The book of Revelation talks about a “beast:” a frightening, dangerous creature from God-knows-where with 5 heads, horns, etc. – a metaphor for some kind of political force that will rule in the “end times.” According to the story, the beast will war with God and prepare the world for the arrival of “anti-christ,” a final political figure who will be wildly popular but will also lead the world into chaos, and many people into destruction.
While we need to be cautious with biblical metaphors and their meanings, I have no problem believing that this is a look into the future of us, albeit a complicated and seemingly ambiguous one. But to understand what any of this has to do with us in the here and now we have to understand what the word “beast” means.
In the New Testament, “beast” (θηρίον) doesn’t mean a large, frightening, scary monster, it simply means “animal.” We translated it into something much scarier because this particular animal seems to be the thing of nightmares, so we added some spice to our translation.
Whatever it is, the beast will think and act like an animal, in stark contrast to the perfect humanity that the bible hopes we’ll all embrace. Politically speaking, it will be “marked” by its animal instincts: self preservation, retaliation, territory, dominance, lethal force, etc., and with it will come, by definition, much violence and bloodshed.
The world has seen this many times over and, today, has less tolerance for it than ever before. While the Bible’s final beast seems to be an actual, singular, future leader, we’re warned to avoid its mark, even if it hasn’t arrived yet. That’s what we seem to be struggling with when it comes to our understanding of what’s best for our country.
The beast will have followers who’ve somehow become convinced that an animal’s way of doing politics is better than the Jesus’s way, embracing a similar, animal “mark.” They’re not dumb, or bad, they simply buy into the core values of non-humans, which is easy to do, especially when our minds have been overthrown by negative emotions, especially those of anger and fear.
Hitler’s Germany is the best example of how vulnerable a country becomes when the majority of its people have become angry about the way things are going, and fearful of where they’ll end up. The post WWI Versailles Treaty reduced Germany to nothing, driving it into abject poverty, and in the eyes of many, sealing its doom. Some guy showed up from God-knows-where promising to heal the wounds, right the wrongs, and make the country great again, and all the people who embraced the religion of anger and fear said “amen!”
A “beast” shows up in situations like this and preaches “Force!” “Retaliation!” “Self preservation!” “Territory!” The people whose minds have been overthrown see someone who cares, someone who’ll protect them. If there are enough of those people, the beast is given all the authority it needs to rip things to shreds for it’s own agenda, which is always less than human.
To a country that’s become angry, afraid, emotional, and divisive, animal politics are the only thing that make sense. From there, it’s not difficult to understand how an awful beast of a leader can simply walk up and take over.
Us Christians will tell you that we would never support something so unholy. Whatever this beast is, he won’t get our vote. Meanwhile, in the background, our anger and fear overfloweth, compelling us to enthrone one of the most divise politicians I’ve ever seen.
“Punch that guy in the face,” he said, multiple times during his campaign, and, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” But that didn’t bother us. Over the past 50 years we’ve lost nearly every political/cultural battle we’ve engaged. Nobody’s listening. We’ve all but lost our voice, our seat at the table. Now, a byword at best, we’re watching our country travel briskly down a most unholy road, worried about what will happen to us. Then, some guy shows up out of God-knows-where, promising to listen. He’s tough, no-nonsense, and clearly on our side. To top it off, he occasionally uses our lingo, or appropriates one of our symbols.
He’s one of us.
Please don’t hear me comparing Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler. I am however comparing American Christianity’s fear and anger to that of post WWI Germany, making us vulnerable to an anti-human politic. When our leaders say “Me first!,” and, “This country’s going to hell in a handbasket!” and “Fight!” we lock and load. When they talk about their political adversaries like Hitler talked about the Jews, we don’t smell a thing.
There’s similar rot in liberal politics to be sure. Plenty on the other side have become too emotional about things, suckers for politicians who’ve forgotten the power of kindness and mercy, the marks of a true human. But negative emotions are powerful, and easily manipulated. Because animal politics have become so part-and-parcel to American politics, you can bet that everyone’s campaign will be full of “Territory!” “Retaliation!” “Fight!” etc.
But we, as individual Americans, don’t have to buy into all of this. Every single commandment that Jesus gave us invites us to shed the mark of an animal and clear the way for something better. Compassion, mercy, patience, understanding, forgiveness, sacrifice, community, and an overall pursuit of one-ness are the only things that have enough power to stitch up our division and put this country on a trajectory that’s more in line with what we really want it to be.
But to do that we’ll have to find a way to rid anger and fear from the core of everything we do. Faith in Jesus should, by definition, free us from this, but it requires a level of discipleship that transcends Bible knowledge, moral living, and right theology; the easier things of life with Him.
Nice, thoughtful post. I would add another quality Jesus calls us to, one that I struggle might with, and that is non-violence.
I struggle with that one too. It’s difficult to reconcile Jesus’ message of peace with, say, Him making a whip and clearing out the temple with it – that’s a pretty violent thing to do, urgent as that situation was.