prophets anonymous

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4.3-4)

One of today’s Just Reporting pieces concerns the ‘QAnon’ phenomenon that is running rampant among Caligula’s most ardent and, apparently, stupid disciples. One can be excused for wondering what such an absurd phenomenon has to do with the just society, or if such imbecilic doings should even be dignified by being reported and commented on. It is such a joke. Why not laugh rather than rant?

It is certainly true, one-thousand times true, that the phenomenon is beyond absurd. There are simply no words that can adequately describe the moronic phenomenon. Perhaps the best we can do is simply pile up as many derogatory adjectives as we can think of—I have just gotten started with my “stupid,” “absurd,” “imbecilic,” and “moronic;” there will be more to follow. Nevertheless, inadequate as it is, we must declare the phenomenon to be the latest sign, in a long series of signs, pointing to the mad state or rebellion into which Caligula and his hordes have plunged our poor, weakened, and vulnerable nation. Truly, “madness is in their heart.”

Yet, after all these adjectives--“stupid,” “absurd,” “imbecilic,” “moronic,” and “mad”—we would be remiss if we did not at least add this modifier: evil. It is with this adjective that we come to the phenomenon’s intersection with the just society.

After promising Moses that after his, Moses’ departure, he would, from time to time, appoint prophets in Israel, Yahweh issued a stern warning.

“But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
And if thou say in thine heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?’
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18.20–22).
 
Whether a simple punker, a delusional sociopath, an AI parlor trick, or another cleaver and conspiring Russian agent, ‘QAnon’ is being treated seriously by a not un-sizable portion of Caligula’s mad hordes—looky there, I can use double negatives too! No doubt, many of them call themselves “Christian.” To their way of thinking, ‘QAnon’ is what scripture would call a prophet. We agree. He, she, or it is a prophet. If the sheer absurdity of his, her, or its “doctrine” were not enough to expose him, her, or it as a fake prophet, certainly his, her, or its now numerous false prophesies should have given away the game—which prophet was it that uttered their false prophecy that Obama would take away all our guns and set African Americas on a rampage through white America? How’d that work out?

But the radical and rabid right was undeterred and undisturbed when such false prophecy failed to come to fruition. Clearly, we are not dealing with rational beings.

‘QAnon’s’ genius, however, is not to be found in prophesies declared in riddle. Rather, it is in his, her, its knowledge of his, her, its irrational audience. He, she, it perfectly understands that millions, tens of millions of Americans cannot endure sound doctrine. They are, as the true prophet, Paul, said so long ago, drawn by their own lusts to receive any one who confirms the madness that has already infected their poisoned hearts and delusional minds. Any fable will do as long as it confirms their twisted and demented logic.

I believe that most of them are not stupid. Most of them are simply evil (I know, I know, I ping pong back and forth on this. That’s what madness does). In the final analysis, they know, I have to believe, that ‘QAnon’ is full of gibberish, mumbo jumbo, and that stuff that comes out the rear end. Yet, in their madness they prefer, as Paul witnesses, a fable to the truth. Caligula’s election confirmed it. The support he continues to garner seals it. ‘QAnon’ simply feeds the hordes whose appetite for madness is insatiable to yet a new level of delirious and delicious madness. The truth, if they could discern it, would not set them free. It would damn them to hell. They know this, even if they will not know it. This is evidence enough of their willful madness.

So, you see, no society can be called a just society that has so many of its citizens adore and follow the latest version of the tried and true false prophet who offers madness. No society can be called “just,” or long endure, that has so many of its citizens crave fable over truth. For it is not only the false and presumptuous false prophet that “shall die.” Sadly, it is also his, her, its mad adherents that “shall die.”

Can we say that our hope is not vain if we hope and pray that “the day of grace” has not passed them by, “both temporally and spiritually”? (See Mormon 2.15).

I don’t know. I am no prophet. Just a simple preacher. So, I’ll leave it to the prophets to decide if the madness is terminal; whether “the day of grace” has passed; or whether “their damnation slumbereth” or has been fully wakened.

But, as for me, my prayer will be,
​
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? 
   and why art thou disquieted within me? 
Hope thou in God:
   for I shall yet praise him,
      who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 42.11)

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies… And many shall follow their pernicious ways… And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Peter 2:1-3).