Responding To The Sign Of Our Times

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “We are living in unique times.” Anyone who has a pulse on the signs of our times can readily acknowledge that this statement is true. Whether it be the political, global, or the larger spiritual landscape our times seem uniquely unstable. The more we progress in time, the more we can see that our times are growing in intensity and on the trajectory toward a boiling point. 

Michael Davies’ book “After Christendom” and Austin Ruse’s work “Under Siege” situate how we stand in distinct times in the annals of history. What these authors articulate is that while we’ve been living in a post-Christian society for the last 250 years, we are now transitioning into an anti-Christian society. A post-Christian society is the setting where Christianity’s values no longer are the guiding force that governs the world. Globally, society has gradually immersed itself in secular views. In our post-Christian society, religion has been bracketed to one’s private life and has retreated from the public sphere. To be sure, in a post-Christian society religion is still respected however it has lost its relevance in public life.

Given that the Christian religion has been reduced from society’s influence for two centuries, the culture is now entering a transition period in which they begin to undermine the faith through methodical attacks. Here, we begin the era of moving towards an anti-Christian society. This whole shift happens steadily through cultural leaders in academia, media, and global governing bodies. These powerful institutions have turned on Christianity thus revealing our segue into an anti-Christian world. 

Scads of examples have been surfacing that demonstrate society’s assault on the faith. There was the Harrison Butker speech - which was nothing more than a traditional Catholic view of the beautiful God-given roles of man and woman. This speech was instantly labeled “controversial,” misogynistic, and completely out of step with cultural values. Then, there was the Atlantic piece that was equating the rosary to an “extremist gun culture.” Who can forget the moment when questioning Brian Buescher for the federal judicial appointment, Kamala Harris quipped that his membership in the all-male “extremists” Knights of Columbus organization made him ill-suited for the role. There was the FBI raid of pro-life advocate Mark Hauch. There was the leaked document that showed how the FBI was targeting traditional Catholics as an extremist threat. On live TV a Politico reporter claimed that “Christian nationalists” that dare to claim our rights come from God are a major threat to democracy. In fact, Bishop Barron said this commentary on MSNBC was the most dangerous thing he’s ever seen in a political conversation. Recently, Judge Alito’s wife received heavy pushback for flying a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag. In another shocking move, an army training center in North Carolina referred to pro-life groups as a terrorist organization. Even iconic Christian stories such as Lord Of The Rings have been identified by the British intelligence as red flags for “far-right extremism.”  And to top it off, The NY Times ran an article entitled “Your Religious Values Are Not American Values.” Here, Columnist Pamela Paul wrote: “Whenever a politician cites ‘Judeo-Christian values,’ I find it’s generally followed by something unsettling.”

Therefore, just in a span of a couple of years, we have basic Catholic concepts such as: the rosary, the roles of men and women, being pro-life, claiming that our rights come from God, flying the Sacred Heart flag, being involved in the Knights of Columbus, and reading Lord of the Rings be labeled as “extreme” if not dangerous by the institutional leaders of this culture. These subtle events illustrate the real-time transition from a post-Christian society to an anti-Christian society.  Recently, radical queer ideologues have long been willing to publicly profane Christ and Christian beliefs.

But, perhaps the most striking display of an attack against the Christian faith is what took place in the now-infamous moment from the opening ceremony of the Olympics that depicted Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” painting in a vile parody complete with drag queens and half-naked men surrounding a woman with a topless, blue-painted man lying atop a platter at the display’s center. The exhibit was a blatant mockery of the sacred scene of the Last Supper.  A particular grotesque aspect of this is how one man literally has his genitals hanging out of his underwear. This genital incident was likely not an accident. Rather, it was the activists' idea to push the envelope further and attempt to degrade the sacred scene as much as they could, giving them the kind of artistic shock value they were going for. 

Barbara Butch is the woman who was at the center of the sacrilegious ceremony. Butch admitted on her Instagram account that she was purposefully trying to portray Jesus Christ calling it “The new gay testament.”  

The performance sparked outrage from Christians of all stripes as a revered scene was defiled. As German Cardinal Gerhard Muller put it, “The mockery of the Last Supper by spiritually uprooted and mentally disturbed actors, their instigators and sponsors was an act of spiritual terrorism that turned against their authors.” Cardinal Burke commented, “It is difficult to imagine anything more debased and blasphemous. It illustrates in a most painful way, how what was once a Christian culture has become the theater of Satan and those who cooperate with his thoroughly evil plans.’”

Anyone with a sense of the sacredness would see the absolute disgust in this grossly sexualized aspect of the opening ceremony. As shameless as our culture has become, this blasphemous scene plumbs a new depth of depravity. Yet, there is something more sinister going on with the Olympics in general. On the surface, the Olympics seem great - athletes who have trained with discipline and dedication representing their country in a global competition of sports. But, in its roots, the Olympics represent a religion in itself.

The Olympic Games originated in Ancient Greece around 3,000 years ago. The games were held every four years in Olympia, considered a sacred city in Greece, to honor Zeus the king of the gods. The name “Olympics” comes from Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods. Athletes in ancient Greece often competed nude in the Olympics as a tribute to Zeus and to show off their muscular physique. Nudity was also said to encourage appreciation of the male body and intimidate other competitors. Therefore, the origins of the Olympics were drenched in paganism - commemorating Zeus and the gods on Mount Olympus. These pagan origins hold profound sway in their influence on the world as the gods stories put us under a spell to inwardly appeal to their lifestyle.

It is crucial to realize that paganism is connected to demons. Exorcist Fr. Dan Reehil remarked that all these elaborate Greek and Roman gods are both fabricated by ancient writers and impersonated by demons. Through the stories of pagan gods, demons attempt to make their traits and lifestyle sound attractive. So, someone thinks they are merely following some intriguing mythological god, when in fact they could be following the profile of a demon. As Scripture reads, “The gods of the gentiles are demons” (Psalm 95:5 CPDV) 

Paganism is the cultivation of a complex swath of created gods. These gods personify narcissistic and cruel human attributes. Therefore, paganism writ large is the manifestation of petty ideals portrayed in deities that can be absorbed in sinful human ambitions and personalities. Pagan gods tend to personify the same vain emotions that we experience - envy, dominance, pleasure, pride, etc. However, what exorcists observe is that the qualities of pagan gods mimic how demons tend to operate. In his book, The Occult Among Us, Charles Fraune meticulously describes that paganism is really the worship of demons masquerading under the pretext of a mythical god.     

And here we have the Olympics founded in paganism attempting to return to its pagan soil. Exorcist Fr. Vincent Lampert described the opening and closing ceremonies as a strategic demonic attempt to reject Christianity and celebrate paganism. In short, the opening and closing ceremonies converge together to say we hate God, God is dead, let’s celebrate this and move on to build a new world without any influence from God. 

A quick summary of evil’s origins and its main motivation will help clarify. The high angel Lucifer desired Christ to take on an angelic form so he could further elevate his status to the power of God. However, God showed Lucifer that His plan was not to take on angelic form but to descend lower to absorb human form with a body. Because of this, Lucifer rebelled against God and was renamed Satan. Satan hates the incarnation - when God became man and took on human attributes. Consequently, the devil is hellbent on defiling the human body from being in the “image and likeness of God” and “a temple of the Holy Spirit” to a repugnant parity of this through his influence in the human realm. Exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger illustrates how three of Satan’s high-level demons are operating the LGBTQ ideology and how the rest of his demons seek to eliminate all signs of God in our culture.

The motto that demons uphold is “destroy and build up.” To steal souls away from God they must deteriorate God’s impact in the world and then populate an alternative mode of influence. In sum, take out the real religion and replace it with a pagan counterfeit. The opening and closing ceremonies obediently fit this mold.

First, we’ll look at the opening ceremony by zooming in on the character Dionysus. Dionysus was the blue man that was spread out on a platter in the perverted Last Supper scene. The use of the Greek god Dionysus was intentional as Dionysus and Jesus represent two spiritual movements at war in the world. Recall, the main dish at the Last Supper was Jesus as the Lamb of God. Since Dionysus was presented as the main dish of this Last Supper parody act it is worth delving into what he personifies. At times, Dionysus is known simply as the god of wine-making, food consumption, and festivity. But, he’s also known as the god of insanity, madness, religious ecstasy, and theater. Dionysus is a man born from the thigh of Zeus. He is often presented with both male and female qualities (i.e., transgenderism). He brings madness that makes women act like men and men act like women (i.e., drag). He’s often presented as a jovial wine god of happy-go-lucky hedonism. Here, his motto is to eat, drink, and be merry. But this pleasure-seeking mentality is a mask that hides his true intentions. Underneath, he’s a cruel, licentious god that brings a madding lunacy of a bestial release in sex and violence. He also has cult-like followers known as the “Bacchae.” The Bacchae are his female followers. These women are driven so wild they abandon their children and husbands to run wild in the woods - nursing wild animals, eating them, and having orgies (i.e., feminism and abortion). 

Dionysus has a twisted parallel to Christ in which he has his own list of beatitudes and encourages his followers to eat his sacrifices to become one with his body. As one progresses in his way Dionysus brings civilization ruin. His cult perverts natural relationships (husband and wife, mother and child, etc.) destroys families, and destabilizes society. His followers are called to ascend his mountain with him to become one with him through an eroticism demonstrated in acts of vulgar sex and violence that transgresses all natural bonds. Dionysus’s teaching blurs the distinction between all human and animal relations. In short, Dionysus is the repugnant opposite of Christ. Christ calls us to the ladder of sacrifice and love to encapsulate holiness in us and build a virtuous society whereas Dionysus calls us to the ladder of pleasure, and lust to remove our image and likeness of God creating a chaotic culture. The erotic nature of Dionysus is a perversion of the Last Supper sacrifice of Christ. Therefore, in the opening ceremony, we witness a mockery of Christianity all the while using extreme attributes of Dionysus to elevate pagan ideals over Christian values in our society.

By humiliating the Last Supper and raising up Dionysus, the opening ceremony was their artistic way to say Christianity is over. As Father John Perricone put it, “They boldly trumpeted the end of Christianity, in particular, and of Western Civilization, in general. With their Last Supper blasphemy festooned with deviant LGBTQ+ burlesque, they intended nothing less than a battering ram against Christianity and the civilization to which she gave birth.”

While the opening ceremony represented the end of Christianity the closing ceremony was a glorification of fallen angels - otherwise known as demons. This ceremony represented their tribute to the new religion one must embrace. Although there is nothing new here - it merely was a repackaging of paganism.

Certainly, for those taped into a deep prayer and sacramental life, the images and scenes at the closing ceremony look almost demonic. We encounter images of an armless angel coupled with a golden voyager with spikes coming out of his body evoking the pagan roots of the Olympics. The organizers described the golden voyager figure as the Genie of Bastille and the headless figure represents the Greek goddess Nike (naiki) which means “victory.”  

The Genie of Bastille is a golden statue of a naked angel. Historically, the Genie of Bastille is a monument that honors the French Revolution in which they burned down churches and killed Catholic priests and nuns in public. The French Revolution was the first systemic rebellion against Christianity in which people actively worked to eradicate Christian influence in their lives. They turned the Notre Dame Cathedral into a “temple of reason” and placed a prostitute on the altar. They even went so far as to change the concept of the week from seven-days to a ten-day week just because the seven day week came from the Bible. But, rather than just invoke a rebellious attitude toward Christendom, the Genie of Bastille also stands for implanting another deity into human governorship. 

 The word “genie” is related to the Latin word “genius.” And in pre-Christian Latin people had to worship the genius of Cesar. The “genius” of Caesar was equated to the spirit or mind of Caesar. Genius referred to the deity that dwelled within Caesar. The early church martyrs were asked to burn incense to the “genius” of Caesar - or the god inside of Caesar. Therefore, a genie is like an indwelling of a false pagan god. When you look at the Genie of Bastille closely it is similar to the pagan god Mercury. On the forehead of the genie is a six-pointed star. While the Genie doesn’t have 666 branded on his forehead (in Revelation 666 is the mark of the beast), the six-pointed star seems eerily similar to the six-pointed star on the satanic statue of Baphomet. Therefore, the “genius” or the "god-like spirit” of rebellion against God that was born from the French Revolution reverberated on the national stage of the Olympics. 

In the ceremony, the Golden Voyager character descends down and moves about in the dark. He then receives the Greek flag amplifying the origins of the Greek Olympic Games which were dedicated to the twelve pagan gods living on Mount Olympus. 

The golden voyager is then joined by a statue of a headless armless angel. This statue personifies the Greek goddess of victory called Nike. When the goddess Nike appears she announces a victory in a major battle - be it war, sports, or any form of competition. After the golden voyager meets Nike a hoard of gray figures lifts up the “genie” (i.e. golden voyager) in a modified Olympic ring ascending both the voyager and the ring to its height of victory. On the surface, this looks like an interesting, creative scene, but with theatrical art like this on a global scale, there is always the deeper meaning embedded in the overall messaging of what the artistic display represents at the much larger societal level. While we might think Nike is placed appropriately at the Olympics to portray athletic victory of those who have earned gold, given the pagan and French Revolution backdrop of the Olympics, the larger spiritual sign suggests that she is calling for “victory” in the greater cultural battle in defeating Christianity and its influence in our world. Why does this make sense? The opening ceremony mocked Christianity while elevating the pagan god, Dionysus, who stands as a parody of Christ. Then the closing ceremony honors a figure that celebrates the “genius” of the French Revolution while lifting him up in the cultural stratosphere to honor the pagan origin of the Olympic rings. All of these scenes, symbols, and messaging converge to announce to the world we’ve now transitioned from a post-Christian society to an anti-Christian society. 

The satanic phrase expressed in Latin of “solve et coagula” translates into “dissolve and build-up”. This phrase parallels the combined effort of the ceremonies - remove God’s influence by mocking it and elevate a new ruler that will replace God’s vacant seat. What they are saying is the Christian God is dead let us celebrate and embrace our new created gods (i.e. pagan) which are personified by the selfish human intentions. The formation of destroy and replace corresponds to spiritual physics - that is when you walk away from the one, true God, you’ll inevitably replace Him with a fake god. 

While witnessing the world invoking the spirit of dark powers might sound dreadful to hear, in the big picture overview Christians can see this as the beginning of the end for evil. Exorcists have speculated that the devil is getting louder and more upfront in his visibility in the culture. They theorize the reason he’s become bolder on the national stage is because he knows his time is short, therefore, he’s desperate to take as many souls down with him as he can. The display at the Olympics is really a pathetically frantic attempt to defeat God. It failed. God cannot be defeated. While our world embarks toward an anti-Christian society it becomes a great opportunity for Christians of all stripes to uphold God’s economy of creation and help win back souls. Some of the greatest saints were forged during a persecuted anti-Christian society. Their work during these turbulent times allowed them to grow in holiness and usher in a Christian civilization.

In his book, Under Siege, Austin Ruse articulates that there is no finer time to be a Catholic. We have the opportunity to serve in God's army, to thwart evil, and uphold His kingdom on earth. God Himself called each of us to live in this time and place, to contribute to the renewal of society, the Church, and to vanquish the enemies of civilization. The saints are looking down upon us wishing that they could be a part of this grand battle. Rather than view these dark times with despair, we are encouraged to see our unique times as an opportunity to become saints. We know that God wins in the end - so why not be apart of the winning team.