{"id":16610,"date":"2008-08-16T10:15:08","date_gmt":"2008-08-16T14:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/16576.html"},"modified":"2008-08-16T10:15:08","modified_gmt":"2008-08-16T14:15:08","slug":"this-week-in-god-118","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/this-week-in-god-118\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in God"},"content":{"rendered":"

First up from the God machine this week is good news from some popular end-times authors — they don’t like Barack Obama, but they’re pretty sure he’s not literally the antichrist<\/a>. (via Ron Chusid<\/a>)<\/p>\n

John McCain’s campaign ad “The One” has generated a lot of buzz regarding the “Left Behind Series.” Political commentators are comparing McCain’s portrayal of competitor Barack Obama with the blockbuster apocalyptic series’ depiction of the antichrist. But even the series authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins don’t think Obama is the antichrist. What may have been created as a farce has generated a firestorm of controversy on the internet.<\/p>\n

LaHaye and Jenkins take a literal interpretation of prophecies found in the Book of Revelation. They believe the antichrist will surface on the world stage at some point, but neither see Obama in that role. “I’ve gotten a lot of questions the last few weeks asking if Obama is the antichrist,” says novelist Jenkins. “I tell everyone that I don’t think the antichrist will come out of politics, especially American politics.” <\/p>\n

“I can see by the language he uses why people think he could be the antichrist,” adds LaHaye, “but from my reading of scripture, he doesn’t meet the criteria. There is no indication in the Bible that the antichrist will be an American.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First, I guess this is good news. A lot of strange folks really do consider LaHaye and Jenkins “authorities” on Biblical end-times prophecies, so if they announce Obama’s in the clear, those who take this seriously may very well believe them.<\/p>\n

Second, it’s probably worth noting that you know for sure that politics in America has become deeply, painfully bizarre when a fair number of people actually debate<\/a> whether a presidential candidate is the antichrist.
\n
\nOther items from The God Machine this week:<\/p>\n

* A poll<\/a> released this week by the Barna Group shows Obama faring well “among 18 self-identified faith groups including Protestants, Catholics, non-Christians, atheists and agnostics and born-again Christians. McCain leads among evangelicals.”<\/p>\n

* Remember John Freshwater, the Ohio science teacher accused of branding students with crosses? The story continues to percolate along<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* The “Pray at the Pump” group believes the recent decline in the price of gas is evidence of divine intervention<\/a> and proof that the group’s efforts are working. No, they’re not kidding.<\/p>\n

* And congratulations to the Rev. Dan Schultz, who was condemned this week<\/a> by radical televangelist, and John McCain ally, Rod Parsley. If Parsley’s on the attack against you <\/p>\n

2pharmaceuticals.com<\/a><\/p>\n

, you must be on the right track, right Pastor Dan?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First up from the God machine this week is good news from some popular end-times authors — they don’t like Barack Obama, but they’re pretty sure he’s not literally the antichrist. (via Ron Chusid) John McCain’s campaign ad “The One” has generated a lot of buzz regarding the “Left Behind Series.” Political commentators are comparing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16610\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}