Will There Be a Rapture? Who Is the Antichrist? ‘End Times Survival Guide’ Author Explains All

Drag Queen Story Hour with 'Annie Christ' sparks outrage in Philly
https://www.christianpost.com/news/drag-queen-story-hour-annie-christ-sparks-outrage-philly.html
By Brandon Showalter, CP Reporter | Friday, February 01, 2019
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A drag queen who goes by the name Xochi Mochi reads a story to children at the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library in Long Beach, California, on October 14, 2017. | (Photo: Twitter/@RealOmarNavarro)
A Philadelphia-area community is pushing back against a library's plans to host a drag queen story hour, saying the event is hostile to Christianity in part because the performer's stage name is "Annie Christ."
 
The drag name Annie Christ is a play on words for AntiChrist. What is being called the "Drag Queen Story Fun Time with Annie” is scheduled for Saturday at the Lansdale Public Library.
 
“Lansdale, Pennsylvania, is bringing perversion from the nightclubs and sexually charged pride parades into the library with children,” a Facebook event page for a protest and prayer rally says.
 
“Trusted officials and library staff are promoting a foul-mouthed adult entertainer named ‘Annie Christ’ (a discriminative attack on Christianity) as a role model to our small children, and we must take action. Why is our library taking on such a politically controversial issue especially when receiving our tax dollars?"
 
According to Philly.com, the library has already received several complaints.
 
“There’s definitely more complaints about this than any other event we’ve done,” said library director Tom Meyer, but support for the event is "overwhelming,” he said.
 
"One of the tenets of our mission here is to celebrate cultural diversity in the community, and I think a lot of the parents are interested in that and also the message of the story time, about acceptance and inclusion,” said Meyer who's unphased by plans for potential protests. 
 
"Library branches in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania suburbs, and South Jersey have run similar events with drag queens since 2017; the Free Library of Philadelphia alone has hosted more than 50 of them, according to Andrew Nurkin, deputy director of enrichment and civic engagement. Currently, the Fumo Family Library Branch in South Philadelphia is hosting a series of drag-queen trivia nights, including one Feb. 13," Philly.com reported.
 
Another drag queen named "Brittany Lynn" is putting on an event at the Please Touch museum in Philadelphia. “We’re not pushing any agenda. We’re just giving a view of diversity and acceptance that isn’t so heteronormative,” the performer said.
 
Writing on his blog at The American Conservative Wednesday, author Rod Dreher, who regularly documents how fringe sexuality has made inroads into the public domain, noted how outlandish the event seemed.
 
"What kind of Christofascist could possibly imagine that there’s an agenda present in these things? And I can’t imagine why some folks in the Philly region are troubled by a public library hosting a children’s story hour led by a drag queen named 'Annie Christ' (Antichrist — get it?)," he mused sarcastically.
 
"Life in post-Christian Weimar America, folks. Drag queens named Antichrist invited to read stories to children in public libraries."
 
Drag Queen Story Hour started in San Francisco, California, in 2015, where it was launched to provide "positive and unabashedly queer role models" for children and now has chapters in 40 states and in other countries.
 
In 2017, parents in Long Beach, California, also spoke out against the Drag Queen Story Hour when the Michelle Obama Neighborhood Library hosted a drag queen named Xochi Mochi who dressed as a five-horned demon to read to children.

Will There Be a Rapture? Who Is the Antichrist? ‘End Times Survival Guide’ Author Explains All
Jan 30, 2019 09:53 am
Will There Be a Rapture? Who Is the Antichrist? ‘End Times Survival Guide’ Author Explains All
OPINION: (Charisma) – Mark Hitchcock knows a thing or two about the end of the world. The prolific author is well-versed in eschatology and discussed it at length in his latest book, End Times Survival Guide.And he has a few warnings for those obsessed with the apocalypse: “I think a lot of people in the area of prophecy get into a lot of speculation about all kinds of things and begin to set dates, which the Bible clearly forbid,” Hitchcock says in an interview with Charisma. “Jesus said, ‘No one knows the day or the hour, ‘ but people try to figure out who the Antichrist is and then name somebody.

“I always tell people that I don’t think the Antichrist is going to appear till after the rapture. So I say, if you ever figure out who the Antichrist is, I got bad news for you, so you don’t want to know who the Antichrist is. But there’s a lot of speculation out there about a lot of things, and we need to just stick with what the Bible says. What the Bible says is really exciting enough, we don’t need to decorate it anymore with a lot of wild speculation, but we need to remember that God gave Bible prophecy to us not to scare us, but to prepare us and not to make us anxious, but to make us aware of what’s happening and to call us to live godly lives in light of that.” 
READ MORE https://www.charismamag.com/spirit/bible-study/39903-will-there-be-a-rapture-who-is-the-antichrist-end-times-survival-guide-author-explains-all/

Will There Be a Rapture? Who Is the Antichrist? 'End Times Survival Guide' Author Explains All
8:00AM EST 1/30/2019 JESSILYN LANCASTER
(Photo by Ben Rosett on Unsplash)
Mark Hitchcock knows a thing or two about the end of the world.
The prolific author is well-versed in eschatology and discussed it at length in his latest book, End Times Survival Guide. 
 And he has a few warnings for those obsessed with the apocalypse:

"I think a lot of people in the area of prophecy get into a lot of speculation about all kinds of things and begin to set dates, which the Bible clearly forbid," Hitchcock says in an interview with Charisma. "Jesus said, 'No one knows the day or the hour, ' but people try to figure out who the Antichrist is and then name somebody.

"I always tell people that I don't think the Antichrist is going to appear till after the rapture. So I say, if you ever figure out who the Antichrist is, I got bad news for you, so you don't want to know who the Antichrist is. But there's a lot of speculation out there about a lot of things, and we need to just stick with what the Bible says. What the Bible says is really exciting enough, we don't need to decorate it anymore with a lot of wild speculation, but we need to remember that God gave Bible prophecy to us not to scare us, but to prepare us and not to make us anxious, but to make us aware of what's happening and to call us to live godly lives in light of that."

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But that's just the beginning. Listen to the podcast to hear the rest of the fascinating interview.
LISTEN .
https://www.charismamag.com/spirit/bible-study/39903-will-there-be-a-rapture-who-is-the-antichrist-end-times-survival-guide-author-explains-all

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https://ultraculture.org/blog/2016/02/08/baphomet-sabbatic-goat/
The Shocking True History of Baphomet, the Sabbatic Goat
BY DANIEL APPEL
Baphomet Sabbatic Goat
The image of Baphomet has graced everything from heavy metal albums to religious propaganda, and tends to be used as a symbol of evil. Yet Baphomet is a far, far more complex symbol.
You’ve probably seen the image of Baphomet used as a stand-in for Satan, whether that’s by would-be Satanists or paranoid Christians.

What you might not have learned, however, is how Baphomet has nothing to do with evil or Satanism as it is commonly understood, and actually has a much more profound history. Here, we reveal the full history of the icon.

Baphomet

The modern Baphomet icon is commonly associated with imagery of a goat-headed diabolical idol allegedly worshiped by the Knights Templar during the 13th and 14th centuries. In reality, the connection between Baphomet and the primordial goat-headed god did not emerge until the 1850s. The historical origin of the term is perhaps more fascinating than the mythologized version: a tale of mistranslation, a courtroom conspiracy, and a gradual metamorphosis into a profoundly influential occult icon.

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The earliest known use of the word Baphomet comes from a letter written by a French crusader in 1098. He describes the Crusaders’ enemies in the Holy Land “Calling upon Baphometh” prior to battle. Another early chronicle of the crusades refers to mosques as Bafumarias. Today, it is commonly accepted that Baphomet, similar to the Old French word Mahomet, refers to Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam. At the time, European Christian dogma viewed worship of Mohammed as idolatry. This doctrinal Islamophobia was harnessed by a Medieval European ruler in the form of a witch-hunt targeting his political opponents.

The Knights Templar Arrested… and the Legend of Baphomet Grows
On October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar in France. Over the previous two centuries of crusading, the Knights Templar had become one of the most powerful military orders in Europe. During a war with the English, King Philip became heavily indebted to the Templars financially. King Philip desired to erase his debt, but also feared that the Templars could pose a military threat if he did not pay. Instead, he had hundreds of Knights Templar suddenly arrested and accused of heresy.

Being arrested as a heretic was particularly unpleasant in Medieval France due to Inquisition-style torture techniques. The punishment would continue until the prisoner confessed. King Philip accused the Knights Templar of spitting and urinating on the cross, engaging in homosexuality, and worshipping Baphomet as an idol. Baphomet, presumably a reference to Mohammed, was allegedly incorporated into the Templar practice during their time mingling with Islamic culture in the Middle East. Basically, King Philip was accusing the Knights Templar of having become Muslims. Similar charges were leveled against other political opponents of King Philip IV, and are also presumed to be fabricated.

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After a battery of unimaginable torture, many of the Templars invented confessions to end their suffering. Some admitted to worshipping an idol, though inconsistent accounts varied from the severed head of John the Baptist to a cat statue with three faces. There was no reference, however, to a goat-headed icon throughout the trial. After escaping the inquisitors’ torture, most Templars recanted their confessions, and were subsequently burned at the stake. Threatening military action, King Philip forced the Papacy to disband the Templar Order completely.

Baphomet Enters the 19th Century
Over the next 500 years, scholars and mystics alike speculated upon the verity of the accusations leveled against the Templars. A rich mythology arose, with tales linking the Templar Order to ancient mystical wisdom and artifacts discovered during their campaign in the Holy Land. The narrative construct of a group or individual venturing from Europe into the Middle East or North Africa and returning with Magical Ancient Knowledge was a recurring theme in Renaissance occult thought. The same themes appear in well-known grimoires such as the Book of Abramelin and Hermetic texts.

In 1818, the term Baphomet re-emerged in an essay published in Vienna speculating upon the nature of the idol worshipped by the Knights Templar. The author, Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, claimed that the Templars were indeed idol worshippers, and that the Baphomet refers to a hermaphroditic stone figure borrowed from Egypt or the Gnostic Christian Ophites. Even at the time, scholars called out von Hammer-Purgstall’s essay as pseudohistory and anti-Masonic rhetoric. After the release of this essay, many European museums began to catalogue “Baphomets,” small carved stone idols, which were either modern forgeries attributed to the Knights Templar or misidentified artifacts from other cultures.

The Final Transformation of Baphomet
The final transformation of Baphomet occurred in 1854. French ceremonial magician Elphias Levi re-imagined Baphomet into a figure he named the Sabbatic Goat. Representing the universe in the form of binary opposites, the Sabbatic Goat incorporates elements of the hermaphroditic stone Baphomets and the symbolic ideals of the Templar Baphomet myth. He mingled these elements with Occult, Kabbalistic and Catholic imagery.

Though Levi began his career in the Catholic seminary, he soon left to pursue romance and magick. He believed that the Sabbatic Goat served as a collective representation for all magickal icons that survived the spread of Christianity from earlier polytheistic or animistic traditions. Though the Goat-Headed Baphomet was not worshipped by the Knights Templar, the Sabbatic Goat references the Templar plight in the spirit of all forms of social oppression justified by the dominant religious rhetoric of the time.

The most unique and iconic element of Levi’s Baphomet is the head of a goat upon a humanoid body. The goat head was borrowed by Levi from the Egyptian goat-headed deity Banebdjedet, who represented the soul of Osiris. Levi was also inspired by Pan, another goat-headed god equated with primal worship and social taboos of the time. The overall impression of the Sabbatic Goat is very similar to that of the Devil card from Marseille Tarot, which may have been Levi’s template. The Latin words on the Sabbatic Goat’s arms, COAGULA and SOLVE, mean to join together and take apart. These reference the powers claimed by Church leaders to be taken from God by his earthly representatives. In Levi’s context, these terms represent the dualistic power of magick that can be realized by any devout, initiated practitioner.

Aleister Crowley and Baphomet
Eliphas Levi’s Baphomet was also adopted by Aleister Crowley, most famously in his Gnostic Mass. The deep symbolic nature of Baphomet fit well with Crowley’s interpretations of Renaissance and Medieval ritual magick. It also incorporated familiar elements of binary cosmology that supported Crowley’s hermetic ideology. Crowley described Baphomet as a divine androgyne, representative of mystical perfection through a union of opposites. He also equated this union of opposites to that which occurs when a sperm and egg join. This line of thought, triggered by his reflections upon Baphomet, was profoundly influential in Crowley’s theories of sex magick.

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Crowley also connected ideas of suppressed knowledge and secret worship, thus Baphomet, with Satan. He argued that contrary to traditional Christian thought, Satan represented “not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing  Good and Evil; He bade ‘Know Thyself!’ and taught Initiation. He is ‘The Devil’ of The Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection… He is therefore Life, and Love.”

Baphomet Today
Today, the Baphomet in the form of Eliphas Levi’s Sabbatic Goat is one of the most recognizable occult images in the world, with strong ties to artistic and popular culture. It directly inspired the iconic Devil card from the Rider Waite Tarot system. The Sigil of Baphomet, depicting the Sabbatic Goat within an inverted Pentagram, has been adopted as the modern Church of Satan’s logo. Baphomet also made the news recently when members of the Satanic Temple attempted to have an eight foot tall Sabbatic Goat statue erected beside the Monument of the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol.

With its long and deeply symbolic history, Baphomet is a powerful icon that garnishes fear and respect to this day. Baphomet has been transformed by time and culture into a rich icon of our modern occult heritage. It also serves as a poignant reminder of the dangers of state-sponsored, religiously justified oppression.