Part 4 - Barack Obama is not the Antichrist

As the title suggests, this is more of a history lesson than anything. It's what I discovered when I decided to research religion in itself. An attempt to answer the "which one is right" question. Instead, I got into prophecies. I think it's cool to see things that have historically come true. I based most of it from the bible, so maybe it's biased, but the bible is pretty historically accurate. If you don't believe in the bible, then you should just go ahead and skip this whole thing. I'll break down the basics of what I learned.

First of all, the split of religion came from Abraham. The three that came out were Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The descendants being Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. God promised Abraham many descendants, of which would become kings of many nations. His wife, Sarah, was barren and could not conceive. So she became impatient and had Abraham conceive with their servant, Hagar. Thus came Ishmael. One of his 12 sons was Kedar and one of Kedar, and from him came Muhammad. This is where the nation of Islam came from. After Abraham and Sarah's first son Isaac was born, Ishmael began to feel envious towards his brother and thus was the beginning of the conflict between religions. So yes. The reason that there is war in the middle east is because Sarah tried to help God because she didn't believe she could have kids. Women always making things worse...kidding. Don't get mad.

The next interesting thing was the interpretations of King Nebuchadnezzar's dreams by Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon. He had a dream of an image with a head of gold, breasts of arms and silver, belly of thighs and brass, and legs of iron and feet of iron mingled with clay. The following verses describe the interpretation:

Daniel 2:37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

Daniel 2:38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

Daniel 2:39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

Daniel 2:40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

Without going into detail (I can but for your sake and the sake of my fingers, I will not) the four kingdoms represented are Babylon, Medes Persians, Greeks, and Romans in that respected order. All of these kingdoms fell according to the history books. The history books state that the last one, Rome, fell in 476 AD. But it did not. Rome still has one of the greatest kingdoms in the world. The Roman Catholic Church.

This brings me to Revelations 17. I liked reading the end of the world stuff. Here are the verses.

1One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. 2With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries."

3Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. 5This title was written on her forehead:
MYSTERY
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. 7Then the angel said to me: "Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. 8The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.

9"This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. 10They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. 11The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.

Ok. My quick breakdown. I could probably write a mini series on this in itself, but I will try to hit the high points. Note the my. Meaning I am not stating this as fact, only what I believe. Also, Revelations 13 is equally important, but if you are truly interested in this, you should read it for yourself. The whore was named Babylon. If you trace that back to the interpretations of Daniel, you can see that she represents these four kingdoms. The last one being Rome, which is the only one still in power. The part about the seven kings is what really interested me (verses 10 and 11). Five have fallen could be referring to the 5 popes that were crowned as kings since Pius XI in 1929. The 6th pope "who is" would have been John Paul II. Meaning Benedict XVI would be the other that has not yet come. So if this prophecy is indeed about the Catholic Church, we are right in the middle of it! The eight and final king would be the next pope.

To clear things up, I do not believe that the next pope will be the Antichrist. Revelation speaks of two beasts. One from the land, one from the sea. One being the false prophet and one being the Antichrist. What I have discovered is that a lot of people jump to the conclusion that the Antichrist will come from the Catholic Church because it is identified as the beast. But there are two of them. I don't really understand how people can do all this research and not realize that. I feel like I'm missing something, but after reading it over and over again, I know I'm not. Revelations 13 clearly states two beasts.

So, yes. I believe that the pope could very well be the false prophet. I can't say who the Antichrist will be. I do know that he will come from one of the Islamic nations. However you interpret Revelations and Daniel, it is clear that the Catholic Church will have something to do with the end of the world. There are a lot of other things pointing to it. I just don't have the time to break them all down. You can read for yourself if you'd like. Most of this research came from Daniel and Revelations. I do know that the Catholic Church has power. Enough power to change the Sabbath to Sunday instead of Saturday. I do know that they have over 1 billion members. That's one sixth of the world.

Maybe I'm wrong. After all, this is all interpretation. But if the current pope dies, resigns, or whatever popes do to quit soon...it might be true. As "he must remain for a little while." Anyway, thought I would share. Take it or leave it. To anyone that knows anything about this, I understand I have left a lot out. Mostly because if I mentioned it, I would have to write another three paragraphs explaining it. Part 6 will be coming soon and will wrap everything up. This was kind of a departure from the rest of it, but the reasoning will be explained in the next one. I felt like I couldn't tell the end of the story without all of that. Actually...there isn't an end yet, as I'm still alive. The end to the series, rather. And clearly...Barack Obama is not either beast. If you want to go even farther, the US won't even be around during his reign. But that's another story.