Ripheus23

I know prophecies seem malleable enough that people could say "interesting" things in light of them, all the time, but now some "interesting" (to me) ideas about this stuff came to my mind, so...

... firstly, the Book of Daniel is traditionally (and hereof by me) understood as describing the Antichrist as worshiping an unprecedented god, one variously translated as of "forces" or "strongholds." It occurred to me that the development of the American state, in light of the development of nuclear weapons, represents an example of a process that fits the global-domination scenario predicated of the Antichrist's rise. I.e. because nuclear weaponry (and the "national security state" resulting therefrom) weakens the consent conditions required for government to be legitimate, it is possible, just by possessing a large enough nuclear arsenal, for a country to be a de facto ruler of other, even technically perhaps all, nations.

So, the idea would be that the American government, as the Beast from the Sea, worshiped a god of power, unknown to antiquity (since it was unknown until of late, that uranium contained such power as it does), and with the power of this god of power, came to dominate humankind unjustly. And the "ethical theorists" of the US state made an image of this power (the use of nuclear weapons on actual cities), and made for others to worship the image (to believe in the "ethical theory" that justified the use of these weapons on actual cities).

I know that this correspondence is inexact and I tend more to go with the idea that the Beast from the Sea symbolizes patriarchy/rape-culture/et. al. (as a sexuality-derived context of sin, juxtaposed with the harlot-city), but it would be a peculiar fulfillment of prophecy, I suppose...

... secondly, though, then, I did some research and https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-jewish-god-yahweh-originated-in-canaanite-vulcan-says-new-theory-1.5992072 points to a prehistory of YHWH as a god of metal. Uranium is, after all, a metal, so I wonder if there is a way to map the first idea onto this, sort of. Namely, the end-times deception is so subtle as to involve a semantic reference to the actual one true God YHWH, but under a connotative description that is polytheistic? This would, indeed, be profane (to turn the image of monotheism into a polytheistic one, as such). OTOH this would not match on to the description of the Antichrist's worship as directed to an unprecedented deity (except in the sense that, aside from the prehistorical context, no one worships YHWH as if He were a pagan deity [as it were]).