Is Bush the Antichrist?

During the eight years of Clinton's presidency, I was repeatedly asked, "Chuck, do you think Bill Clinton is the antichrist?" (Of course, I answered no.) Therefore, it is more than interesting to me that since G.W. Bush became president no one has asked if I thought he was the antichrist. Not one single person! Instead, many people attribute to Bush god-like qualities, which actually makes him a better candidate than Clinton was.

You see, one of the chief characteristics of the coming antichrist is that he appears "as an angel of light." Therefore, an obvious reprobate such as Bill Clinton is immediately disqualified. The antichrist, by very definition, is a master deceiver. He must be someone who appears as good and benevolent. The bite is in his tail not in his tongue. In reality, Bush's angelic persona makes him much more dangerous than bad boy Billy.

For example, while Clinton was in the process of appointing numerous homosexual activists to his administration, copious letters from Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and D. James Kennedy flooded America's Christian community. Appeals for protest and resistance were heard from pulpits throughout the country. A massive media campaign began against Clinton.

Today, however, President Bush is in the process of copying Clinton's numerous appointments of open homosexuals to high positions of government, but there are no letters, no warnings from pulpits, and no media campaigns opposing it. Just the opposite. Bush is being defended, lauded, and glorified for everything he does, no matter how unconstitutional or unscriptural it might be.

When Clinton only talked of legalizing embryonic stem cell research, he was castigated and condemned. Bush actually made the procedure legal, and yet, he was praised and honored. Clinton was denigrated when he tried to convince Israel to give up land for peace. Now, Bush is in the process of actually trying to create an independent Palestinian state for Israel's enemies (with Jerusalem as its capital, no less), yet continues to receive glowing adulation. If Clinton even suggested that America's immigration laws might need to be liberalized, he was denounced in the harshest terms; but Bush can actually grant limited amnesty to thousands of illegal aliens, and there is not the faintest whisper of protest.

Do you recall how Clinton was criticized for the "low lifes" he invited to the White House? Well, Bush recently invited wild man rocker, Ozzie Osbourne, to the White House. Have you heard any notable Christian leader take Bush to task for that?

You remember Ozzie Osbourne, don't you? He is the former front man for the heavy metal band, Black Sabbath. He is famous for stage antics such as biting the heads off birds and bats. His abuse of drugs and alcohol are also well known. Furthermore, Ozzie Osbourne desecrated The Alamo by pissing all over it. In spite of this, George W. Bush is said to be one of Osbourne's biggest fans. As such, Osbourne was recently invited to the White House for dinner. Have you heard any criticism of Bush for this?

Obviously, I do not believe President Bush is the antichrist any more than I believed Bill Clinton was. However, I do believe that Bush possesses more deceptive qualities than Clinton did and, therefore, is more dangerous. I also now understand more clearly how even "the elect" can be deceived. Bush' s acceptance by the overwhelming majority of Christian people proves the country is ready for the antichrist, whoever he is.

The two great prophetic treatises by Christ in Matthew 24 and by the Apostle John in Revelation have not been fulfilled. If they had been fulfilled, all believers would now be in heaven, the Devil would be now chained in Hell, and the literal, visible Second Coming of Christ would already have occurred. His 2nd Coming concludes each of these treatises, as was intended in Matthew 24:3, not to mention the natural cataclysms that mark the end of human history and the physical world as we now know it. The "all-already-fulfilled" school is a house of cards. You have to believe that the wars of 1st century Israel were the worst ever in human history, worse than World Wars I and II, to believe the all-already-fulfilled view of biblical prophecy.

For anyone with the endurance to read post #225, lay aside its sophistry and verbal gymnastics and simply read Matthew 24, and 2 Thessalonians 2, and the book of Revelation and decide for yourself. When Jesus said in Matthew 24:34 "this generation will by no means pass away until all these things take place," the already fulfilled proponents say that Jesus was telling them he would return in the first century. Forgetting the fact that this interpretation would make Jesus a liar, since He did not return in glory in the first century, they totally miss the meaning of v.34 by ripping it away from v.33. V.33 says "when you see all these things, know [imperative:"I command you to know"] that it [the Second Coming, v.30] is near, even at the doors." Keeping v.33 and 34 together, Jesus was saying that the generation that sees "these things" [the signs mentioned througout the previous verses of Matthew chapter 24] will not pass away until all events [including the 2nd Coming of v.30] is fulfilled.

The Apostle John and the Apostle Peter knew that Christ would not come before Peter's death:

John 21: 17 ...Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 18 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. 19 This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God...

A. J. Gordon, reporting on the views of a converted Jew named Joseph Rabinowitz wrote over 100 years ago the following:

"Without a clear proclamation of the second advent, Christians have no common ground on which to meet the Jew; that to spiritualize this doctrine, as many do, is fatal, since the predictions are so clear of a glorious and conquering Messiah as well as a suffering Messiah. If you spiritualize the second advent, you must allow the Jew to spiritualize the first, as he is always ready to do, and you have no basis on which to reason with him."

Papias lived from approximately 60 to 130 A.D. It is believed that he was taught directly by the Apostle John. He was a friend of Polycarp, another prominent Church leader who was a disciple of John. Papias served as Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, Asia Minor. His writings have not been preserved to the present day; however, Irenaeus and Eusebius, two other Church leaders, referred to his writings (Elgin Moyer and Earle E. Cairns, Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary of the Church, Chicago: Moody Press, 1982, pp. 314-315).

Irenaeus, after relating Christ’s teaching concerning the dramatic changes which the earth will experience in the future Millennium, wrote, "And these things are borne witness to in the writings by Papias, the hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp, in his fourth book" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book V, chpt. 33, section 4 in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Buffalo: The Christian Literature Publishing Company, 1885, I, p. 563).

Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea and "The Father of Church History" (Moyer and Cairns, Biographical Dictionary, p. 135), wrote the following concerning Papias in his work Ecclesiastical History (III, 39), "Among other things he says that a thousand years will elapse after the resurrection of the dead and there will be a corporal establishment of Christ’s Kingdom on this earth" (The Apostolic Fathers in The Fathers Of The Church, edited by Ludwig Schopp, et. al., translated by Francis X. Glimm, Joseph M. F. Marique, and Gerald G. Walsh, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1962, I, p. 378).

Justin Martyr lived from approximately 100 to 165 A.D. He was well-educated. He held no regular church office but served as a traveling evangelist and defender of Christianity. In his writings he argued for the superiority of Christianity to paganism and Judaism. On his second journey to Rome he was arrested, lashed, and beheaded because of his testimony for Christ (Moyer and Cairns, Biographical Dictionary, pp. 220-221).

In his writing entitled Dialogue With Trypho Justin stated, "But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, [as] the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare" (Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho, chpt. 80, in The Ante-Nicene Christian Library, edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1867, II, p. 200). His use of the expression right-minded Christians on all points was his way of asserting that Premillennialism was the orthodox view of his day.

I need to conclude lest I be as tedious as the post I am contending against. The already-fulfilled theologians believe the chaining or confining of the Devil in Hell, taught in Rev. ch.20, if they believe it at all, has already occurred. The President of my seminary sat under such a teacher. Noting that Rev.20 also says that the Devil will be loosed for short season after his thousand years [millenium] of confinement commented thusly, "If the Devil is chained now, what's it going to be like when he is loosed."

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