Did an editor swing by and clean that up? All I see is ‘Former “Saturday Night Live” ingénue.’ That’s about as accurate a description as is possible. (You can’t really write 'Former “Saturday Night Live” ingénue and muttering nutbar," but the idea gets across anyway.)
I haven’t seen his show in several years, but Jack Van Impe always seemed just tickled pink that the end of the world was coming. He was positively jubilant that the crisis-of-the-week in the Middle East was a signal of the coming End Times. I kind of liked him and his oddly preserved wife Rexella. Does anyone know what Jack thinks of Obama’s election? Does he see it as yet another sign that Jesus is returning soon?
Like… um… Dale Brown? 
There are lots of academics who study End Times prophecies and millenialism and the like; I’m sure Newsweek could have dug up at least a couple. The History Channel seems to have dozens on retainer.
Yes, but the Pentagon actually exists. As opposed to the Rapture, which doesn’t. When Tom Clancy gets something wrong about the military, it’s objectively wrong; when Tim LaHaye says something about the Rapture, he’s no wronger than any other believer in it; they are all equally wrong, namely completely. Whereas if you want to talk about the Pentagon, you can talk to someone who actually knows things about it; there are people who are righter than Tom Clancy on the subject.
Plus, as someone who writes popular books on the subject, what he says is going to reflect the believer’s actual beliefs more than some more obscure person, because many will be taking their beliefs from what he writes.
Tim LaHaye is a long-time Baptist pastor & perennial activist in the Christian Right. For the past 30+ years, he has written non-fiction books on Bible prophecy, various other Christian topics, politics, marital sex advice, personality analysis, etc. “Religious novelist” is just his latest activity.
To the Q about when Victoria Jackson became a conservative C’tian- since about forever, even during SNL. Google up her interview w/ The Wittenberg Door.
To be fair, no one with any name recognition is saying Obama is the A-C or Beast (Rev13) or Man of Sin (II Thess 2) or False Prophet (Rev 16) or Little Horn (Daniel 7,8) or Willful King (Daniel 11). Even Victoria only said there are things about him the resemble the idea of the A-C. He’s charismatic, enthralling, diplomatic, an economic interventionist and internationalist. Heck, except for that he doesn’t fit the ethnic profile* the Bible seems to indicate about the A-C and that he confesses JC as his Lord & Savior, I might wonder about him being the A-C.
*(I can hear a Kevin Smith character now saying "So you don’t think a black man is capable of leading humanity to worship Satan and bring the world to the brink of Armageddon. And you don’t think you’re racist?)
If you feel compelled, as I did, to comment on the Newsweek site, DON’T. I am now in Newsweek hell–I cannot unsubscribe (I’ve looked all over for that link). Managing my personal info led me to dead ends, complicated by a confusing interface that has me seething. I finally found a “contact us” email. I have sent off a heated letter, asking that my name and all subscriptions be removed.
Never again.
Friar Ted–that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen here. “To be fair”? How disingenuous of you. Obama escapes that moniker solely because he doesn’t fit the ethnic profile? He doesn’t look much like Santa Claus, either. What mumbo jumbo nonsense IS this? I knew fundamentalists and evangelicals were bent, but truly, this sets a new standard for hilarity. You believe this with a straight face?
Well, at least it’s good to know that Lisa Miller found work after leaving WNYX.
He also said he can’t be the antichrist because he’s a professed Christian.
Anyway, railing against people who believe Obama is the Antichrist is silly if you’re a Christian and really silly if you’re not. You might as well be offended by people who believe he’s secretly Malcolm X wearing makeup.
Uh, no- er, Obama escapes the moniker MAINLY because of this-
“and that he confesses JC as his Lord & Savior”
and I said that except for these two things, “I might wonder”, NOT that “I would think”.
You’re a bright & humourous person 99.9% of the time here, ER, but I’ve noticed lately that changes when something that bugs you religiously or politically. I have my theory as to why, but I’ll just urge you to read things two or three times & not automatically assuming the worst when you see something that gets in your craw.
Btw, I spent an hour Sat on the phone with a Pastor friend who was upset about a Forbes article discussing a figure in Shi’ite End-Times lore called “The Promised Warrior” and that some Shi’ites may see Obama as that figure. My friend prefaced every paragraph “Now, I’m not saying Obama is the AntiChrist, but…” and I was explaining to him that he was sounding nuts.
Oh, and ER, here’s another clue- when I quote Kevin Smith or his entourage to make a point, I’m attempting to be somewhat humorous and not 100% straight-faced.
Edited-
I see Really Not All That Bright saw my main point. Thank you & kudos to you for reading comprehension.
No problem.
On the flip side, since I don’t believe JC is the son of God and all that, or accept him as my savior, I could totally be the Antichrist! Well, I might need to work on the charismatic part. Also, evil incarnate- not quite there yet.
Out of curiosity, what is the AC’s “ethnic profile”? Semitic?
With all respect, Friar, the Bible does not give an ethnic profile for the Antichrist because that character – as conceived of in popular culture – does not exist in the Bible. As suggested by your own post, that character is an amalgam of multiple, unrelated references and characters throughout the Bible. The “Willful King” and “Little Horn” in Daniel refer to Antiochus (and obviously, Daniel could not have made any reference to Christ anyway, since it was written more than 150 years before Jesus was born). The Beast was the Roman Emperor, and “antichrists” (plural) was a word used in the Epistles of John (and nowhere else in the Bible) to refer to rival Christian sects (i.e. Gnostics) and to people the author percieved as enemis of Christianity in general.
The pop culture figure of a Satanic supervillain who will take over the world is basically non-Biblical urban legend. The Bible makes no such prediction. I’m well aware that there is a cottage industry of people like LeHaye who cut and paste random strings of of originally disparate and unrelated Bible verses in order to impose a fabricated appearance of a unified narrative, but those people are not performing exegesis and are not scholars. They’re just selling books.
:dubious:
I don’t know what Friar will say because there is more than one belief about this, but one common claim is that the Antichrist will be Jewish. Another claim is that he will come (in some way) from Roman heritage because Revelation says the Beast will arise from the people who destroyed the Temple.
Guiliani for Antichrist in '12!
What!?
I see that this has been answered but, damn. It’s like saying if it weren’t for the fact that he says he’s a man of god, I might wonder about FriarTed being a fill in the blank.
And all are equally “experts” on the topic with LaHaye. So is that dude in your neighborhood who keeps his Bible and all his other possessions in a shopping cart.
“He’s the Antichrist!”
“He can’t be the Antichrist, he says he believes in God.”
“Ah, but that’s just what the Antichrist would say! Clever, see.”
“My goodness, that’s certainly stringent evidence. Under rigorous logical analysis like that, practically anybody could be the Antichrist. They had better evidence in Salem, Massachusetts.”
“Those witches were the Antichrist too.”
“All of 'em?”
“Well… most of them. Okay, one. But better safe than sorry.”
Don’t most reputable historians say that NERO was the Antichrist?
Honestly? I think if Jesus himself WERE to return, most of these fundies would berate him for not being a “true” Christian, since he was all about giving to the poor, loving others, not judging people, etc. It’s disgusting.
But Nero is just an anagram of “One R”. And it’s plain as the nose on your face that BaRack Hussein Obama has only “one R”. Clearly he’s your anti-christ.
So if you find a name like “Antichrist” that only has one R… waaaaaaaaitaminute. “Christ” has only one R… does does “Christmas” and “Easter.”