The Null Device

Obama as the Antichrist

US Republican electoral strategists' latest tactic against Barack Obama: ads that insinuate that he is the Antichrist, in the hope of getting evangelical Christian voters out to vote for McCain. They're careful not to say outright that Obama is the Antichrist, of course, as that would make them look like lunatics to non-Evangelical voters. Rather, the ad (titled "the One") has an innocuous surface message, ostensibly poking fun at Obama's messianic image, though is peppered with coded references to popular American Christian thriller series Left Behind:
As the ad begins, the words “It should be known that in 2008 the world shall be blessed. They will call him The One” flash across the screen. The Antichrist of the Left Behind books is a charismatic young political leader named Nicolae Carpathia who founds the One World religion (slogan: “We Are God”) and promises to heal the world after a time of deep division. One of several Obama clips in the ad features the Senator saying, “A nation healed, a world repaired. We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.”
Sapp knows that the phrasing and images could just be dismissed as a peculiar coincidence. After all, it was Oprah Winfrey who told an Iowa crowd that Obama was "the one!" But, he insists, "the frequency of these images and references don't make any sense unless you're trying to send the message that Obama could be the Antichrist." Mara Vanderslice, another Democratic consultant, who handled religious outreach for the 2004 Kerry campaign, agrees. "If they wanted to be funny, if they really wanted to play up the idea that Obama thinks he's the Second Coming, there were better ways to do it," she says. "Why use these awkward lines like, 'And the world will receive his blessings'?"
It’s not hard to see how some Obama haters might be tempted to make the comparison. In the Left Behind books, Carpathia is a junior Senator who speaks several languages, is beloved by people around the world and fawned over by a press corps that cannot see his evil nature, and rises to absurd prominence after delivering just one major speech. Hmmh. But serious Antichrist theorists don’t stop there. Everything from Obama’s left-handedness to his positive rhetoric to his appearance on the cover of this magazine has been cited as evidence of his true identity. One chain e-mail claims that the Antichrist was prophesied to be “A man in his 40s of MUSLIM descent,” which would indeed sound ominous if not for the fact that the Book of Revelation was written at least 400 years before the birth of Islam.
Which sounds like a textbook case of dog-whistle politics. Speaking of which, has anybody seen Lynton Crosby recently?

There are 3 comments on "Obama as the Antichrist":

Posted by: cyphunk Sat Aug 16 01:11:51 2008

if i may, Obama=Antichrist is the best selling point for evangelical christians. The scenario given in the bible for Jesus bringing the new jerusalem involves the Antichrist making a mess of things first. So, if christians vote for and elect the Antichrist in 2008, instead of in 2012, then that is 4 years closer to Jesus coming back!

Posted by: Fraser Sun Aug 17 14:02:09 2008

'One chain e-mail claims that the Antichrist was prophesied to be “A man in his 40s of MUSLIM descent,” which would indeed sound ominous if not for the fact that the Book of Revelation was written at least 400 years before the birth of Islam.'

Not to mention that Osama is not a Muslim, just a guy with a name that sounds like the name of a Muslim. Sigh.

Posted by: jstubbs Sun Aug 31 19:04:30 2008

A lot of people don't want you to read this, but I think it's vitally important. In the Bible - Thessalonians - there is the following passage (note that this is in the Slavonic Orthodox version of the Bible, which is not widely available). This is scary and we need to get the Word out. God placed this in the Bible for a reason - He wanted us to know. Please forward this to as many people as possible.



"And so it is written of a man of the Great Western Empire. In his youth he fought valiantly in the battles with the Red Dragon and had been imprisoned in the Dragon's Lair for lo these seven years, where his body was subjected to tortuous ritual and he faced great trials and tribulations. And his once great mind had been warped by the Dragon's Breath and there was great sorrow in the land.



By God's grace the man was set free from captivity and returned to the Great Western Empire and there was much joy and celebration. He rose to power as one of the tribe's Elders of the Mammoth, and in