Very interesting, very sci fi...
Sounds like he's had a triple dose of Hal Lindsay
over the past 25 years...
The story is novel, not Biblical.
eagle 1
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Pugliese" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 8:38 PM
Subject: [CTRL] THE END OF THE WORLD & THE NEW WORLD ORDER.
> EOTW - THE END OF THE WORLD & THE NEW WORLD ORDER
>
>
>
> http://eotw.orac.net.au/articles/nwo.html
>
> THE END OF THE WORLD
> & THE NEW WORLD ORDER
> Black Helicopters, Hong Kong Gurkhas,
> Global Conspiracies, & The Mark of the Beast
> By Tim Callahan
> As I write this introduction to the excerpt from my new book on Bible
> Prophecy: Failure or Fulfillment?, the movie Independence Day set a new
> record of $96 million gross on its opening weekend. The movie opens with a
> youthful technician in the SETI program headquarters checking the monitors
> for signs of extra terrestrial intelligence, while his boom box blasts the
> rock song "It's the End of the World." For the erstwhile Earthlings in the
> movie it almost was the end of the world as the space aliens were not
> exactly the friendly types depicted in ET, Close Encounters of the Third
> Kind, and other Sci Fi blockbusters.
> Why are we so fascinated by "end of the world" stories? Sure, Independence
> Day owes some of its success to a huge marketing campaign that began on
> Superbowl Sunday seven months before (telling viewers this would be their
> last Superbowl Sunday party); and to the spectacular special effects
> depicting the explosion of the Empire State Building, the White House, and
> other national monuments. But there is something deeper here, that goes to
> the heart of our psyche-the belief that one way or another we are doomed.
> Sci Fi authors and film producers are simply capitalizing on a theme that
> has been with us since biblical times.
> In Skeptic, Vol. 3, #2, I wrote a review of Hal Lindsey's book Planet
> Earth-2000 A.D., in which I showed that as we approach the big millennium
> date doomsday warnings will proliferate in pop culture. Lindsey (like all
> doomsayers) was cautious, however, hedging his prediction with
alternatives
> for 2007 or even 2048 (when he will be long gone), just in case 2000 comes
> and goes without incident. In my book I review all the major biblical
> prophecies, especially those concerned with the end times. In this essay
> (the final chapter from the book) I link biblical prophecies of the end
> times (the "mark of the beast" and all that) with modern global conspiracy
> theories that involve black helicopters, Hong Kong Gurkhas, militia, and
the
> so-called "New World Order" which are supposed to signal that the end is
> nigh. So before you decide to eat, drink, and be merry, read on.
>
> Modern Technology & Other Signs of the End
> The Bible, especially the book of Revelation, is filled with allegorical
> stories and symbolic tales. The problem is in interpretation. Are these
> stories prophetic warnings for us, or social commentary for the readers of
> the time of their writing? Fundamentalists and conspiratorialists try
> desperately to stretch apocalyptic writings (that were about the politics
of
> their time) to fit modern times. They also try to fit poetic pictures of
> destruction into modern technology. The most obvious of these is the idea
> that fire raining down from heaven means nuclear-armed missiles. Another
is
> the idea that the phrase "every eye shall see him" (Rev. 1:7) refers to
the
> return of Christ being seen worldwide on television.
> Hal Lindsey has speculated that the demonic locusts, the plague of the
fifth
> trumpet, represent helicopters. Here is the actual description of the
> locusts from Rev. 9:7-10:
> In appearance the locusts were like horses arrayed for battle; on their
> heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human
> faces, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth;
they
> had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like
the
> noise of many chariots rushing into battle. They have tails like
scorpions,
> and stings, and their power of hurting men for five months lies in their
> tails.
> In that their wings make a rushing noise, that helicopters could be said
to
> look as if they have stinger-like tails, and that the locusts' armor could
> be said to be a description of the metal skin of helicopters, the locusts
> could be stretched to fit these modern machines, if one uses a good deal
of
> imagination. Hal Lindsey apparently took the locusts with faces of men as
> being the crew of the helicopters as seen in the cockpit from without.
Just
> how it is that military helicopters would torture, but not kill, for five
> months is not explained. On the other hand, locusts commonly live for five
> months, and the prophet Joel's locusts were also like horses (see Joel
> 2:4-9). It is also hard to figure how they could have come out of the
smoke
> from the bottomless pit (Rev 9:3) or why their king would be Abaddon, the
> angel of the bottomless pit (Rev. 9:11).
> Even if helicopters do not work that well in fulfilling the imagery of
> Revelation, they do figure in conspiracy theories. Listen to any
> fundamentalist radio station for a while and you will hear reports of
> ominous black (i.e. unmarked) helicopters harassing good conservative
folks.
> Supposedly they were hovering over the Branch Davidian compound in Waco
just
> before the tanks went in. People have claimed that the helicopters are
often
> filled with men wearing unusual uniforms, hence the speculation that they
> are carrying foreign troops and that these are trial runs for the U.N.
> takeover of the U.S., eventually instituting the world government that
will
> be ruled by the Antichrist. Among the people who claim to have been buzzed
> and harassed by low-flying black helicopters are Christians who are
> home-schooling their children to keep them out of the secular school
system.
> Despite the popularity and availability of video cameras and despite
reports
> of repeated harassment, none of these sightings have ever been
> substantiated. This last minor fact has not reduced the fears concerning
the
> infernal machines in the least. If anything, the ability of the black
> helicopters to avoid detection has added to their satanic mystique.
> Another report of foreign troops being brought in to take away our rights
> was the assertion that the federal crime bill of 1994 had in it a
provision
> for bringing in foreign police-specifically from Hong Kong-to enforce laws
> in America. The idea was that, unlike American cops, the foreigners would
> not have any compunction about firing on a crowd of American citizens.
There
> was even one report that the police being brought over from Hong Kong were
> Gurkhas, troops with a legendary reputation for savagery.
> Reality was something else again. While there are about a thousand Gurkhas
> stationed in Hong Kong, they are used for border patrol only. Members of
> this elite corps of the British army are not so much noted for savagery,
but
> rather are famous for their honesty, trustworthiness, sense of personal
> honor, and most of all for their valor. Since 1911 Gurkhas have won 13
> Victoria Crosses, the British equivalent of the Congressional Medal of
> Honor. The likelihood that these elite troops, so fiercely loyal to the
> Queen, would be loaned out to the U.S. to kill Americans is nil. However,
> there is just the smallest grain of truth to the rumor that the government
> was going to bring in Hong Kong police. On page 843 of HR 3355, section
5108
> directed the Attorney General, the heads of the FBI and the Drug
Enforcement
> Agency (DEA), along with the Commissioners of the Immigration and
> Naturalization Service (INS) and the Customs Service to recruit former
Royal
> Hong Kong Police officers into Federal law enforcement positions. The true
> story is this. Hong Kong is shortly due to revert to the People's Republic
> of China. Thus, the officers of the Royal Police will soon be without
either
> a job or a home. The fact that the INS was involved in the recruitment
plan
> should tell anyone that these officers would be brought in as naturalized
> citizens. Since Hong Kong is an international port, its police are
> experienced in coping with black market goods and drug smuggling, hence
the
> participation of the FBI, the DEA, and the Customs Service in the
> recruitment program. This is a far cry from bringing in foreign police for
> crowd control. In any case, this recruitment plan was dropped from the
final
> version of the bill.
> Another horror story of the impending world government is that they have
> already subverted our money, planting occult symbols on dollar bills that
> hint at the drive to a globalist dictatorship. This was done during the
> (infamous) Roosevelt administration. The symbol in question is the pyramid
> with an eye on the back of the dollar bill. Below it is the Latin
> inscription Novus Ordo Seculorum, which translates as "New World Order."
Or
> does it? What we have here is a compound error made up of bad Latin, bad
> spelling, and poor history. Those readers who, like myself, took some
Latin
> in high school, might remember that the suffix "orum" is the genitive
plural
> for nouns in the second declension. Seculorum would have to be plural and
> mean "of the worlds," which seems a rather clumsy phrasing. It certainly
> would be if in fact the word in question was "seculorum." Actually, in
their
> desire to read an apocalyptic conspiracy into our currency, the
millenarian
> crowd has added the letter "u" between the "c" and the "l" of the word
> printed on the dollar, which is seclorum or "of the ages." Thus, far from
> saying "New World Order," Novus Ordo Seclorum reads "New Order of the
Ages."
> Since this symbol and motto are on the back of our country's Great Seal
and
> were put there when the nation was being founded, they represent the
> revolutionary sentiment that by dispensing with kings, whose rule was
> autocratic and based on force, and replacing that system with a republic
> based on reason, balance of powers, and self rule, the founders of our
> nation were creating a new order for the ages.
> Another phrase to be found on the back of the dollar bill, in fact one
more
> prominently displayed than the Latin motto as well as being written in
> English is: "In God We Trust." For some reason this phrase and its obvious
> implications seem to be consistently overlooked by conspiracy theorists.
> Other excursions into modern monetary subversion involve credit cards, bar
> codes, and other technologies that could potentially be a modern version
of
> the Mark of the Beast. The most technologically sophisticated of these
would
> be a computer microchip inserted under the skin either in the forehead or
> the back of the hand. Such technology is actually available and has been
> used to locate sheep and cattle grazing on range-lands. However, such
solid
> state electronics are extremely vulnerable to electromagnetic fields, such
> as those generated by television screens. Sitting too near the boob-tube
> could erase the Mark of the Beast from many a couch potato.
> There are, of course, other technologies that suggest themselves as
> potential Marks of the Beast. Whole books have been written on how the bar
> code is a prelude to it. The cashless society is another concept that fits
> into the idea of having to take the mark if one would buy or sell. Thus,
> credit cards in general and Visa cards in particular are candidates for
the
> Mark of the Beast. In the case of Visa cards, we have a dubious excursion
> into numerology, which should, like astrology and palmistry, be anathema
to
> fundamentalist Christians. The basic scheme of numerology is that every
> letter in the alphabet is assigned a number from one to nine as follows:
> 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5 : 6 : 7 : 8 : 9
> A : B : C : D : E : F : G : H : I
> J : K : L : M : N : O : P : Q : R
> S : T : U : V : W : X : Y : Z :
> Then the numbers of each word or name analyzed are added up. If a two or
> three digit number results, those numbers are added in a column until a
> number from 1 to 9 is reached. These nine numbers have specific
> psychological characteristics assigned to them, much as do the 12 signs of
> the Zodiac. Applying this system to the word VISA, we get the following:
>
> V I S A
> 4+9+1+1=15 1+5=6
> In the original numerological system, 6 stands for natural harmony as in
the
> six colors of the spectrum. However, in order to make the Visa card come
out
> as the Mark of the Beast, those fundamentalists who indulge in this sort
of
> nonsense substitute biblical symbolism wherein 6 is the number of
> imperfection. Thus, by extrapolation, 6 means the same as 666. And voila!
we
> have the Number of the Beast!
> (I will concede two items. First, while they do look for satanic
> conspiracies in many innocent aspects of the mundane world, very few
> fundamentalists involve themselves in interpretations as arcane as the
> numerological value of the Visa card. Second, the fear of some form of
> mandatory identification card and its misuse by a centralized government,
> even on the national level, is a reasonable one. While I like the
> convenience of my charge cards, untraceable cash transactions, which
cannot
> be monitored by either a government or a corporation, constitute a
> democratically sound safeguard against intrusions into one's privacy. It
is
> when these entirely valid concerns are linked to paranoid millennial
> fantasies that bizarre interpretations result. If we must interpret every
> universal identification system in apocalyptic terms, then every American
> citizen, upon being assigned a social security number, has taken the Mark
of
> the Beast.)
> So far I have dealt with supposed symptoms of the satanic New World Order.
> Let us now look at the institutions millenarians and others of their ilk
see
> as the movers behind this globalist conspiracy.
>
> Global Conspiracies
> Those who see the world in terms of a system under Satan's control, who
see
> themselves-as many fundamentalists do-as being under siege, not only see a
> satanic pattern in world events of today, but see them as entrenched in
> history as well, particularly in the events of the twentieth century. They
> also see the Satanic conspiracy as having so pervasively infiltrated our
> system that virtually no one in power is untouched by it. For example,
John
> McManus, present head of the John Birch Society, said that not only was
the
> Reagan administration thoroughly infiltrated by agents of the New World
> Order, and the public brainwashed by the "liberal media," but that William
> Bennett and Rush Limbaugh were both brainwashed by the New World Order
(Live
> From L.A. KKLA November 29, 1993). Since not even Rush Limbaugh can be
> trusted, it is not surprising that McManus also pointed out that the heads
> of CBS, NBC, ABC, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles
> Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World
Report,
> and the National Review are all members of the Council on Foreign
Relations
> (CFR), seen as one of the chief architects of the New World Order.
> Besides media heads, who else is a member of the CFR? According to Gary
Kah
> in En Route to Global Occupation (as well as other sources), former and
> present members of the CFR include Adlai Stevenson, Dwight D. Eisenhower,
> Cyrus Vance, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paul Volker, Lane Kirkland, Henry
> Kissinger, George Schultz, Nelson Rockefeller, David Rockefeller, Alan
> Greenspan, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, George Bush, Richard M. Nixon, George
> McGovern, Michael Dukakis, Donna Shalala, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell,
> Jimmy Carter, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Edward Kennedy, Jesse
> Jackson, and many others. That people whose political beliefs cover such a
> broad spectrum are all members of the CFR should tell anyone that the
> organization, in actual fact, has no particular political leaning of its
> own. In short, the membership is too broad, varied, and extensive to be an
> indicator of any significance. Rather than revealing an entrenched
> conspiracy, this partial membership list indicates a prestigious
> organization that people prominent in politics, education, the media, and
> finance frequently join. Kah even admits that Dukakis only joined the CFR
> after his unsuccessful bid for the presidency.
> Other organizations high on the enemies list in this basic conspiracy
> scenario are the Trilateral Commission, the Club of Rome, the Bilderberg
> Group, and lesser organizations such as the Aspen Institute. All of these
> share with the CFR the qualities of being unofficial advisory bodies with
> distinguished membership rosters.
> Official government and international organizations in the supposed
> conspiracy include the Federal Reserve System (FRS) and, of course, the
> United Nations, the world government itself. Facts have little credibility
> in the minds of conspiracy addicts when it comes to the major players in
> their cherished scenario. That the UN is unable to control or bring into
> obedience one warlord whose clan controls one section of one third-world
> city would seem to make it a paper tiger. The same is true of the European
> Community, the other major contender for the role of Empire of the
> Antichrist. That the EC was either unable or unwilling to intervene
> effectively in Bosnia, its own back yard without American assistance,
makes
> it a bit of a dud as the Neo-Roman Empire. Conspiracy theorists counter
that
> the U.N. and the EC are allowing the conditions in Bosnia and Somalia to
> deteriorate for various reasons of their own, among them being a draconian
> program of population control. Of course, if either of these two
> institutions were to intervene effectively, these same theorists would use
> those events as evidence of the growing power of the UN and the EC. Thus,
> their belief is confirmed regardless of what happens, a sure sign of
> intellectual self-deception.
> As Michael Howard points out in his 1989 book The Occult Conspiracy:
> "Conspiracy theorists regard the UN with suspicion because of the alleged
> involvement of the CFR in its creation" (Howard 1989, p. 167). The Council
> on Foreign Relations was formed when the United States failed to join the
> League of Nations, which had been set up after World War I chiefly by
> President Woodrow Wilson and his special advisor Col. E. M. House. In 1919
> Col. House met with members of a British group called the Round Table that
> was the brain-child of 19th-century diamond and gold magnate, Cecil
Rhodes.
> Rhodes was obsessed with the vision of a world government based on British
> values, and had set up the Round Table as a means toward that end. (This,
of
> course, makes Rhodes scholars suspect as agents of the New World Order.)
> Members of the Round Table agreed to set up a non-governmental advisory
body
> aimed at influencing nations toward peaceful resolution of conflicts. In
> England it was called the Institute for International Affairs (IIA); in
> America it became the CFR. An unofficial Anglo-American advisory group or
> think tank hardly fits the role of end-time bogey. However, the CFR does
> have a strong internationalist bent. In many ways the organization's lack
of
> ideology has been used against it. As Howard puts it (p. 166):
> In the eyes of their opponents the CFR is currently dedicated to
destroying
> the sovereignty of the United States, reversing the democratic process
which
> instigated the 1776 American Revolution, promoting internationalism and
the
> foundation of a world super state embracing both capitalism and Communism
in
> a new political order. The evidence for this seems to be largely based on
> the neutral stance adopted by the CFR in American politics.
> Formerly, the CFR was viewed by its critics as being an elitist right-wing
> power group and was even accused of financing Hitler's rise to power. No
> support has ever been found for this claim.
> Next to the CFR, the Trilateral Commission is perhaps the most
anathematized
> international advisory group in existence. Founded in 1970 and having a
> membership drawn from Japan, Europe, and North America, its stated goal is
> to "encourage closer cooperation among these three democratic
industrialized
> regions" (item 15479, Encyclopedia of Associations, 1995). The Club of
Rome
> has a broader appeal, being concerned with issues as varied as
environmental
> degradation, overpopulation, economics, etc. The Bilderberg Group was
> originally founded in 1954 as an anti-Communist organization, but softened
> its stance in the wake of detente.
> All of these organizations have properties that lay them open to attack
from
> the more paranoid among us. First of all, since they are composed of an
> international elite, there is the suspicion, no doubt somewhat justified,
> that their members think that they know better than the common man or
woman
> how the world ought to be run. Second, since they often discuss sensitive
> issues, they often keep their meetings secret. This implies covert
> operations and clandestine plots. Third, given that all of these
> organizations wish to draw upon people influential in the worlds of
finance,
> politics and media, there is considerable overlap of membership among
them.
> This gives the appearance of an international conspiracy. Certainly the
> potential for elitism and conspiracy exists among these organizations, but
> the varied political views of the members would tend to act as a safeguard
> against such an occurrence. Howard gives this word of caution with regard
to
> such organizations (p. 163):
> In general, as far as it can be detected at all by those who are directly
in
> contact with its working, this influence can be characterized as benign.
> However, the unpalatable fact must also be faced that in some instances
the
> pursuit and exercise of power in the political arena can have a corrupting
> effect, especially when it encounters the inherent weakness of human
nature.
> Probably the greatest weakness of human nature seen in these organizations
> is in their inherent failure, because they are so much a part of the
> established system, to comprehend or anticipate what might variously be
> called novelty, chaos, or serendipity. As two examples of this failure to
> comprehend the curves thrown us by reality, consider that it was the
> professionals who got us into Vietnam. Consider also that the experts were
> caught just as flat-footed as the rest of us at the break-up of the Warsaw
> pact and the fall of the Soviet Union.
> The Federal Reserve System (FRS), along with any international banking
> system, is another source of paranoia for the conspiracy crowd. Any
control
> or manipulation of the money supply is assumed to be part of a monetary
> conspiracy inimical both to individual freedom and national sovereignty.
> McManus has claimed that our national debt is being deliberately increased
> to put us in hock to international bankers as part of the plan to destroy
> our national sovereignty and create the New World Order. The FRS, or the
> Fed, created by congress in 1913, has the function of controlling the
money
> supply, which it does by buying and selling government bonds, regulating
the
> rate at which commercial banks borrow money from the Federal Reserve Bank,
> and regulating the requirements as to what percentage of commercial banks'
> assets are held in the Federal Reserve. If the Fed buys government bonds,
> reduces the discount rate to commercial banks, or lowers their Federal
> Reserve requirements, the money supply is increased, interest rates fall
and
> inflation increases. When the Fed sells bonds, raises the discount rate or
> the Federal Reserve requirements, less money circulates, interest rates
> rise, and inflation is reduced. Obviously businesses are affected, often
> much against their will, by the policies of the Fed. Hence, it is not
always
> well thought of, and among conspiracy theorists it has become viewed as an
> agent of the New World Order, this despite the fact that its present
> chairman, Alan Greenspan, was a protégé of the late Ayn Rand and is
strongly
> influenced by Libertarian economic theory.
>
> Templars, Freemasons & the Dreaded Illuminati
> It is understandable that those who see the world as rushing to its final
> doom are likely to see any group urging international cooperation as being
> an instrument of the Antichrist. Instead of seeing the CFR and the
> Trilateral Commission as idealistic and somewhat elitist brain trusts,
> millenarians see them as a network of semi-secret societies wielding power
> illegitimately, not merely to influence but to control sovereign national
> governments. But whence came these powerful shadow regimes? Conspiracy
> theorists trace them all the way back to the Knights Templar, who,
starting
> out as crusaders and protectors of pilgrims, supposedly fell under various
> influences including pagan mystery religions and the Assassins of Alamut.
> Having become corrupt and rich, the Templars tried to control the wealth
of
> Europe but were valiantly stopped by Philip the Fair of France
(1268-1314).
> Upon being put to the question the leaders of the Templars revealed that
> they worshiped a goat-headed idol called Baphomet, which they anointed
with
> the blood of unbaptized babies, and that they ritually defiled crucifixes
> and practiced sodomy in their secret rites. Gary Kah and other conspiracy
> theorists report this story with evident relish. The Templars, after all,
> make wonderful foils. As the first internationalists whose wealth and
> banking system made them the creditors of and potential powers behind the
> governments of rising national states, they resemble the picture the
> theorists in their paranoia have painted of the CFR, the FRS, the
> Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. That they were secretly practicing
satanic
> rites confirms the theorists in their assurance that their modern
> counterparts are part of the Kingdom of the Beast. All of us who grew up
> reading Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe are predisposed to believe the worst of
> the Templars from the start. After all, Bois-Gilbert and the other heavies
> in the classic were all Templars.
> But how much of this story is true? And how does it relate to modern
times?
> The Templars were obviously quite powerful and somewhat corrupt. By the
> beginning of the 13th century, three crusading orders-the Templars, the
> Knights of St. John, and the Teutonic Knights-between them controlled 40%
of
> Europe's frontiers and as such exerted considerable influence in the
courts
> of Europe. The Templars made money by ferrying crusaders and pilgrims to
the
> Holy Land and importing spices from there to Europe. As their wealth
> increased, they became the bankers of Europe and they became increasingly
> lax in fulfilling their religious vows. They conspired with the Sultan of
> Egypt to thwart Frederick II's crusade, and by 1254 were at open war with
> another crusading order, the Knights Hospitaler. When Acre, the last
> Christian stronghold in the Levant, fell to the Moslems in 1291 the
Templars
> were expelled from the Holy Land. Now they were no longer even nominally
> crusaders. In 1307 Philip the Fair found himself facing bankruptcy and
owed
> the Templars large sums of money. Thus, he made common cause with Pope
> Clement V to destroy the order, whose increasing wealth and independence
> were alarming the Church. The Grand Master of the Templars, Jacques de
> Molay, came to Paris that same year to discuss a new crusade. He was
> arrested, and Templar lodges and treasuries were seized throughout France.
> Pope Clement issued a bull ordering the arrest of all members of the order
> throughout Christendom. It was then that the Templars made their
confessions
> either under torture or the threat of it. Considering that both the King
of
> France and the Pope needed some criminal charge upon which to base the
> seizure of Templar treasuries, it is hardly surprising that the order was
> found to have become heretical. To this day it is unclear which charges if
> any made against the Templars were true. De Molay protested his innocence
> even as he was being burned at the stake in 1314.
> The significance of the Templars is that there is a link between them and
> Freemasonry. Late in the Middle Ages powerful craft guilds flourished in
> Europe. But, as the result in the decline in the building of new
cathedrals
> and the subsequent drop in guild membership, the masons began to allow men
> not involved in the trade to join as honorary members. These men became
> known as "free and accepted masons" or Freemasons. In some countries,
after
> the fall of the Templars their remnants were absorbed into the Masonic
> Guilds. Much of the medieval tradition, however, was embellished in the
17th
> and 18th centuries when the Freemasons adopted the rites and trappings of
> various chivalric orders. Though the organization is not specifically
> Christian, it began with a distinctly Protestant, anticlerical bias. The
> Templars, seen as prototypes of Protestant martyrs, were taken as a
> chivalric ideal to aspire to. So it is in modern times that the Masonic
club
> for teenage boys is called the DeMolay, and the Knights Templar is one of
> the advanced lodges in Freemasonry. Without going into a detailed history
of
> the Masons, let me just point out that their system of secret lodges
allowed
> for open discussion of politics in countries where voicing one's opinion
> could result in imprisonment or death. In Latin countries Freemasonry
tends
> to attract free thinkers and anticlericals. This fact plus the association
> of the Templars with the Masons has laid the latter open to all the
charges
> leveled against the former, not only by fundamentalists but by European
and
> South American dictators. In volume 22 of the Encyclopedia Britannica the
> true significance of the Masonic lodges is mentioned in a discussion of
the
> history of Italy in the late 1700's (p. 223):
> In the Italy of the old regime, there had been no representative political
> life. But the increase in the number of Masonic Lodges at the end of the
> 18th century demonstrated the desire for secret discussion of problems
> different from those that were agitating the academies and the agrarian
> societies. Not all the Freemasons became supporters of the Revolution and
> the French, but many of them did so. The moderate and constitutional
demands
> of the Masonic Lodges began to be accompanied by more democratic demands,
> and there were in Milan, Bologna, Rome, and Naples cells of Illuminati,
> republican free-thinkers, after the pattern recently established in
Bavaria
> by Adam Weishaupt.
> But were the Illuminati really such radicals? Indeed they were, and they
> were justly considered a threat by virtually every government in Europe.
And
> what were the Illuminist beliefs that were so threatening to the
governments
> of Weishaupt's day? Among them were such dangerous ideas as universal
> suffrage, equality of the sexes, and complete freedom of religion. Other
> Illuminist beliefs were of the utopian socialist variety. They included
the
> abolition of social authority, private property and national states.
> Humanity, in the Illuminist vision, would live in anarchic harmony and
> universal brotherhood, and would enjoy peace and free love. This may make
> the Illuminati sound like a cross between Marxists and 1960's flower
> children, and is no doubt the image that so horrifies fundamentalist
> conspiracy theorists. But all such comparisons are doomed to error,
because
> implicit in them is a disregard for historical context. To understand the
> Illuminati, one must understand the politics of Europe in the late 18th
> century, the time of the Enlightenment. In reaction to the excesses of the
> religious wars of the 1600s the intellectuals of the 1700s were rational,
> secular and anticlerical. The growth of science and rationalism provoked
the
> thinkers of that day to question everything, and they found much that did
> not stand up well in the light of reason. Thus, in addition to being
> rational and secular, they were also democratic and egalitarian. And
seeing
> the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the nobility and the
> state religions, they considered the abolition of private property a
> necessary step to change what was clearly an unjust social order. Despite
> the prevalence of democratic ideals in the philosophy of the time, most of
> the states of Europe were ruled by kings who were absolute despots.
> (Remember that the American Revolution was just starting the year the
> Illuminati came into being.) These powers naturally resisted the
democratic
> flow of their culture tenaciously, so tenaciously in fact that it took the
> rest of the 18th century, all of the 19th century, and part of the 20th to
> remove them. Thus it was not until late in the 1800s that the French were
> free of both the Bourbons and the descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte. It
was
> not until the end of World War I that the Hohenzollerns of Prussia, the
> Hapsburgs of Austria, and the Romanovs of Russia were removed, and the
> empires of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Turks broken up. Indeed, we are
> still today dealing with the aftermath of the persistence of these
> monarchies.
> As a graphic indication of how the battle lines were drawn, consider that
as
> part of the Illuminist initiation ceremony the candidate was led into a
room
> containing an empty throne, a crown, a scepter, and a sword, and was
invited
> to take them up. But, he or she was told, if they did so they would be
> denied entry into the order. The crowned heads of Europe were not likely
to
> take kindly to a secret society harboring such sentiments, nor were the
> established religious authorities. This, coupled with the anticlerical and
> anti-Christian bias of the Illuminati, made them even better foils than
the
> Templars had been in the Middle Ages. Thus they were branded as atheists,
> Satanists, assassins and whatever else would feed a sensationalist,
> fear-mongering campaign. (I should point out that as Marxist as the
> abolition of property sounds, a variant of that principle-land
> redistribution-was practiced in America when, following the Revolution,
the
> estates of Tories were seized, broken up, and given to landless families.
> Since most of the newly independent colonies still limited voting rights
to
> property owners, this meant that the number of voters was increased
> significantly.)
> Are the Illuminati still active? Are they the unifying power behind the
CFR,
> the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderbergers, and the Club of Rome? Are
they
> the secret masters of worldwide Free masonry? For the most part the
> Illuminati were absorbed into other revolutionary groups. No doubt many
> joined the French Revolution or shifted in the 19th century from utopian
> socialism to Marxism. There is no evidence that they exist today.
> On the other hand the influence of Freemasonry is such that men holding to
> its ideals were instrumental in creating one of the 20th century's
greatest
> powers, a power whose global influence and military might is greater than
> any known in the history of the world, a power viewed by many small
nations
> as a distinct threat to their sovereignty. In fact, one of these nations
has
> identified this power with Satan. This ominous power is the United States
of
> America.
> Most of the founders of our nation, including George Washington, were
> Masons. Such was the influence of Freemasonry that the back of the Great
> Seal, that symbol on our dollar bill that so terrifies conspiracy
theorists,
> contains the pyramid with an eye in it, which is a Masonic symbol.
>
> Humanists and New Agers
> Not only were most of the founding fathers Freemasons, at least one,
> Benjamin Franklin, was a Rosicrucian. The Rosicrucians were supposed to
have
> access to the teachings of Christian Rosenkreuz, who was born in 1378 and
> lived for over 100 years. He had supposedly learned esoteric disciplines
> held by the ancient Egyptians, the Pythagorean philosophers of ancient
> Greece and other occult wisdom. In reality, the earliest Rosicrucian
> writings date from 1614. This secret fraternal order may actually have
been
> founded by the Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus (1493?-1541).
While
> it attracted many of the intelligentsia of the 18th century, the
Rosicrucian
> order never seems to have developed as an organization of significant
> political influence to match the Freemasons. It was a common belief in the
> 18th-century that ancient civilizations had held secret knowledge lost to
> people of their day. To some degree this was true in that, for example,
the
> technology to make large panes of clear glass, lost since the fall of the
> Roman Empire, was not rediscovered until the 1600s. The supposed esoteric
> knowledge of the Egyptians, however, was more the stuff of which the
legends
> of Atlantis were made. Fraternal orders used supposed access to ancient
> hidden knowledge as a means of self-validation. The Masons claimed descent
> from the masons sent by Hiram of Tyre to build Solomon's Temple.
Naturally,
> these Phoenician masons brought with them secrets of the ancient
Egyptians.
> Thus, fraternal orders developed a quasi-pagan mythology as part of their
> ritual. Fundamentalists in general and conspiracy theorists in particular
> have seized on this, anathematized the Masons and Rosicrucians, and see in
> their rituals a pagan revival.
> Another pagan revival or intrusion of occult influences is that popular
> pastiche of westernized eastern religion, astrology, warmed over
> 19th-century mysticism (theosophy and the like), revived paganism of
dubious
> validity and general feel-good spirituality called the New Age movement.
Of
> course, the phrase "New Age" is too close to "New World Order" to not
> provoke fundamentalist paranoia.
> Both the pseudo-pagan rites of the Freemasons and the New Age movement
> excite millenarian fears as being the religion of the false prophet in
Rev.
> 13:11-15. The facts that the New Age movement is patently silly, that the
> Rosicrucians have been reduced to soliciting new members through ads in
pulp
> magazines, and that the mumbo-jumbo of
> Masonic ritual is nothing more than the usual hokum of fraternal societies
> have not blunted those fears in the least. And, since conspiracy theorists
> point out the great overlap in the ranks of professional politicians of
> Masons and members of the CFR, fears of the Illuminati are revived.
> As an example of how absurd such fears of a pervasive sub rosa paganism
are,
> I can offer my experiences with Masonic organizations, indirect though
they
> were. Out of filial duty I attended a number of officer installations as
my
> parents moved up the ranks as members of the Garden Grove chapter of the
> Order of the Eastern Star, a Masonic organization for women and married
> couples. Having met the other members of the lodge and heard their
political
> and social views, I can safely say that, as staunch Nixon supporters in
the
> Vietnam War years, these people were not Illuminist, neo-pagan
> revolutionaries. It is common at these installations for the newly
installed
> officers to introduce the friends and family members who have turned out
to
> support them. Many of these are from other Masonic women's or couples'
> organizations, such as Daughters of the Nile or the Amaranth. Like the
> officers they had turned out to support, these women were quintessentially
> Orange County Republican. Thus, when one of the matrons introduced one of
> her friends as "the High Priestess of my White Shrine," momentary visions
of
> these ladies indulging in pagan rites and child sacrifice dissolved in the
> face of their obvious middle-class conservatism.
> What stretches credulity even further is the supposed link between New
Agers
> and secular humanists, particularly since the latter generally hold the
> former in absolute contempt. The prime mechanism of indoctrination into
this
> pagan/humanist world system is seen by millenarians and conspiracy
theorists
> as being the public school system. The main tactics are seen as dumbing
down
> students to make them manageable and desensitizing them to such horrors as
> infanticide. The system's chief architect is generally considered to be
the
> late John Dewey, whom they hold responsible for modern failures in
> education. The problem with this view is that Dewey's model of permissive
> education hit its peak in the 40s and was dealt a death blow by the
pressure
> to emphasize math and science at the expense of the humanities following
the
> launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957. That the emphasis in
science
> has not produced better educated students since then is a product of
family
> breakdown, oversized classes, the encumbering of teachers with all sorts
of
> baggage based on social agendas, the pervasive influence of television,
and
> a host of other societal problems, none of which are demonstrably related
to
> clandestine conspiracies.
> As an example of fundamentalist fears that children are being desensitized
> to such horrors as infanticide, consider a brief article by fundamentalist
> author Berit Kjos (pronounced Chos) that appeared in a magazine called
Media
> Bypass. Kjos told of a mother who was trying to restrict the use of a
novel
> called The Giver in the classroom because it contained a scene in which a
> low birth-weight baby is efficiently done away with. The mother felt that
it
> desensitized children to infanticide. Kjos (1995) says of the book:
> Laura's mother knew that The Giver fit into the flood of classroom
> literature that force children to think the unthinkable and reconsider the
> values they learned at home. It also models many of the pitfalls and
> supposed perfections of the utopian school-centered community documented
in
> Goals 2000 and other blueprints for change prepared by the educational
> establishment.
> And now for a dose of reality. I was so intrigued by Kjos's article that I
> went to the library and read The Giver, which was the winner of the 1994
> Newbury Award. The novel is about a futuristic society which is seemingly
> utopian. As the story unfolds it becomes more and more evident that the
> society is quite sinister. Old people, incorrigibles and problem babies
are
> "released." Up to the point of the climactic scene which Laura's mother
> thought would desensitize kids to infanticide, "release" has by
implication
> been a mystical letting go. When the hero actually views the "release" of
a
> low birth-weight baby it turns out to be a horrific scene in which the
baby
> is killed by lethal injection and disposed of down a garbage chute.
> Desensitizing? Hardly! The scene is traumatic. If anything it is likely to
> turn the kids into right-to-lifers.
> Laura and her classmates were required to make their own decisions as to
> whether the society portrayed in The Giver was right or wrong, though how
> they could think it right is a bit hard to figure. Fundamentalists object
to
> such exercises. This is curious since they are the first to complain about
> "dumbing down" in the school system. One would think that exercises that
> make kids examine why they believe what they believe would be the opposite
> of dumbing down. Yet, when it comes right down to it fundamentalists want
> their children taught by rote. This is fine as far as it goes.
> Multiplication tables, rules of grammar and proper spelling can and should
> be laid out in black and white terms. But children also need to exercise
> their minds. And here is the rub. People can only be taught to think for
> themselves by questioning the validity of ideas. People who question
> invariably start questioning the Bible or at least how their parents and
> other authorities interpret it. Since children who question things may end
> up questioning their parents' premillennial beliefs, fundamentalists, when
> it comes right down to it, really do not want their kids to think.
>
> The Importance of Conspiracy Theories
> As part of the crisis that provokes the creation of a world government,
Gary
> Kah sees the possibility of a Syrian attack on Israel, with a possible
> nuclear exchange as part of the hostilities. He cites the failed, or as he
> puts it, as yet unfulfilled prophecy of the destruction of Damascus in Is.
> 17:1 (that Damascus would be destroyed and never rebuilt) as possibly
being
> fulfilled in this exchange, thereby validating both the prophecy and his
> scenario. That prophecies that clearly were not fulfilled are assumed to
be
> awaiting fulfillment-some day-highlights the impossibility of
falsification
> built into the fundamentalist scenario. There is in essence a basic
> dishonesty that pervades both millenarian prophecies and conspiracy
> theories. There may also be, among those who accuse the rest of us of
being
> dupes or agents of a conspiracy, some hidden agenda of their own. Whether
it
> is from sloppy research or sympathetic politics, Gary Kah has quoted
> extensively from so-called historian Nesta Webster to back up his
assertion
> that the Illuminati/Freemasons are responsible for Marxism and everything
> else of evil in the world. Michael Howard says of Nesta Webster (1989, pp.
> 161-162):
> Typical of these politically motivated conspiracy theorists was Nesta
> Webster who wrote a series of best-selling books in the 1920s exposing the
> so-called Jewish world domination plan. She claimed that the Jews, working
> through secret societies and the international banking system, were the
> eminences grises behind the revolutionary movements of the eighteenth and
> nineteenth centuries…Webster believed she was the reincarnation of a
> countess who had been executed in the French Revolution and was convinced
it
> was her duty in this lifetime to expose the secret societies who had
plotted
> the 1789 uprising…Webster revealed her true political colours in 1923. Her
> books had reviled Marxism as the modern cover for the "Jewish menace" and
in
> that year she went a step further by joining the British Fascist Party….
> That dishonesty which makes prophecy unfalsifiable and fails either by
> insufficient research or design to report the fascist anti-Semitism behind
a
> cited author may not be entirely limited to that of an intellectual
nature.
> It might well be cynically, cold-bloodedly monetary as well. While I
cannot
> read the minds of those fostering millenarian fears and thus cannot
> absolutely prove a deliberate attempt to deceive on their part, there are
> ample motives that might lead them to fan millennial paranoia.
> Consider Hal Lindsey. According to the back cover of his book, Planet
> Earth-2000 A.D., he has authored 11 books. All of these are on the
end-time
> and all are best-sellers in the Christian market. Their combined
world-wide
> sales exceeds $35 million. In addition to this Lindsey has speaking tours,
> talk show appearances, etc. While I have no idea what portion of the sales
> go to him or how much of this money he devotes to charities, it is a sure
> bet that his celebrity status makes for a more attractive life than merely
> pastoring a local church would.
> Then there is Don McAlvany, editor of The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor,
> another conspiracy theorist who mixes stories of implanted biochips as the
> Mark of the Beast with ominous predictions of impending economic collapse.
> He advises his readers to buy gold and silver as a hedge against the
coming
> disaster. Interestingly enough, McAlvany is a dealer in silver and gold.
> Could it be that that his financial interests are to some small degree
> shading his prophecies?
> While such end-times speculations as seeing the Mark of the Beast in the
bar
> code, Visa cards, and implanted computer chips, or fears that Hong Kong
> Gurkhas will be imported into the U.S. for crowd control may seem harmless
> and rather silly, the avid adherence to the belief that these are the last
> days has serious consequences in that it motivates the way a sizable bloc
of
> American voters views both domestic and foreign policy. In his book The
Mind
> of the Bible-Believer, Edmund D. Cohen points out that it was extremely
> fortunate that the Soviet Union was run by atheists. Since they did not
view
> the world as being fulfilled in an apocalyptic vision and did not believe
> that they had immortal souls that would survive a nuclear armageddon, they
> had a built-in reason to avoid an atomic war. Hal Lindsey has many times
> boasted that his lectures at places such as the Air Force Academy are
always
> heavily attended and well received. Perhaps we should thank God that the
> Cold War ended before one of Lindsey's enthusiastic listeners pushed the
> nuclear envelope too far.
> Even with the end of the Cold War, there are consequences that voters
> holding the premillennial mind-set may plunge us into. Consider that their
> belief in the end-times has not been in the least bit shaken by the end of
> the Cold War and consider that the sweeping Republican electoral victories
> of 1994 were accomplished by a shift of only 2% of the voters coupled with
a
> low voter turn-out. Since one of the voter blocs influencing that swing to
> the right consists of fundamentalist Christians looking forward to
> Armageddon, defense spending will likely not be based on rational
> considerations alone. Further, an aggressive, even bullying foreign policy
> could emerge, particularly in terms of our dealings with the Islamic
nations
> and Russia.
> While the influence of premillennialists may well prove a windfall for
> defense contractors, it could easily have a disastrous effect on how the
> government deals with internal issues. Consider the example of the
infamous
> James Watt. As Secretary of the Interior, it was his job to enforce
> environmental regulations. As a premillennialist, however, it was his
belief
> that there was no point in defending the environment since the world was
> going to end soon and the whole thing would be destroyed anyway. There is
no
> end to the number of problems this rationalization could be applied to.
Why
> worry about the problems of homelessness or drug addiction? The world is
> going to end soon. Why bother using our taxes to fund vaccinating school
> children? The world is going to end soon. Why bother reforming injustices?
> The Lord is coming back to institute a perfect society in a few years at
> most. Particularly when the financial benefits of more defense spending
and
> less emphasis on environmental and social programs fit so nicely with the
> eschatology of the premillennialist voters, we will see how destructive
are
> the fantasies woven by Hal Lindsey and others of his ilk.
>
> Bibliography
> Cohen, E. D. 1988. The Mind of the Bible Believer. Buffalo: Prometheus
> Books.
> Howard, M. 1989. The Occult Conspiracy. Rochester, VT: Destiny Books.
> Kah, G. H. 1992. En Route to Global Occupation. Lafayette, LA: Huntington
> House Publishers.
> Kjos, B. 1995. "Serving a Greater Whole." Media Bypass. June 1995.
> Lewis, D. 1993. Prophecy 2000. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Press.
> Lindsey, H. with C.C. Carlson. 1970. The Late Great Planet Earth. Grand
> Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House.
> ___. 1994. Planet Earth-2000 A.D. Palos Verdes: Western Front Ltd.
> Lowry, Lois. 1993. The Giver. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
> McAlvany, D. S. (ed.) 1994. The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor. August
1994.
> Universal Jewish Encyclopedia. Landman Isaac (ed.). 1941. New York:
> Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc.
>
> Bibles
> Revised Standard Version. 1952. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons.
> Zondervan Amplified Bible. 1987. Lockman Foundation (eds.). Grand Rapids:
> Zondervan Publishing House.
>
> back to ARTICLES
>
>
> © Alan Howard
> EMAIL - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
.
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