Ideological possession and the coming Antichrist

When you hear the word “ideology”, what comes to mind?  Simply defined, it is a form of social or political philosophy, or a system of ideas, that aspires both to explain the world and to change it.  Take note of how that sentence ends.  Those who hold to a certain ideological belief not only use it to explain how they view the world but also how to change it in order to bring the world’s systems and its people into alignment with those beliefs.

Although I am no fan of Carl Jung, he had an interesting (and somewhat disturbing) theory when it came to what later became known as “ideological possession”.  This view describes a psychological and social state in which an individual’s thinking, emotions, identity, and behavior become tightly bound to a single ideology at which point that ideology ends up dominating perception, judgment, and action.  However, this is not confined to the realm of intellectual thought and discussion.  Under the theory of ideological possession, because there is unwavering commitment to a person’s particular ideology, opposing views are seen as an existential threat, often leading to violence.  That was clearly seen in the context of Nazism and seems to have also taken root in movements such as wokeism, which has no hesitation in turning to violence to silence opponents.

In 1936, Carl Jung wrote an essay simply called “Essay on Wotan”.  In this essay, Jung likened the National Socialist movement in Germany to possession by the Germanic god Wotan whom he claimed, “was soon changed by Christianity into the devil”.  Watching from Switzerland, Jung refused to buy into the theories around Hitler’s rise which were attributed solely to economics or politics.  In Jung’s mind, the German crisis of the 1930s was of a spiritual nature – one that could best be described as a reawakening of the old Germanic god, Wotan.  You may not recognise the name Wotan, but you would most certainly be aware of this false god’s name in Norse mythology – Odin (father of Thor). 

In Jung’s words, Wotan is: “…the god of storm and frenzy, the unleasher of passions and the lust of battle; moreover he is a superlative magician and artist in illusion who is versed in all secrets of an occult nature.”  He theorised that only the German people were affected on mass by the reawakening of Wotan because this “archetype” was embedded deep in the recesses of the German psyche and had laid dormant because of the influence of Christianity.  However, he believed that the Wotan archetype had burst its restraints and seized the German people, driving them to support the rise of the Nazi Party.  In fact, he believed that Wotan was the true god of Germany.  He wrote: “There are people in the German Faith Movement who are intelligent enough not only to believe, but to know, that the god of the Germans is Wotan and not the Christian God.”  Consequently, because he believed that the destruction of religion forced people to regress to paganism, he said: “And in Germany, those National Socialists, those Swastika people, are building Wotan’s fires again.”

Though not as well known as other names within the Nazi Party, Alfred Rosenberg was its main ideologue.  He was actually a leader of the Nazi Party for a short period while Hitler spent time in prison. Rosenberg’s 1929 book “The Myth of the Twentieth Century” was almost as influential over Nazi philosophy as Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”.  It was in his book that Rosenberg denounced Christianity for not controlling the Jewish takeover of the world.  In 1939, he founded the Institute for the Investigation of the Jewish Question and with it he declared that every single Jew living in Greater Germany would have to leave in order for the "Jewish question" to be considered solved. 

Media outlets drew a clear connection between Rosenberg and the spirit of Wotan (Odin).  On September 3, 1934, Time featured an article which read in part: “Dr. Rosenberg is not entirely unreligious. Indeed out of his revised history and his Nordic mythology he has erected a pagan worship which substitutes Odin for Moses, Siegfried for Saul, and 2,000,000 World War heroes for Christianity’s company of saints.”  Some years later, a cartoon was published in which Rosenberg was depicted as Wotan of the Third Reich.  Rosenberg’s hatred for Jews was evident, but he also hated Christianity, believing it was the distorted product of Semitic tribes who had tricked the Aryans into jettisoning their pagan truth. 

Ideology has been called “the idolatry of ideas”.  That is because ideology often leads to a system of worship which replaces divine truth and emphasises man-made systems as the ultimate master of mankind.  Although we have borne witness to the repeated failure of man’s ideologies throughout the centuries, the most oppressive ideology is yet future.  In Daniel 11:36-39 we read: Then the king shall do according to his own will: he shall exalt and magnify himself above every god, shall speak blasphemies against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished; for what has been determined shall be done.  He shall regard neither the God of his fathers nor the desire of women, nor regard any god; for he shall exalt himself above them all.  But in their place he shall honour a god of fortresses; and a god which his fathers did not know he shall honour with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things.  Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses with a foreign god, which he shall acknowledge, and advance its glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land for gain.

In 1960, a close associate of Carl Jung’s by the name of Marie-Louise von Franz, wrote: “Jung referred to World War II as a ‘Wotanic experiment’ and expressed the fear that we are now in the process of preparing ourselves for a new Wotanic experiment, but this time a worldwide one.”  Indeed, something worse is coming and it will be worldwide in scope.  This beast system will be led by the person we know as the Antichrist.  He will be the most persuasive and brilliant man the world has ever known. He will also be the most wicked and diabolical.  Jung called it “Wotanic”.  We know it will be entirely Satanic.