Holy Blasphemy

25 years ago, God disappeared. Some angels blamed humans, and led by Gabriel, they waged a war against the humans. Other, higher angels, led by Michael, decided to protect the humans. A child is born, with markings on his body, who will grow up to become the savior of the human race and lead mankind out of darkness.

Followers of the faith “continue to believe that the chosen one, our savior will reveal himself to us.”

The main character, Alex, is a rebel (secretly in a relationship with the leader’s daughter). Michael and the leadership are authoritarian. “Someday,” Alex says, “We’re going to live in a place where there aren’t any numbers. Where we aren’t told what to do, where to sleep and whom to marry. One day… we’re going to be free.”

Here’s the funny thing – the TV series, along with the screenplay “Legion” that it’s based on, appears to be a remake of basic Christian mythology; as such it should be a cool show for Christians to enjoy.

But the call for ‘FREEDOM’ against authority has never been the Christian war cry; the quest for freedom is part of the Satanic tradition – a liberal philosophy first set out openly in the moral duplicity of Milton’s Paradise Lost, where it could be voiced without fear of retribution because it was put into the mouth of Milton’s Satan (whom everyone assumed was untrustworthy).

But there the speeches festered, inspiring seekers and writers to explore the words and turn away from traditional religious values to explore humanistic principles of equality, democracy, civil rights and self-determination.

In the traditional eschatology of Christian mythology (found in Revelations) God will come back and lead an army of angels against mankind; he will destroy humanity with fire, poison, flaming swords, acid rain, horrible plagues.

GOD will do this.

The only “Savior” to stand up and fight against God, leading the armies of men against the angels is the antichrist.

That’s the only future the Bible allows us to expect. Like Alex, the AC is identified by special markings on his bodies. In the Biblical version, God and the angels will prevail, slaughter all the humans and destroy the antichrist and his armies of men.

But of course that future would make for horrible TV – because the majority of us, even the Christians, couldn’t stomach this kind of genocide. There are no human heroes in the biblical story of the end of the world.

So instead we get Dominion. God (and with him, Satan) have disappeared entirely, removing the obvious morality of Good vs. Evil.

In their places we get Gabriel, intent on destroying mankind, and Michael, who aims to protect them.

Gabriel’s “lower angels” look exactly like the demons we’ve come to expect: ugly, possessed, gnarling, sweaty, angry, but surprisingly agile and nimble.

Gabriel is shown in darkness on his dark throne in his mountain top castle, replacing Lucifer as “the bad guy.” All of his followers wear theatrical black capes to show they are “evil.”

Gabriel has a handful of “higher angels” working for him as well.

At the end of the pilot episode, Alex has gained a mysterious new power for prophecy, as the magical tattoos that cling to his body reveal secret messages he alone can read.

Since the episode follows the basic “hero’s journey” plot pretty closely, and because Alex is blond with blue eyes and his enemies are darker with dark eyes, we can assume that Alex is the good guy (don’t blame me for the continuing racism portrayed in movies and TV shows, where the heroes are Caucasian).

But despite it’s adherence to biblical mythology, Dominion is the exact opposite of the story of Revelations.

Probably God will show up somewhere and lead Alex into saving humanity from the “bad angels” – and the human race will be saved. But that’s a Satanic wish-fulfillment. For Christian religion to have any veracity, for Jesus’ sacrifice to have any power and meaning, the story must conclude the way it’s set out in the Bible. The world must end. All must be judged.

If God changes his mind and helps a human savior redeem humanity instead of ending the world, then the last 2000 years of Christan faith have been categorically false – God would be unproving Christianity.

For non-Christians (or modern Christians with humanist tendencies who aren’t eager for God to destroy humanity) a show like Dominion makes some sense. Of course the angels are the bad guys, no matter which side God is on they must be resisted.

For Christians, the show can only be interpreted is flat out, dogma-refuting blasphemy of the highest order, brain-washing watchers to fight against the armies of God when they come to destroy the world.