The end of the world is approaching, according to, oh, “news.” Again, No, not because of the ongoing apocalypse caused by climate change, No, it is not due to vaccine inequity. This is much, much worse. This is a statue. “Was this the beast John saw in Revelation in his vision of the end times…given power by the dragon (serpent/satan) over all peoples, languages, & nations…the United Nations?” one social media user wondered, according to Christian Broadcasting Network, a right-wing evangelical (CBN).
The monument — a genuine item that was put outside of the United Nations headquarters in New York last year – is impressive, but it is not a biblical beast. According to its makers, Jacobo and Maria Angeles, it signifies a “guardian for international peace and security.” The two manage a studio that makes “tonnes” and “nahuales,” which are traditional Mesoamerican protection figurines and spirit guides embellished with native Zapotec markings, one of which is the statue outside the UN.
“Did they really believe they could put this up and no one would notice?” opined a blogger who had seemingly missed the UN’s announcement of the new statue a few weeks prior on its official Twitter feed and website. The sculpture, which was donated to the UN by the government of Oaxaca, Mexico, in December 2021, depicts a “fusion of jaguar and eagle,” according to the UN. According to Snopes, another component, Aguila the eagle, dispatched to New York with the mission of “accompanies and protects all Latin American, Mexican, and Oaxacan migrants who live or are about to come to the United States yearning for a brighter future for their families.”
The Angeleses’ website ads, “As their name implies, they preserve everything that the tribe finds valuable: its traditions, customs, and cultural identity.” “A Jaguar is cautious and clever, battling for its pack during the day and keeping watch at night… Guila, with his force of flight, keeps his gaze on the horizon, looking forward, protecting the tribe’s future.” Despite CBN’s best efforts to link the statue to the kinds of apocalyptic monsters referenced in Daniel and Revelation, Snopes points out a few flaws in their argument.
To begin with, the harbingers of doom described in the relevant sections are lions, not jaguars, which seem like a significant distinction when the fate of the planet is at issue. Second, like so much else in the Bible, it is widely assumed to be a metaphor — not a literal half-lion, half-eagle, but a reference to the old Babylonian kingdom.
Finally, you do not have to look far to locate actual statues of half-lion, half-eagle animals; they have been a staple of Western sculpture for ages. In other words, the UN is not surreptitiously erecting graven pictures of terrible omens; instead, they are proudly displaying traditional Zapotec-inspired statues of protecting guardians on a peace mission.
In addition, let us face it if the UN truly intended to bring about the apocalypse, would they do so through statues and survivalist blogs they could simply have the robot birds spell it out in Morse code instead of Checkmate. At the time of publication, fact-checkers confirmed that all “explainer” pieces were correct. To keep information current, text, images, and links can modify, removed, or added to at any time.
