Men of Lawlessness
by Douglas Farrow, First Things:
St. Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians that the Day of the Lord cannot come “unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition,” is revealed. But “the mystery of lawlessness is already at work,” he adds. The man who gives full expression to that mystery, who completes the evolution of lawless humanity and leads its final rebellion, is the last but not by any means the first such man. Therefore, Paul’s warning is as useful today as at the end of the age.
Paramount Leader Xi Jinping is one such man of lawlessness. He has shown himself willing “to oppose and exalt himself against every so-called god or object of worship,” ruthlessly suppressing freedom of religion in China, stripping houses of worship of their crosses or other symbols, and subjecting everything and everybody to the interests of the Party. Xi’s policy of “Sinicizing” all religious expression renders religion entirely subservient to the state. Paul said the man of lawlessness would eventually seat himself in the temple as if he were God—some fathers believed that meant the Church, which Paul taught was the new temple of God—and Xi seems set to do just that.
This is the man with whom Cardinal Parolin and his colleagues in the Secretariat of State, at Pope Francis’s behest, are prepared to do business. On Saturday they signed a deal that reportedly gives the Party the primary role and final decision in appointing Chinese bishops in the Catholic Church. This deal requires the Church to reverse previous excommunications, permitting the Party to dictate even sacramental discipline. It brings the Party directly into the internal deliberations and deeds of the Church, whether administrative or evangelical or sacramental. It would be fundamentally wrong even if the state in question were the Holy Roman Empire rather than a godless, merciless, and murderous state like Communist China. The unity of which Cardinal Parolin has spoken will be a unity, not under God, but under Xi, who will stamp out the underground churches and force everyone into one Party-approved fold.
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