Jesus Christ: Social Influencer?

 Paul VanderKlay released a video, ARC2025 as Salvation of Western-Civ or the Rise of Anti-Christ

ARC is the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship.  It is fronted by Jordan Peterson, and is in some way supposed to be an alternative to the World Economic Forum.  From their website:

The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship is an international movement with a vision for a better world where empowered citizens take responsibility and work together to bring flourishing and prosperity to their families, communities, and nations.

Antichrist is…

1 John 2: 18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. … 22 Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.

The Greek word pseudokhristos is used here, by Jesus:

Matthew 24: 24 For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

An antichrist is one who denies Jesus is the Messiah, and, in His stead or without submission to Him, is a savior or liberator.  In my view, and as the apostle John has written, there have been and are many of these.  Further, it seems to me that the antichrist is not limited to a person; an idea can be viewed as a savior or liberator.

ARC is struggling with this: there is a favorable bent toward Christianity in this organization and in the discussions; witness Jordan Peterson and many other atheists who find utility value in Christianity toward a stable and prosperous society.

At the same time, ARC is not overtly Christian – finding utility value in Christianity is not the same thing as humbly submitting to Christ.  Instead, if there is an overriding theme of ARC, it is that we must return to classical liberal values – recognizing that these values function best if a culture is nominally Christian.

Classical liberal values, if not place under submission to Christ, present an antichrist: a false savior.

In VanderKlay’s video, he referenced something written by Jonathan Pageau, struggling with just this question: ARC and antichrist.  I commented at VanderKlay’s site:

Pageau: ARC...antichrist?

Jonathan is right to consider this.  Healing will come with Jesus Christ at the center, not with Jesus Christ as a social influencer.

No doubt Jonathan will talk to his priest about this.  The fact that he publicly raised this concern suggests that we may soon see Jonathan changing how he participates in the Jordan Peterson corner of the internet.

Tyranny in Different Forms

 A couple of passages from The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Things are otherwise with those who are higher up.  They, led by science, want to establish themselves in truth and justice with their minds alone, but now without Christ, as formerly, and they have already proclaimed that crime does not exist, that sin does not exist.  And they are right in their way, for if one has not God, then what crime can there be?

If God does not exist, there is no highest good, no thing above man and outside of man that man can aim for.  There is nothing to prevent man from developing his own rules – Nietzsche’s Übermensch comes to mind.  We have been living under the tyranny of this Übermensch for a few centuries now.  We see today this phase is coming to and end, one way or another, rationally or irrationally.

And no one bothered to reproach them anymore, no one put in a good word, which was positively strange, as the Elder’s devoted followers were after all in the majority within the cloister; but it seemed that on this occasion the Lord Himself had permitted the minority temporarily to gain the upper hand.

The Elder died, and his body began to give off a terrible smell.  This was taken as a sign by some that he was not acceptable to God, so a few started badmouthing the Elder.

As can be seen in this passage, a loud and forceful minority can shame or quiet a majority – just as can be seen in our society.

But Why?

 

Some speculation…

…and for the first time since before many, perhaps any of us were born, there is real desire to drag it into the light and expunge it from our lives.

This in regards to the effort of exposing, in more detail than ever, the corruption to be found in the spending of the United States government.

But why?  That’s the question I keep asking myself.  Why this effort?  Why now?  Why is it happening?  Why, so relatively speaking, quietly?

Not that I am complaining.  At least, not much.  For the most part, I am on their team…or, at least, I like what they are doing.

But why are they doing it?  They have never done so in my life.  And I have lived a pretty long life.

My guess…

Too many powerful people desire it.  And not for my benefit or yours, but theirs.  Too many powerful people have figured out that the only foundation on which they can stay on top is the good old U.S. of A.  Nowhere else.  On the global playing field, perhaps only China presents another long-term possibility, but no one in China cares about American billionaires; China is not a plausible option. 

The foundation has to be saved, no matter the cost.  Because it seems that there is no other foundation on which they can sustain and grow their own personal empires.

I think this is what’s happening.  It explains Musk and the rest of the gazillionaires perfectly.  There is no other foundation on which they can build their tower of babel, so they want to save the only one that will serve. 

Who will use their military to defend their intellectual property if not the USA?  Who will pay to launch their rockets if not the USA?  Who will ensure their social media and search engines and video channels will continue to grow if not the USA?  Where else other than the USA can they build and protect their wealth?  Who will protect the Zionist state if not the USA? 

The answer is simple.  No one else.

Conclusion

For once, we have the billionaires on our side.  Not strategically, but tactically.  And if that’s all I can get (as if I have a say in the matter), I will take it.  The next 12 – 18 months will tell the tale.

Violent, Proud Boasters

 

Romans 1: 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

To include those who practice violence, those who are proud, those who boast, and those who invent evil things.

32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

I return to the story of Trump’s first few weeks in office.  Really an unbelievable start, with a major exception being the black mark of openly espousing genocide and forced displacement.  But as Trump has done so often – even beginning eight years ago in his first run – the only difference between him and most politicians is that he says the quiet part out loud.

What has been interesting is to see the violent reaction by many to the corruption being exposed by Musk and his team.  Yes, we knew it was there, but now it comes with names, agencies, and numbers.  And, with such light shed on it, the supporters and perpetrators are doubling down on their support.

Which got me to consider the following:

John 3: 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

How evil and depraved must you be that when your deeds come to light you not only don’t back down, you double-down?  Everyone practicing this evil being exposed is bathing in the light of that evil being exposed.

But, for them, is it evil?

From Thomas Aquinas: “For the object of the will is the end and the good.”

…it appears that Aquinas is mistaken when he says that the ends for the sake of which we act are good.

I struggled with just that when I first began studying Thomas.

Clearly, many things we pursue in life are not good. Aquinas does not deny this. He agrees that cognitive errors and excessive passion can distort our moral views and, in turn, incline us to choose the wrong things.

Distorted moral views…this explains it.

Aquinas’s point, however, is that our actions are done for the sake of what we believe (rightly or wrongly) to be good. Whether the ends we pursue are in fact good is a separate question… (Italics in original)

Those who object to what is being discovered when put under light believe what they are doing is good.  They find evil good, and good evil.

Isaiah 5: 20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Returning to Romans 1:

32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

The Third American Civil War

 

A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies

James Fearon, a scholar of civil wars at Stanford University, defines a civil war as "a violent conflict within a country fought by organized groups that aim to take power at the center or in a region, or to change government policies".

If you prefer, you can call it the Third American Revolution:

In political science, a revolution (Latin: revolutio, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures.

Really, what is happening right now is both: a war between conflicting organized groups, and a war to rapidly transform society’s state structures.  It is not yet meaningfully violent, although violence has been employed, until now exclusively by the entrenched side.

Whatever you call it, we are at war.  We know 1776.  We know 1861.  It is clear now that we are in the middle of a third one.  Just as in the first several years of the earlier two, it is too early to tell which side will win. 

The first real trigger was likely the regime’s reaction to the 2008 financial crisis.  By far, popular support was against any bailout of financial institutions – let the chips fall where they may.  I still remember the time TARP first came up for a vote: from memory, something like 90% plus of contacts from the public to congress expressed the desire to vote no – which happened the first time the vote came up.

Maria Bartiromo, on CNBC at the time, scream into the camera, “COME ON, PEOPLE!”  apparently, you have to be dumb to not want to give billionaires more billions.  Well, congress kept voting until they got it “right.”  The Tea Party was born from this and from Ron Paul’s run for president that same year.  Both the Tea Party and Ron Paul’s run were hijacked.

Then came the Obama years – relatively quiet domestically, but clearly steps were put in place to transform America even further to the left.  However, anytime someone spoke up about it, they were labeled racist, etc. 

So, instead of speaking, they voted in Trump.  Out of twenty or so republican candidates for president in 2016, he survived.  He survived because he was the only one who fundamentally spoke against the regime and for the people (Rand Paul a little, but he couldn’t match Trump’s personality).

The deplorables voted Trump into office.  While he spoke in revolutionary terms, he was nowhere near prepared enough to act on his words.  We all remember; we kept asking ourselves: is he playing four-D chess?  What’s going on?  When will he turn over the winning card?  It never happened.

In fact, he gave us Operation Warp Speed.

Meanwhile, the other side planned and schemed.  Biden was voted in, the most popular president ever.  More votes than ever.  Magical midnight reversals, truckloads of ballots, etc.  Thousands went to prison because they thought something was fishy about the outcome and they wanted to make their concerns known.

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Trump won the election in 2024.  Admit it, you thought that this would never happen.  I thought it would never happen.  They tried suing him, convicting him, putting him in prison, killing him.  None of it worked.  The opponents didn’t even try to steal the election – or, if they did, they were unable to do so.

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Something was different this time.  There was little talk coming out of the Trump team between election night and his inauguration.  Sure, we heard the words: DOGE, end the wars (but not the slaughter in Gaza), nominees including RFK, Jr., Gabbard, Hegseth, Patel.  No, not saints, but a sea change from what I have seen in my lifetime.

Are We Winning?

 

Trump’s first week.  A flurry of actions, many of which I applaud.  Or, to put it more appropriately in the language of many of my friends: as long as the dictator – through executive orders – is doing stuff I like, everything is cool.

I won’t list everything Trump has done here – others have written very good summaries, much better than I could do.  And, of course, you all know what I consider the not good stuff.  Like I said regarding Trumps actions: many of which, not all of which, I applaud.

I have written before, a month before Trump’s election eight years ago:

For those who fear that some form of extreme fascism is coming to the United States, they need not fear Trump; the fear is in who (or what) comes next – win or lose for Trump.

So, Trump won in 2016.  But he lost (yeah, I know) in 2020.  What if 2024 is the “who (or what) comes next” part”?  He is acting like he is just that – very efficiently and quickly cranking out dozens of executive orders, halting certain expenditures, etc.  Again, much of which I applaud.

What’s not to like?

Angelo Codevilla wrote, in anticipation of the 2016 election:

We have stepped over the threshold of a revolution. It is difficult to imagine how we might step back, and futile to speculate where it will end. Our ruling class’s malfeasance, combined with insult, brought it about. Donald Trump did not cause it and is by no means its ultimate manifestation.

What if the 2024 Trump is something closer to, but not yet, its “ultimate manifestation”?  He is acting like it, and many on the right are cheering: we are winning!

The next year or so will be critical: does Trump change the fundamental direction on at least a couple of the dozen issues that threaten us.  For example, the budget deficit, or the pharma-industrial complex, or whatever.  I say “great.”

But someone will come after Trump.  On the one hand, the revolution won’t be complete.  Will JD Vance, or someone along those lines, be as effective as Trump.

Or, alternatively, what happens when the left gets a Trump of their own – one who has a flurry of executive orders, one who has all his or her ducks lined up to hit the ground running on day one.

Conclusion

Are we winning?  Or, to put it another way: have some things, at least, moved in a better direction?  I say, yes.  But it all comes down to the “how.”

We will get either an even more dictatorial president soon enough – whether on the right or on the left.  I will not consider that we are winning, either way.

But, given that I have no say in the matter, I know which evil is lessor. 

Epilogue

If you were Roman Catholic in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, you welcomed Franco.  No, you weren’t thrilled, but he was the lessor of two evils…and you had a chance to live, unlike if the communists and anarchists won.