Father Charles Arminjon, in his book entitled 'The End of the Present World," explains that, "..the Antichrist will be lord of the world" and that, "It is abundantly clear that the effect of all the events of the present time is to prepare the social setting in which the dominance of the man of sin will be exercised...any
careful observer [this would rule out the vast majority today] of the events of the present time cannot escape the conviction
that everything is being done to bring about a social environment where the man of sin, by combining in his person all the depravity and every false doctrine of his age, will be produced spontaneously and effortlessly, like the parasitical tapeworm that breeds naturally in gangrenous flesh and organs.."
Men, crippled by their atheistic humanism, are today forging their own net of despotism which will be encompassed by the walls of new concentration camps. Already citizens find themselves being monitored by
a surveillance society which is merely a preparation for the fish-tank men will find themselves within when the Man of Sin assumes power. "Man," Father Vincent Miceli, S.J., explains, in attempting to be both an atheist and his own God, "has only succeeded in establishing an inhuman humanism, a political and religiously perverted atheism which violently forces him..into total bondage to the father of lies and the unnatural perversions that lead to nihilism. Idol-perverted through the worship of itself, atheistic humanism practices the licentious liturgy of feeding its Man-God on man-god victims, a sort of divine-human cannibalism. The adventure of atheism is seen, in the last analysis, to be that unfathomable iniquity which attacks the very roots of reality, divorcing things, persons, societies from God and organizing them into a militant Kingdom of hate that ceaselessly and sacrilegiously assaults the sanctity of God and the dignity of men."
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once commented on the way that
oppression can subtly arise in our midst: "
As nightfall does not come at once, neither does
oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains
seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we must be aware of change
in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the
darkness."
Readers of this Blog know that I have been warning of the encroaching
darkness for some time. Some have dismissed my warnings as "alarmist." Many Americans have
been desensitized to the darkness and have come to accept new values without
even realizing it. Such people believe that we still live in a democracy. But we
do not.
In his Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II reminded us
that:
"
Authentic democracy is possible only in a State ruled by law, and
on the basis of a correct conception of the human person. It
requires that the necessary conditions be present for the advancement both of
the individual through education and formation in true ideals, and of the
"subjectivity" of society through the creation of structures of participation
and shared responsibility. Nowadays there is a tendency to claim that
agnosticism and sceptical relativism are the philosophy and the basic attitude
which correspond to democratic forms of political life. Those who are convinced
that they know the truth and firmly adhere to it are considered unreliable from
a democratic point of view, since they do not accept that truth is determined by
the majority, or that it is subject to variation according to different
political trends. It must be observed in this regard that if there is no
ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and
convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power.
As history demonstrates, a democracy without values
easily turns into open or thinly disguised
totalitarianism.
Nor does the Church close her eyes to the danger of fanaticism or
fundamentalism among those who, in the name of an ideology which purports to be
scientific or religious, claim the right to impose on others their own concept
of what is true and good. Christian truth is not of this kind. Since it is not
an ideology, the Christian faith does not presume to imprison changing
socio-political realities in a rigid schema, and it recognizes that human life
is realized in history in conditions that are diverse and imperfect.
Furthermore, in constantly reaffirming the transcendent dignity of the person,
the Church's method is always that of respect for freedom.
But
freedom attains its full development only by accepting the
truth. In a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation and man is exposed
to the violence of passion and to manipulation, both open and hidden.
The Christian upholds freedom and serves it, constantly offering to others the
truth which he has known (cf. Jn 8:31-32), in accordance with the missionary
nature of his vocation. While paying heed to every fragment of truth which he
encounters in the life experience and in the culture of individuals and of
nations, he will not fail to affirm in dialogue with others all that his faith
and the correct use of reason have enabled him to understand." (No.
46).
The English psychiatrist William Sargent explained that, "It is not the
mentally ill but ordinary normal people who are most susceptible to
'brainwashing.'" And in her book The Nazis and the Occult, Dusty Sklar notes
how, "Hitler's early speeches were so mesmerizing that even people who were
repelled by his ideas felt themselves being swept along. The playwright Eugene
Ionesco mentions in his autobiography that he received the inspiration for
Rhinoceros when he felt himself pulled into the Nazi orbit at a mass rally and
had to struggle to keep from developing 'rhinoceritis.'
We 'catch' ideas,
too, because we want to be like others, particularly when we want not to be our
despised selves. If we're satisfied, we don't need to conform, but if we're not,
we imitate people whom we admire for having greater judgment, taste, or good
fortune than we do....Through conformity, the person who feels inferior is in no
danger of being exposed. He's indistinguishable from the others. No one can
single him out and examine his unique being. Conformity, in turn, sets him up to
be further canceled out as an individual, to have no life apart from his
collective purpose. This gives a movement tremendous power over the individual.
Even intelligent people are not immune from the desire to conform. Heinrich
Hildebrandt, a schoolteacher who was anxious to hide his liberal past, joined
the Nazi party, and to his own disgust, found himself 'proud to be wearing the
insignia. It showed I belonged, and the pleasure of belonging, so soon after
feeling excluded, isolated, is very great...I belonged to the new nobility..'"
(The Nazis and the Occult, pp. 157, 158).
The desire to conform and not to be perceived as being "different" or
"countercultural," can be a very powerful force. Many Catholics (and other
Christians) voted for President Barack Obama knowing full well that he supports
abortion through all nine months of pregnancy right up to so-called
partial-birth abortion - which is actually infanticide - as well as his support
for Embryonic Stem Cell Research (ESCR) and the radical homosexual agenda.
A democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised
totalitarianism. Prophetic words indeed. It's twilight. Darkness is falling.
Will we pray and work to turn back the darkness? Or will we give into it?