Antichrist Identified?

I stumbled across a brief biography of the former Israeli Prime Minister/former Defense Minister/former long-time General of the I.D.F., Ariel Sharon. I knew he had suffered a major stroke back in 2006, but I hadn't heard whether he had survived it, or not. Apparently he has survived it though he has supposedly ended up in a coma, in a "permanent vegetative state". At least that's what the doctors thought until last January. They had a team of Israeli and American doctors examine him then to see if there was any discernible brain response to various stimuli, and they were surprised to find significant measureable brain activity in response to various pictures that would have been familiar to him before his stroke, as opposed to similar pictures that would have been unfamiliar to him. The doctors were careful to report that while this brain activity was indeed significant, it was a long way away from stating that they expected him to awaken out of his seven-year coma any time soon.

The reason I had Googled his name in the first place was because I had been reading the scriptures concerning the "Abomination of Desolation" in Revelation 13, and 17, and also in Daniel chapter 9. Like probably every other Born-Again Christian, I have long speculated as to the identity of the Antichrist, assuming he is already alive, and soon to be revealed. For a long time I wondered if it could be Mikhail Gorbachev, since the Antichrist was described as a man, "as though he was wounded in the head" ( but not actually saying that he was wounded). Gorbachev's very prominent scarlet-red birth mark on his forehead seemed very condemning to me, as someone viewing him in a vision ( like the apostle John) could easily presume it to be an open wound, yet he would be seen walking and talking normally. This seemed to fit the bill for someone presumed to have been miraculously brought back from the dead ( see Revelation 17: 8, and 11 where it talks of, "the Beast that was, and is not"). Yet there were obvious problems with the logic here.

First, Revelation 17 also talks about a perverse system of false worship, referred to as, "the great whore" (in contrast to the true "Bride of Christ" which is His Church), and it describes "her" as residing in a city that can be traditionally recognized as Rome, when it says in verse 9, "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth." This can only refer to the Vatican, situated in the heart of Rome, a city renowned for being built upon seven great hills, with all apologies to our many Catholic brothers, and sisters. I am not attempting to start baiting Catholics as being false Christians; I'll leave that up to people like Martin Luther ( who was after all one of the most virulent anti-semites in history, so his understanding certainly had it's limits, just like all of us). But the Vatican does have a tainted history with its papal throne historically being available for purchase to the highest bidder; I believe it was one of Lucretia Borgeas' relatives who bribed himself into being elected Pope, and later was quoted as saying something to the effect that he found the concept of Salvation through the forgiveness of sins a very convenient concept for the manipulation of the believers. Somewhere in Revelation I believe it is talking about worshipers of the "great whore" when it quote's God as talking to the true believers when He says, "come out of her my people", meaning that God recognizes a difference between Catholics who are truly Born-Again Christians, by faith in Jesus, and those who merely trust in their Catholic (or Protestant, for that matter) traditions to get them into Heaven when they die. This is the crux of the issue that has caused Christians to believe that the throne of the Pope would eventually be taken over by the Antichrist, though it was never clearly stated to be so in the Bible.

Nonetheless, I can't quite picture Mikhail Gorbachev being able to purchase the papacy, or even wanting to. He has always seemed to be a confirmed secularist, so I guess that birth mark is probably just a coincidence after all.

Now this report of Ariel Sharon's brain reacting to various simple stimuli has peaked my curiosity once again. I'm sure various other "coincidences" will interest all of us, from time to time, until the actual moment of the "Abomination of Desolation" truly reveals the identity of the Antichrist. Yet if Ariel Sharon should one day completely awaken from his coma, there are certain "coincidences" that are remarkable, along with serious flaws in the logic. It could be that he might be the false Messiah which is prophecied in conjunction with the revelation of the Antichrist. Many Jews have believed in a soon coming Messiah ( so long as his name was not Jesus), and I understand that the popular belief is that they expect him to be a normal Jewish man of exceptional power ( but not the "Son of God") to lead his nation, as was Ariel Sharon for so many years. Also there were reports of Sharon allowing himself to be escorted around the site of the ancient Holy Temple not long before his stroke, as if he were attempting to act out the prophecied entrance of the Messiah into the Temple, which we Christians believe Jesus already did on Palm Sunday. He even went so far as to begin his tour of the Temple Mount from the inside of the East Gate, which has been blocked-up with stone and concrete for decades, or more. This was a blatant attempt to seem to "fulfill" the Messianic Prophecy stating that the Messiah would enter the Temple through the East Gate. Could this actually be the "Abomination of Desolation", way in advance? Well, probably not, as it is supposed to be accompanied by some sort of blasphemous setting up of an image, like some kind of giant hologram of the Antichrist proclaiming himself to be the third member of the Godhead ( the Holy Spirit?). I've long thought that this, coupled with the receiving of his "mark of the beast" might actually be the "unforgiveable sin" that Jesus mentioned, but did not clearly define, other than to refer to it as the "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit". One must surely wonder if Sharon was attempting to place himself in position to be proclaimed the Messiah by his followers. Anyway this created such an outcry among the Palestinian Arabs that a new Intifada riot broke out because of it.

All this is reported to you as merely interesting facts to contemplate until the real "Abomination of Desolation" is carried out ( assuming we're still here, and the Rapture hasn't yet happened). I certainly mean no disrespect to the family of Ariel Sharon, especially if all this speculation should ultimately prove to be nothing more than coincidence. But, as he has been a very public personality for decades, I don't feel that this constitutes any form of slander, even if it proves to be wrong. At worst I suppose this seems a bit insensitive of me to even suggest the possibility of it being true. But for Christians this is a very significant issue to be concerned with, and ignorance of issues like this could possibly effect someone's salvation, though I certainly am not trying to make any definitive charges as to the truth of my conjecture. Again, all apologies to any family or friends whom I may have offended by it. God bless!

NOTE: (from January 12, 2014):

As noted above, I certainly meant no disrespect to the now late Ariel Sharon, who was reported to have passed away yesterday, with my wandering speculations concerning the identity of the Antichrist. I apologized in advance to his relatives should my suggestions prove untrue, and therefore offensive. But the larger issue stands irrefutable, that many secularly-inspired Jews have attempted to act out aspects of the Messianic Prophecies in the past, as Sharon clearly did, and others will likely follow until the real Antichrist actually comes forward to commit the "Abomination of Desolation" that Daniel referred to. As Christians, we would be remiss if we didn't examine these attempts to replace Jesus Christ with a secular impostor as Israel's Messiah, in order that we would not be fooled by the real Antichrist if we are still here ( which I strongly doubt we will be). My purpose was not to defame anyone, but to show the lengths that some have gone to in order to avail themselves of the worshipful loyalty that would be accrued by being declared the Jewish Messiah, again, so long as his name was not Jesus.

Obama Peeks Out of the Closet

Recently I committed the indiscretion of wondering if President Obama was actually a "closet Muslim" ( see post of that title). My, how un-patriotic of me to dare to besmirch the reputation of the leader of our government( no matter how apparently deserving he may be), who is credited with being the "leader of the free world". Moreover, how un-Christian of me to not blindly support him since the Apostle Paul encourages us to pray for our leaders. Well, I do pray for Mr. Obama. I pray earnestly that God will change his heart before he destroys this nation, as he certainly seems to be attempting to do, whether he realizes it or not. Never before in American history have we ever elected as president a man who seems so bent on cozying up to international organizations who state openly that their intention is to destroy America's constitutional form of government and replace it with a Jihadist form of crack-pot theocracy, all the while he pretends to "protect and defend" that very Constitution. The closest we've ever come to this before was with Aaron Burr, and all he was able to destroy was Alexander Hamilton's liver. But a story broadcast by C.B.N. News, on the "700 Club",( see story at www.cbnnews.com, on August 28th) details how President Obama has apparently been meeting openly with members of an organization called the "I.S N.A.", which stands for the "Islamic Society of North America", and whose leader ( one Mohammed Magid) has apparently become a trusted advisor to the Obama administration.

Apparently, the Obama administration rationalizes this cozy relationship by claiming that Mr. Magid is representative of the moderate element of Islam in America, yet the evidence suggests that he has very close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which gave us the inception of Osama Bin Laden's Al Quaida network, and the failed attempt to turn a questionable Egyptian presidential victory into a creation of a Sharia-law radical Islamic state. This attempt was reversed by the Egyptian Army's "non-coup" Coup recently and the consequential blood bath when the Brotherhood encouraged thousands of protestors to threaten the Army positions, while giving cover to their Jihadist snipers to shoot at the Army soldiers. The intent here was to instigate the soldiers into firing defensively upon the crowds of protestors, behind whom the Jihadist snipers were hiding, knowing that the soldiers fire would surely kill many unarmed protestors, as it did, while most of the snipers would escape. Then the international news media would just love to carry the story about how the Egyptian Army blatantly massacred hundreds of unarmed protestors ( which they did), mostly failing to report the instigation of the Jihadist snipers. ( This from the Media which belligerently continues to proclaim itself to be free, and unbiased.) There are only two institutions in the world today that the Muslim Brotherhood hates more than those in Egypt who are resisting their attempts to destroy that nation. First, there is their genocidal hatred of Israel, and all Jews around the world. And second is their hatred of America because of our long-standing support for Israel, and especially Christian Americans, because we believe that the Bible encourages us to both pray for Israel's peace, and to bless them in any way that we can.

Anyway, President Obama's apparent friendship with this Mohammed Magid and his Muslim Brotherhood-supporting organization seems entirely consistent with two other issues of recent report. First, there have been speculations that the recent refusal to send in supporting military troops to the embassy attack in Benghazi, Lybia, along with the Administration's incredibly lame efforts to stonewall any investigations that followed, indicated an official decision by the White House to support the Muslim Brotherhood's efforts to take control of all the governments in the North African, and Arabian Penninsula regions. (Nor has there been any apparent effort made to bring any form of retribution upon the Al Quaida operatives in Lybia who carried out the embassy attack, even though there are reports to the effect that we know who they are, and where they live.) Secondly, we recall that the White House was quick to condemn the Egyptian overthrow of Mohammed Morsi's Sharia-law ( or radical Islamic, oppressive legalism) government, in spite of the fact that he had abolished his country's constitution, and disbanded their Parliament in order to illegally try to force his Sharia-State upon a population that did not want it, and did not realize his intentions when he duped them into electing him. It boggles the mind to think that Obama, and his Administration seem unable ( or unwilling?) to draw the connection between the Muslim Brotherhood, and the international terrorist organization that they founded ( Al Quaida; which gave us the 911 plane crashes into the "Twin Towers"). Logically, it follows the simple Algebraic formula: if "A" equals "B", and "B" equals "C", then "A" must equal "C"; and if "A" is the Muslim Brotherhood approval of Al Quaida, and "B" is the Obama White House approval of the Muslim Brotherhood, then "C" is that the Obama White House approves of Al Quaida ( and indirectly of their terrorist activities, including 911). Exactly how does Obama square this with his oath of office ( "to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States"), unless he considers our Constitution to be as irrelevant, and therefore as disposable as the Egyptian Constitution was to Morsi!

Let's be clear on one thing. I have nothing against Mr. Barak Obama; it's President Obama that I can't stand! Obama seems to be a very personable man. He is intelligent, but seems to be fatally devoid of wisdom, as so many Harvard graduates seem to be likewise afflicted! He has compassion for the poor and needy, as long as he can get someone else ( taxpayers) to fund their aid programs ( welfare, "Obama-care", etc.). In short, I think he'd make a great Mayor of Chicago ( if they'd kick that other guy down to something more appropriate, like Dog Catcher). Just keep him out of Washington, D.C.; he wasn't even much of a Congressman. We've got to keep people of his liberal ilk away from getting their hands on the public treasury, or they'll spend it into oblivion. So don't think that I'm some kind of racist looney, who hates Obama because of his skin color. He doesn't think with his skin. Trouble is he doesn't think well enough with his brain! Anyway, I'm already on record as saying the only thing that keeps me from calling for his Impeachment is the frightening thought of a Joe Biden presidency! He' not as smart as Obama, and has even less wisdom!

So what's next? Does Obama plan to abolish the U.S. Congress, and set up a Sharia-Law Theocratic Looney State??? Does he really believe that our military would blindly allow that, any more than the Egyptian Army did? And even if they did, don't forget the Constitution's amendment allowing for us to "keep and Bear arms", which the Liberals have so far been unable to repeal, for all their efforts to do so. The old adage is true; if you make gun ownership illegal, then only the cops and the criminals (or terrorists) will have them. The Egyptian people don't have that privilege, so only the lawless Muslim Brotherhood have easy access to weapons. As I've said, the mind simply boggles when trying to fathom what Obama and his lackies are thinking!!! On the one hand, they approved the Seal Team Six raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, because they knew that there was political gain to be had by doing so. But at the same time they give Carte Blanche approval to the organization that founded Bin Laden's terrorist organization! Somebody please explain the wisdom, and logic behind all this to me!!! It just escapes me!

Obama's "Moral" Indecisiveness

President Obama's sense of moral outrage only seems to appear when it is in perfect agreement with the views of the International Socialist community, rather than appear to have any consistent view of right versus wrong. Lately he has been wrestling with the issue of how to respond, or even if to respond to the poison gas attack of primarily innocent Syrian civilians, caught living in areas of Damascus that are controlled by the rebel forces. Some would say, and I tend to agree, that the time to respond is already past. There should have been an almost immediate response to the Geneva convention violation, which certainly was an intentional thumbing-of-their-noses at the whole concept of "Rules of War", human morality, and concern for international reprisal. Instead, Obama waited until the U.N. Chemical Weapons Inspectors flew into Damascus, leaving him an excuse to foot-drag while waiting for their ponderously slow investigation. If he was truly decisive about a punitive response he could have asked the U.N. to withhold the investigation until after the retaliatory strike against Assad's Chemical weapons depositories, which would probably have caught the offending military units napping, wiping out the weapons stores and the technical personnel necessary to deploy them. Verification of the gas attack was not necessary beyond the eyewitness medical accounts of the symptoms, supported by the obvious symptoms which were visible to the world as the Media broadcast it internationally.

By now it is reasonable to assume that Assad has had time to move significant stores of Chemical weaponry, and technical personnel out of known storage areas, and it is entirely consistent with the Jihadist mentality to store the munitions in places where any attacks against them will collaterally destroy Mosques, Hospitals and schools in order to maximize public outrage against us for our "immoral" attack. Remember that the Muslims on both sides will follow the Koran's values against each other, believing that they are doing "God" a favor, as the "real" jihadist warriors, and that includes intentionally setting up unwitting civilians to be massacred by those trying to help them, simply to gain a deceptive international public relations advantage that they do not deserve. I'm sure this is why Assad agreed to allow the inspectors to begin their investigation, because he knew it would buy him extra time to prepare for any retaliation.

UPDATE: The above entry was written on September 2nd, but not published. I wanted to wait to see how things developed before I finished this post. Since then Obama has foot-dragged his decision process through an interminable Congressional debate, while appealing to our allies for support ( which was largely refused), and lately a G-8 conference in Russia ( of all places, considering that they are as much responsible for the gas attack as Assad is). Everywhere he turns people are saying not to get involved. (The French have agreed to support Obama's position, but as the host of Fox News' "Huckabee" show stated, so far that support amounts to, " a basket of Wine, cheese, and Baguettes" for the trip.) Until recently, I would have agreed with him of the necessity to destroy the gas storage depots, as they seem likely to be used against Israel in the coming "Gog/Magog" Russian invasion recounted in God's prophecy in Ezekiel 38, and 39. In fact, it may be that Jesus' account in Matthew 24: 15 through 22 was a warning to the believers in Israel today of an impending gas attack, as it describes a time when people must drop what they are doing and immediately flee to higher ground for their safety. Note that the type of gas used by the Assad forces was verified to be Sarin gas, which is characteristically heavier than air, and therefore sinks to the lowest point of ground that it can find where it displaces all oxygen with it's own toxic formula. Israeli officials have apparently reached a similar conclusion, as they have been distributing free gas masks to their population for years. I am unaware of any time in history when any invasion of Israel ( Assyrian, Babylonian, or Roman) would have required this kind of specific flight to higher ground, for safety. Previous invading forces would have required a simple get-out-of-town-fast action, and not specifically a destination of higher ground.

Now I fear that President Obama's endless wrestling with his decision process has exhausted any effective window of opportunity for a successful attack to destroy the gas weapons, as they have reportedly been moved around and dispersed into areas that are politically sensitive, like schools and hospitals, etc., as I speculated that they probably would be. Any attack now would probably create such horrible collateral civilian casualties that the public outcry would be overwhelmingly against America, and not Syria.

The one puzzling thing about the afore-mentioned Matthew 24 prophecy of Jesus is that it is preceded by a warning about the prophecied "abomination of desolation" signaling the beginning of the period of immediate danger. If I am understanding the chronology correctly, this would mean that this period would precede the Russian and Muslim nations' invasion of Israel. And if these things may well be about to happen soon, as current events seem to be indicating, it means that the Antichrist may soon be revealed, standing "in the Holy Place" on the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem. And if this is so, then the Rapture may not be far behind, so, "look up, for your redemption draweth nigh!!!"