{"id":3334,"date":"2008-11-05T08:47:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-05T08:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/11\/enough-already-our-next-president-and-the-book-of-revelation\/"},"modified":"2008-11-05T08:47:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-05T08:47:00","slug":"enough-already-our-next-president-and-the-book-of-revelation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/11\/enough-already-our-next-president-and-the-book-of-revelation.html","title":{"rendered":"Enough Already: Our Next President and the Book of Revelation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a> I thought that perhaps after the election, the number of visitors to my blog who arrive here via search engines, searching for keywords like \u201cObama\u201d and \u201cRevelation 13\u201d and \u201cantichrist\u201d would decrease and eventually stop. At the moment, it seems that there is, if anything, an increase. <\/p>\n

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If you\u2019re interested in the Book of Revelation, you need to understand that it is first and foremost a critique of the Roman Empire in the author\u2019s time. It uses Gematria to indicate the emperor Nero (and perhaps allude simultaneously to Gaius, also known as Caligula). Nero, as is well know, was the first emperor to actually become an \u201cofficial sponsor\u201d of the persecution of Christians. The book is unambiguous about that, and the only reason many American Christians cannot accept it is because of our sense of self-importance \u2013 that book has to be about us<\/em>.<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/a>I\u2019m not against applying the book to our time. But the greatest resemblance is between our nation\u2019s wealth and arrogance and the depiction of the Roman Empire in Revelation 18<\/a>. And we\u2019ve just elected as our next president a Christian who gets something that is a blind spot for at least some American<\/a> Christians<\/a>: democracy and freedom<\/a> are good for Christianity, and issues of poverty and social justice are key concerns in the Biblical literature.<\/div>\n

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Is Barack Obama the antichrist<\/a>? I am willing to say with complete confidence that the answer is no<\/a>. What Christians should be doing now, whether they voted for Obama<\/a> or not, is to support<\/a> him in making our nation seem less like the empire criticized in the Book of Revelation, and more like the place of freedom, liberty and justice that we claim to want to be as a nation.<\/div>\n

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If you need more information, you are welcome to do a keyword search on \u201cObama\u201d<\/a> on this blog. I\u2019ve posted a lot more on this subject.<\/div>\n
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One last point. A lot of people are searching the web for information about Barack Obama<\/a>, Revelations, Muslim, Islam<\/a> and the like. Muhammad<\/a> lived in the 600s. Revelation was written sometime before the year 100. There are (perhaps not unsurprisingly) no obvious references to or even predictions of the rise of Islam or anything to do with Islam. <\/div>\n

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Why not take this opportunity to read an actual book by a Biblical scholar (which is not the category into which Tim LaHaye is to be placed) about the Book of Revelation, and see what you\u2019ve been missing by allowing idle speculation on the web be your guide, rather than the well-informed research of Biblical scholars from whatever denomination or stream of Christianity you may be connected with. And in the mean time, please join in the celebration of something<\/a> historic<\/a> and positive<\/a><\/em> that has occurred in this country.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I thought that perhaps after the election, the number of visitors to my blog who arrive here via search engines, searching for keywords like \u201cObama\u201d and \u201cRevelation 13\u201d and \u201cantichrist\u201d would decrease and eventually stop. At the moment, it seems that there is, if anything, an increase. If you\u2019re interested in the Book of Revelation, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEnough Already: Our Next President and the Book of Revelation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I thought that perhaps after the election, the number of visitors to my blog who arrive here via search engines, searching for keywords like "Obama" and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/11\/enough-already-our-next-president-and-the-book-of-revelation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Enough Already: Our Next President and the Book of Revelation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I thought that perhaps after the election, the number of visitors to my blog who arrive here via search engines, searching for keywords like "Obama" and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2008\/11\/enough-already-our-next-president-and-the-book-of-revelation.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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