So, I wasn’t really going to go political today…and, in a sense, I’m still not going all-out political, but rather a 30/70 political-religious rant.
It’s all the fault of Chez over at Deus Ex Malcontent, by the way, and one of his his Tuesday posts with a quote by former Saturday Night Live cast member Victoria Jackson. And this is what Jackson said on her blog:
“I don’t want a political label, but Obama bears traits that resemble the anti-Christ and I’m scared to death that un-educated people will ignorantly vote him into office.”
First, I didn’t want to be reminded of what a ditsy whack-job Jackson has become. I had first learned about her blog a few months ago when she was spouting off some religious lunacy related to the election season, and it just twists my gut. For one thing, we don’t need crazy folks making the rest of us Christians look bad by association. People already think those of us who believe that the Book of Revelation will come to pass someday are crazy, but then when folks like Jackson and Sarah Palin start spouting off about the end times certainly-definitely-uh huh yeah coming in their lifetimes, it just reflects poorly. People assume that belief in the Book of Revelation automatically means you’re expecting the Antichrist to pop out of the bushes and that you’re just hoping for the Rapture to come right now.
Frankly, I want the Rapture to come as slowly as possible because there are a lot of people out there who haven’t come to Christ, and the last thing I want is the world coming to a close any time soon. Aside from the fact I do want to see the end of important TV series like Battlestar Galactica and Lost, and the end of the world might fuck with that.
I just want to go on record with my fellow Christians who might be confused on some important points:
- The Book of Revelation does not really give a description of the Antichrist.
- In fact, the name/word antichrist doesn’t even appear in that book but in John’s other writings.
- For the most part, antichrist is a generic term for people who are directly counter to Jesus.
- The guy who screws things up in Revelation is referred to as The Beast. He’s the big kahuna of all antichrists, so I suppose you could give him a capital-A version of the antichrist name if you really want.
There is a nice overview of the who False Prophet/Beast thing here. It’s not the most complete I’ve seen, but at least it is honest enough to note that we just don’t know the specifics of who, what or when with the Antichrist/Beast. We just don’t. Apparently, it will be abundantly clear, though, when he arrives, at least to those who are born again.
Well, I’m born again, and it hardly seems like a slam-dunk that Barack Obama is going to be the Antichrist, even though in addition to Victoria Jackson, I’ve seen other bloggers claim this and viral e-mails that claim this. For one thing, Obama professes to be a Christian. That means he professes Jesus as the risen Lord. That already make things muddy and confusing. Because the Antichrist/Beast will preach against any kind of worship but worship of himself and a rejection of Jesus and other faiths.
Obama doesn’t reject Jesus.
I don’t care how much you might think the Antichrist will be the ultimate liar, that guy simply won’t be able to get those kinds of words out of his mouth. To lift up Jesus at all or profess that Christianity is a course to salvation would be entirely anathema to any agenda of a servant of Satan ushering in the end times.
End of story.
Please, if you are a religious wacko who insists on painting Barack Obama as the Antichrist, don’t spout your bullshit in my presence. Because I will slap you until some sense returns to your brain.
(There a nice piece dissecting the ridiculousnness of Obama-as-Antichrist here, by the way, too.)
Deacon Blue
Inda Pink
Holy Sh!+ from Deacon Blue 
You know, something just occurred to me about Victoria Jackson’s quote and how idiotic it truly is.
Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Barack Obama might be the Antichrist.
If he is, why is she “scared to death” people might elect him into office?
It isn’t our job, as Christians, to delay the end times. It isn’t our job to prevent the rise of the Beast.
Just as it is lunacy for folks like Sarah Palin’s various church associates and others to try to accelerate the end times (which also isn’t our job as Christians), it is lunacy to think that we can, or should, prevent it.
God’s plan, folks. Let stop worrying about the who, what, why and when of the end times and just carry out the Great Commission while there still is a world, OK?
Amen! I hve to say I did wath all those Left Behinds and they were fun fictionalizations of what someone imagined the end times to be. But too many CHristians mistake the left behind series for the last books of the bible.
Ain’t that the truth, Kellybelle. I found it a reasonably entertaining series for the first five books, if I recall, and that it became clear to me they were just drawing things out to put out more books, as the quality was dropping off. It’s amazing that some people want to paint that as some sort of divine wake-up call or prophecy…God done closed down that Bible project a long time ago….