Topic: Christian discussion Is Barack Obama the Antichrist?

[notatroll]

Meet the AntichristWe’ve been wondering what’s up with this whole “Obama ‘08!” excitement, because the guy hasn’t actually done anything but win his first Senate race after Republican Jack Ryan had to drop out. (Ryan was caught trying to peddle his wife’s a$$ at Sex Clubs — you know, the Star Trek alien gal with the crazy tits.)

But shocking new information was delivered by owl this morning to Wonkette’s newsroom, and suddenly everything makes perfect sense.

Barack Obama is the … Anti Christ. Or antichrist, that’s a good way to spell it, too. More than you ever imagined, after the jump.

What exactly is this Antichrist, anyways? Like most crazy Jesus Freak stuff — the Rapture, Christmas, Easter, 666, etc. — the popular concept doesn’t appear in the actual Bible and was just made up by some nuts. The word antichrist (from the Greek antíkhristos, meaning “instead of Christ”) appears all of five times in the whole Bible, exclusively in the epistles John 1 and John 2.

And in those New Testament letters, the right-wing evangelical author is arguing against the popular gnostic Christian sects because they didn’t believe Jesus was a real person, or actually the Son of God or whatever. These people were pushing something “instead of Christ.” That’s all. Jesus was an alien.

Leave it to Christians to spend the next 2,000 years coming up with the most incredible backstory to go with the meager source material. Pulling stuff from Daniel and the Book of Revelation and, mostly, their collective a$$, the Jesus Freaks have come to the conclusion that the Anti Christ is some modern-day political figure that will rise up and do good things, winning massive support from Democrats and Republicans (right …) and performing all the magic tricks attributed to Jesus in the Gospels, such as raising the dead, curing lepers and turning water into wine like some kind of mystical Trader Joe’s wholesale supplier.

Next, the Antichrist does terrible things to the Middle East, and then he becomes this totalitarian evil leader and forces humanity to suffer many “trials and tribulations.” Yeah, we know, this is obviously Dick Cheney. So why bring in Obama?

Two reasons: Most Jesus Freaks are Red Staters, and the Antichrist is supposed to start off as a good person.

There are 16,000 Google matches for “Barack Obama” and Antichrist.” That’s nothing compared to the 169,000 Antichrist matches for Dick Cheney, but Cheney’s been doing his evil work since Nixon Administration.

The middle-of-the-road Washington rookie is mostly an Antichrist candidate because people think he’s nice. How freakin’ cynical can you get?! Jesus Freaks knew Obama was The One (or “AC”) as soon as he gave his famous speech in 2004 — a speech that’s famous for not sucking as hard as Kerry’s:

People can think what they want about me, I could really give a hoot. People think that the AC is coming out of the mid-east. My personal belief is that the AC is going to rise right out of the UN, and with this guys popularity, charisma, and how he is climbing the ranks in government real fast!!!, He may be in the UN next.
When I first heard of Barak, a few days ago, the first thing I heard is that he is a guy who came out of nowhere and now many flock to his side. When my wife and I heard this, we both thought the same thing, the anti-christ. Now I am not claiming him to be, just something that triggered that thought in both of us.
My sister and I both feel something “spooky” about this guy, but can’t quite figure out what it is. It is odd that strangers come up to him on the street. Why would they do that, unless they were drawn to him.
I don’t think we should directly label Obama as AC, but it is very interresting. While I was watching him, the VERY FIRST thought that came to my mind was asking the Lord if I was looking at the AC. I don’t have a big opinion either way, but man, that was pretty scary.
Also, even though Obama’s from Hawaii (spooky!), his dad is from Kenya … which is, uhm, closer to the Middle East, which is where most Jesus Freaks believe the “AC” needs to be born.

Oh, and some idiot “pundits” apparently started referring to Obama as “the messiah.” That’s a pretty good way to freak out the Free Republic crowd! See, the antichrist is also supposed to be a “false messiah,” who tricks everybody, and then right before you die the real Jesus appears and rapes you to death, and then you burn in Hell for eternity, and Obama laughs and laughs.

Worse, we’ve just discovered that the anagram of “Barack Obama” is “Maraca Kabob.” (Sorry, George Allen! It was damned close.)

Maraca, as in Mexico, as in some sort of immigration freakout (very scary!) or the sinister joining of Mexico and the United States, and Kabob, as in the shared food of Arabs and Israelis, and also probably in Kenya somewhere, which clearly suggests the Final Battle of Armageddon shall be fought at some Middle East place possibly mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

While it’s true that Jerry Falwell (or Pat Robertson, one of those scumbags) says the Antichrist must be a dirty Jew, if Obama is like most senators it will soon turn out that he, too, rides with the Tribe.

Whether Obama is the Antichrist or not, something weird is going on in America’s confused psyche when it considers the junior senator from Illinois. There’s the blatant and subtle racism factor, which takes the redneck fear to a horrifying extreme: Not only is the black man taking the white woman, but the “mixed race” child becomes president.

Then there’s the general unease even felt by those who don’t consider him the A.C.
I was discussing Obama with a friend of mine shortly after his speech to the Democratic Convention, and we both confessed to having the almost immediate fear that this man would be assassinated.
Dc Gossip one opinion

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[notatroll]

While thousands of Americans went to the polls last night, flushed with the civic pride and enthusiasm that comes when careful consideration and a sense of responsibility culminates in the casting of a vote, CNN's Glenn Beck was honoring the day over at his eponymous Headline News show. There, he was brave enough to ask the tough questions - if, by "brave" we mean "obtuse" and by "tough" we mean "inane."

Yea, verily, last night, Glenn Beck hosted anti-Catholic bigot/fervent John McCain supporter John Hagee. And lo, there was a sound that arose from deep in Beck's wordhole. And those sounds formed a question that sounded out across the airwaves unto disbelieving ears. That question: "Is Barack Obama the anti-Christ."

We are not making this up. Glenn Beck, serious newsman, needed to find out if Barack Obama was the Devourer of Worlds, Son of Harlots, Bearer of the Mark of the Beast. John Hagee had to be thrilled by the question: somehow, Beck managed to make Hagee look reasonable.

Jesus wept. Watch for yourself:


BECK: Let me ask you, I get so much e-mail on this and I think a lot of people do, and I've got a couple of seconds. They say Glenn, you and the media, you got to wake up. Barack Obama's making people faint and and everything else. He's drawing people in. There are people -- they said this about Bill Clinton -- that actually believe he might be the anti-Christ. Odds that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ.

HAGEE: No chance. He has a lot of charisma. There's a media love affair with him right now. He is a very formidable political person. I believe the best leader for America in the future is John McCain.

BECK: Thank you very much, pastor. Back in just a second. That's good news, at least where I stand.
another thought

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[Graybeard]

What exactly is this Antichrist, anyways? Like most crazy Jesus Freak stuff — the Rapture, Christmas, Easter, 666, etc. — the popular concept doesn’t appear in the actual Bible and was just made up by some nuts. The word antichrist (from the Greek antíkhristos, meaning “instead of Christ”) appears all of five times in the whole Bible, exclusively in the epistles John 1 and John 2.

Where in the world do you find all this tripe?

Linkback: http://4seasonschat.com/index.php/topic,11173.msg125425.html#msg125425

[notatroll]

What exactly is this Antichrist, anyways? Like most crazy Jesus Freak stuff — the Rapture, Christmas, Easter, 666, etc. — the popular concept doesn’t appear in the actual Bible and was just made up by some nuts. The word antichrist (from the Greek antíkhristos, meaning “instead of Christ”) appears all of five times in the whole Bible, exclusively in the epistles John 1 and John 2.

Where in the world do you find all this tripe?

   I work very hard at it.

Linkback: http://4seasonschat.com/index.php/topic,11173.msg125443.html#msg125443

[past tense]

What exactly is this Antichrist, anyways? Like most crazy Jesus Freak stuff — the Rapture, Christmas, Easter, 666, etc. — the popular concept doesn’t appear in the actual Bible and was just made up by some nuts. The word antichrist (from the Greek antíkhristos, meaning “instead of Christ”) appears all of five times in the whole Bible, exclusively in the epistles John 1 and John 2.

Where in the world do you find all this tripe?

   I work very hard at it.

And I, for one, think you're doing an excellent job at it!

Linkback: http://4seasonschat.com/index.php/topic,11173.msg125447.html#msg125447

[libby]

I think more people than we realize listen to and believe what Obama's minister preaches--and variations of what nota posted. The following was in the Washington Post religion section this morning:

Florida Church Cancels Visit

A Florida church canceled this week's scheduled sermons by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor because of security concerns, although Tampa police said they were prepared to provide protection.

Officials at Bible-Based Fellowship Church in Tampa said they asked the Rev. Jeremiah Wright not to deliver the sermons planned for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The Rev. Earl Mason said the controversy about Wright's past sermons would have been a distraction.

Mason said sheriff's officials told him that they would not provide certain security for Wright's visit. But a sheriff's spokeswoman said the agency was available to assist police.

Linkback: http://4seasonschat.com/index.php/topic,11173.msg125457.html#msg125457

[Bo D]

What exactly is this Antichrist, anyways? Like most crazy Jesus Freak stuff — the Rapture, Christmas, Easter, 666, etc. — the popular concept doesn’t appear in the actual Bible and was just made up by some nuts. The word antichrist (from the Greek antíkhristos, meaning “instead of Christ”) appears all of five times in the whole Bible, exclusively in the epistles John 1 and John 2.

Where in the world do you find all this tripe?

Tony points the way with his sites. 

Linkback: http://4seasonschat.com/index.php/topic,11173.msg125460.html#msg125460

[Graybeard]

Tony points the way with his sites. 

Kinda like tag team partners? 

Linkback: http://4seasonschat.com/index.php/topic,11173.msg125476.html#msg125476

[notatroll]

STEPHANIE SALTER: Election 2008: What would the Trilateral Commission do?

By Stephanie Salter
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — A friend who teaches in public school here in Indiana was appalled not long ago when an e-mail from a colleague went out to everyone in the school’s cyber-address book.

The subject of the e-mail was Barack Obama and how he is “secretly” a radical Muslim bent on destroying the United States from within. A widely circulated pack of lies — e.g., he took the oath of office holding a Koran — the e-mail boasts that its contents are verifiable on the legitimate myth buster, snopes.com, which is the opposite of true.

At least my teacher friend’s colleague didn’t send out one of the popular e-mails that insist Obama shows all the signs of being the antichrist.

I wish I could say I was kidding, but I can’t. I live in the United States of America — a country in which most people are alleged to be literate — and I am about to participate in a historic presidential primary. But I am starting to wonder if some of my fellow citizens have a grasp on reality, let alone the issues.

A jihadist? The antichrist? Oh, for God’s sake.

Before anyone is tempted to play the region card, don’t. Indiana has no exclusive claim to people who are spending time this spring telling one another that Obama is a jihadist and/or the antichrist. Google offers about 2.25 million hits on the latter subject. (Mercifully, renunciations are part of the volume.)

The hearty existence of these and similar crusades points up a reality of contemporary American life: We are divided between the people who are inclined toward conspiracies, superstition, black-and-white explanations, pigeon holes and cheap sentimentality masquerading as “patriotism” — and the people who are not so inclined.

While many of those with an aversion to investigation and critical thought processes identify themselves as “conservatives,” there are liberal conspiracy theorists aplenty to demonstrate that twisted thinking is an equal opportunity affliction.

To see lefty conspiracies on display, one only need read the wild and crazy ideas about why a HuffingtonPost blogger shared her personal impressions of the Obama fundraiser in San Francisco, now known as “Bittergate.” The most popular: Hillary Clinton secretly paid her to do it.

Even among people who don’t buy Trilateral Commission plots, there is a decided intellectual shallowness in fashion this year. Across the land, from the blogosphere to the town hall meeting, too many axes are grinding and too many enemy camps are hunkered down. Among people of both major parties and many minor ones, 30-minute policy statements have been freeze-dried into four-word catch phrases, and complex humans have been reduced to cut-out characters who wear halos or horns.

Last month, a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York columnist actually cited leftover waffles and french fries as evidence of Obama’s inability to connect strongly enough with voters to vanquish Clinton from the Democratic race.

In the same essay, the columnist referred to Clinton’s continued quest of the nomination as “the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman” and called her criticisms of Obama “emasculating.”

Half-eaten waffles, sci-fi movie characters and sexist stereotypes? Is everything, including a presidential race, just another variation on Simon Cowell or the “Left Behind” series?

Eight years ago, millions of voters chose as president a former boozer who “seems like he’d be fun to have a beer with.” Didn’t we learn anything about the dangers of superficiality from this reversal of style over substance?

What in the world has happened to our B.S. detectors? We can’t find enough obvious differences among presidential candidates that we must resort to misogynistic name calling and invisible ties to al Qaida or Satan?

Why can’t we just use what is before our very own eyes?

For example, I’m a 1960s feminist who thought I would never live to see the day a woman would make a viable run at the U.S. presidency. I look at how smart, brave, tough and committed Hillary Clinton is, and I see someone who is more than capable of being commander in chief.

But one of the great things about being a feminist is knowing that liberation means searching your head, heart and gut, then acting freely on what you discover there.

Four weeks ago, I watched Clinton go for the cheap shot and turn Obama’s lengthy, measured observations about frustrated working-class Americans into Bittergate. My head, heart and gut yelled, “Blatant foul!”

Clinton chose, repeatedly, to call Obama’s remarks “elitist” and “out of touch” with ordinary Americans. She emphasized, repeatedly, that his excerpted words were made at a private fundraiser in San Francisco — as though she had never been the focus of such an event — and she encouraged her campaign operatives across the country to keep piling on.

Ignoring all the times her words and deeds have been perverted out of context by her enemies, Clinton chose to play the nasty old game in which victorious ends justify crummy means. Knowing that Americans need more division like we need more conspiracy theories, she chose to further divide.

My head, heart and mind said, “Go to Plan B. Barack Obama is smart, brave, tough, committed and capable of being commander in chief — and he struggles mightily against cheap shots to deal honestly with the complexities and contradictions of his country and its people.”

No waffles, no sexist slurs, no al Qaida, no Satan. Just a rational decision. My idea of the American Dream.


some peoples thoughts

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[Graybeard]

That's as big a load of crap as the antichrist and koran stories. 

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[notatroll]

Hagee's apocalyptic support of Israel
By BEN SMITH | 5/15/08 4:16 AM EST  Text Size:     
 
 
 
When Sen. John McCain was forced to distance himself from Pastor John Hagee earlier this year, he denounced the pastor’s attacks on Catholicism. But asked why he wouldn’t “repudiate” Hagee’s endorsement of him, McCain found something to praise.

“I'm grateful for his commitment to the support of the state of Israel, and I'm very grateful for many of his commitments around the world, including to the independence and freedom of the state of Israel,” he told CNN’s Campbell Brown on April 29.

Hagee’s commitment to Israel, however, is itself controversial: It’s rooted in the belief that the Jewish state will — soon — be the site of Armageddon.

Hagee, who leads the evangelical group Christians United for Israel, is a proponent of U.S. aid and support for Israel, and he is a major ally of Israeli conservatives who reject any “land for peace” formula in dealing with the Palestinians. But Hagee is viewed with distrust by some Jews and Israelis because his brand of Christian Zionism closely links support for Israel to the end of the world and the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.

Hagee’s predictions are very clear. Armageddon, the final battle, could begin, he wrote in his 2007 book "Jerusalem Countdown," “before this book gets published.”

The Antichrist “will be the head of the European Union,” he writes.

Using geographical calculations based on the Book of Revelation, he writes that Israel will be covered in “a sea of human blood” in the final battle.

The Jews, however, will survive the battle, Hagee says, long enough to have “the opportunity to receive Messiah, who is a rabbi known to the world as Jesus of Nazareth.”

“They will be blessed beyond their wildest imagination,” he writes.

A spokesman for McCain, Brian Rogers, said, “John McCain’s commitment to the state of Israel is clear, and he respects Pastor Hagee's commitment as well.

“As he has said many, many, many times, when folks endorse John McCain it doesn't mean he endorses all of their views,” Rogers said.

Many Jewish political leaders have also embraced Hagee. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) spoke to Hagee's group last year, and Hagee has been invited to speak to the lobbying organization American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Other Jewish groups have more nuanced views of the pastor.

“Support for Israel is something that we should welcome and yet be very much aware of where that support comes from and cautious about it,” said Michael Salberg, the director of international affairs for the Anti-Defamation League. Salberg said Hagee’s political stance on Israel “seems to us to be sincere, genuine and welcome.”

But Hagee has also been criticized, most recently by the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Eric Yoffie.

“Christian Zionists, and especially Christians United for Israel, do not offer unconditional support for the Jewish state. They offer support for a particular religious vision, particular Israeli leaders, and particular political factions, all of which reflect their own prophecy-driven view of the Middle East,” Yoffie said in an April speech, calling Hagee and his group “extremists.”

Yoffie thinks that Hagee “is not the kind of friend that Israel needs,” said spokesman Donald Cohen-Cutler.

Indeed, although McCain praised Hagee’s stance on Israel, he doesn’t appear to share it. Hagee has written that Israel’s plan to give up the West Bank and Gaza — a two-state solution backed by President Bush and Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as McCain — “violates the word of God.”

“McCain can say he’s a great friend of Israel, but he clearly doesn’t understand Hagee’s position on Israel,” said Ira Forman, the executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, a partisan group. “Hagee’s opposed to McCain’s own policy — he opposes the peace process.”
 
anothers thought

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[Graybeard]

“Hagee’s opposed to McCain’s own policy — he opposes the peace process.”

That's not exactly right. What Hagee is opposed to is Israel giving away her land, not peace.

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[notatroll]

Gray,  why do you suppose people look for the antichrist in ever powerful figure?  We have had more antichrists than carter has little pills.  Are people wanting the evil to come?

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[windwalker]

I've always heard the anti-Christ will come from the revived Roman Empire which is supposed to be today's European Union.

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[Graybeard]

Gray,  why do you suppose people look for the antichrist in ever powerful figure?nbsp; We have had more antichrists than carter has little pills.  Are people wanting the evil to come?

I don't know, maybe because there is so much evil in the world. Many, like Hitler, Stalin, the ruler in Cambodia after Vietnam, etc, are types of antichrists, but not the antichrist. I hope that makes some sense.

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Tags: Barack obama  christian discussion  antichrist  political discussion  Obama