Let’s try an experiment. Let’s travel back in time to 1820 and view the chaos of 2020 America through the eyes of someone from that era. What would he, or she, make of our present sorry situation? Raging forest fires? Destructive winds and hurricanes? Blood and mayhem in the streets? Our Republic teetering on the edge of collapse? And, most frightening of all, a mighty pestilence sweeping the land killing people by the thousands.

Most folks had only one book in their home library back then, if they had any books at all. And even those who were illiterate, as many were, knew at least parts of what is contained in the Holy Bible. They knew more of it than the average American Christian does today. We may be confused, but they would not have been. Clearly this is the Wrath of God at work. The Great Earthquake of 1811-12 would have been still fresh in their minds. The quake that devastated parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and spawned a religious revival. There would have been a considerable argument over why God’s Wrath had been brought down upon America. Some might have argued that Americans were rejecting God or violating God’s plan for Mankind, which is perfect and holy. Others might have said that people were ignoring God in their pursuit of earthly wealth and pleasure. Those who returned to the fold after the great quake were so numerous that they earned the nickname of Earthquake Christians. All good Christians would have agreed that the Lord God had every right to punish us for our transgressions.

But some might have taken a different tack. Those most familiar with the Bible might have contended that there was a False Messiah loose in America and that he and his followers were bringing the nation to wrack and ruin. Surely nothing fired God’s Wrath faster than the presence of some charlatan out to replace Jesus Christ and declare his own arrival the Second Coming. The Bible is full of warnings about the danger of such men along with helpful hints on how to detect them. Such men were called The Antichrist if they were a major threat to God’s Plan or an Antichrist if they were slightly less dangerous. The difference apparently being that the The’s really expected to pass themselves off as Jesus, and the an’s were just con men hoping to score wealth and political power.

As far as identifying Antichrists, there is almost too much help available. There are lists of anywhere from six to 29 characteristics of an Antichrist. As I’m considering the case of Donald Trump, I’m using an as he is too ignorant of Christianity to be bucking for The Antichrist. I figure that you’d actually have to know something about God and His Plan to deliberately seek to defy Him. No, for Trump, his conversion to Christianity, and Messiah complex, is just another scam. I’ll limit my identifiers to the one’s that most closely apply to him.

An Antichrist is lawless. Trump is not only lawless but he surrounds himself with lawless lackeys.

An Antichrist is a deceiver. “He will come with false signs, wonders and miracles.” Injecting bleach as a cure for the coronavirus? Is that enough of a “miracle” for you?

He is a politician. “Will head up a kingdom by deception which will be replaced by destruction, fraud will give way to force, the wolf in sheep’s clothing will shed its fleece and bare its fangs.” Spot on and as the election nears the fleece is already off and the fangs bared.

He is a charismatic leader who excites large crowds and persuades many to become fanatical followers.

He is arrogant. Will have a huge ego. Will demand that the world worships him.

He is ruthless. Will not be benevolent to others. Cares for none but himself.

He is a godless womanizer. “Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any God! He shall magnify himself above all” (Daniel 11:37).

And finally, He is a destroyer. “He will destroy those who oppose him and will eternally destroy all who believe and follow him.” Take note, MAGAs. Once your hero Trump has destroyed his, and your enemies, he’ll destroy you too…forever.

That’s what 1820’s Americans would think of our current situation and the leader who has brought it down upon our heads. But, of course, what did they know back then, let alone 2000 years before that? We’ve got cell phones, and the net, and Facebook, and all sorts of entertaining bells and whistles. We’ve got all the information in the world at our fingertips…and all the lies and misinformation as well. All the information in the world but not half the wisdom they had back then.

They knew their world then. Sure, it was a simpler world technologically, but no simpler in terms of human behavior. They were well connected to the reality of their world. The same technology that serves us so well in some ways also allows us to live in alternate cocoons of our own fantasy…or perhaps the concocted fantasy of someone they would have called an Antichrist. In a false world where there is no such thing as Science. And if there is no Science, if the link between cause and effect has been severed, then God’s Wrath is a better explanation for what’s happening in America today than the lies that dribble from the mouth of Donald Trump and his stooges.