The Pope, the President and Dispensational Hermeneutics

There's something not a little amusing about seeing pictures of Obama with Francis the Roman Catholic Pope. Conspiracy and so-called Prophecy buffs will be having a field day.

However despite their fears and wary visions of a One World Religion, the truth is these two have little in common.

Obama may have at one time been a bit more Leftist in his vision, but the past five years have demonstrated that he's anything but. His policies have maintained the status quo in the business and military wings of American power. These actions and policies are hardly in accord with the visions of Francis or the hopes of the Western Left.

In the social sphere he has attempted (and largely failed) to effect change, and on these points he also diverges from Francis who though less careful in his language and more generous in his disposition maintains the official conservative line on matters theological.

Both men would like to see the poor of the world receive a helping a hand and yet ironically many would argue that both men stand for policies which harm the poor.

These are not value judgments, just observations.

The One World Religion won't be found here. While I don't believe the Bible teaches us to expect this concept there is (in a way) a One World Religion that has already been in existence for some time. Humanism goes back to The Fall itself and is ultimately at the heart of all false religions. It is a religion with a thousand faces.

It infected Papal Rome a long time ago and in actuality is at the very heart, nay the very soul of the American Ideology... which most Christians have synthesized with Biblical Theology. In doing so they like Rome have created a hybrid religion, something that looks (at times) like Christianity but is anything but.

In that sense, the two men represent the same demonic force.

They are agents of the Dragon, but I don't believe this has anything to do with Russia, China, Israel, a revived Roman Empire, a rebuilt Temple, a One World Religion, a One World Currency, or a Seven Year Tribulation. These views are the fruit of a gross misreading of the New Testament and what it teaches regarding the Kingdom in this Age and the Age to Come. The hermeneutics of Dispensationalism have blinded its adherents. Rather than elucidate the text, they have obscured its real meaning.

While their view is sensationalist and exciting to read and speculate about, the truth is actually far darker, ominous and dreadful and they are blind to it.

And sadly many of these Evangelicals who will tremble at the thought of the potential conspiracies these men may represent... they themselves are part of the darkness and evil, the apocalyptic symbolism that they fear.

It is a sad and tragic irony that they are in fact part of the 'delusion' which they are so afraid of missing.