Keeping My Eye On Barama

Now, I know this is going to be a big whacked out for many of those who know me, as although you know me as a practising Christian, I'm not normally prone to outbursts about profound Christian concepts, and particularly not stuff about end times theology (not like I once did as a teenager, put it that way).  But recent world events coupled with some stuff at church has got me thinking about this, and I wouldn't be being true to myself or my faith if I didn't put pen to paper (electronically speaking) and share my thoughts in a Nostradamus type way. You can choose what you do with them. Anyway, the reasons for this thinking have been a combination of Major Mingay, Gill Bonner and the Songsters, a movie I watched and the US election coverage on the BBC. How? Well, there are Major Mingay has been preaching a series called 'Cosmic Jesus' which is about the book of Revelation, Gill Bonner did a devotion at Songsters on Thursday night about Barack Obama, I recently rewatched 'Left Behind' (well I needed to have a perv on Kirk Cameron) and finally, the BBC haven't stopped showing their coverage of the whole US election and its effect on not just the US, but the whole world. So there I was on Thursday night, listening to Gill talk about Barama, and I suddenly got to thinking about Barry Smith. Barry Smith was a NZ evangelist who used to travel around the world preaching eschatology (that's 'end times theology' to us plebs). He wrote several excellent books, which I can highly recommend, especially if you, like me, find Revelation pretty heavy going - First Warning, Second Warning, Third Warning and Final Notice. In these books, and in his sermons, he would talk a lot about the signs of the times, and how they point to Jesus' Second Coming. There's lots of schools of thought on exactly how this will happen, but the end result is usually the same - Jesus takes the believers back to Heaven, and the non-believers get judged and sent to Hell (that's it in a nutshell). Another good series of books about this were written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, called the 'Left Behind' series. They actually made this into a film, and I was watching it the other day. In this series, suddenly millions of people vanish from the face of the earth, and then a charismatic, incredibly intelligent, well-spoken leader rises as the head of the UN, who eventually becomes the leader of the whole world. This is a young man who is able to relate to so many different people because of his international background. They made these books into movies, and if you can excuse the obviously much lower budget than your average Hollywood flick, they are really quite gripping and quite well done. So anyway, I'm rambling a bit now - but all this has got me to thinking about Barack Obama. Can he be this leader that is prophesied in the book of Revelation and Daniel, who will bring about a 7 year peace treaty in the Middle East, but breaks it after 3 1/2 years? Could he be the antichrist that is prophesied? Now before you think I'm completely whacked out, I urge you - do your own research. I typed in "Barack Obama antichrist" and "Barack Obama 666" into google, and I've seen the hundreds of webpages and blogs that others have written along these lines. I checked some of them out, and some of them don't even quote the bible properly - so how they think they're making a plausible argument is beyond me. I'm not trying to do that. I'm just telling you that I'm going to be watching Barack carefully, matching up what I know from my own research with what he does - and if I see signs of the following, I'll know that its true: 1. He will confer a 7 year peace treaty in the Middle East and break it after 3 1/2 years. 2. Either at that time, or at the end of the 7 years, there will be a mass vanishing of people - the Christians will have been taken into Heaven 3. He will cause everyone to have a chip or some sort of device implanted in their right hand or forehead so that they can function financially - there will be no more cash, no more fantastic plastic - you will be your own walking debit / credit card. 4. Then there will be a series of plagues and devastations before the final judgement. I know, you think it all sounds nuts - and that's ok, but if ever any of that happens, you'll remember reading this, and it will get you thinking. I suggest reading the LaHaye / Jenkins books, and having a look at Barry Smith. Anyway, that's it. That's why I'll be taking a closer look at Barama when he comes to power...

Meanwhile, here's the trailer for the Left Behind movie: