Last Sunday Pastor Greg Locke, yes the clown with the circus tent, was telling those that had rolled up to gawk at his religious theatre, about his latest big idea. He proclaims to his marks that, “The biggest I told you so is coming”, and then proceeds to yell about spotting the end-times beast of revelation.
Hot tip: Preachers like Greg have sermon notes that often read, “Shout here, argument really weak“.
You don’t need to tune in, others have taken a hit for team sane and have done the heavy lifting for you. Here is Hemant with the appropriate bit embedded in a tweet …
Here is a transscript of what Greg Said
… I mean, things are being fulfilled that we never would have imagined! Did you see that statue they put at the U.N. in New York? That is predictably prophetic! It’s there RIGHT NOW! Face of a leopard. Wings of an angle. Paws of a bear. It’s THERE, right at the U.N.
… You know, I’m gonna share a little secret with you. I’m gonna let the cat out of the bag, but I’m gonna let it out anyhow. Praise God, it’s gonna be fun. I got a preacher friend. We gotta figure out how to pull this off…
… I’m about to buy me some plane tickets to New York… ‘cause I’m going to the statue. And I’m gonna get me a live Facebook video… You got the wrong one, saying I won’t! I’m gonna do it! God done told me I’m gonna do it! I’m going to New York City, U.S.A. I don’t care what that masked up demon-possessed governor has to say about it. I’m going to climb up on leopard head, and I’m gonna preach to this nation that if we don’t turn, and if we don’t repent, God is about to level the whole thing, ladies and gentlemen! Because we’re watching the Bible come to life! We ain’t got time to play games and mess around! We got to get busy for the kingdom of God… Say it, folks! I’m about to pitch a fit, because the glory of God is rising in the nations!
It is really The Beast as described in Revelation?
There are two Beasts described within that text. Let’s do a quick pass and see if we get a match …
Beast 1
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion
Rev 13:1-2
Nope, clearly not a statue with 7 heads and 10 horns. So not even a crude match.
Next.
Beast 2
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Rev 13:11
Again, very obviously not a match.
Is that it?
Not quite.
There is also an assortment of beasts mentioned in the Book of Daniel. A lion, bear, leopard, and a beast with ten horns. Here we have a closer match, the first in that list is described as a Lion with the wings of an eagle.
Bingo, a match.
One small theological problem, this is not the end-times beast, it comes from the old testament. The prevailing Christian consensus is that this is a symbolic representation of the Babylonian empire. The imagery very directly matches the historical expression Babylonian power, the winged Lion.
What is this statue at the UN?
The UN statue depicts a jaguar with an Eagle’s wings. It was created by artists Maria and Jacobo Angeles as a “guardian for international peace and security”. Once completed, it was donated to the U.N. by the government of Oaxaca, Mexico in December 2021.
The statue is actually one of a pair. Both went to NY. One ended up outside the UN. I’m honestly not sure where the other is, does anybody know?
The artists explain their thinking as follows on their website …(translated) …
The Jacobo and María Ángeles Workshop created two “Guardians” to live in New York City with the mission of accompanying and protecting all Latin American, Mexican and Oaxacan migrants who live or are about to arrive in the United States looking for a better future for their families. These two monumental figures are part of the narrative set out in the collection of “Nomads”.
Will Greg actually go climb on top and scream nonsense?
Probably not.
To be honest, I’d really love him to do it. It sends a very clear message that announces, “Here is a crazy nutter”.
If you wanted to discredit belief, then getting a nutter to stand on a statue outside the UN yelling religious stuff at random people walking by, truly is a great way to do exactly that. I’m really not convinced he has thought this through at all.
The deeply delusional would no doubt hail him as the voice of God. Meanwhile back in our reality, the sane would simply roll their eyes and ignore yet another crazy guy. They are very much a dime a dozen these days.
He says that he does not care what the NY Gov would say about him doing this. He really does have an inflated view of this. The NY Gov would not care two hoots, and would most probably not even hear about it.
Lions with Wings
If you hit google and search for images of lions with wings, what you will discover is that this type of image is very common. Statues like this exist all over the world. For example, check out the Winged Lion of Venice.
Is Greg simply an idiot?
Well yes, but perhaps also in one sense, no.
You might wonder why he picked on this specific UN Winged Lion. What you should remember is that for folks like Greg, reality itself is supposedly steeped with meaningful symbology that can be interpreted and then re-interpreted over and over to align with whatever is currently believed.
This is not how reality actually works, it never has been, yet there it is. The strategy gets rolled out because it is a very useful and effective tool to manipulate people with.
Sitting between all our ears is a highly effective pattern matching engine. For folks like Greg tapping into this and delivering up a stream of supposedly symbolic hits is a useful way to prime his marks for the imminent and rather certain circulation of the donation bucket. It is a strategy that gets him the two things that he truly craves – money and influence.
Truth was tossed under his bus and forgotten about rather a long time ago.