Man’s Delusion of Godhood - Part 1

During the Tribulation, the Antichrist will masquerade as God. We are already seeing the end-time tendencies that lead to this pinnacle of delusion about our own divinity. Today, these mostly appear in the way people deal with death and the climate. The answer that God gives in Revelation is as striking as it is highly relevant.

Revelation 13 shows us the emergence of the beast, the Antichrist. Verses 5-6 make it clear that it is a human being. The beast has a large mouth for blaspheming God, and makes war against the saints, overcoming them. Verse 8 tells us that all who dwell on the earth whose names are not written in the Book of Life, will worship this beast. And so, the Antichrist puts himself in God’s place, accepting worship as God. In Scripture, only God the Father and the Lamb (the Lord Jesus) are worthy to receive worship (Rev 4−5). Not even the angel, who served as a divine messenger in transmitting the revelation, would permit himself to be worshiped (Rev 22:9).

Worshiping people as divine has occurred through all of fallen man’s history. Think of Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus: He believed himself to be a divine incarnation, making it imperative that he defy the God of the Hebrews. Or King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3, who commanded everyone to bow down before a statue. It’s entirely possible that this statue bore Nebuchadnezzar’s own features. His self-idolization becomes even clearer in Daniel 4, until the living God deeply humbles him and the arrogant king bows before God. Another example is the Roman imperial cult, which was becoming increasingly pronounced at the time of the first Christian churches.

The self-deification of dictators continues through history, right up through Hitler, whose administration’s plan after final military victory was to proclaim Hitler as the new Messiah. At the same time, all religious denominations were to be abolished, with their places of worship converted to Hitler shrines (with the exception of Islam, Buddhism, and Shintoism). Idolatrous Hitler-worship was also evident in the cry, “Heil [hail], Hitler!” which revered him as a savior.

This principle is also found in Marxism, communism, and socialism. God is done away with, and man claims primacy. Karl Marx was an ardent hater of God. Also consider how these ideologies’ leaders are venerated during their lifetimes, but especially after their deaths: Lenin’s mausoleum in Moscow, or the cult of the deceased Kim Il-Sung in socialist North Korea. The same can be observed in many other world religions or systems through history. This tendency will eventually mature as it never has under the Antichrist. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4, Paul writes of his coming:

“Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God.”

Man makes himself the focus rather than God, claiming the honor that belongs to God alone. The Antichrist’s appearance is simply the final, dark culmination in a development that has been emerging for generations. Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:1-2: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self…”

According to Deuteronomy 6:5, we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and might. In the last days, however, the exact opposite (sinful love of self) will come to fruition. If we read further in 2 Timothy 3, we see that this trend isn’t just among those who call themselves devout Christians.

The circle closes

Revelation 13 describes the final rebellion against God, which culminates in the worship of the coming Antichrist. As we read in verse 4, the dragon—Satan—confers all of his power upon him. This should truly make us shudder. And yet, this maturation of evil and darkness is nothing new in terms of its basic structure, even though it represents the high point (or better said, the low point) of rebellion against God. In Revelation 3, what began in Genesis 3 with the Fall of Man comes full circle. Satan’s lie in Genesis 3:5 was that man could be like God, knowing good and evil, if he ate of the forbidden fruit. And man seizes God’s place. We should add that Genesis 3 also shows us how Satan upends the order of creation, in which the living God is rightfully above all. Then comes mankind, created in God’s image. Man and woman are equal before God, but not identical. The man is meant to take on the position of leadership and responsibility. And finally, below man are the animals.

Satan turns this order upside down. He comes in the form of the serpent, an animal. Then he begins making false promises: not to the man, but to the woman. And lastly, the living God comes as an evil spoilsport. If we observe our time closely, we’ll see how it is inspired by this same spirit.

Something else is important in Genesis 3. When man wants to put himself in God’s place, it doesn’t just originate from some wrong idea, but is always connected to a dark or devilish inspiration. That is why the Antichrist of Revelation 13, who receives his power from Satan, puts himself in God’s place and claims worship for himself as a human being. It is only when we take this into account that we can understand the ideologies and neo-Marxism that are spreading today. They’re not simply wrong ideas, but they have to do with the increasing influence and spread of darkness.

As I mentioned earlier, Karl Marx was a staunch God-hater. He wanted to overthrow God from His throne. He expressed this in an appalling way in his poem Invocation of One in Despair, in which a man expresses his intent to put an end to God and take His place himself. Man’s delusion about his own divinity, which eventually matures toward judgment in Revelation 13, can also be found in National Socialism. Hitler is the prime example, as someone who claimed divine worship for himself. And that wasn’t all—National Socialism ideology had the aim (or “religion”) of creating the God-man. That was the background of their demonic and profoundly anti-Christian racial doctrine. Viennese psychologist and anthropologist Wilfried Daim was a member of the Catholic resistance movement while Austria was under Nazi occupation. He has delved into the occult and esoteric background of this ideology, and quotes Hitler as making the following statement:

“The two varieties of people will very quickly develop away from each other in opposing directions. One will sink below the level of humans, and the other will ascend far above the level of humans today. I’d call the two varieties God-man and mass-produced animal.”

This delusion of divinity was based on Hitler’s thoroughly pagan, esoteric concept of Nordic man. He wanted to create the God-man, the master race. His horrific hatred of the Jews and all things related to the God of the Bible, stemmed from this worldview. But there is still something to be learned from it: When men attempt to realize their delusion of godhood, the result is always profound cruelty. The beast of Revelation 13 turns against all who don’t worship him with extreme brutality, waging war against the saints, the faithful remnant in Israel, and those who come to faith in this time.

This brings us to the present-day transhumanist movement. Its representatives clearly condemn and reject both National Socialism and anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, the same basic delusion exists in transhumanism (although it manifests in a very different way). According to Wikipedia, transhumanism “advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity, cognition, and well-being… Some transhumanists believe that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with abilities so greatly expanded from the current condition as to merit the label of posthuman beings.”

Transhumanists believe that biotechnology, digitization, and artificial intelligence can help us create a new kind of elite or divine humanity. Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari expressed this desire in his bestseller Homo Deus—A Brief History of Tomorrow. To Harari, every concept of God is just a myth or story. He also rejects a human spirit or soul, as we understand it from the Bible. The next step, as he puts it: “Having raised humanity above the beastly level of survival struggles, we will now aim to upgrade humans into gods, and turn Homo sapiens into Homo deus.” Science is the greatest good, and God is abolished or declared dead. Mankind functionally takes His place through knowledge and scientific discovery.

As I mentioned earlier, this darkness-inspired delusion of our own godhood will ultimately culminate in the Antichrist. If we read the Book of Revelation in light of the spirit of the age, we’ll see that God’s judgment strikes humanity precisely where it thinks it can overstep its boundaries.

Man’s delusion of godhood and overcoming death

In Revelation 1:17-18, our exalted Lord reveals Himself to His disciple, John: “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’”

Death and Hades, the realm of the dead, are a power that is hostile toward God, and their power can seem personified. We know that both biological and eternal death are the consequence, the payment due, for sin. As children of God, we can confess that our Lord has conquered death and taken away its power. So in these verses, we see Him as the One who has the power and sole control over death and the realm of the dead—this dark, destructive power.

Since our life is solely in God’s hands, it isn’t our place to end our lives through suicide, or to end the lives of others in any way (which includes abortion). Because our life is completely in the hands of the Lord Jesus, Paul says in Romans 14:7-8:

“For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”

We are in His hands and He, not man, determines the time of our death. And our death is only a passage and homecoming to eternal glory.

But man believes in his delusion of godhood, that he has the key to death and Hades in his own hands. This happens in two ways: He believes that he will abolish death in the near future or at least postpone it for a long time, through the help of biological science, genetic engineering, advancing digitization, and artificial intelligence. This delusion also causes him to believe that he can determine the time of death himself—either through abortion in the case of someone else’s life, or assisted suicide in the case of his own. Physician-assisted suicide is already gaining popularity in the United States, legal in 11 states at the time of this writing, and has been legal in Canada since 2016. Quoting from the aforementioned book by global idea generator and thought leader Harari:

“In reality, however, humans don’t die because a figure in a black cloak taps them on the shoulder, or because God decreed it, or because mortality is an essential part of some great cosmic plan. Humans always die due to some technical glitch. The heart stops pumping blood. The main artery is clogged by fatty deposits. Cancerous cells spread in the liver. Germs multiply in the lungs. And what is responsible for all these technical problems? Other technical problems […] And every technical problem has a technical solution. We don’t need to wait for the Second Coming in order to overcome death. A couple of geeks in a lab can do it. If traditionally death was the speciality of priests and theologians, now the engineers are taking over.”

He continues by explaining which resources are being invested in by high-tech companies (especially those in Silicon Valley) that have promise for extending life and overcoming death. Although he doesn’t share the view of some that death will be overcome in the 21st century, he sees overcoming death as humanity’s purpose in principle. Other inventors and developers such as Ray Kurzweil, are working on extending life by at least 100 years, and eventually defeating death altogether.

There is reason to fear that developments of this nature and our efforts at progress will exact a cruel toll. We must counter this delusion of godhood by maintaining that Christ alone holds the keys of death and the realm of the dead.

We are grateful for all good medical progress, which can also extend lives for many people. But this needs to be distinguished from mankind’s delusion of godhood … of being able to overcome death and endlessly extend life expectancy beyond the biblical limit.

Bearing this in mind, it’s important to note how God reacts to man’s delusion of godhood concerning death and judges him. It’s not the sole reason for the judgment, but the judgment does destroy that delusion.

In Revelation 6, the first five seal judgments take place. Three of the four apocalyptic riders bring death and destruction, the very things that man thinks he can overcome on his own.

Verse 4 describes a fiery red horse whose rider takes peace from the earth, and his sword causes people to slay each other. This is also judgment on man’s delusion that he can create lasting peace, even without God.

In verse 5, the rider on a black horse appears. Despite all of our seed technology and genetic engineering, he brings a tremendous famine to the earth (although some continue unaffected, living in luxury).

Verse 8 speaks of the rider on a pale horse. His name is Death and the realm of the dead, Hades, follows him—the very thing that man thinks he can overcome in his delusion of godhood. This rider is given authority to kill a quarter of the people: by sword, hunger, plague, and wild animals. Everything that man thinks he can control without God, becomes the source of his destruction.

One small note on this: Some people today want to reintroduce wild animals to areas where they have died out. This is partly due to evolutionary thinking, which teaches that animals are on the same level as humans. The judgments described in this passage of Revelation are downright horrifying. I’m not saying that John is only writing about reintroduced predators (although this is a threat that man is creating for himself), but the twisted thinking of mankind—far from God—becomes clear.