Unleashing the Beast

T HE H ANDWRITING ON A MERICA ' S W ALL / 295

T HE S PIRIT OF A NTICHRIST IN A MERICA In the days just after the 9/ 11 attacks it seemed that there was a desire among Americans to turn back to the Lord. But just when you began to be hopeful that spiritual renewal was beginning to sweep the land, the liberals and atheists came out eager to negate any acknowledgment of reverence and need for God. One example of this was the decision by an Appeals Court in San Francisco that ruled that schoolchildren should not recite the pledge of allegiance because the phrase "under God" violates the First Amendment. When the decision was met with protest from almost every politician in Washington—not to mention millions of average citizens—the Court said it would "reconsider." The ruling came on a complaint filed by a California atheist on behalf of his daughter. It seems she did not personally have a problem with the pledge; yet, the father felt it was treacherous for teachers to compel his daughter to recite this phrase "against her will." In an interview with FOX News' Tony Snow, it became evident that the plaintiff's objection was not with the reference to "God" but the inference that "under God" actually meant "under Jesus." In other words, his problem was with acknowledging the Son of God as the spiritual guardian and savior of our nation. He denied the very notion that Jesus is the Son of God; and that is, by definition, the spirit of antichrist. The Apostle John warned that, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this