In the movie, The Three Musketeers (1993), starring Chris O’Donnell as D’Artagnan, there is a scene in which Cardinal Richelieu (Tim Curry) made a pass at his beautiful, but seductive spy, Milady de Winter (Rebecca de Mornay) and, when she responded by pressing a dagger point into his ample girth, he made a comment. “With a snap of my fingers, I could put you back where you were before I rescued you.” Or something to that effect. Her immediate response, which he nervously laughed off, was far more sinister. “With a flick of my wrist, I can change your religion.”
Ah, yes. A simple flick of the wrist. In an instant.
“Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.” (Revelation 18:10b)
Did you get that? Flick of the wrist! In one hour the entire world system has been overturned. How close are we to that actually happening?
I am American, born and raised in the United States of America. Most of the people who read this article will be in the same situation. We are Americans. I have lived my entire life in the dominance and sway of the American way and, if I believed the narrative pumped into everyone from nursery school onward, I would not understand why things are as they are. WTF is the matter with the rest of the world anyway? Can’t they see that our way, the American way, is so much more superior than everything else? And, why do they not embrace it wholeheartedly as an improvement on what they now hold to be true? How in the world can anything be any better? WTF is the matter with them, those heathens, those unbelievers, anyway?
Unfortunately, this attitude is prideful and arrogant and goes against the Spirit of God, which stresses humility before God and service to others as the only proper method of operation. America is not good at this, no matter the propaganda. God opposes the proud (James 4:6)1 and is the REAL kingmaker (Daniel 2:21, Daniel 4:17, Psalm 75:7, Romans 13:1). Donald Trump, contrary to his opinions and beliefs, is nothing more than a tool in His hand.
I look at Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu as modern-day, real life clones of the villainous cardinal in Alexandre Dumas’ novel, The Three Musketeers. Out of pure hubris, arrogance, and a lifetime of exercising power to get whatever they want, they are basically saying to anyone who opposes them, “We can send you back where you came from, back to the Stone Age2, or, even better for us, to Hell itself.”
Iran is basically saying, “With a flick of my wrist…”
Now, if only it were that simple. We laugh at the incident and move on to the next scene. But God…3 God is the one who decides how the situation works out and it is quite possible, increasingly likely, that events unfold in which we see the current political and financial world system upended and destroyed almost instantly, virtually overnight, in one day, so to speak. If that happens, there will be millions and billions of people who will be shocked and in despair at the speed of the implosion.4
“Alas! Alas! Oh, Babylon, Babylon, where art thou?”
And many will have to change their religion because the Beast they worshipped is no more.
- I wrote about this just a few days ago. See here. ↩︎
- Without saying so, they are following the example set by Richard Armitage, a top official at the State Dept. during George W. Bush’s run-up to the Afghanistan invasion. Armitage is alleged to have told Pakistan’s president, Pervez Musharraf, that the country would be “bombed back to the Stone Age” if Musharraf didn’t get with the program and allow the US access. Armitage, of course, denied that he ever made the threat. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/09/paki-s27.html ↩︎
- Used in conjunction, this is one of the most profound and powerful phrases in the English language. ↩︎
- To get the full impact of this, read Revelation 18: 9-24, then use your wildest imagination. ↩︎
Note to readers: I have reached a milestone at Poor Roger’s Almanac. This article is #300 in a line of posts stretching back to 2012. I have made a lot of progress–spiritual, emotional, and literary in that time. Nothing is denied, held back, nor paywalled. It never will be. This is my mission in life and I am grateful to have the opportunity to share it with you.
Poor Roger's Almanac 