As we saw in our last post, in this most important series of posts, the quasi-republic of ancient Rome was eventually superseded by Caesarism. What reportedly started out as a representative republic, became a dictatorship, under the most despotic despots of all time. Thanks to Rome’s Imperial Cult, the Caesars enjoyed immunity from all accountability, which enabled them to become the greatest dictators the world has ever known.
With the Imperial Cult dubbing Caesar as divine, not only as a god in the Roman pantheon, but also as the divine embodiment of the divinity of the Roman Empire, and with Caesar also idolized as the tribune of the Roman people, all opposition to Caesar was seen as tantamount to: (1) profaning the Roman pantheon (2) apostasy against the official state religion (3) treason against the Roman Republic, and (4) willful defiance of the will of the Roman people. Under the scourge of such deplorable indictments and the accompanying fiery and pitiless ire of the Roman Empire, only the bravest of souls ever dared to deny the deity of a Caesar or to defy a Caesar’s every dictate. Among the few brave souls who did were those courageous Christian martyrs whose blood the famous Church Father Tertullian called “the seed of the church.”
It is the ever-proneness of a representative republic to devolve into nightmarish Caesarism that makes it the least appealing form of human government to the Almighty. This truth is symbolized in Scripture by the depreciation of Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmarish image, which goes from a head of gold—the despotism of ancient Babylon—to a breast and arms of silver—the rule of law and order in ancient Medo-Persia—to a stomach and thighs of brass—the democracy of ancient Greece—to legs of iron—the representative republic of ancient Rome.
Although, as Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmarish image also proves, God’s preferred form of human government is a despotism, as is represented by the image’s head of gold, it is only most valued by God when the right man; that is, God’s man is on the throne! A representative republic, however, despite its inevitable devolution into Caesarism, which is definitely despotic, is not favored, but most frowned upon by God, since it puts the people’s man on the throne rather than God’s. Far from being a theocracy, the rule of Christ, Caesarism is the rule of an antichrist, who is empowered by a Caesar-preferring and Christ-rejecting people as their absolute tribune.
As we’ve pointed out in previous posts in this series, our Founding Fathers founded America on the model of ancient Rome; that is, as a representative republic. Like ancient Rome, which is represented by the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmarish image, modern-day America, which is represented by the iron and clay feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmarish image—a point we will scripturally substantiate in our next post in this important series—has also devolved into Caesarism. America’s devolution began with the popularism of 1828, which swept a populist candidate for president, Andrew Jackson, into the presidency. This watershed presidential election marked the end of the presidential dynasty of aristocratic blue bloods. It also turned all future presidential elections into popularity contests, as was lamented by Jackson’s political nemesis, John Quincey Adams—the incumbent president Jackson defeated in 1828 and accused of stealing the presidency from him in the Electoral College of 1824.
A couple of other noteworthy things occurred in the watershed election of 1828. First, it gave birth to the modern-day Democratic Party. For instance, during the 1828 campaign the uncouth Jackson was excoriated by his pretentious political opponents as a “jackass.” However, rather than being angered by it, Jackson was amused by it, so much so that he adopted it as the symbol of his presidential campaign and of his new political party. Consequently, the donkey, or should we say the jackass, has served ever since as the emblem of the Democratic Party.
The other noteworthy thing from the 1828 presidential election is how it changed the people’s perception of the presidency. No longer was the president seen as an aloof executive, elected to preside over the nation according to his best judgment, but as the populace’s premier, elected as their voice and viceroy. This revolutionary redefinition of the presidency endowed the president with immense political power, since it not only made him the emissary of the people, but also made any enemy of his, the enemy of the people as well.
For expediency’s sake, let’s fast forward from the founding of the Democratic Party in the watershed election of 1828 to its patron saint, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR attempted to parlay economic crisis (the Great Depression) into a socialist takeover of America. However, his socialist coup de tat failed for several reasons. To begin with, the United States Supreme Court struck down the heart and soul of Roosevelt’s New Deal—the National Industrial Recovery Act. According to the Supreme Court, the federal government, under a monocratic president, had grossly overstepped its constitutional authority in the implementation of a myriad of Roosevelt’s socialist programs.
Enraged by the Court’s ruling, Roosevelt proposed to add a justice to the Supreme Court for every justice who reached 70 years of age. Although he explained his proposal as nothing more than an attempt on his part to lighten the workload of elder justices, no one was fooled by the president’s thinly veiled attempt to pack the Court with justices who would rubber stamp his socialist programs and pave the way for the country’s transformation from capitalism to socialism.
Even members of Roosevelt’s own Party rose up in staunch opposition to his court-packing proposal. As a result, the New Deal became a “No Deal” and Roosevelt was handed one of the most crushing defeats of his political career. Outraged by Roosevelt’s brazen coup de tat, Democratic Representative John O’Connor accused FDR of “arousing the people of this country as they have seldom been stirred up before.” O’Connor went on to add, that the people saw in their president’s proposal “the strength of a dictatorship…[and] the people of this country want no part of a dictatorship.”
When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, he acknowledged his intention to follow in the footsteps of FDR. Indeed, as soon as he was elected, his fellow-Democrats started promising America a new “New Deal.” For instance, Paul Krugman, an iconic liberal columnist with the New York Times, euphorically wrote: “Suddenly, everything old is New Deal again. Reagan is out; FDR is in.”
Of course, much had changed in America from the time of FDR to the election of Barack Obama. Take for example, as we pointed out in our previous post, the fact that Americans had little aversion to President Obama’s dictatorial executive fiats, by which he circumvented both Congress and the courts, in order to impose his every command upon our citizenry. Far from being resistant to a dictator, as John O’Connor alleged Americans were in the days of FDR, many Americans, during the two terms of Barack Obama, revered him as divine. For instance, Oprah Winfrey called him “the One.” Artist Michael D’Antuono portrayed Obama as “The Truth,” painting him as Christ in front of the presidential seal with outstretched arms and wearing a crown of thorns. And actor Jamie Foxx went as far as to confess Barack Obama as America’s “Lord and Savior.”
As the above shows, Caesarism, the deifying and idolizing of the leader of a representative republic, is, as always, taking deep root in America. Even Obama’s successor, Donald Trump, though despised by Obama worshipers, was deified and idolized by many of his own devotees. For instance, conservative author Ann Coulter added to her impressive lists of New York Times bestsellers with her book: In Trump We Trust. Members of Trump’s MAGA Movement were, and many still are, devoted to “the Donald” as America’s last hope and lone savior. All in all, our present-day representative republic, like ancient Rome, is succumbing to a cult of personality; that is, an imperial or presidential cult, which will inevitably demand total obeisance to a deified Caesar, who will not only prove to be this fallen world’s final Caesar, but both the eighth Caesar and infamous Beast of the book of Revelation (Revelation 17:10-11).
In the next post, in this important series of posts, we will turn our attention to the most extraordinary things, which will prove to the open-minded reader that we are presently witnessing the ruin of our representative republic, the iron and clay feet of Nebuchadnezzar’s nightmarish image. It is from the ruins of America that this world’s socialist utopians’ long dreamed of New World Order will soon arise, ushering in the beastly reign of the final Caesar and the most despotic dictatorship in all of human history.