Is the anarchy, destruction and intolerance following the killing of George Floyd, a result of widespread racism or a sign of the outpouring of lawlessness prophesied in these last days?
READ TIME: 4 Minutes
The Immediate Response of Lawlessness
We have seen an explosion of rebellion, anarchy and intolerance over the month since a policeman killed George Floyd. While the death of George Floyd showed that we need to do more to address racism, the response has further divided us.
This tragedy was an opportunity for a peaceful push for change. As Dr. Martin Luther King demonstrated, a persistent, peaceful push for change can make a lasting difference.
But in this case, the response can be summed up in one word – lawlessness.
Lawlessness showed its face in armed “Capital Hill Autonomous Zones” and calls to defund or even abolish the police. It showed up in the indiscriminate destruction of monuments, violence, property damage, theft, hate and intolerance.
What is most interesting about the word lawlessness is that the apostle Paul described lawlessness as a mystery. In particular, a mystery related to the end-times and the revealing of the antichrist.
So is the increase in lawlessness a sign that we have entered the last days?
The Mystery of Lawlessness
The apostle Paul tells us that the revelation of the antichrist is connected to lawlessness, even referring to him as the “man of lawlessness.”
Paul further tells us that the “mystery of lawlessness is already at work.” The apostle John further testifies to this mystery stating, “…this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”
In other words, the spirit of the antichrist and lawlessness has been in the world for millennia and has influenced world events since.
We see this in Daniel 11, where the “King of the North,” representing the antichrist spirit, “does as he pleases” at three different points in history. This phrase is the essence of lawlessness.
We also see in Daniel 7, that the antichrist, “will intend to make alterations in times and in law,” placing his own desires over established law.
We are also told by Jesus that lawlessness will increase as a sign leading up to the revealing of the antichrist and the great tribulation. Specifically, Jesus tells us, “Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.”
In this same paragraph, Jesus associates this lawlessness with the growing hatred of Christians and the rising of false prophets. Both of which we are experiencing today.
Five Manifestations of Lawlessness
In just over a month after George Floyd’s death, we have seen lawlessness manifest through attacks on five areas of our society.
- Our prosperity,
- Law,
- History,
- Speech, and
- Government.
Lawlessness Attacks on our Prosperity
Lawlessness turns outrage into destructive action, namely widespread riots, looting and violence. Even peaceful protests became a magnet and opportunity for criminal activity.
According to USA Today, criminals used the protests as cover for looting. As one bystander described the scene, looters came in “a tsunami of people, and they just started running,… I didn’t hear George Floyd’s name once. I didn’t hear, ‘Police reform!’ They just scattered throughout the city. …”
And as is the case with lawlessness, the looting was indiscriminate, hitting black-owned businesses as well. This article from Fox Business includes an interview with a black store owner whose store was emptied. He accurately and emphatically stated “THIS IS NOT THE ANSWER!“
Lawlessness Attacks on our Law
After a policeman killed George Floyd the calls came quick to “defund,” even abolish the police. Protest groups like the CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle wanted the police presence removed so that their residents would feel safe. In essence they removed the law. What naturally resulted was lawlessness.
One month later, the once supportive mayor ordered the CHOP disbanded. According to Reuters, she referred to it as it an “unlawful assembly.”
In the same article, the Seattle Chief of Police was quoted as saying, “the CHOP has become lawless and brutal. Four shootings — two fatal — robberies, assaults, violence and countless property crimes have occurred in this several-block area.”
Lawlessness Attacks on our History
The next wave of attacks was against our history through the destruction of historical monuments. Monuments ground us in our history and serve as reminders of where we came from; the good and the bad.
Let’s look at some of the monuments that protesters damaged.
- A monument honoring famed abolitionist Wisconsin’s Col. Hans Christian Heg. This monument now now rests at the bottom of a lake
- According to the state Historical Society, “Heg found an outlet for his anti-slavery views when he was tapped to lead his Union brigade.”
- The Robert Gould Shaw and Massachusetts 54th Regiment Memorial in Boston.
- According to local news WCVB, the “monument recognizing the first all-volunteer black regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War was defaced during Sunday’s protests.“
- The “Forward” monument in Wisconsin was ripped form its base.
- According to the Wisconsin State Journal, it was “designed as an allegory for devotion and progress“
There may be some monuments that represent old racist ideals, and maybe certain monuments should be removed. However, such decisions should be determined by the people, with historians to provide perspective on the monument and the times. Our history should never be subject to mob mentality.
Lawlessness Attacks on our Speech
Lawlessness is against free speech. Free speech means fee speech regardless of your point of view. But more and more lawlessness stamps out free speech through a mob mentality. When this happens truth is lost and and replaced by popular perception.
- The Wall Street Journal wrote about the firing of two newspaper senior editors at liberal newspapers. One editor allowed an opinion piece written by a U.S. Republican Senator to be published, that the paper deemed offensive. The other allowed a caption of, “Buildings Matter Too,” to be published, offending the un-offendable Black Live Matter.
- The WSJ article stated, “The purge of senior editors at progressive newspapers this weekend is no cause for cheering. Their resignations are another milestone in the march of identity politics and cancel culture through our liberal institutions, and American journalism and democracy will be worse for it.”
- Another article by the Washington Times described the extremity of the cancel culture in relation to opinions regarding Black Lives Matter.
- “It’s a really terrifying reign of terror and it is so much worse now than it ever was. We always had political correctness and leftism on campuses. But with this new movement, they are totalitarian in nature.”
Lawlessness Attacks on our Government
There is an undertone of rebellion against the government in these protests.
As BLM co-founder, Patrisse Cullors told CNN’s Jake Tapper, “Trump not only needs to not be in office in November, but he should resign now. Trump needs to be out of office. He is not fit for office. And so, what we are going to push for is a move to get Trump out.… While we’re also going to continue to push and pressure Vice President Joe Biden around his policies and relationship to policing and criminalization. But our goal is to get Trump out now.”
There is a process for removing a sitting President for certain reasons. However, any attempt to do so for reasons not prescribed by the law is lawlessness. Elections are our process. Elections put the power in the hands of the people.
The goal to remove a President six months before scheduled elections convey the intentions of rebellion, of a coup.
Paul addresses such rebellions in Romans, “The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”
The Sign and Judgement of Lawlessness
The lawlessness exhibited over the past month is a sign of the end-times, especially in consideration of the preponderance of other signs manifesting.
See posts such as Coronavirus is Peaking, Famine is Coming, What Come Next?, which revealed a biblical link that led me to state in advance that violence and civil unrest was coming. Also see Is the Violence After George Floyd’s Death a Sign of the End-Times? for more on this topic.
The spirit of lawlessness will increase and ultimately be revealed in the antichrist when the restrainer (satan) has been removed from his heavenly access and comes to the earth in wrath.
I’ll end with a quote from Jesus. “…so shall it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”