The Adventists, as least the ones I studied with, were pretty clear about one thing: the Papacy would serve as main instrument of Satan’s evil machinations. Some figure within the Catholic church, or with the church’s blessing, would mercilessly run the earth for a time, including persecuting all those who didn’t allow the mark of the beast on their forehead or right hand.
It was my other favorite epic story as a kid: Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, in breathlessly impending real time, a great malevolent evil ultimately topped by goodness and justice, but only after a period of excruciating torment and sacrifice. It was clear-cut, exciting, thrilling, and harrowing. A battle to end all battles, a chance to participate in the heroic climax of all human destiny.
And, of course, it was all bullshit. I eventually came to realize that this paranoid, Catholic-bashing, literal interpretation of Biblical prophecy is merely one in an inexhaustible number of spins on two allegorical, fantastic books that serve as Rorschach tests for whatever one fancies. Look long enough and hard enough and whatever you want to see in them you will see: the Roman Emperor Nero was the Anti-Christ; the number 666 represents the last names of Hitler or Kissinger; the ten horns of the great beast are the barbarians who conquered Rome; Russia is the nation of Gog; the Great Whore of Babylon is Hillary Clinton; ATM cards are the mark of the beast.
Whatever one’s take on these admittedly fascinating and cryptically worded works, this much is true: the same strain of paranoia and self-righteous persecution that created them in the first place as a way to help keep a nascent, fragile religion together in a united battle against oppressors, has now filtered into the mainstream, with people who’ve never even cracked the Bible absolutely convinced of conspiracy theories of all kinds.
Propaganda, all is phony. Unless…
Thirty years after the first Omen we have a new version, one that, based on the previews, is even more steeped in end-of-the world symbolism than the first. Which makes sense. The first time The Omen came out may have been the last time this country truly felt at peace. It was 1976 and America, though suffering from the hangover of its two long, national nightmares — Vietnam and Watergate — was a long way from the Patriot Act. A token, utterly harmless Republican stumbled around the White House, national gas prices averaged around 60 cents a gallon and "Love Will Keep Us Together" was the smash summer hit.
Article comments
1 - Josh
That was interesting to read. I thought it was particularly hilarious to call Hillary the "Great Whore of Babylon". I wish I'd thought of that one first!