengths. Now ten are. The search term makes it higher up the list.

From there it is all downhill. Eventually a pretty boring topic (come on, we have to admit it is...) has become Hit Topic #1 for those looking for information on averages. What was once depraved and shunned gets legitimized first, and celebrated second. All this is accomplished via anonymous mouse-click democracy. One click at a time.

I don't think there is any happy ending to this story. This is a trend which I don't believe will ever be reversed. The evil genie is out of the bottle and I cannot imagine it going back in.

So... is it time to give up hope?

No! St. Paul saw the problem 2,000 years ago, but he also knew the cure. Those who want it can have it any time. You just have to switch party affiliations.

Ephesians 5:15-20
Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. ... Be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We as individuals do not have to join this Mardi Gras parade to the bottom. We can party with God. Needless to say, if we choose the latter, we'll be stigmatized, called prudes, ridiculed, and (worse still!) our search words will not impact the Internet.

Try this, for example... Type life with (and a space after the with) into google search. Derek, Liz and Louie are there. Christ didn't make the list. The Internet apparently is not much aware of the glories of life with Christ.

I have no idea who Derek, Liz and Louie are — and I don't need to.

My life is with Christ. I party with Him.

Is It Worth The Risk? Seriously? Part 3 of 3

(This blog continues from Part 2...)

The Alternative

In Part 2 of this 3-part blog I shared my conviction that we easily fall victim to two Internet addictions which can simply be described as (1) porn entertainment that destroys our souls and (2) non-porn entertainment which threatens to deaden and bury our souls.

We churn through our hectic days (complaining about how busy we are) and then proceed to expend the last gasps of our free time either watching TV or on the Internet trolling through vast mounds of trivia that we never needed to know.

But a lot of us hit those news sites pretty fast and then get back to work. What do I really think we'd gain by not doing that? Is it really so bad to get a quick look at cnn.com?

The apostle Paul used his free moments to pray. I suggest that we use our free minutes to do the same. If you have time to check the latest news (this will only take a second, we reassure ourselves) then we have time to pray. Instead of reading one more pointless piece of news (or, dare I mention it... check in to Facebook to see what changed), why not pray for a friend or family member in need? Or just give God a cheerful hello. God would not be disappointed to hear from us more often. On that point I am pretty confident.

I say this: treat TV like the plague. And as for the Internet? Let us treat the Internet like the research section in a cold library. We go in to get our schoolwork done, but no kid would be caught dead in there on any other occasion. We do what must be done and then leave as fast as our legs can take us... Because we'd rather play (or pray!) in the sun.

My Personal Story: A 2-Step Program

Two years ago (during the great financial meltdown) I found myself refreshing web charts on the plummeting stock markets. As often as every few minutes! Sometimes every few seconds. As Lent of 2009 began to loom large before me, a faint realization dimly lit my fogged mind....

Perhaps an Internet fast would be good for me.

So for Lent I restricted my news intake to "after 3PM central time." This meant that markets would close before my feverish fingers found out what happened that day.

I faithfully abided by the commitment throughout that season of Lent, but it's a fact that I was generally watching the clock and, I kid you not, usually reading market results no more than a few seconds after 3PM. I was desperate to know.

The delerium tremens faded, however, as the weeks of Lent rolled along. By the end of Lent a curious transformation had taken place. I found that I wasn't so sure I wanted to return to my old habits — or, should I say, my old master. Easter came and went. And I continued to hold off on reading the news "until after 3PM."

A year passed... Lent of 2010 began to loom large. "Just for grins," I thought to myself, "I'll reduce myself this Lent to getting the news once a week." Maybe a few minutes of it on Friday or Saturday. And so I did.

I never dreamed that the cycle would repeat.

But it did.

As the weeks of Lent rolled along, I found myself wondering each Friday what exactly it was I wanted to know, now that my moment had come to read the news. And I didn't have a good answer.

Easter came and went, but the pattern held steady. I don't want to return to my old master. I do still use google quite a bit for work purposes, but the Internet is not my source of entertainment anymore. It's far too dangerous a thing to be used so flippantly.

I hope, going forward, to treat Internet news like junk food. Nobody ever said candy bars had anything to do with a healthy diet, but the occasional treat never killed anyone either. That said, when I'm tempted to check the news for no good reason, I ask this simple question: "Isn't now a good time to pray?"

The answer has never failed to be Yes.