With the many scandals
currently surrounding Barack Obama as President of the United States, the web
of intrigue that has sprung up around him continues spinning and perpetuating
speculation about his origins and his destiny. Many continue to wring their
hands, furrow their brow, and solicit monies to support further investigation
into the “true” birthplace of the 44th President. This speculation
runs from the ridiculous to the surreal. For example, a youtube video claims to
be an in-depth study of Luke 10:18, wherein Jesus reports seeing “Satan fall
from heaven as lightning.” The maker of the video has concocted a shaky theory.
Although the New Testament was originally written in the Greek language, this
“scholar” insisted on reading it in Hebrew. Through a series of linguistic
gymnastics, he managed to wrestle a pronunciation where “lightning and Satan”
sounded a bit like “Barrack Obama.”
The sarcastic cynic in
me wonders how this important insight has remained hidden for 2,000 years of
church history, and how long it took the author of the “Obama is Satan” video
to find a New Testament scripture that, when read in Hebrew, almost sounded
like the name of our current President? Clearly, some people have too much time
on their hands. This example of the
current manifestation of “end-time madness” may be laughable, but stories like
this are not rare. It seems with every emergence of new global personalities
voices erupt with the chants of the discovery of the Anti-Christ. In recent history,
popular authors have fictionalized events surrounding their interpretations of
New Testament prophecy fueling these theories. For the most part, these popular
books are based on a single view of Scripture, which was unknown to the Church
or to the world prior to the mid-19th century, whose adherents are
known as Dispensationalist.
This view came into
vogue through the teaching of John Nelson Darby, a minister with the Plymouth
Brethren in the mid-1800s. The highlights of this particular view of the Bible,
specifically when dealing with prophetic passages, are widely accepted. Yet we
need not embrace this understanding, to truly identify the spirit of
antichrist. Before John was exiled to Patmos, where he wrote down his
Revelation, he wrote in 1 John 2:22 “Who is the liar, but he who denies that
Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the
Son…. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will
abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us
-eternal life.” John makes it clear that those who are not abiding in Christ,
and have not the message of the Gospel abiding in them have embraced the spirit
of all that is opposed to who Christ is and what he represents.
This should impact how
we respond to the endless and often mindless preoccupations as to the correct
understanding of end-time events. What we should embrace is the message of the
Gospel which is sufficient to our hope as the people of God, that Christ will
return to Earth, bringing clarity, peace, justice and reward with him. In light
of John’s writing we should examine our lives in the light of God’s word so
that there is no denying of Christ with our lifestyle while we acknowledge him
with our lips.
Although I do have many disagreements
with the current occupant of the White House, the focus of my scrutiny is best
spent on the occupant of my house. It is far more likely that I will find the
antichrist when I examine the preoccupations of my heart than when I examine the
headlines. We should not live our lives seeking the identity of the
Anti-Christ, but rather in praise of the majesty and glory of The Christ,
Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
No comments :
Post a Comment