Last-Days Lawlessness and Power
In 1887, in a series of letters to Bishop Creighton about the moral issues of writing history about the Inquisition, British historian Lord Edward Acton wrote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” His understanding of the human psyche bordered on prescient, it seems, considering the all-out quest for power that saturates the American political culture at present.
Former US Secretary of State Dr. Henry Kissinger famously said: “Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Growing up in Germany as a boy, because of lawlessness among governmental leaders, he became pessimistic about human nature, skeptical about the inevitability of progress, and deeply committed to the values of order and stability. To these ends, Kissinger viewed power, not moral ideals, as the driving force of history. (This according to “Henry Kissinger and the Seductions of Power,” Iowa Capital Dispatch, https://iowacapitaldispatch.com.)
In America, at this late moment of this Age of Grace, we certainly have to consider Dr. Kissinger’s viewpoint, brought about from his experience in the power struggle he witnessed early in his native country. Stability, in this world of lawlessness, in reality, comes not from moral ideals, but rather from power. There is no reasoning from a morally correct position that will calm the paid-for rage/chaos that has swept the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities. The organized No Kings rioters claim they’re protesting the Trump administration’s use of ICE (the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to carry out raids against those who have illegally entered America.
While the violent rioters are held up as bastions of righteous cause by mainstream news media, and the Trump administration is falsely accused as authoritarian and an evil wielder of power, the lawlessness expands to what looks to be prophetic levels.
Jesus, in the Olivet Discourse, told about how things will be as His return nears:
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24: 12 NKJV)
To my way of seeing this, in an important sense, the Lord’s words could be taken that the lawlessness being demonstrated to champion illegals staying inside America stems from the absence of love for this nation as founded. I realize much more is involved in the meaning of Jesus’ prophecy here, but there is an undeniable coldness in the way the vicious rioters throw at police and ICE agents frozen bottles of water and chunks of concrete taken from curbs they’ve sledgehammered, in addition to the property they loot and damage at every opportunity.
It is telling of just how appropriate it might be to consider Jesus’ prophecy for this particular time, because almost half of the members of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate either back the lawlessness by supporting the rioters, or, at the very least, offer no condemnation.
This is because one political party has demonstrated time and time again that power is what they seek above all else. They want to swell the voting base with illegals—almost all of whom will support them—no matter the cost to other, legitimate, citizens. Their aim is to garner all power into their political party. Love for country and lawful conduct within government and society is out the window with this party. In this ideology, they’re in agreement with the ideology that sparked the 1917 revolution in Russia: “The end justifies the means.”
To those on the totally reprobate political left in America today, power is indeed the ultimate aphrodisiac.
Indeed, as Lord Acton presciently said, “power corrupts.” And they—the leftists—seek absolute power, and at any price—even to the undoing of the document that gave us a constitutional republic…the American government that Benjamin Franklin told someone the founders had given we the people (adding, “If you can keep it”).
The lawlessness we witness taking place on an increasing level hourly is but another ingredient that adds to the last-days prophetic puzzle. It is a large part of “all these things” our Lord told us to look for at the moment He is about to come for us in the Rapture:
And when you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28)
Jesus will soon return to this unlawful, politically corrupt planet to establish righteous rule and lawful conduct among earth’s inhabitants. It will take His omnipotent power to bring about His millennial (thousand-year) reign.
But it is His power that can bring about a change in the minds and spiritual hearts of humankind even now, amidst this current time of lawlessness and chaos. He can take away the sinful, destructive thoughts, thus the evil actions, of each person who will receive His grace gift of salvation.
Here again is how to receive that gift that renews the mind and dispels lawlessness while empowering with God’s righteousness:
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)