There are moments in religious history when a tradition becomes most recognizable precisely at the point where it has drifted furthest from its own center. This series begins from the claim that much of modern right-wing Evangelicalism represents such a moment. Under the language of biblical faith, moral certainty, and Christian civilization, it has often exchanged the liberating spiritual vision associated with Jesus for a structure of fear, domination, and sanctified power. To describe that inversion, I will use a deliberately provocative comparison: modern Evangelicalism increasingly resembles what ancient Gnostic texts describe as the cult of Yaldabaoth.