I watch international events pretty close as I think the alignment of nations and such has always been interesting and the leadership changes which occur....but no I do not believe Bo is the ant-Christ....nor that we're going to see Armageddon in the next few months....but we do live in interesting times and most do agree, even nonbeliever's that the world is on a collision course.....with God Almighty before all is said and done...but he has and can slow the developments down, and has done exactly that over the years.
I noted you mentioned the Raelians so I knew you had to be familiar in some respect. Starseeds is another and the galactic hoo-doo-vood-doo they claim. It's like all these groups are as big plate of spaghetti intertwined...but no direct leadership per say.....so it's tough to get at the root. But most are rooted in Hindu based practices just given different names to make them more modern and acceptable.
Although I understand you mentioning all these appealing to “a certain type of person”, often artistic types, people with high level of imaginations, and the love everybody crowd fit in as well, the Environmental groups are deeply into it in one way or another...Al gore is a good example...he's into it deeply and is what caused his marital issues. But I have to say more and more the dumbing down of our country has created minds which are now easily deceived by this as well.
That end times will come is, IMHO, little protection, if anything it adds to the problem, give it more to hang the rest onto. And since prophecy and eschatology is often mixed with a great deal of symbology ( e.g., Revelations) an extremely wide range of theories can “fit.” Think Koresh and dozens of others. Think of all the various tribs and mils and variations, and “Left Behind” etc. There are waves of Apocalyptic times or times when great numbers thought the end was near, the time of Jesus was one such. There have been several others that have come and gone.
Several great mass movements have flown on these times and predictions - only to crash when it didn’t happen. A friend of mine’s mother was caught up in one about 20 years back. Ended up broke and abandoned in the desert.
The susceptible types you mention... I, humbly, think I can spot the most prone. One comes to mind is a friend, former AoG, who believes darn near every conspiracy theory. He lost a great deal of money on one such - non religion related, but same basic appeal - there’s a reality behind the reality that only a few can see... Those who believe there’s conspiracies behind most everything - those are the type of personality that I think is most susceptible.
thanks very much for your reply.