Just some notes ...
Revelation speaks of a tripartite power -- the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet. Some have suggested this refers to a convergence of newage mishmash with fallen Catholicism and apostate Protestantism. Could be. Others envision it as a convergence of new-age mishmash with militant Islam and apostate Christianity in general. Again, could be.
The thing to watch for as key would be the effort to establish its (the 'beast's') version of Christ's kingdom on earth. Who seeks to take over government with a religious agenda? Who seeks to rule over both conscience and mind via legislature which criminalizes any way of life but their own? Who pursues these types of agendas and claims to be doing so at the command of Christ and for His glory as some twisted method of fulfilling the 'Great Commission'? Who holds the purse-strings with a stingy hand as did Judas Iscariot, turning a deaf ear to the cries of the oppressed and the needy and smoothing their greed over with religious whitewash, self-justifying platitudes and mountains of smarm?
In general, in the OT prophetic tradition, a "beast" represents a political power and a "woman" represents a religious system (or more specifically, a religious congregation of people). The chaste woman thus becomes a figure of Israel faithful to God in the OT or the church as Bride of Christ in the NT. The fallen woman, the harlot, the adulteress, therefore, represents Israel gone "a-whoring" (as the OT puts it) after idols in the OT, and thus in the NT would be the church fallen away from the truth or gone apostate.
Now put two and two together -- what would a harlot riding a beast represent, then?
If stuff like "The Secret" had been anything but hogwash and bunkum, all the confused and uneducated folk who read supermarket tabloids would be attractive, successful millionaires by now instead of dumping their hard-earned cash into the pockets of the author and publisher. (Good grief, if Moriah had been of a mind to make millions duping people it could have easily written the same nonsense 15 years ago and been rich and famous for it today.) People desperately want to believe the Walt Disney imperative: "only believe and it shall be so!" which actually constitutes a perversion and distortion of the idea, "according to your faith be it unto you." They chase that distortion in a multitude of ways from bubblegum-spellcasting to pop-new-age-psychology to "think-and-grow-rich"-ism to "prosperity gospel" blather. All of it a load of crap, repackaged snake-oil designed to hook 'em and fleece 'em for someone else's gain.
Studying the modern ties between those who not only advocate but underpin the manufacture of the most "Christian" versions of that nonsense with those who imagine the Great Commission to consist of attempting to inaugurate a Torah-based theocracy in the modern world, it should not be too difficult to discover the trough at which they feed in common, and with it, identify the actual threat facing us.
Revelation speaks of a tripartite power -- the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet. Some have suggested this refers to a convergence of newage mishmash with fallen Catholicism and apostate Protestantism. Could be. Others envision it as a convergence of new-age mishmash with militant Islam and apostate Christianity in general. Again, could be.
The thing to watch for as key would be the effort to establish its (the 'beast's') version of Christ's kingdom on earth. Who seeks to take over government with a religious agenda? Who seeks to rule over both conscience and mind via legislature which criminalizes any way of life but their own? Who pursues these types of agendas and claims to be doing so at the command of Christ and for His glory as some twisted method of fulfilling the 'Great Commission'? Who holds the purse-strings with a stingy hand as did Judas Iscariot, turning a deaf ear to the cries of the oppressed and the needy and smoothing their greed over with religious whitewash, self-justifying platitudes and mountains of smarm?
In general, in the OT prophetic tradition, a "beast" represents a political power and a "woman" represents a religious system (or more specifically, a religious congregation of people). The chaste woman thus becomes a figure of Israel faithful to God in the OT or the church as Bride of Christ in the NT. The fallen woman, the harlot, the adulteress, therefore, represents Israel gone "a-whoring" (as the OT puts it) after idols in the OT, and thus in the NT would be the church fallen away from the truth or gone apostate.
Now put two and two together -- what would a harlot riding a beast represent, then?
If stuff like "The Secret" had been anything but hogwash and bunkum, all the confused and uneducated folk who read supermarket tabloids would be attractive, successful millionaires by now instead of dumping their hard-earned cash into the pockets of the author and publisher. (Good grief, if Moriah had been of a mind to make millions duping people it could have easily written the same nonsense 15 years ago and been rich and famous for it today.) People desperately want to believe the Walt Disney imperative: "only believe and it shall be so!" which actually constitutes a perversion and distortion of the idea, "according to your faith be it unto you." They chase that distortion in a multitude of ways from bubblegum-spellcasting to pop-new-age-psychology to "think-and-grow-rich"-ism to "prosperity gospel" blather. All of it a load of crap, repackaged snake-oil designed to hook 'em and fleece 'em for someone else's gain.
Studying the modern ties between those who not only advocate but underpin the manufacture of the most "Christian" versions of that nonsense with those who imagine the Great Commission to consist of attempting to inaugurate a Torah-based theocracy in the modern world, it should not be too difficult to discover the trough at which they feed in common, and with it, identify the actual threat facing us.
