It is fun, and productive to ask “what-if”. If asked not in a counterfactual way but rather based upon where the evidence and data lead it is not a flight of fancy but rather theory-making. It is how we understand the world; it is the core of trend analysis. But theories require refinement. We all knew, somehow at our core, that Biden and crew were not literally going to activate battalions of purple -haired Gestapo and overturn the final vestiges of the old order. Of course, there was never a non-zero chance that was the plan and that he and his would try that, but fundamentally, even though being concerned about it was legitimate, it was just not really possible, or stated better, it was not sustainable. It was harder to figure Trump. Yes, it is true many progressives feared and made a big deal of Project 2025 but the sum of what they feared was no more possible, in a sustainable way, than what many of us saw as a potential with Biden early in his term. Trump’s first year was, it appears a combination of chaos-agent stuff and paving roads for fundamental change – change that Trump and his ilk will never see through.
Let’s then sit and reason together and ponder some what-ifs. Let’s accept a couple of axioms to begin with, assumptions really that we will treat as law until proven otherwise. First, Trump and what he is and has become is not going to fundamentally change the order of things AND also stick around to rule over it and remake it. Second, Trump does seem capable and on a path of tearing the current order asunder, so much so that ordinary politics will not suffice. People in the US will not merely be convinced to vote for Kamala or some other anti-Trump as a solution. At some point in the chaos magic that seems to be Trump, the very notion of politics as they were will simply not hold water any longer.
It might be a big ask for you to accept those two assumptions as fact for this thought experiment, but I ask for a bit of patience and grace – lets just roll with those axioms, shall we?
Woo-Woo
If you dislike woo-woo, skip to the next section, it is more important anyway.
Aliens, Bigfoot, the Catholic Church's claims of increased demonic possession in the US and the West. These are Woo-woo topics, topics that are not usually dinner-party friendly, fringe, and “weird”. Of course, some are becoming less weird than others as large institutions begin speaking openly about them. The claims of the Catholic Church reference demons are interesting, but let's save that for later in this thought experiment. Aliens, the talk is everywhere. It used to be confined to odd-looking, obscure websites, late-night talk radio, and that very strange guy with the large hair on the “History” channel. It was bigger than all that; there are entire mythologies developed and redeveloped to explain and define what some believe aliens are, “ancient alien” adjacent theories.
What If, the US government comes out very soon and literally provides proof? (insofar as one can trust any “proof” in this age about much of anything) Now, the nature of the disclosure would matter, as in what the government claims the aliens are and do, and what relationship the government itself has with the entities. Let’s assume they claim what many of the people who seem to spend a lot of time around this topic more or less think. That is, the government itself has been and is working with the entities in some way. In other words, the disclosure is not “Independence Day” but something closer to the “space big-brother” notions that some have. What does this change in the world, and more importantly, what does it change in religion, in Christianity?
There are not a lot of hard and clear things in the Bible that say it is impossible that there is life in other places in the cosmos. And by life, I mean, something that resides in our material space, physical, maybe not like us, but like us enough that we could say “yeah that is life”. I would not jump up and down just on specific passages and say it is impossible. However, taking the story as a whole, the metanarrative, it really starts to make no sense, from a Biblical perspective, that if there is some other life out there somewhere that these creatures would come here to see us in the middle of our arc through redemptive history. I will not spend too much time on this, but think it through. It is not impossible that God created all manner of life we do not know about and were not told about; however, the notions of sentient life getting in a craft and coming here, well what of their souls and redemption? Are we supposed to preach to them? Did they receive a revelation about us? That gets messy because their revelation would not be to us but it would affect us, and that would be contrary to our revelation….so….while there may be, or could be, all manner of life out there, for us and they to meet, in our current corrupted state, no, the metanarrative of the Bible essentially says this cannot be.
Of course, the Bible already tells us enough about “aliens” to know what a creature is that shows up claiming to not be from here. It is one of three things, a demon, an angel or a fallen angel. Most Christians do not read those parts of the Bible (Old and New) or skip over the weird words or use a translation that does the skipping for them. Catholics have placed some thought into this. They run telescopes and observatories and various church officials occasionally make interesting comments. To circle back to the Catholic claims of increased demonic activity, Catholic exorcists claim that exorcised demons tell them about the hierarchy of demons and devils that is the opposite of the view that the Apostles, Jesus, and Second Temple Jews seemed to understand as a matter of course. More on that further on.
In this “what-if” we have three camps, people that do not care right now, Catholics that seem to believe something, but that appears to not be that these are demons for some of the reasons already discussed, and finally a few wing-nut Protestants that believe that Jude, Paul and Jesus knew exactly what these things were then and are now. If the US Government discloses tomorrow that they have been in contact with “aliens,” which of those three views will prevail? Clearly, there would be few left in the “I do not care space,” and that would leave the Catholic view and the “wing-nut” minority protestant view that claims these are “watchers” and/or demons. I think in that scenario, the Catholics win. I suspect they would also dump a lot of “knowledge on the world” from their vaults and research. We would be left only with two materialist views of the matter, one Catholic and one secular. The Catholic materialist view would be shrouded in spirituality, but will be, I suspect, a material explanation ultimately.
The New Millerites
We are all familiar with the Millerite Movement and the Great Disappointment of 1844. Thousands sold their possessions and awaited the second coming only to be disappointed. When the disappointment happened, most just shuffled off, some gave up, others sought a more extreme error to explain what just happened. We saw many cults arise to explain the failure, redefine it, and in some cases say “you did not see what you think you saw” but most just moved on, having been made a fool.
What if, the world turns against Israel, maybe disarms it, maybe breaks it apart or fundamentally changes the regime into something else entirely, no longer an ethno-nationalist colonizer regime but something else? Reformed pastors wrote in the early 20th Century how ridiculous dispensational Zionism is as a theological position because “the Jews are scattered, no longer a people, incapable of even tracing their true lineage, they will never be a physical nation”. Of course, they were correct to hold that position, but they were mistaken in not realizing that facts will not get in the way of strong belief. Man can make prophecy seem to come true often. Since 1947, dispensational Zionists have held out the fact that since a geopolitical entity called Israel exists, their eschatology and hermeneutics must be true.
What happens when and if it is no longer true that a geopolitical entity, a regime of ethno-nationalist mostly European people claiming Jewish ancestry hold power in a nation-state called Israel? Five years ago, it would have been impossible to ask this what-if; it seemed absurd and impossible. Today it is possible. The world has begun to notice the genocide, the continual war-mongering, and now that war-mongering is about to adversely affect the rest of the world’s population. Famine, starvation and privation are real possibilities as a result of continued war against Iran. The US might want to extract itself from that mistake, but many in Israel want blood. It is now obvious that it is impossible to bomb Iran into submission via conventional means, even using the might of the US. What-if once the US finds a way to walk away from this, Israel uses a nuclear weapon and Iran retaliates by destroying the infrastructure of production, forcing the famine and death many fear? This is not hyperbole; it is possible, it is very possible. Given all the facts, the history and the growing “noticing” what would the world do? It would disarm, and regime change Israel, Israel would cease to be an ethno-nationalist colonizer entity but something more representative of the various populations there (and many of the settlers would simply leave).
What would a dispensationalist Zionist do with that fact? No Third Temple, none of it. Would they do like some of the Millerites did and create even weirder theological explanations to say they were right but people just did not see what really happened? It would be interesting; most would do just what most Millerites did, walk away feeling a fool. But of course, that is not the end of it.
Most Christians are not dispensationalists. Catholics love to say ‘protestant’ and ‘Catholic’ and many never say they are a Christian unless they stress the Catholic. If we stick with their labels we can say, most protestants, even in the US, are not dispensationalists. Oh sure, it is hard to find a place where the ideas of dispensationalism have not slipped in, many non-dispensationalists are Zionist even if they do not know it or use that term. But Catholics paint all evangelical protestants as dispensationalist Zionists (most Catholics do, either out of ignorance or hate, I do not know). This what if is really a what-if about Christianity and less about some KJV-Only firebrand with a Star of Remphan flag behind him on the pulpit. Hegseth is “reformed,” and he says some utterly insane and incorrect things. The entire MAGA movement, whatever is actually left of it, has been adjacent to a lot of weird theology, blowing shofars, and all the rest. When the US fails, and Trump is the point man for that failure, he will sweep with him not just the obvious wing-nuts but all of evangelical Christianity. The “moderate” Catholics and their ecumenical allies will be able to say, “see the fruits of your error”.
Conspiracies
We have all seen the meme of the fellow standing in front of a whiteboard with a string running from one dot to the next. The meme implies a vast, spider-web of intrigue crossing history and controlling the world. This is of course, true, and most people who believe that it is true are totally wrong. Of course, there is a grand conspiracy. It began as soon as some angels decided to disobey God; it manifested in the Watchers taking women, it intensified as the Serpent sought to kill the woman so that the Child could not be born, and mankind offered redemption and a favored place beside God. People have always loved to say “all wars are banker wars” or “It is the jews” or the “Jesuits” or “masons” or etc., etc. I would say, yes….and smile and say no. No human institution could run a conspiracy so complex and complicated for so long, no matter how secret or organized. Clearly, some groups have been used, some groups have taken the lead from time to time. Often, seemingly one group opposes the next. And yes, humans are greedy, of course, bankers profit from wars and like them. Humans conspire all the time. The very existence of the nation-state of Israel is the culmination of at least a century and a half of many conspiracies running in parallel. There is no human power to control history so completely. Satan wanted it for his purposes; God allowed it for his purposes. If we get too comfortable with easy human explanations, we too will be asking “what-if” when and if one of our favorite conspiracy boogeymen is taken off the field entirely. All of the “that” that we think we know are merely tools, willing tools who benefit often, tools that do not fully know what they are doing or why, they may think they do, but they are all manipulated, fallen and corrupt humans that work part of the plan of evil. But they are not in charge.
Integralism
Which brings us to one of the favorite boogeymen, historically speaking, since Martin Luther, the Catholic Church. Ah, it is the Jesuits, or Opus Dei, or the Trads, some of you say….yes, and no. There are billions of Catholics, and many of them are actual Christians. The Catholic church is rotten with made-up human traditions and pagan syncretisms; this is an undeniable fact. It ruffles Catholics to say, most will not hear it, but history speaks to it. When I read Augustine, I do not find Mary, not in the Catholic sense. Augustine writes of her in a Biblical sense, from what we are told in the Bible. He extrapolates only a bit, in the claim of her sinlessness before giving birth to Christ. The remainder of what he wrote, one can pull straight from the Scripture. Mary did not become the “Queen of Heaven” until 431 AD and then officially in 1954 via an encyclical from Pious XII. Modern Catholics read a lot into Augustine, he never said, he revered Mary, as Jesus did, but that is it. There is no scriptural justification for “relics”, the notions of incorruptible flesh, these “miracles” also occur in the occult. When Catholic exorcists deal with demons, if you listen to them describe how and what they do, they are performing spells, witchcraft. That the demons then tell them things that confirm Catholic angelology and heavenly hierarchy is not proof that Catholics are correct; it is a testament that demons lie. The very idea that men can declare a person a Saint, assuming we can truly know the heart of another when we are told we cannot even know our own heart – that is error. To pray to those individuals as intermediaries by name, it is blasphemy. But there are Catholics who are Christian. It is impossible to even place a Gideon Bible in a hotel dresser and not expect that the truth will eventually penetrate a heart somewhere. If the truth is there, even covered in error, manmade tradition and pagan syncretism, the truth will sometimes speak to those called to hear it. But alas, many Catholics, particularly those so enamored with hanging onto Latin traditions, display very little of Christ in their attitudes. I fear many of the most virtuous of them are not Christian at all.
But Catholicism has much going for it, in this what-if thought experiment. The conspiracy theories about the Jesuits are not untrue, just mistaken, as discussed. Catholic power extends deeply into institutions in the West or more specifically, in the US. The Catholic church probably does have “facts” it is prepared to present upon disclosure of “aliens”, it probably has ready answers for a shocked populace. The Catholic Church has remained free of the association with Zionism and all its crimes and murders. When the world finally has had enough of all that, Catholics will not be to blame, and as Catholics happily point out, “it is all those heretic protestants that made this happen”.
But there is more. Look at all of our social problems. Poverty, greed, corruption, graft, and institutions that we cannot trust. Institutions that barely still function. Politics, no matter your favored side simply no longer functions. We know communism does not work; it does not matter that a fringe does not believe that fact. Likewise, capitalism simply does not work. Oh, it worked for speculators, bankers, and greedy men, but it no longer really works for a culture. If you took every issue that the everyman gets upset about, stripped those issues of the rhetoric, of the misplaced blame and emotions, and just stuck with the issues, whether that is unchecked police power, injustice, poverty, etc. etc. I think we would find that there is truth to them all. These are problems that should be worked on. Here again, Catholic Social theory has a ready-made answer, common-good. In my estimation, if and when the current system is finally recognized by all to be nonfunctional the only solution on the table that can scratch every itch, regardless of previous political persuasion, is a Catholic solution.
I am not suggesting that the entire US would become Catholic, nor that every program would come from a Catholic voice. We already have a lot of Catholics in Protestantism, the corporate mega-church. These people will do what their team tells them too and if the readymade answer is a Catholic devised solution, these remaining “bastions” of Protestantism (after the dispensationalists become disillusioned and fade away) will be the corporate mega-churches. As we have discussed here, none of those entities are independent; they are part of large networks where ideas flow from top to bottom. They are already very catholic and would, when the time is right, fall in line with this. The theology will follow slower, but it will follow. The corporate mega church is already bereft of solid doctrines, theology and creeds but it does have a solid control structure. It will be a perfect tool for the Catholic order to come.
I am of course a holder of amillennialism; my eschatology is that everything will get worse until the end. As an amillennialist, I also hold to the cycle theory of history, as discussed here often. My view is that near the end it will not look like a dispensationalist rendering, step-by-step with charts and all, but we will see again what we have seen before. A beast empire and a man of sin. The Catholic Church, in my view, will play a role in that. But perhaps all of that is a long way off…what we are seeing now I suspect is judgment on several groups and a cyclical end to an empire and a system.