Consequences of Sin in Modern History: the Dragon, the Beast, the False Prophet, and Frogs

Japan is facing an epic social and economic crisis because of its anti-fertility crisis of more than a generation. China, too, is approaching this as a terrible consequence of its long-standing forced abortion policy of one-child-only.  Older persons are petrified since there is no one take care of them.  Fertility rates are so devastatingly low in some European nations, especially the hyper-socialist and liberal Northern Europe, that even secular demographers have to admit that in a mere few decades or less, such nations will be Moslem, since only the Moslems are generous with life. 

Consequences of the sexual revolution are threatening the economic stability of our nation and others.  Divorce and abortion have left painful scars on our youth, and the media does not want to admit it.  Crime persistently spreads from inner cities further outward, propagating layers of suburbs that expand futilely from the epicenter of darkness, only to postpone the inevitable.  Greed and corruption have brought down markets and banks. The expansion of substance abuse has led to brutal systems of gang warfare, whose means of death are gruesome and unfathomably horrible, with exchanges of revenge and counter-revenge that never cease.  Communism for over half a century destroys hope and morale in entire nations.

From whence has it come?  Alas, first in spiritual strife.  The disciples of Incarnate One divided and failed to love one another.  The Schism, the Protestant Rebellion. Pain, hatred, arguing, bloodshed.  So the world rejected the Gospel and clung only to Reason, the last vestige of truth: deism, rationalism, Enlightenment.  And yet, just as Protestants confounded Scripture ad infinitum, all the more was that same Reason confounded in that intermediate age before our modern times.  Consequently, just as the confounding of Scripture led to the rejection of Scripture, the confounding of Reason led to the rejection of Reason: atheism, materialism, secularism, relativism, hedonism, and so forth. Atheism is contrary to reason because it denies God’s existence, which can be known from reason by the dogmatic declaration of Vatican Council I: “The existence of the Creator can be known from the things He has made, De FIde”. Materialism is contrary to reason, since the human soul is also able to be known from reason. And the reality of the human soul speaks to every human heart that no man, neither great or small, rich or poor, slave or free, can ever find his ultimate hopes and joys in the things merely of this world.  Relativism and pluralism are diabolically opposed to reason, since they deny that various religious doctrines can even be compared to see if one is better than another.  Reason and the heart can easily say, given a set of proposed beliefs, that some would be better to believe in than others, and even that some doctrines are downright illogical, if not even irrational and contrary to a pure heart.  And so forth.

This world, then, of the twentieth century until now, is a world without reason, a world in darkness, at least, that is, of Europe and her children civilizations. And once reason is gone, the darkening of the soul, only temporary amounts of time hold back the spiritual darkness from making its wrath manifest in the flesh and the world.  Hence we are back to the opening statements of the bleakness of the European and derived landscape.

And yet, the devil would have had us believe that these antitheses to reason were not lies at all, but rather a prescription for true peace, happiness, and prosperity.  The world is starting to see that they were duped.

Now, the apocalypse has the dragon, we know all too well. What if the Apocalypse, in its wondrous idealism, conveyed these mysteries.  Well, I believe it does. Let us explore them:

The Diabolical Trinity

It seems appropriate that the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet can image a diabolical Trinity. In fact, this works well in idealism. Let us explore it. Clearly, if the dragon is the father of lies, the beast can be seen as the incarnation of these lies in human history in any age that is largely opposed to God. The false prophet can then image these lies themselves, spoken between the dragon and beast, in much the same way in which the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. For reference, in the article on the False Prophet and his two horns, I saw the two horns of the false prophet as the two great lies of the fall themselves, recycled in all ages of sin, summarizing, in their principles, all that has ever been wicked or will be:

Anti-Baptismal Disposition: The antithesis of the Baptismal disposition: no faith, no repentance. “Seek not to know, love, and serve God in this life. Rather, believe as you wish and do as you wish. Don’t listen to God or any claimed revelation from God, whether by man or book. Decide for yourself what is true. And don’t do what God has told you to do, or what any claimed Revelation of God has told you to do. Rather, do what you want, whatever is convenient. You will be better off in all these things.”

Anti-Marital Disposition toward God: As for seeking your ultimate fulfillment in joining your Creator in the next life, rubbish! Rather, seek your ultimate fulfillment in figurative fornication with the creation, in this life: materialism: seeking your ultimate goal in this world, rather than the next!”

Moving on, one can find profound meaning in the shore, the sea, and the earth. More specifically, the dragon takes his position on the shore, the first beast in the sea, and the false prophet [second beast] on the earth. We have seen in that same article just referenced that the earth is like a foundation, the Church, the pillar and “ground” of truth. (1 Tim. 3:15) The sea is a place of chaos, heresies and lies, tossing man to and fro. The shore would seem to be somewhere in the middle: part lies and part truth.

In this view, the devil, who takes his position on the shore, can be seen to hide behind half-truth, confounding the world with ideologies and ideas that have some truth and some falsehood, much like the extremes of right and left, each of which has some good and some bad.

From this, total godless indifference arises: the beast from the sea. This could image the objective reality of godlessness. It has no foundation, only lies, and, in the end, it will be tossed and drowned to its death.

This is in contrast to the second beast, the false prophet, who, rather than taking residence in the sea, like the first beast, arises from the earth. How would we see this? Well, it is initially very problematic, because the earth is a true foundation of truth and grace, whereas the false prophet, who images the very lies of the fall themselves, is in no wise a foundation. In fact, the lies of the false prophet, which govern the beast from the sea, appropriately lead to the death and annihilation of the sea. Ah! But alas, this is perfect imagery! What does the dragon do except present his lies as good? Yes! That is exactly what the dragon does! He presents his complete lies as though they are the complete truth! Hence, the false prophet, the fullness of deception, presents itself as the fullness of truth and stability: it stands on the earth and masquerades as though it has its origin in the earth (the truth and grace of the Church). Therefore, the result is that the total lies of the devil, which spell both physical and spiritual doom for humanity, (the objective sea of death, the first beast) are presented as a supreme foundation for prosperity and peace (the subjective lie of placing them upon the earth, the second beast)

Expectedly, the deception takes root in humanity, harshly verbalized in the same Apocalypse 13: “Who is like the beast, and who Is able to wage war with it?“ (Apoc. 13) Translation: “Behold, we have a supreme materialistic power and grandeur, and we have no need of God or religion. What will stop us from the ultimate paradise, or utopia?” Interestingly, this strikingly resembles Babel, where God says, “There will be nothing they shall not be able to do.” (Genesis 11:6)

The Frogs, Unclean Spirits

I would now like to offer what I feel to be a profound interpretation of chapter 16 that supports where we have gone so far, and this, an analysis of the frogs, or unclean spirits, which emerge from the mouths of the diabolical trinity toward the close of the bowls of wrath.

Apocalypse 16:

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon that great river Euphrates; and dried up the water thereof, that a way might be prepared for the kings from the rising of the sun. And I saw from the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are the spirits of devils working signs, and they go forth unto the kings of the whole earth, to gather them to battle against the great day of the Almighty God.

Obviously, we have to interpret Scripture in light of other Scripture and Tradition. Toward that end, we can ask, have we seen frogs before in Scripture? Absolutely! More specifically, frogs were considered divine by the Egyptians. Hence, man, looking down upon a mere animal, elevates it in delusion to a higher place in the hierarchy of existence than himself.

In other words, the following situation exists:

In reality, man is above a frog, immeasurably so.  A frog is just an animal, no intellect, no will:

Man

|

frog

But when man considers the frog a god, he places it above himself! 

frog

|

Man

This is utterly profound. How? In the sense that if the man puts himself in the place of the frog relative to God, we get Lucifer and self-deification. What do we mean? We mean that, if man descends down to the place of the frog and likewise puts God down to his former place, then the parallel situation introduces the first lie of the fall, “you shall be like gods, knowing good and evil,” meaning, if man elevated the frog immeasurably above himself, then, when man is a frog, he elevates himself immeasurably above God! Hence, man is deifying himself by associating himself with the frog.

That is, whereas God is immeasurably above man:

God

|

man

when man makes himself a frog relative to God, man places himself ABOVE God!

man

|

God

When man places himself above God, he likens himself to know better than God “good and evil”, and since he is himself “above” God, he finds his ultimate fulfillment in himself and the Creation, in place of God.

Secondly, the frog has a peculiar a nature: it is amphibious, that is, able to live on land or water. From the standpoint of our earth/sea analogy, we saw that man can only truly live in peace and prosperity on the “earth,” the foundation of the truth and grace of God, which are the teachings and sacraments of the Church. On the other hand, we also saw the contra-positive: without the earth of truth and grace, man will drown in the ocean of lack of love and truth, tossed to and fro by the deceptive and harmful ideologies, ultimately slaughtering one another without the foundation of morals.

Hence, per the first deception above—man telling himself that is he like a frog—he is deluded and deceived into thinking that he can live, spiritually, on the earth or the water. Bingo! Man thinks he can swim in the sea of life without God and morals and still have the foundation of peace and prosperity. He won’t drown: the lie of the false prophet above!

To conclude, the seduction of the frogs tells humanity that they can preserve the foundation of peace and prosperity without regard for God and His truths and laws, and merely with materialistic power and dominion, with merely secular means. The CCC corroborates this, in saying that the modern form of secular messianism is a perverse lie of antichrist.

The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism. (CCC 676)

The Ten Horns “Burn Up the Harlot”

For concluding imagery to leave us, we can revisit the New Babel article. Drawing from this writing, the imagery of the harlot seated upon the beast with ten horns, who eventually burn her up and consumer her (Apocalypse Chapter 17) perfectly and vividly portrays our preceding theology. How?

Well, firstly, for recollection, we have seen that the harlot is the symbol of the very second lie of the fall itself, materialism, or the anti-Spouse of God—that part of humanity that does not want a spousal relationship with God but only a frivolous and brute relationship with the world and its goods. Then, we also saw that whereas the decadence and illusory prosperity in this godless harlot can last for a time, eventually the negation of God’s morality and truth brings corruption, and man, not having peace with God, all the more becomes an enemy of his fellow man. Hence, all the more has every corrupt empire or godless society suffered collapse.

This is astonishingly manifested in the harlot, who, after riding the beast in the first scene unharmed, suffers destruction at the hands of the “ten kings”, who “burn her up” and “eat her flesh”. How might we see this? Well, we read that there is a tradition that sees in the ten horns of the beast and dragon the ten commandments, upon which they make war with. This would very compellingly provide a solution to the mysterious sense in which the one form of evil, the ten horns, destroys the other, the harlot. It will make sense, as follows:

Godless empires that are decadent, materialistic, and blasphemous (the harlot, man fornicating figuratively with the world instead of joining with God) almost always have a “fornicating partnership” with the negation of the Ten Commandments (the ten horns of the beast). That is, they care neither for God (no true religion) nor for their fellow man and the human-to-human moral law (disrespect of authority, drunkenness, abortion, gossip, sexual immorality of all kinds, greed, dishonesty, and the like …). Too, for a time, the contract lasts, just like the fornicating and drunken teenager enjoys his illusory lifestyle for a time. But lo and behold, eventually, the corruption (the negation of the Ten Commandments, the ten horns of the beast.) starts to catchup with the materialism and decadence (the harlot), just as the teenager begins to suffer the consequences of immorality [addiction, failed relationships, selfishness, and so forth]. Then, the fleeting peace and joy slowly implodes: it slowly burns up and falls.

However, this actually enables us to conclude a beautifully positive note: as the kingdom falls, the text of the Scripture reads…

Apocalypse 17:

These [the ten horns] shall fight with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, because he is Lord of lords, and King of kings, and they that are with him are called, and elect, and faithful.

For God hath given into their hearts to do that which pleaseth him [burn up the harlot]: that they give their kingdom to the beast, till the words of God be fulfilled.

Here, again, is a difficult passage: how can evil “carry out the will of Christ”? The profundity is seen in the way that God is able to use evil for good. For, by allowing the world to see the true fruits of its blindness in epic tribulation resulting from its immorality and corruption (the ten horns burning up the harlot), the world is able to see the error of its ways, repent, and come home. In this way, the Lamb conquers both the Woman and the ten “kings”, when society comes back to God.

This is indeed the hope that the Church is trying to have in the midst of the modern turmoil and darkness: that even if a terrible chastisement must yet come in our age (per Fatima, many other approved Private Revelations) because of the sin of the world--burning up our current materialistic utopia of wonder and prosperity with the consequences of so many evils--abortion, euthanasia, greed, sexual immorality of all forms, and so forth—the Lamb will conquer this great antithesis to the Ten Commandments and bring spiritual peace to humanity, at least for a time. O New Eve of the Heavens, may your Immaculate Heart Reign Soon!