the real nicolae carpathia
If you don't know, Nicolae Carpathia is the Anti-Christ in the (disturbingly) popular Left Behind series.
Now why would anyone looking for the Anti-Christ get linked to this blog?
Ummm. Come to think of it, let's not answer that question.
Actually, a few years ago I read the first book in the Left Behind series. And the actions of the Anti-Christ in that book were so puzzling to me that I wrote a post in 2007 entitled Why the Anti-Christ is an Idiot.
Hard to summarize that post. Let me just say this. Barack Obama, despite what many in the evangelical community think, is not the Anti-Christ.
Dr. Bob Smith is the Anti-Christ.
You'll have to read the post.
There's something of a symmetry though, when the culture that thinks Obama is the Anti-Christ, is also the one that's all gaga for this book. So much so, they've spawned not only a series, they've spawned an industry second only to Precious Moments........
There is something about much of the evangelical population that becomes bored with, as i used to hear, "all that love and mercy stuff", and needs a demon close by that is destroying God and country to keep them frightened and excited. Not that we do not meet the adversary. But what I see in the Gospel is the child of God meeting the adversary alone, in the desert, stretching us into a new birth of honesty about ourselves. Only then, as Jesus, can we, for the most part in our imperfect state of mind, recognize and know the difference between the fox and God's little ones.
"...and needs a demon close by that is destroying God and country to keep them frightened and excited."
I see this too; I like how you put it so succinctly. It's like the conservative mind loses its identity when it's without an enemy. What's scaring me, is that this situation is no longer one of politics but one of life and death for this group of fellow citizens.
Yes, indeed, it is Mike. What is even more frightening is that when a group of people feel like their identity, their existence is in peril they suddenly feel it necessary to "do what has to be done" to survive. That is why we see the voting rights of people of color being threatened in some states, as well as the attempt to dismantle their medical and food assistance; it is a desperate battle to keep their power. What I find ironic, is how in the sixties conservatives would blast liberals for believing in SITUATION ETHICS. Well, from what I see, many conservatives are practicing SE nearly to perfection.
Wow! You see I've had this Elijah Complex thinking I was about the only one with this insight. What really bothers me is the fact that otherwise good people are so afflicted with the idea that God would strike them dead if they dared to raise a question about the gross greed, selfishness, lying, demonizing minorities and the poor of the political right. Conservative politics has now trumped the teachings of Jesus for many fundamentalists. Yes, fear (expressed in many forms) is the primary force used to recruit the true believers. You can argue that this has always been true, but it seems to be more evident now. Btw, every president in my lifetime has been labeled the "anti-Christ" by someone.
One more thing: Historically Churches of Christ have opposed the doctrine of premillenialism. Now the view has become so popular with religious and political conservatives expressing their apocalyptic predictions, and since it is used to justify perpetual war in the Middle East (which is supposed to hasten the end-times), C of C have abandoned (for the most part) ever addressing the issue. You see, it might hurt the conservative political cause.
Bob Smith, eh? Now I know how to be truly Rapture-ready!
Oh.... Ick! I can't believe I just used that term for the first time in well over a decade. It's funny. I used to think that these books were a fairly accurate (albeit fictionalized) prediction of the end times. Now I can't even imagine how it is that I used to believe such a thing!
I see the same thing. It has also been my observation that leaders within the Church of Christ, those of the colleges and "brotherhood" papers, like to follow conservative spokes-persons and commentators from a "safe" distance, just in case the leader goes off the deep end, as we have seen over the last few years. That way, when it happens, they can respond when someone mentions their name, "I'm sorry, who did you say? I don't recall them".
Please pardon the confusion. When I wrote, "just in case the leader goes off the deep end", I was referring to the conservative spokes-person or commentator. Sometimes my editing can be as impatient as my writing; I make the first correction I see needed, then move on.
Wow, this comment stream paints with perhaps the broadest, coarsest-bristled brush qb has ever seen.
q "conservative evangelical who believes precisely none of those things" b
I take it that you're not a regular consumer of Fox "News" then... I guess this broad brush scooted right over you-- 'the exception to the rule' as they say.
It appears you are having an identity crises. If you do not believe any of these things, you are not a conservative evangelical.
There's been a lot of misunderstanding about the antichrist or antichrists. The spirit of antichrist and the antichrists are only mentioned in 1 & 2 John and are about people who have come out of the church. Some say it was about the gnostics of that time. There is no mention of the antichrist in the book of Revelation. The misunderstanding has been that the beast or the false prophet is the antichrist.