Evangelical Christian leader Russell Moore revealed this week that many evangelical pastors have become alarmed that their Trump-loving congregants have become so militant that they are even rejecting the teachings of Jesus Christ.In an interview with NPR, Moore said that multiple pastors had told h…

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Then maybe they should have corrected them when they were just starting out on all the crazy, rather than endorsing the dude that’s literally the closest thing this world has seen to the anti-christ.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Pretty sure while the cult of Hitler was insane… and definitely… more… hitler never actually claimed any pretense to being any sort of Christian-god-sent whatever.

        Nazism was a sort of its own thing, and not particularly Christian, where the cult of Trump definitely is.

        While Jews were far and away the largest group that suffered in camps and the holocaust…they were

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        considering his cult worships as the 2nd coming… he himself described himself as “the chosen one”, parrots reiligious one-liners while leading those who do worship him- and yes, that is the appropriate term- away from the teachings of christ.

            • Gsus4@feddit.nl
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              1 year ago

              Yea, it’s an archetype, but it’s funny how some predictions are oddly specific for such a broad recurrent archetype:

              “… a despicable person will arise… a man of contempt… to whom the royal honor has not been rightfully conferred. He will slip in when least expected and will seize the kingdom through flattery and intrigue.” Daniel 11:21

              “He will cause deceit to prosper, and he will consider himself superior… He will use every kind of evil deception to fool those on their way to destruction, because they refuse to love and accept the truth that would save them.” Daniel 8:25, 2 Thess 2:10

              “But then the court will convene, and all his power will be taken away.” Daniel 7:26

              From these, the Antichrist’s description is starting to sound like Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil and how that is scarier than fictional supernatural evil with horns and pitchforks.

              • hglman@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Probably bc these are descriptions of prior people summarized. Like its all happened before.

          • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Easy to do when you can’t read, yeahs lay off the guy… (/s, please, trump deserves far more. Continue!)

            • StarServal@kbin.social
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              1 year ago

              Trump is capable of reading. I mean he read Mein Kampf. He just loses interest in it if he doesn’t see his name mentioned every x number of words.

        • j4yt33@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          He’s just a fascist wannabe dictator and some people want that. It’s really nothing new or special

          • fiah@discuss.tchncs.de
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            1 year ago

            yep there are many like him around the world, and I’d wager to say that most of them are actually potentially more dangerous than Trump because they’re smarter and actually have an agenda of their own. What really did the USA in was not the person Trump, but rather that the whole republican apparatus and especially the corporate media went all in with him after it became clear he’d win the primaries. With the 2 party system, that means that basically half of the country was set up to deify him in a way that they haven’t really tried with previous republican candidates

      • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Remember, the Antichrist is not just “really evil person”. It’s “really evil person who convinces a lot of people that he’s a good person and a prophet”.

          • Kabe@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The term is open to interpretation, but it certainly doesn’t simply refer to non-christians.

            Some interpretations view the antichrist as a specific individual or figure who opposes Christ in some hypothetical, end of days type situation, while others see it as a broader symbolic representation of a certain figure or person that represents the complete opposite of Christ’s teachings or the spirit of Christianity.

            “Anti” can mean “opposite” just as much as it can mean “against”.

          • yata@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            That is a whole lot of “probably” and “looks like” disclaimers for such an absolute claim.

            • stopthatgirl7@kbin.socialOP
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              1 year ago

              At the time, it was more the Romans. It’s only after Rome became Christian that the narrative shifted to blame the Jews for everything.

      • Raltoid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If you’re thinking of the modern pop-culture version of the anti-christ, then no.

        If you compare his behaviour to how the bible actually describes the anti-christ, then yes.


        According to the bible he is supposed to:

        • Be a divisive non-politician who comes into power against peoples expectations.

        • Be overly arrogant with great boastful speeches

        • Lead many people away from Jesus and cause them to blindly follow himself.

        • Lead a very powerful military nation

        • Publically threaten people as a common tactic

        • Be very focused on winning/conquering

        • Rise to power through collusion, lies and corruption.

        • His election into power will by some be seen as a miracle

        • Will use his power to enrich themselves and their allies

        • Spread lies and falsehoods as truth, general lies and deception.

        • It specifically says he will reward his allies with land/property

        • Become angry and threaten the “King of the south”(Mexico)

        • Be supported by some of the nations most powerful religious leaders(super churches and such support him)

        • See themselves as above everyone else

        • Disregard the needs of the most vulnerable in society

        • Some will rise up in protest and face violence in return


        Some things that are almost too on the nose:

        • Only see one term

        • Attempt to stay in power but defeated by the legal system

        • Use his armed forced to remove people from a church for their own nefarious needs

        • During their rule there will be large inflation in food cost, while oil remains cheap

        • There will be a pandemic and mass death during their rule

        • Supposed to worship the “god of fortresses” (in reference of walls and keeping people out)

        • Followers will wear a mark on their forehead (maga caps)

            • Raltoid@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The bible has a bunch of different references to oil, as it was used a lamp fuel(and some rituals).

              This one refers to Revelation 6:6

              And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

              From KJ or this one from the NIV

              Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

              Referring to how the price of food would go up, but oil and alcohol would not.

              • prole@sh.itjust.works
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                1 year ago

                Pretty disingenuous to suggest that has any relation to fossil fuels and using them in internal combustion engines.

                But, then again, that’s what Christians excel at: rationalizing their awful beliefs.

        • j4yt33@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          That’s an interesting read, thank you! Although I would still say most points on this list still apply to many fascist dictators

          I’m not sure about the point regarding “one term”, surely the bible didn’t know about the system of presidential terms? How exactly does it say there? Same about oil, what is the biblical equivalent?

          • Revan343@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            It’s all from the Benjamin Corey post I linked in a reply to the comment you’re replying to. The BIble is talking about different oil-- either food, or lamp oil. 'One term’s is a happy coincidence, the bible says ~3.5 years

      • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Man there was this (satirical, but not inaccurate) blog about how trump actually matches many features of the anti-christ, but I can’t find it now, only a bunch of blogspam copying it

      • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I agree, you don’t have to look far down the road to see even worse (DeSantis).

        • El Barto@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Bro. There is a guy who literally started a war over nothing, killing and raping indiscriminately, and threatening with nukes.

          And there is a dude in a nation of more than a billion people, running concentration camps, possibly committing genocide as we speak.

          And to define the Antichrist, you’re focused on U.S. politics???

          • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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            1 year ago

            Someone mentioned this somewhere else in the thread, but the antichrist isn’t just a super-duper evil dude; he’s an evil dude with a religious following. He’s a guy where people voluntarily worship him. Not because they’re forced, not because they’re apathetic and just going with the flow, they willingly worship him. Additionally, trump has had pastors claim him to be sent from God, or that he is some kind of savior, which, iirc, is another characteristic of the antichrist. As evil as the others are, I’m pretty sure trump fits the bill better than they do.

          • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            There is a guy who literally started a war over nothing, killing and raping indiscriminately, and threatening with nukes.

            I wouldn’t be surprised if DeSantis did this, given the opportunity.

            a dude in a nation of more than a billion people, running concentration camps, possibly committing genocide as we speak.

            Now that definitely sounds like DeSantis.

      • donuts@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Just think about how many of the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth) Trump embodies. Like… fuckin’ all of them?

          • donuts@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            I’m not saying it’s “special”. Hypocritical, counterintuitive, ironic, sure…

            What I’m saying is that Trump represents the very antithesis of what Christianity preaches. He is a very high-profile and public embodiment of their “seven deadly sins”. Which, to me at least, is very anti-christ-like. I’m not sure why you need that spelled out…

            • j4yt33@feddit.de
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              I mean, if we’re being all passive-aggressive I’ll also happily point out that the seven deadly sins have nothing to do with the antichrist technically, they are not even mentioned in the bible afaik. So bit of a crappy argument really

      • Hogger85b@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        It may be there are worse people but they are more akin to satan (e.g Hitler was atheist (well not really he believed in the occult but didn’t go down religion). Trump claims to be some sort of Jesus figure to religious so hits some.of the “pretends to be Christ” points of.the antichrist

        (Edit Hitler religious views are very complex but I still. Stand by point he less acted like “Christ” figure than trump)

        • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’m going to take issue with your simplification and classification of Hitler, and the wider Nazi ideology here because I think this is very important given some of the patterns we see repeating from the early 20th century. There was a lot of nuance to the public and politically expedient viewpoints that Hitler professed regarding religion throughout his life versus his private viewpoints which colored the ideological mechanisms of Nazism.

          It is tacitly incorrect to state that Hitler was an occultist, or an atheist by modern convention.

          Regarding Occultism: He detested the mysticism, neo-paganism, and occult underpinnings that Himler brought to the party (specifically the SS). Hitler made it very clear that he considered these viewpoints to be sophistry and repugnant to his own view of the world, but he allowed them in so far as he supported Himler as a leader of the party.

          Regarding atheism: Hitler, likewise, considered atheism to be an ideological evolution of Jewish Bolshevism that he believed was essentially responsible for the rise of Soviet Communism. It is well documented from close confidants who surrounded Hitler, and wrote about his views contemporaneously that he believed atheism was an ignorant and dangerous return to the animalistic hedonism of humanity.

          Why am I bothering to quibble over these distinctions? Well, for one thing because truly dangerous political leaders generally possess the intelligence, as well as tactical forethought to manipulate and twist at the very heart of the tribal labelism that proliferates through the uneducated masses of society. They then warp these convenient in-group / out-group dynamics to fit the needs of their political ambitions. We see this today, although in a much lazier fashion, with the alliance of convenience between the neo-conservative and christian nationalist movements that have proven to be a foundational undergirding to the “Trump Cult” as it were.

          We should all understand the complicated historical relationship of religion and politics from the 20th century. Especially regarding the manipulation of those relationships which lead to the rise of authoritarianism on a scale never seen before or since. Lest we go down that same road again, except the next time will invariably be the last time because the power of the technological panopticon we are now capable of creating would enslave humanity or destroy our species.

          PS: If you’re interested in understanding the complexities of the religious and ideological positions espoused by Hitler throughout his life as well as the Nazi party as a whole this Wikipedia article on the subject is actually really good.

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler