I would like to explain, in detail, why I do not want Barack Hussein Obama to become President of the United States. Near the end, I will show how his being president could play into my end-time theory. Before I go further, however, I must say how I believe that the young, inexperienced Obama’s amazing momentum in his campaign for the presidency is astonishing, perhaps even uncanny. He is so charismatic, and the negative press about him bounces off of him so quickly, that it defies common logic. It seems that at least half of America--and much of the world--is utterly mesmerized, even spellbound, by this extraordinary man.
To begin with, I need to explain why I believe that Obama, as the president, easily could lead this nation down the path of non-Judeo/Christianity (or, even worse, anti-Judeo/Christianity). I realize that many could not care less about that, and many even would welcome it. Personally, I believe that it would be disastrous, although I do suspect that this is where we are headed. This nation was founded on Judeo-Christian values, and that is what has made us so successful and prosperous. If we abandon those values and embrace others--especially those of totalitarianism and/or fascism--we are toast.
Basically, there are way too many red flags, negatives, and unknowns with Obama for me to be comfortable with his being crowned President of the USA. To start with, Obama claims to be a "Christian"; he is a member of the United Church of Christ. I have personal knowledge about this denomination, because I attended it many times in Irvine (the Irvine United Congregational Church) with a friend who used to go there.
The people were very nice, friendly, and intelligent, but I never was impressed at all with their belief system. Nice, friendly, intelligent people often are wrong about certain things. The pastor, and several of the members I spoke with, did not believe
I recall one Easter Sunday service I attended when the pastor said, "This is the hardest message I have to give every year, because I do not believe [the three things I stated above]." I do not consider people who believe this way to be true Christians. Period. Call me narrow-minded and biased if you wish, but I firmly believe those three things to be foundational tenets of the Christian faith.
I want my president to believe all of those things--solidly, adamantly, categorically, and uncompromisingly. This nation has strayed too far away from God, and I know from the Bible what happened to Israel when they did that. It wasn't a pretty sight. This does not mean that every president who is a solid Christian is going to do all the right things for our country. However, in my opinion, a president who is not a solid Christian is a good deal more likely to displease God and to lead us down a deadly path.
The fact that Obama has belonged, for almost twenty years, to one of the most radical, racist, humanistic United Church of Christ churches in the country (with a pastor and mentor, Jeremiah Wright, who has spewed liberation theology and hatred for the USA for decades, including saying "God d**n America!" three times in eight seconds one Sunday) raises a gigantic red flag all the way to the moon for me.
The church is the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. On November 2, 2007, church's newsmagazine, the Trumpet, bestowed upon Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan the "Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Lifetime Achievement Trumpeteer Award." Farrakhan—an outright and unmitigated racist, sexist, and anti-Semitic Muslim—has praised Obama as the "hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better." In October 1995, Obama and Wright were present at Farrakhan’s Million Man March in Washington, D.C.
This church even has a handful of celebrity members, such as Oprah Winfrey, although even she seems to have had enough sense to quit. She wholeheartedly supports and endorses Barack Obama and has appeared with him on the campaign trail numerous times. Miss Winfrey's "Christian" views are far from mainstream, verging on New Age.
As smooth-talking as Obama is, I do not trust him, especially since I have not heard satisfactory explanations from him as to why he and his family have remained in this extremely controversial church all of these years. I have to assume that he agrees with Jeremiah Wright's extremist, revolutionary views, even if he says he does not. If he didn't, he would have left. And the argument that he just happened not to be present any of the times that his pastor expressed those radical views is absurd and preposterous to me.
Next, Obama has admitted that his mother is an atheist, and his biological father was Islamic. After the father divorced the mother, she married another Muslim. The family moved to Indonesia (the nation with the highest percentage of Muslims on earth), where he attended a medressa (Muslim school of religion). Even though he also attended a Catholic school, all of his origins are Islamic.
I have read the Qu'ran or Koran--which I have at my website: The Noble Qur'an), because I think that Christians should be aware of what true, fundamentalist Muslims believe. The latter believe that a person who once was a Muslim always is a Muslim. If a Muslim defects to another religion, that person must be put to death (according to the Qu'ran), because he/she is betraying Allah.
Many will say that they believe Obama when he says that he is a Christian. Personally, I do not believe that he is a bonafide Christian because of the way I define "Christian" (see My Beliefs and Faith). I am not necessarily saying that he is a "closet Muslim," who secretly professes the beliefs of Islam and the Qu'ran. Although he may be, that is an unknown; and, as far as I am concerned, it is irrelevant to the argument.
The point is that when Obama claims to be a Christian, all he is doing is putting a great big "bulls eye" on his back, as far as Islam is concerned. That, alone, causes him to bring to the presidency of my country a great deal of very heavy and burdensome baggage that I do not want my president to have, because it will be a big distraction to his leading the country effectively and successfully. Talk about somebody who would be a prime target for assassination, it would seem like he would be, not only by radical Muslims, but also by radical white supremacists, among several other groups, who intensely would resent having a black president.
Even if we do not consider his safety as being a chief concern, the fact is that Islam is notorious for threatening to harm and kill people's family members if they do not comply with the demands of extremist Islam--the ultimate goal of which is world domination, by their own admission. I believe it is quite possible, if not probable, that Islam would "urge" Obama to help Muslims achieve their various agendas in the USA, with the threat of harm to his family if he did not. (Remember, the majority of his family members reside in Kenya, where they are much more vulnerable to attack than his wife and kids.) If so, I feel it is highly likely that he would "cave in" to their demands, maybe not even publicly. I seriously doubt that Obama truly understands the grave threat that Islam posses to the USA.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand these things. But for someone who doesn't "get it," there are places where Obama’s links to Islam are explained, such as on fair-and-balanced TV and radio stations (the few who do not give Obama a golden "stamp of approval"), and also at multitudes of websites. Here is one random site that I found: http://www.brookesnews.com/070801obama.html. It is easy to search for others.
Next, I believe that Obama's past voting record, compared to that of other senators, indicates that he is the most fiscally and socially liberal senator in the U.S. Senate. I am on the exact opposite end of that spectrum. I am moderately displeased with President Bush's social record, and extremely displeased with his fiscal record, for the past seven years. And he ran, twice, on a fiscally and socially conservative platform. So far, the fiscal and social proposals I have heard come out of Obama's mouth (in debates and in interviews) make me feel that, as the president, he would be many times worse for America than Bush.
I suspect that Obama easily could bankrupt this country, both financially and morally, much faster than anyone similar to Bush could do. (And, no, the money saved by removing our troops from Iraq would not be enough to pay for his plethora of special-interest programs and health-care plan.) Furthermore, Obama never has governed, run, nor managed a state, a city, nor even a business. How could we expect this man, with such little experience in national government, to govern, run, and manage the vast federal government of the United States? Being a smooth talker does not equate with being a competent leader.
Finally, I will explain how Obama, as president, would fit into my end-time theory; but, first I need to restate some of the things I have said so far, and also go into some detail about Islam. Obama is a very liberal thinker. He embraces very liberal values. He is very sympathetic to minority causes. His Islamic roots, among other things, tell me that he would be understanding, sensitive, and compassionate to Islamic causes and demands, which are on the increase in the USA. If you are unaware of how Islam gradually is "taking over" Europe, then you simply are misinformed. Check out this 16-minute video, for instance: Fitna. The same thing is happening in the USA, on a lesser but expanding basis. Pat Condell, a Dutch citizen, has some of the most sensible views about the dangers of radical Islam that I've ever heard: Appeasing Islam.
I do not believe that true, fundamentalist Islam is a "peaceful" religion. Even Bush has insinuated a few times that it is, and I do not like it. "Peaceful Islam" is an oxymoron. Anyone who does not understand this is deceived and deluded. As a tiny example, look at this page at my website: "Religion of Peace" Demonstration. A link to this is contained in the radical Islam section of my End-Times commentary.
Oh and, sorry, but anyone who believes that the USA was attacked on 9/11/01 because of our inept foreign policy is clueless and out of touch with reality. Radical Islam has wanted to destroy Israel (and anyone who supports it), and to rule the entire world, long before the USA even had a foreign policy. Oh yes, and there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; they all just got transported to Syria before the coalition armies entered Iraq. Furthermore, Iran and Syria are in the process of developing nuclear bombs. But I digress.
Islam claims that the Qu'ran and the Bible totally complement and support each other. They also claim that Allah is the one, true God. Many people, including numerous Christians, believe these things. They are wrong. My sections Gabriel's messages and Christianity, Judaism, and Islam help explain these false notions and misconceptions. Furthermore, Muslims adamantly disagree with and detest the notion that Jesus was the Son of God--even though the Bible, with which they claim to agree, clearly states that Jesus not only is the Son of God but IS God.
There are thousands of examples all over the web, and on fair-and-balanced TV and radio stations, that Islam is not peaceful. For instance, Fox News Channel has run several documentaries on the topic of how dangerous radical Islam is in the USA. One of them is Jihad, USA: Homegrown Terror. It shows case after case after case of how Muslims in this country (many of them who were born here) have developed plots to kill innocent Americans, and cause mass destruction, in various ways. They have televised several others besides that one.
Amazingly, the majority of these plots have been discovered before they were successfully completed. I feel this is due to the fact that the USA has had a president, following 9/11/01, who has been very tough on terrorism and who has supported laws making it harder for radical Islam to get a foothold in this country. Of course, it also is due to the fact that God has been merciful in protecting us from further major attacks by radical Islam since 9/11/01.
I feel that if Americans elect a president who is socially liberal--who has voted for things such as partial birth abortion (which, I feel, is a despicable form of murder), and who really cannot be pro-Israel, because that clearly would upset the majority of Muslims in this country and in the world who detest Israel--then God is more likely to remove His protective hand from our country and allow terrorism to escalate. As much as I am very afraid of this, I am expecting it to happen.
Islam fits perfectly into end-time prophecy. The books of Daniel and Revelation (among other prophetic books of the Bible) clearly indicate that Israelites and Jews, as well as Christians, will be persecuted and slaughtered, like never before, at the end of the age. There is no religion on earth that loathes and abhors Jews and Christians as much as Islam does. There are so many ways Islam fits perfectly into end-time prophecy that I have lost count.
For one thing, many have pointed out that 666, the "number of the beast" (Revelation 13:18), is linked to Islam and is an encryption for "In the Name of Allah." Muslims actually are not supposed to buy from, nor sell to, anyone who is not a Muslim. I expect for this to be strictly enforced, at some point. Ultimately, then, it may be that without the "mark of the beast" on one's right hand or forehead, designating one's allegiance to Allah, one will not be able to buy or sell (13:16,17).
I believe that the harlot woman of Revelation 17:3,4 is symbolic of the end-time religious system that will hate and will be diametrically opposed to Judaism and Christianity. I strongly suspect that Islam will be the dominating and most powerful segment of this system. I describe this in the woman and the beast section of my Chronology of Revelation commentary. Everything already is falling into place for that to happen.
After the fifth seal of Revelation is opened, which I think most likely will occur at the midpoint of the final seven years (perhaps in the Spring of 2010), we can see the "souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained" (Revelation 6:9). Later, there is an indication that these are "the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God" (20:4). Who else is more likely to behead people with testimonies about Jesus than radical Islam?
There are other passages, but here is one more: "If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity he will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword he will be killed" (13:10). Who else do we know, besides radicalMuslims, who have taken people (including several Americans) into captivity and killed them with the sword? I have seen enough evidence to convince me that radical Islam probably will be the greatest enemy of mankind, and disrupter of global society, at the end of the age.
Revelation 13:1,2 describes a "beast" which most Bible scholars believe will be the Antichrist. Revelation 13:11 describes another beast, which later John called the "False Prophet" (Revelation 16:13, 19:20). That second beast is seen to have "two horns like a lamb." "Horns" indicate people (Daniel 8:8,11, 20,21; Revelation 17:12). I believe it is entirely possible that the second beast, with two horns, will be a composite of two people who will speak as one. The fact that they look "like a lamb" very well may indicate that they profess to be Christians.
This is where Barack Obama may come in. The two people who immediately come to mind (which, of course, is mere conjecture) are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. During the debates featuring only the two of them, they were very much like "two peas in a pod." I took pictures of them on my TV and put them in the February 21 entry of my Ted's Remarks About Stuff page.
I also think that Obama's family connections to Islam will make him more predisposed to being a friend of Islam, if he becomes president, than any other president has been in the past. Louis Farrahkan, leader of the Nation of Islam in the USA, praised Obama and sees him as the "hope of the entire world." You can link to an article describing this in my February 25 entry.
The False Prophet will be extremely alluring, captivating, and charismatic. I think it is entirely possible and plausible that, if Obama becomes the president, he eventually could direct the attention of the entire world to the Antichrist (whom I believe will have Islamic ties) as being the "Christ." This powerful person very well may be Islam's 12th Imam, which means that they will be welcoming and embracing the wrong guy.
Of course, it also is possible that Obama would not even need the presidency as a platform to fulfill this role. Perhaps he will gain so much notoriety and renown, due to the 2008 presidential race, that even if he loses the contest, he could gain a gigantic worldwide following.
If it turns out to be an Obama/Clinton Democratic ticket, I will be even more suspicious that the two of them will turn out to be the unified two horns of the second beast. Furthermore, I have heard Hillary often "speak like a dragon" (which the second beast will do). Another possibility is an Obama/Richardson ticket. I made a short entry about these two on March 22. I mistrust Bill Richardson as much as I do Hillary Clinton. I easily could see Richardson fitting into the end-time scenario as well.
On February 24 in Rhode Island, Hillary spoke of Obama's campaign style as one that portrays a divine-like picture of problem-solving. In her speech, she said these words, pertaining to him: "The sky will open; the light will come down...." Interestingly, one of the things the second beast will do is to cause "fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men" (Revelation 13:13). This may be nothing more than an interesting coincidence, or it might be a chilling prediction of the future.
Some have asked me if I see Obama as "fitting the mold" of the Antichrist. I do not. Someone else (Javier Solana) does that much better. Solana already is very powerful on the European and global scenes. Solana also is sympathetic to Islam, and he is the main proponent of the European Neighbourhood Policy, which I suspect may have commenced the final seven years of this age in October 2006 (as a prophetic confirmation of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership).
However, I easily could see Obama as playing the role, by himself or with someone else, of the False Prophet. The latter will cause most of the world to follow after, and pay allegiance to, the Antichrist--the "man of lawlessness" (2 Thessalonians 2:3,8), who will gain authority over most of the world (Revelation 13:7).
For all of these (and many other) reasons, I will be voting for McCain for president. In my opinion, John McCain is the "least of three evils"!