PREAMBLE
Today’s reflection combines two entirely different themes, but not at all unrelated:
(1) warnings on the rise of global tyranny and idolatry; and
(2) the unfathomable mercy of God.
In yesterday’s reflection, I discussed how we are all called to speak the Word of God, and therefore have a prophetic duty to testify to the truth the Holy Spirit inspires us to see, and to share, so as to build up and help others.
I also mentioned that a much smaller group of people have a more dedicated calling or “mission” to spread the Gospel, and often, given the times we’ve been living in, in anticipation of what we are living now, and will experience in the near future, regarding the fulfilment of end-time prophecies, it is perhaps not surprising that these prophetic warnings have been proclaimed for many years.
This reflection was inspired by my “re-reading” of Mark Mallett’s reposting (yesterday) of a post he wrote 12 years ago that talked about the coming idolatry and rejection of Jesus and God:
“I would sooner give away everything I own, and embrace the blessedness of poverty in the footsteps of my “imaginary” Lord… than sell my soul to high-tech salvation and invite the curse of restlessness and greed.”
Source: Jesus the “Myth” – The Now Word
I highly recommend that you stop now, click the link to Mark’s article and read it – it’s not very long – before continuing.
After reading Mark’s post I thought back over the years and many writings I’ve published, and recalled a book project on Community Economic Development I sponsored as Director of the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice back in the Mid-1990’s, a 1/4 century ago!
The chapter that I contributed to the book offered a summary analysis of the other material in the book from other contributors. My chapter contained a section that looked at where the increasing globalisation of the economy was heading – and for Christians, that would inevitably be “Babylon” – a state of global tyranny and idolatry prophesied in both Jeremiah and the New Testament Book of Revelations.
I have included that particular section below…at the end, after the Daily Prayer. It supports the very same analysis and prophetic message you’ll find in Mark Mallett’s writings, the one including in this reflection, but also many other writings of his as well, including: On Getting Out of Babylon.
THESE AIN’T YOUR GRAMPY’S IDOLS MISTER!
There is a tendency for us to think “biblically” about the prophecies for our times, as if the same culture and level of technological progress existed now as in the days of Jesus. That’s very dangerous.
If we’re looking out for people to start prostrating before a golden calf whenever we look for signs of the end-day’s “great deception” that leads to apostasy within the Church and wanton paganism and God-less worship of idols, then I’m afraid we’ll not discern the nature of that apostasy and atheism, and likely fall victim to it ourselves.
Idols are what people replace God with as their principal “desire” -what their heart goes after, based on faith in the ability of whatever that idol may be to deliver what the person desires, i.e., security, peace, protection, but especially SALVATION and eternal life.
The great deception today, at its root, is the final culmination of Satan’s original sin of pride against God and efforts to achieve that end through humanity, which Satan promises, not simply by finding a better god than the God of the Bible, but in keeping with that primal sin – that we can BECOME GODS.
Transhumanism, genetic modifications and trait enhancements, replacing body parts with machines and new sophisticated nanotechnology, AI, quantum computing, 5G communication technology, all being assembled with the ultimate goal (which now has a realistic ‘target’ date for project completion) of transferring one’s consciousness into a new “body” that will live on forever.
That new body will give “god-like” powers, and will allow a neural ‘interface’ with digital technology and information.
This is the “Idol” at the heart of the Great Reset today – and the economic power and technology rapidly working to achieve those goals are increasingly being regarded as the means that will bring that salvation.
This is no joke. It is the new, “fully-expected” future that masses of people now see emerging more and more daily, as technology has these ambitious goals in sight as priorities, being pushed mostly through the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset initiatives on behalf of global billionaires, especially through what the WEF calls the 4th Digital Revolution.
The heroes of tomorrow are rapidly becoming the child pioneers who have taken vows of obedience in service of this new god.
“Immortality” is his goal, the child prodigy said. “I want to be able to replace as many body parts as possible with mechanical parts.”
“I’ve mapped out a path to get there. You can see it as a big puzzle. Quantum physics – the study of the smallest particles – is the first piece of the puzzle,” he said.
These are the idols that are deemed “non-religious” and what normal people support as advancements in human development and progress. They are deemed ‘praiseworthy’ in our culture and world today, and are – as Mark Mallett rightly discerns – the “false gods of technology” promising to grant humans that illusive ‘immortality’ that our soul innately longs to attain. Such is, however, an endeavour that not only has no place for God, but hates the very idea that any God could exist but the future transhumanist one we are creating, and which is increasingly coming into focus on the horizon.
In the face of such apostasy, the only true hope for salvation for any of us is to implore the mercy of God made available through the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to remove our sins and heal us from the blindness that offers such blasphemy to our loving God.
DAILY PRAYER
Jesus, open the eyes of people concerning the false gods of technology and wealth, promising what they can not deliver – “life” – and delivering separation from You and death instead.
Give us the graces we need to see your Divine hand at work in all creation; the ability to appreciate and give thanks to You for the wisdom and order and beauty of all You have made, and to see You, the author of life behind it all, and out of respect for your creation, and abandon all deceptions that deny Your existence and promise to make us something we are not, something other than who you create us to be when you formed us and then created us in our mother’s womb.
Father, give us this day our daily bread, which is life in your Son Jesus, and participation in His sufferings for the salvation of souls and the glory of Your name. We ask a special blessing that you protect all children by bestowing the knowledge and love in their guardians for their safety and good.” Amen.
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I don’t know of anyone building an ark in my corner of the woods, but I did finish my shed this past week.
My thinking may seem unusual at times and maybe that is due in part to my many and varied disciplines. I like to read and if you want to learn something new, read a really old book. I also enjoy fiction and Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. I like to look up into the heavens at night and ponder my existence in light of IT all. I have machined submarine parts under government contract and I have made Sugar Kake Cookies. I collected scrap metal from steaming incinerator piles at the town dump as a teenager to buy records and Mad Magazines, then saved scrap as a plumber much later in life’s journey to help supplement the mortgage. Always picking up the pieces of the past to pay for pleasures of the present.
We as a species have failed yet another round of Mission Impossible. The earth will glaciate, ice will grind rock and anything man has made into dust, and if the good Lord is willing, the human race will begin again. Where we are in that timeline will soon be made apparent since we cannot stop Babylon. We are now running on sheer momentum, the inertia built upon the collected knowledge of generations, soon to be destroyed in the blink of an eye. Or perhaps an hour as was written in the book.
Because there is nothing new under the sun if only we would take the time to look.