Is Obama the Antichrist? Why Armageddon Stands Between the President and the Evangelical Vote

[Shallah Kali]

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dialogs/print/?id=1671 or http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religionandtheology/1671/is_obama_the_antichrist_why_armageddon_stands_between_the_president_and_the_evangelical_vote

Millennial fervor swept evangelicals again in the late 1990s on the heels of the two-term Clinton presidency. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins published Left Behind, the first in a series of novels that grew into the best-selling series of the past decade (until they were finally overtaken by the true prince of darkness himself, Harry Potter). Films, music, and even a line of kids’ books turned Left-Behind apocalypticism into a billion dollar business. Evangelicals were well prepared then to view the terrorist attacks on 9/11 as evidence of God’s judgment for the Clinton years.

So what does this mean for the Obama administration? Nothing very promising. Despite the president’s desire to find common ground with evangelicals, he is unlikely to be able to penetrate the apocalyptic fears that have characterized the evangelical movement since the Great Depression.

Obama is caught in a classic catch-22. The Antichrist, the Bible explains, is going to masquerade as an angel of light. This means that the more Obama accomplishes as president and the more he improves America’s image abroad, the more suspicious evangelicals will become; they don’t want to be duped by the devil. Obama’s talk of more cooperation with other nations, the possibility of a national health care plan, his move to nationalize some private businesses, and his goal of expanding protection of the rights of gays and lesbians will drive evangelicals to one certain conclusion: the End of Days are upon us.

So what can we do? Pray for the rapture. If evangelicals vanish, the rest of us might finally get better medical care, a healthier environment, a more just international community, and full civil rights for gays and lesbians. But short of this miracle, we can at least begin to understand that before Obama is able to penetrate the evangelical heart, evangelicals themselves will need to do some serious soul-searching. Rick Warren and Joel Osteen’s shallow, positive-thinking, feel-good sermonizing is not going to help them do this. Instead, it is up to the younger evangelicals to engage in serious intellectual debate and a rigorous rethinking of the theology at the root of their politics. Anything less and the doomsayers will turn fears of Obama-as-Antichrist into big business. But hell, maybe that’s just the spark the economy needs.

[provis99]

1. those rapture people are just completely evil

They actually pray for evil things to happen, because too many good things happening is bad? Is there a way we can deport them all to Pluto?

[Fearless]

13. It's full.

[BR_Parkway]

18. I always wanted to spread a bunch of clothes in the local fundie

church parking lot while they were in service some Sunday morning - arranged to make it look like the Rapture happened while they were inside and that they didn't qualify for selection.

Wonder how much self reflection that would cause

[Wednesdays]

21. If the Rapture happened for real,

and there were bundles of clothes everywhere, they wouldn't even make the connection. They'd just "Praise the Lord" for all the free clothing.

[madamesilverspurs]

28. Hmmmm...

Now if you were standing there, Bible in hand, next to said pile of empty shoes and clothes, and you kept repeating "I was just talking to him and poof!" - that might work.

[babylonsister]

2. Ugh. No. nt

[imdjh]

3. We need to out-fundie the fundies.

I'll have to give it some thought, but we can weird them out big time.

The sick part of all this, is that many serious (as opposed to whack job) fundamentalists consider these folks to be so out of line with scripture. "Signs and miracles" are huge no-nos to the real Bible thumpers (the ones who have actually read it), which is the reason that they are so anti-Catholic. Talking in tongues and faith healing are huge no-nos.

[Lorax7844]

5. k and r

[LuvNewcastle]

8. Matthew 16:4

"A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed."

[troubledamerican]

25. Here's how. Look up their own "facts" on "Rapture" -- they lie about their Bible.

According to their own source on "the Rapture" (Revelation 7), only 144,000 will be "raptured" and they are all virgins and all Jews.

http://www.wake-up.org/Revelation/Rev144.htm

The televangelists have concocted a larger myth to rake in the dollars.

[imdjh]

26. A Jehovah's Witness explained that to me.

The JW do not believe that nice Christian people (and Jews if you must) are going to Heaven, they believe that God will make Earth a paradise, a heaven on Earth.

[tuvor]

4. The Apocalypse is ALWAYS just around the corner.

Am I not right, folks?

[TomCADem]

6. Evangelicals Have Perverted The Gospel

The bible has numerous references to the poor, as well as condemnation of the rich, but only a few isolated references to the unborn. Indeed, if a person causes miscarriage, the bible only states that the person should pay a fine, which will probably come as a surprise to person who assasinated the Kansas doctor who performed abortions. In contrast, evangelicals simply ignore the vast portions of the bible that deal with economic issues. I really wish that people would take the bible back from the Corporate Christians, and I am glad that President Obama has made the effort to outreach to those Christians who have actually read in the bible, rather than accepting the Corporate Christian talking points at face value.

[pnorman]

7. I like this part:

"So what can we do? Pray for the rapture. If evangelicals vanish, the rest of us might finally get better medical care, a healthier environment, a more just international community, and full civil rights for gays and lesbians."

I'm not a card-carrying Christian, and thereby quite unaccustomed to prayer. But just this once? Never can tell!

pnorman

[bottomofthehill]

9. BAD NEWS!!!!

I just checked the rapture index and we are at 167, near an all time high. If someone with a nice car and house is to Rapture, i hope i can have his/her shit

[Recursion]

10. "The Antichrist" is not in the bible

Paul and John both talk about antichrists, plural, meaning people who are against Christianity.

I also think the article's author is painting all evangelicals as dispensationalists, which they are not.

[Mythsaje]

11. Pretty sure this antichrist fellow was supposed to be a religious figure...

Of course, all this confuses the fuck out of me because it's pretty much pulled out of the evangelicals collective asses over the past century or so.

The biggest scourge in this country remains the bugfuck insane religious nuts. No question.

[Ozymanithrax]

12. Right Wing American Churches are false chruches...

the collective Whore (or whores) of Babylon.

At least that is one interpretation in the tens of thousands of possible interpretations.

Send Ezekiel to tell me I'm wrong.

[intaglio]

14. Please look at FSTDT

These lunatics are everywhere

a selection, first from "Moonbattery"

http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=64094

(People), are not Catholic at all if they support obama. They have the right to be Catholic but they have flushed it down the toilet for the sake of a Marxist child torturer and murderer. They can't claim stupidity for the truth of all issues has been told to them loudly and clearly. They have no excuses whatsoever. It would be better that they had a millstone put round their necks and be tossed into the sea. The Church is being renewed by being purged. Throw open wide the door and usher them all OUT. Let them be anathema!

next up, Topix

http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=64068

Obama called America "One of the worlds largest muslim countries",while in Turkey and Egypt,Yet he said here in America that,"We are not a Christian Nation".

Every Christian I know is armed and ready for the anti-Christian onslaught.

This muslim president is destroying this country in the name of his Pedophile prophet MOOHAMHEAD.

The infamous Alan Clarke, posting on "Debunking Christianity"

http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=64100

If a law forces rapists to marry their victims, then perhaps the number of rapes will decline to near zero. What’s more, if the law requires rapists to pay fifty shekels of silver to the father, this could indeed equate to the death penalty if the rapist hasn’t saved toward his bride’s future. Thus, we have narrowed down the field of rapists who marry their victims to only those who have saved for their “brides” future. If the girl happens to be ugly, he is required to marry her anyway. Again, this stipulation will help narrow the field further since potential rapists will be motivated to think before acting. Thirdly, if one “selects” his wife through means of rape, then he’ll never be able to divorce her even if “she” turns out to be a transvestite. The law is putting so many roadblocks into the potential rapist’s path, and causing him to think, I would guess most potential rapists would opt for the easier path of waiting for a willing partner. Thus, such a society could easily exceed the American society in quality by many fold.

A comment made on BBC Religion

http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=63997

The Holy Bible is the inerrant, infallible, and authoritative word of God.

All other books and writings are inferior to God's word, the Bible.

Only false theories contradict the Holy Bible.

Yahoo Answers

http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=64063

"If socialized healthcare were proposed in, say, the 1920s and it flourished, we would be fighting to keep it in place. Europe is doing well with their health care."

THIS ISNT EUROPE!!

This is AMERICA! This is a Christian nation and universal healthcare is UNCHRISTIAN. end of story

Then, of course there is the ever popular "Rapture Ready"

http://fstdt.net/QuoteComment.aspx?QID=63919

I have been worried about since the first time I laid eyes on him. Something in my heart told me he is bent upon evil. While still campaigning, he went to Europe (Berlin speech "We the people of the world")
Several times he has referred to this being his first term.
I looked into his background. He is only 7% african, 50% caucasion, and 43% arabic.
With all of his self-comparisons to our founding fathers, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and this before he was even in office for 30 days.
There were commemerative plates and coins for sale before the inauguration.
There is a hidden agenda, leading us straight into the grasp of a New World Order.
It is an exciting and fearful time to be alive; these are indeed the last days. It just gets to me when I try to talk to others about these things and I get brushed off or labeled a lunnie.
Anyway, it means that the rapture is near....even at the door.
Yours in Christ,
Melisa

Luckily these people are a tiny - if noisy - minority

[formercia]

15. I just can't wait for 2013

so all of this rapture/Armageddon bullshit will be over with and the crazies can crawl back under their rocks.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. Nah, the biblical apocalyptophiles aren't tied down to a specific year

It's always "anytime soon now", for them. 2012 is for New Age apocalyptophiles, because it has an 'ancient indigenous' calendar with a vague association to it (which gives it added hippie credibility), and because some fraud who didn't know their astronomy convinced some gullible people there's something special about the alignment of the earth's axis, the earth's orbit, and the galactic plane in 2012 (there isn't).

So those waiting hopefully for their own death in the Rapture will still be at it in 2013, and a long time after that, unfortunately.

[TrogL]

29. Don't be silly. The end of time is 2038, the end of UNIX time

[formercia]

31. Better patch my BSDUNIX box

Good point though.

[zbdent]

16. if the Rapture really did happen, I wonder how many of these "Rapture-Readies"

will be sitting around wondering where their liberal friends disappeared to ... you know, the ones actually living as Jesus asked us to, not just screaming it at the top of their lungs ...

[old mark]

17. These are the same people who believe in a 6000 year old universe and

believe all the dinosaur fossils, etc, are just god's little tricks to test their faith in the 7 day creation story in the bible.
They are not people of reason and there is no reasoning with them or expecting sense from them.

markO8)

[Joanne98]

19. It's the TV preachers. Here's a NEW video John Hagee just put out.

Obama is the leader of the NWO and the anti-christ!

They don't care what they say! They should just SUED for libel!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poNNCj422bI

[FatDave]

22. You fundies choose your antichrists by the sackfull. (nt)

[Festivito]

23. Christians, and even evangelical Christians are behind Obama.

And, although some are in nutty places, there are nutty people all over the political spectra.

The ones there for truth are many, the ones following the big money are a problem, but that is always to be the problem in democracy.

We won that vote, can continue to win that vote, and we can increase our winning of that vote now and in the future.

[jberryhill]

24. This article pinpoints the craziest thing about them....

In the Catch-22 it describes. These people are reflexively opposed to anything positive, and will bleat "The Devil comes disguised as an Angel of Light".

That's right, nitwits, "DISGUISED". That doesn't mean you send every angel packing because it looks like one.

[elehhhhna]

27. The fact that they dont' like Obama proves he ain't the AC --

the bible says the AC will fool EVERYBODY. Duh. Apply some frikkin logic, theocrazies!

[winyanstaz]

30. Well gosh now,....I am soo sorry for all you Evangelicals...

cause the Rapture already happened in 1982.
It was totally great and rapture is a very inadequate word for what happened. However I am sad to have to report I did not see a single Evangelical or born again there.
We are all back now, trying to get you all to wake the fuck up and start turning this mess around and save this planet so we can have that thousand years of peace now...so wake up already!

[The abyss]

32. I’ve got to ask a question.

Can someone please link me to the funniest (IMHO) quip I can remember seeing on DU?

It involved the neighbor “Steve” the typical rabid, rapture loony convinced that “Tuesday” or whatever was the day. Great stuff! I had a link to this rather neat piece of writing. Unfortunately I’ve lost it.

Thanks.

[burning rain]

33. Maybe Obama could corrall a few votes....

simply by conspicuously toting one or another installment of Left Behind when he's out and about.

[Liberation Angel]

34. Hell everyone knows Dubya was the antichrist (Mabus) and Obama is the Comforter

read your revelations folks

Even Nostradamus, as dyslexic as he was, got it right if ass backwards and saw that Mabus was WGBush (the m was inverted and the a was really a g, folks)

prophecy is a mofo, believe it or not!