John Mark Reynolds critiques today a video that is apparently making the rounds, a video that claims (through some tricky biblical "exegesis") that President Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. (More context to the video can be found here.) From Reynolds:
"If one believes, as I do, that President Obama is making bad, even dreadful policy decisions, strong opposition is justified, but comparing political differences of this sort to cosmic evil suggests, at the very least, a radically sheltered life. In our own time, it would be easy to list numerous international political leaders running regimes remarkably worse than our own. Comparing the political situation for traditional Christians in America to the thousands suffering torture and martyrdom all over the world reminds any reasonable believer how good American Christians have it."After examining the exegetical gymnastics undergone in order to allude to Obama's possibly being the Antichrist, Reynolds says this:
"I am a frequent critic of new atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens’ inability to read old books, but this is worse than anything I have seen them do. They abuse what they do not love, but this video mangles what it says it honors."And this:
"Without being precious, good people should still rebuke assaults that go too far. Nobody should censor You-Tube, but pointing out evils is not censorship. The college shirts that associated Bush with Hitler were stupid, because they trivialized the evil of the Holocaust and demonstrated a deranged hatred of Bush. In the same way, associating President Obama with the Antichrist minimizes the epic role this figure plays in Biblical history and damns good people who support him."Read the whole thing. And remember to pray for kings and all who are in high positions.
