The Writing on the Wall

"What shall we use to fill the empty spaces
Where waves of hunger gnaw?
Shall we set out across this sea of faces
In search of more and more applause?
What Shall we do Now?"
~Pink Floyd/ Empty Spaces

"declare this an emergency
come on and spread a sense of urgency
and pull us through
cause this is the end
this is the end of the world
it's time we saw a miracle
come on,
it's time for something biblical
to pull us through"
~Muse/ Apocalypse Please!

"Turn it up.
Listen to the shit they pump into your head.
Filling you with apathy.
Hold your breath.
Wait until you know the time is right on time.
The end is near.
I hope they cannot see.
The limitless potential
Living inside of me.
To murder everything.
I hope they cannot see
I am the great destroyer"
~Nine Inch Nails/ The Great Destroyer

"I am so All American, I'd sell you suicide.
I am totalitarian"
~Marilyn Manson/ Irresponsible Hate Anthem

"Don't look at me like
I am a monster
Frown out your one face
But with the other
Stare like a junkie
Into the TV
Stare like a zombie
While the mother
Holds her child
Watches him die
Hands to the sky crying
Why, oh why?
'cause I need to watch things die
From a distance
Vicariously I
live while the whole world dies
You all need it too, don't lie"
~Tool/ Vicarious

"Capitalism made it this way,
Old Fashioned fascism will take it away!"
~Marilyn Manson/ the Beautiful People

"We're not scaremongering
This is really happening"
~Radiohead, Idioteque

"I'm waking up at the start of the end of the world,
but its feeling just like every other morning before,
Now I wonder what my life is going to mean if it's gone,

The cars are moving like a half a mile an hour if that,
and started staring at the passengers who're waving goodbye
can you tell me what was ever really special about me all this time?

But I believe the world is burning to the ground
oh well I guess we're gonna find out
let's see how far we've come
Well I, believe, it all, is coming to an end
oh well, I guess, we're gonna pretend,
let's see how far we've come"
~Matchbox 20/ How Far We've Come

In researching the topic of prophecy in modern music, I've found myself wondering how it would be best to label modern groups such as those I've quoted above. It didn't really seem right for me to flat-out call them prophets, but at the same time it's undeniable to me that they are delivering messages to us that come from the most high. I have concluded that the modern musician can be best described as a "herald", which is a close cousin of the prophets. The definition of a herald as a noun is: "One that indicates or announces someone or something to come" and as a verb is "To make known the presence or arrival of". Considering the global platform of these artists, the way they have used that platform (especially in the last three years or so), and the often indirect (or unacknowledged) reference to God as the source of their inspiration, they are more definitively heralds, rather than prophets. Even Sinead O'Connor with her new and beautiful album "Theology" doesn't seem to realize the full significance of what she sings. Heralds are more like vessels, whereas prophets are like servants. It should be no surprise to us that the creator of the universe is the same being called the "muse", who inspires much artistic creativity.

So why would God be moved to use secular musicians to deliver a message that should be coming from within the church? Why would God use rock stars like Marilyn Manson, of all people, to foretell the arrival of George W Bush back in his 1996 album "Antichrist Superstar"? Haven't church leaders conducted many protests outside his concerts, blamed him for inspiring the Columbine killing spree of 1999, and shown to Christians in America that he is an agent of the devil? If this is the case, then why would Marilyn Manson sing in the Antichrist Superstar title song; "Repent, that's what I'm talking about! Whose mistake am I anyway?" and again in his late 2000 album Holywood, "I never really hated the one true God, but the God of the people I hated" There's something going on here, but what is it?

John the Baptist proclaimed this warning in the days before Christ was baptized:
Luke 3:7-9

"Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these rocks. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

I don't want to paint a picture of Marilyn Manson as someone that should be deeply revered, or worshiped. No prophet, herald, or angel should be worshiped. But he is certainly not singing an endorsement of evil, as the established church would have us believe.

In my study, I have learned that prophets do not "predict the future", so much as they proclaim promises from God about the future. Prophets are dismissed as crazy oftentimes, because they come mostly from outside the religious establishment, and people have a hard time in taking God's words and his present calling to repentance seriously. This is true in the way that many live their lives, even though a vague sense of divine fear has been used by many governments throughout the ages to keep their populations in check. What I'm saying here isn't a contradiction, so much as a distinction between the general fear used by rulers to keep people in line, and the personal fear of the Lord which recognizes that nothing any of us do can be kept secret from God, no lie can fool God, and no government is to be obeyed over the will and instructions of God. The words of prophets are simple reminders of the consequences that are always paid for our behavior, whether we do right or wrong. That is a very strong theme of modern music, and has been since the 1960s, when the Vietnam war waged strong, and the church did not stand against it, but rather endorsed it vocally, or through silent consent.

Deuteronomy 18 sets the groundwork for us to tell the difference between true and false prophets. Verse 20 spells it out for us:

If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

This verse should be heeded in a world influenced by certain high-profile people claiming to be prophets. It takes a great risk for someone to step up to the plate and claim that they bear a message from the Lord. But even still, if and when a prophet's "message from the Lord" is shown to be wrong, it should not be dismissed as human error, but understood as demonic inspiration. I am among the few who feel led to proclaim not only that we are in the end times, but also that George Bush is that "man of sin" foretold of ages. I am aware of the spiritual risk involved in my stance, but am also willing to take that risk because to the best of my understanding, I believe it to be true. In time we will all see whether it is true or not.

The distinction between true and false prophet reveals the nature of self proclaimed prophets like Pat Robertson (who has falsely predicted the battle of Armageddon would arrive not only in 1982, but again in 2007) Hal Lindsay (who has prophesied the end of days with as much boldness as inaccuracy, all throughout his lucrative and prosperous career) and many other mainstream American church leaders.

It is a grievous sin to proclaim the Lord has spoken what your own sinful heart has imagined (such as a 'pre-tribulation rapture') because that presumption diminishes people's faith in true prophecy. The predictions of false prophets always fill us with fear when we should pursue love, and they fill us with peace when we should be on our guards. God shows all who will look what the truth is by authenticating or refuting the promises of prophets. He exposes the spirit over time, every single time. Commonly in scriptures, a false prophet is said to proclaim "Peace, peace" when there is no peace. That spirit of lying comfort can be best demonstrated by the joy and reassurance of the church once George Bush was given the white house, less than a year before the greatest attack on American soil, and more-so today by the "God bless America" bumper stickers that spread like wildfire in the aftermath of 9-11-01.


Although musicians do paint their various visions of the imminent future on occasion, the main thrust of their focus is on our present state. The truth is that we can only repent presently...never off in some dark and dismal future. And as devilish as the mainstream church has painted pop and rock music as being, it's messages are oftentimes Godly. Beginning with the musical revolution of the 1960s, many popular song lyrics have been riddled with callings for repentance and reminders of righteous living. "All you need is love" was sung, after all, in a historic live television broadcast via satellite around the word in 1967. One of my favorite passages is 1 John 4:7-8, which says

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God for God is love!"

The reason for that rising of righteous proclamations from secular sources is because the mainstream church has dried up; it has lost it's anointing, direction and purpose because of greed and the self-righteous sense of spiritual exclusivity. The church has become twisted, turned around, a mockery of righteousness: apostate. This is the same spiritual state that the Jewish establishment was in during the days of Christ and John the Baptist. I am not proclaiming the whole church condemned forever to hell, and I am not saying that these musicians are perfect and holy saints. What I am saying is that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His will, his guidance, his instructions are just as true today as when they were first spoken and written. We cannot forget that God desires mercy, and not sacrifice. We cannot presume that just because a man preaches from a pulpit, that he is delivering the instructions that come from the God he claims to represent. God's words began all of existence as we know it, and his message will be delivered, even if it is through songs of anti-establishment, rebellious sentiment. What modern musicians rebel against is mainly the institution of Lucifer's New World Order.



(Both this and the previous picture come from anotherversionofthetruth.com, which is part of Year Zero's Alternate Reality Game.)

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is one of my favorite voices in modern music. His first album came out in 1989, during Bush sr's reign, and the opening song contained the lyrics, "Head like a hole, black as your soul, I'd rather die, than give you control" All of his music is peppered with religious conflict, and rebellion against the establishment. In 2007, he released an album called Year Zero that flat out states what his earlier songs hinted at. His sarcasm has a charming bite like a vampire, and one of my favorite new songs from the album is called Capital G, which I think sums things up nicely. Those with virgin ears proceed with caution:

"I pushed the button and elected elected him to office and a
He pushed the button and he dropped the bomb
You pushed the button and could watch it on the television
Those motherf*#&ers didn't last too long

I'm sick of hearing about the "have's" and "have not's"
Have some personal accountability
The biggest problem with the way that we've been doing things is
The more we let you have the less that I'll be keeping for me

Well I used to stand for something
Now I'm on my hands and knees
Trading in my god for this one
And he signs his name with a capital G

Don't give a shit about the temperature in Guatemala
Don't really see what all the fuss is about
Ain't gonna worry about no future generations and
I'm sure somebody's gonna figure it out

Don't try to tell me that some power can corrupt a person
You haven't had enough to know what its like
You're only angry 'cause you wish you were in my position
Now nod your head because you know that I'm right... alright!

Well I used to stand for something
But forgot what that could be
There's a lot of me inside you
Maybe you're afraid to see

Well I used to stand for something
Now I'm on my hands and knees
Trading in my god for this one
And he signs his name with a capital G"

There is nothing which can muddle or prevent the will of God's word from reaching our ears. However, we must always be careful in discerning which spiritual inspiration we are motivated by, careful to chose humility over pride, love over grudges, forgiveness over vengeance. We are called to think for ourselves, to be vigilant against the deceptions of that angel of light who is truly a serpent. Every teaching we receive should be tested. We are called to press on in the dark, mysterious daily walk of faith instead of settling for the comfortable conclusion that whatever the church says must be the will of God. Great deception has led the church down the road of greed, self-righteousness, and spiritual blindness. No longer are it's shepherds the faithful children of Abraham. This is why rock and pop music is being used to deliver the massage that the end is near. If the shepherds of the church seek true repentance, they should find forgiveness, but the odds are stacked against them. For how can they find the answer to a question they presume to have already solved? This problem that the church faces today is the same as that which overcame the Pharisees in the days of Christ. The difficult road of righteousness that Jesus pointed to then is still the same today. And the powerful blindness of those who claim to see is still as big of a problem as it has always been.

Matt 6:22-23

"The eye is a light for the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. And if the only light you have is really darkness, then you have the worst darkness."

Called to be Ready...For What?

There is one particular tradition held close to heart by the modern fundamentalist church that claims to be a blessing to the church, but is in fact a devious curse to those who believe it. This is the heresy of the "pre-tribulation rapture"; it strips the meaning from our faith, exchanging the ever-present spiritual struggle of our faith into a seemingly never-ending "waiting game". This fable teaches that in the last days, immediately before the great seven-year tribulation, all people living on Earth who genuinely follow Christ will be taken out of the earth, to make way for God to utterly annihilate the planet. Once this massive and miraculous exodus of the faithful takes place, the Antichrist will then rise up to power, and by the power of the devil, he will deceive people into believing that he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

Of course, according to this rapture theory, it would make sense that the people "left behind" wouldn't know the difference between a wicked war-mongering emperor and Jesus Christ. But why everyone in the world would want to follow any Jesus after the rapture, while suffering the judgment of God, and without piecing together the connection between a sudden disappearance of millions of people and the rise of the best deceiver the world would ever know...well that is another question entirely.

According to the fundamentalist fable of the end-times, the Antichrist will get shot or wounded in his head, but survive. He will have an incredible hypnotic effect on the people, submitting their free will under his influence. He will have 666 written across his forehead. While the scripture says that he will do terrible, hateful, despicable things; fundamentalists believe that people will love him, and that he will have a wonderfully wise way with words. He will also have a sort of side-kick called the "false prophet" that does his dirty work for him, performs all sorts of signs and lying wonders, while he constantly directs the worship of the world to "the beast" (or Antichrist), and not himself (the false prophet). Considering that pride was the sin of Satan, and directing worship from yourself to another is a universal sign of humility, (best represented by John the Baptist, who -when speaking of Jesus- said, "I must decrease, and he must increase") this story doesn't seem to add up. Could it be that the devil has also misdirected our understanding of the Beast, in this most crucial point of history?

The devil takes where the Lord gives. The devil lies where the Lord tells the truth. The devil boasts before all while the Lord speaks to whom he choses in a "still small voice". If Jesus taught that "You can tell a tree by it's fruit, for a bad tree cannot produce good fruit, and a good tree cannot produce bad fruit", and "Out of the mouth comes the abundance of the heart", he probably meant something by it. The devil's appearance at a glance may seem harmless, or even attractive, but his poisonous nature is quickly revealed beneath the disguise of "an angel of light". The devil is no more than a very good illusionist. And his Antichrist is nothing more than a wolf disguised as a sheep.

It is foolishness to suggest that the Antichrist will be wise. For the Bible is very emphatically clear that wisdom comes from God, and while Lucifer was "perfect in wisdom" before his fall, from the point that sin entered him, all light and wisdom that he possessed was transformed to true darkness and mere craftiness.

Satan is the ultimate con-artist; he is the master of loop-holes, foolish enough to think that he is really staying one step ahead of God, or his children. Satan knows that his time is short here on Earth, and that God has promised him judgment, but he is racing against time, furiously poisoning the well of truth with his fables and fantasies. The devil's plan is to cause all believers to fall short of the mark of God, thereby keeping God away from the Earth. His biggest threat on earth is the Bride of Christ, and so the object of his greatest campaign of deception would be the church. If the devil manages to successfully deceive the church into supporting his chosen vessel of death and destruction (The Antichrist), then God would be forced to either delay his return, or to destroy his beloved because God is just, and the fallen church would have become wicked.

How could such a campaign of deception be carried out? By planting the seed of a lie years before its fruit would be needed, then repeating that lie over and over again to give it nourishment and a sense of authenticity. The seed of "pre-trib" teaching originated in 1825, and it has grown to be one of the most divisive issues of the modern church. The best way to get a good person (or people) to do or believe something that is false, is to tell them that it is in their best interest. This was the devil's tactic when tempting Eve, it is the poisonous reasoning that has fueled this wicked War on Terrorism, and it is the heart of the "Pre-tribulation rapture" theory.

Time and time again, by the word of Christ, and throughout the letters of the New Testament, there are warnings to be ready for the return of Christ. There are numerous warnings that Christ will return "as a thief in the night". These warnings are issued to believers, both asleep and awake. Those who are awake and vigilant will see the signs of his coming, and they will be prepared for his arrival. The master will receive these servants with joy, and he will express this joy by pampering his servants (which is a concept that would make any good servant blush). Other servants will be asleep, and unprepared for his return. These servants will be rebuked, but forgiven. Still others will be wicked: they will drink the Master's liquor, beat their fellow servants, put their feet up on his furniture, and believe in their heart that the Master won't be returning in their lifetime, so they might as well live it up. These servants will be punished severely.

So the question is, when will Christ return, and what will be his motivation for coming "as a thief in the night"? According to the Pre-trib rapture version, Christ will return before any signs of judgment manifest themselves, and before the Antichrist rises to power. His motivation, then, would be to catch Christians with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar. This version of Jesus is looking for the perfect time to bust into Earth and yell "Gotcha!", laughing at the unprepared humans who have chosen to serve and follow him. Once he has scooped up his good, caring, and loving followers from the Earth, this Jesus will go back to heaven, seal the door shut behind him, and stay the heck out of the way as God pours fire and plagues on the Earth (while the Antichrist woos the people left with his wisdom, seducing their love for seven years). There will be 144,000 Jews who will see the light of God in this period, according to the rapture, but they alone will escape. The vast majority of people, Jew and Gentile alike, will be utterly consumed by the furious wrath of God, and only the saints will be safe in heaven to watch the world burn. This would be better than any block-buster action flick EVER...and it doesn't matter that any true saint would not be captivated by the spectacle, but would be sick to their stomach and in pain at the mostly meaningless suffering on Earth that is promised by this theory. To preserve the integrity of the pre-trib rapture theory, we shouldn't take note that the 12 tribes of Revelation 7 include Joseph, and exclude Dan and Ephraim (which would mean that they are not of the literal "tribes" of Israel, but a spiritual type). We should also disregard all prophetic references to the The Master returning to his house, or coming in to his wedding. Because according to the Pre-trib view, The Master will return to his house, make note of the faithful and watchful servants, take them out of the house, and then immediately set fire to his own house and watch it burn to the ground, with sleeping and wicked servants left to die in the inferno. This is not the Gospel, and not the real Jesus Christ.

If the Pre-trib view of the end times isn't true, then what are we supposed to "be ready" for?

I wonder. Could it be that the Devil is already well-advanced in his plans to deceive the Church; that he has duped the people into thinking that they don't need to put on the Armor of God, that they don't need to worry about stepping into battle? Might Jesus have been warning all those who call him "Lord Lord" that saying the right words won't be enough to save them? Could it be that our actions define our spiritual state? Is it possible that the Antichrist not only walks among us, but was strongly endorsed by the mainstream church, and has lit the fuse that will ignite the powder-keg of the 3rd World War? Have many Christians since 1825 have been lulled into a spiritual sleep because they are waiting for a pre-tribulation rapture that will never happen? Is the devil's power to deceive that extensive, that it would fool so may people, but never God?

If the "pre-trib rapture" is a lie, could God have offered us any help or assistance in waking up from a deception so massive as this? Can the events that have happened in recent years have any deep prophetic significance? Is the death of tens of thousands of people in east Asia just in this month so far a sign of the day we are now living in, or is it meaningless; without merit; certainly not a sign from God? Does God want us to be caught with our hands in the cookie jar, or does he want all to come to repentance? I wonder...

C.S. Lewis, one of the greatest Christians of the 20th Century, wrote this in Mere Christianity:

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. We have all seen this when doing arithmetic. When I have started a sum the wrong way, the sooner I admit this and go back and start over again, the faster I shall get on. There is nothing progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake.

I haven't left references to scriptures in this post, because scriptures have been used on both sides of the argument. I hope, however, that this shows the spiritual fruit of the "pre-trib" doctrine. And I can assure you, that if you believe in the rapture now, and this causes even the most remote doubt to enter your mind in it's authenticity, and you begin to study the scriptures to confirm if it is a lie, you will be amazed by how many scriptures all throughout the Bible clarify the matter.