“The possibility has been established for the production of...a Master Race, the future “masters of the earth”...made to endure for millennia - a higher kind of men who... employ democratic Europe as their most pliant and supple instrument for getting hold of the destinies of the earth.”
Frederick Nietzsche
The Will to Power
The philosophical concept of the Ubermensch (German for “superman”) first came to public eye in the writings of the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who believed man needed to throw off all constraints whether they be familial, religious, cultural, or idealistic and begin the quest toward being all that he could be by a process of overcoming himself through the will to power.
For Nietzsche, God was a non-existent entity that served only to give hope to the weak. Indeed, the ideal of Christianity had, in his opinion, only served to weaken the human race from its noble and warlike past found in the mists of primordial antiquity. Nietzsche believed that to overcome all the trappings of civilization that served only to weaken man with false guilt, shame-based compassion and charity, man needed to cast off all that bound him to society and begin his quest to become the Ubermensch who would dominate himself, time, thus history (see photo above).
The basis of this philosophy of human nature was the biological theory of evolution in general, and specifically its impetus of natural selection through which as a species, only the strong survive. Nietzsche truly believed that man was on the verge of becoming something new and exciting, indeed never seen before in the eons of history. All that was needed was for him to will himself forward to grasp his potential.
The basis of Nietzsche’ belief was that man was only the half-way point between his primordial past as a subhuman and his astonishing future as the Ubermensch if he would only reach out and grasp what was his and take it. “The Ubermensch is the meaning of the earth… Man is a rope stretched between beast and Superman… a rope over an abyss… Man is great in that he is a bridge and not a goal.” [1]
Due to time and space, we won’t dive into all that Nietzsche studied, experienced and pondered in the development of his philosophy of the “Superman.” Yet we can essentially say that it is based on the concept of the hero; the man of renown found in all mythology from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Homer’s Iliad on up to Beowulf. Essentially the tale of a hero is built in three stages:
1.Departure: the hero leaves his home community to go on a quest.
2.Initiation: the hero faces trials and tribulations until he achieves victory on his quest.
3.Return: the hero goes home to his community with gifts.
Many screenplays for movies are based upon this concept with little thought given to their origin and the philosophical origins of their favorite superhero action star. Indeed, even in the tales from ancient Greece, heroes were many times just as selfish and blood thirsty as the gods they served and occasionally fought. Indeed, in true Homeric fashion, it was the Athenians in a dialog with the Melians whom they were about to slaughter and/or turn into slaves who put the Greek ethos at that time into the forefront with the statement: “since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must” (Thucydides, 5:89).
From the Hebrew Bible we can equally find tales of men of renown, power and violence:
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
(Genesis 10:8-12)
Those familiar with Scripture all know the tale of Nimrod, the mighty hunter and builder of cities and empire in the ancient Near East in the area formerly called “Mesopotamia.” The text states three times Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord as well as a builder of five cities which eventually became his empire. He was the “Superman” of the ancient Semitic world.
Rather than encouraging people to move off and spread out and fulfill the dominion mandate through work and development, Nimrod gathered the people by using military conquest to build a centralized empire and a concentration of great numbers of men in cities. Indeed, we see the same principle at work now with our modern obsession with urbanization, the growth of huge cities and the parallel emptying of the countryside, and the plans to build “Smart Cities” that everything will be available in 15 minutes or less.[2] All of which goes against the God ordained diversification of nations for the glory of God (Acts 17:24-26).
Scripture continues the tale of Nimrod’s centralization in Genesis 11:1-4:
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
The building of the tower of Babel related to us in Genesis 11 is the account of a particularly important aspect of Nimrod’s ambitious enterprise in empire building. Equally important, and co-relative with Nimrod’s lust for power, was the religious aspect of his rebellion with the desire to reach up to the heavens along with make a name for himself and his people lest they be scattered abroad.
In other words, we have two aspects of man’s sinful nature manifesting here. The first is the expression of the age-old human desire to attain self-salvation through one’s own efforts. Secondly, the problem of the human desire for self-exaltation – let us make a name “lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Gen.11:4).
Yet, it was this very scattering “abroad upon the face of the whole earth” which mankind was commanded to do in the dominion covenant given by God to Adam and Eve (Gen.1:26-28). Indeed, man’s chief end was to glorify God and enjoy Him forever as God’s steward and representative on the earth.
History & Myth Only?..
In the modern era, we see concepts of atheism and Darwinian naturalism[3] blended with the ideas of the psychologists B.F. Skinner (man as animal trained by outside forces)[4]and of course Sigmund Freud who believed man was controlled by his passions (violent or sexual)[5] thus in need of restraint and modification by education, legislation, and medication. A step away from this is the bio-eugenic issues of human experimentation. In the previous century there were the “Chimera” projects begun by a scientist under the communist dictator Joseph Stalin by which human and animal genes would be both modified and blended to form something totally new for the purpose of superior performance in battle[6] and other extreme conditions.[7] Thankfully, said “projects” failed.
Yet, in the 21st century, perhaps a dystopian future is not so far-fetched as Elon Musk recently warned in an open letter signed by over 1000 people. [8] With the rise of AI, [9] Alexa, Google Share, Facebook, and the latest technology known as Chat GPT that seems to have all the information in the world about anything – the idea of privacy, security and anonymity are forever gone.[10]
The “Nimrods” of our time have built technological towers, financial towers and political towers run by technocrats[11] that live in faraway gated communities guarded by private security forces all the while controlling the above noted technology in a matrix of electronic surveillance so all-encompassing it would make Sauron and his “all seeing eye” in the Lord of the Rings seem child’s play compared to the power grab we are all facing (again the so-called “Smart Cities” that will monitor everything).
With all of the above technologies is the reality that each of them is a central clearing house for all the information they hold, and cross-share with the other – and block anyone that they do not like from sharing what they know if it goes against the State-driven narrative.[12] With the centralized database they have enough information about the world and everyone in it that a gigantic hive-mind can be built wherein everything about anything can be stored[13]and called up at the stroke on a keyboard.[14] The modern Tower of Babel may have finally arrived wherein our own “Supermen” seek the power to touch the sky technologically speaking,[15] as the Nimrods of old.
Where will it all lead?...
The same place all non-biblical ideas lead, whether in the past as Nimrod, or in the future as the Ubermensch: the goal is to “be as God, knowing good from evil” (Genesis 3:22). Such a man will live in a world of raw power with the only gradation of power being based upon intellectual, physical, and technical ability and Nietzsche’s “will to power.”
This “man” would be the man of the future; a true sovereign individual who had the will to act in the extreme without hesitation or reservation: he would be the Superman. A techno-warrior that like the past and our technological future, would be in rebellion against God in his or her machinations against the human race as they seek to become the “Overman” that Nietzsche wrote of in his book titled The Will to Power. Sadly, in the 21st century, the common man appears to want such an individual and such a technocratic world. The apotheosis will be the same for them, and all those who fall under their rule and influence: destruction.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
(Psalm 82:5)
At Christian Liberty Homeschools we encourage all to focus on Christ and the Reformation of faith and worship in their own lives and the world around them rather than the fantasy, Halloween or laboratory, that most consider at this time of year: www.homeschools.org
[1] Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by Walter Kaufmann, New York: Random House; repented in The Portable Nietzsche, New York: The Viking Press, 1954 and Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976; Prologue, #3.
[2] https://placesjournal.org/article/a-city-is-not-a-computer/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwi7GnBhDXARIsAFLvH4n3GeI3pfyw-fCPSVaSnBhqFgV77JWr3S6MyBHCpaAtbKNW5QQQMA8aAmcQEALw_wcB&cn-reloaded=1
[3] David Breese, Seven Men Who Ruled the World from the Grave, (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1990), p. 23.
[4] David A. Noebel, Understanding the Times, (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publications, 1991, 97), p.381.
[5] Seven Men Who Rule the World from the Grave, p.125.
[7] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-russian-government-once-funded-a-scientists-quest-to-make-an-ape-human-hybrid-5043859/
[8] https://interestingengineering.com/culture/pause-ai-more-powerful-than-gpt-4
[9] https://www.google.com/search?q=trailer+for+Unknown+Killer+Robots&oq=trailer+for+Unknown+Killer+Robots&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i160j33i22i29i30.14315j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_5nO4ZLz8E-vcptQP5fS80AY_31
[10] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYntWhfmCto&t=4s
[11] https://www.acton.org/audio/filthy-rich-politicians
[12] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zgc3xDB1vaY
[13] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/l-AU3nKb6II
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t_9EFpdJb4
[15] https://rumble.com/v34we86-nanotechnology-found-in-both-vaxxed-and-un-vaxxed.html