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| | ==America as the Seat of Antichrist== | | ==America as the Seat of Antichrist== |
| − | America as the "Seat of Antichrist" ''ipso facto'' the leader of the West, namely, the President of the United States, as the Antichrist, with his nation as the ultimate Beast Nation or Babylon the Great - the great end times' commercial citadel spoken of in Revelation 18:1-24, has increasingly become the topic of conversation around the prophetic tables, not only in America, but increasingly throughout the world. A simple search for "Obama as the Antichrist" will generate scores of blogs, books, magazine articles, etc. America's fascination of this elusive, but ever-forecasted personage to appear in the "Latter Days" (according to Christians who hold to a Futurism eschatolog)<ref>{{cite web| title=Futurism (Christian eschatology)| url=http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Futurism_(Christian_eschatology)| publisher=Absolute Astronomy.com}}</ref> appears to be an integral part of Americana. | + | Some Protestants have seen America as the "Seat of Antichrist" -- perhaps with the President of the United States, as the Antichrist. This theme has replaced the older version that the Catholic Church and the Pope were the Antichrist. |
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| − | The seat of Antichrist as the USA is not a new interpretation among Christians, even among those who profess no faith. The United States in Bible Prophecy as the two-horned beast in Revelation 13:11-17 (i.e., the second beast of Revelation 13:1 who supports ''the Beast'' (i.e., the Antichrist) was propounded in 1859 by Frances Rolleston who authored a work titled ''Notes on the Apocalypse, as Explained by the Hebrew Scriptures: The Place in Prophecy of America and Australia Being Pointed Out''.<ref>{{cite web| title=Notes on the Apocalypse, as Explained by the Hebrew Scriptures: the Place in Prophecy of America and Australia Being Pointed Outurl| url=http://www.books.google.com/books?id=IXoaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1293&lpg=PA1293&dq=Frances+Rolleston+The+Place+in+Prophecy+of+America+and+Australia+Being+Pointed+Out&source=bl&ots=ziK45_MuIm&sig=qG5DgNL7ag6fMQ4K5IHBaC4h94U&hl=en&ei=KKrFScveGZmMsQPi9dkk&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA1294,M1| publisher=Rivingtons, London 1858}}</ref> [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]] expositor Uriah Smith in 1884 authored a text entitled ''The United States in the Light of Prophecy; or, An Exposition of Rev. 13:11-17''<ref>{{cite web| title=The United States in the Light of Prophecy; or, An Exposition of Rev. 13:11-17| url=http://www.books.google.com/books?id=0dziN9QI3SgC&dq=The+United+States+in+the+Light+of+Prophecy%3B+or,+An+Exposition+of+Rev.+13:11-17&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=6-CGmRJvUX&sig=iD-5yIDPNhHfMz9trznrpc2W9AI&hl=en&ei=POHFSeOwDIKqsAPK18X9Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result| author|Uriah Smith}}</ref> Smith was insistent that America was the beast of Revelation 13:11-17. However, it was not until 1968 when Dr. S. Franklin Logsdon, Sr. Pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, Illinois, who suggested that the USA was Babylon the Great.<ref>{{cite web| title=U.S. in Bible Prophecy| url=http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:tN8J-JOJDS8J:www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/specol/news/fundamentalism/+U.S.+in+Bible+Prophecy+Logsdon+Armageddon+Books&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us| author=S. Franklin Logsdon, Sr. Pastor, Moody Church, Chicago, Illinois| publisher=Zondervan, 1968, pp. 59-60, ISBN-10:0974476498}}</ref> Jack Van Impe<ref>{{cite web| title=Jack Van Impe Ministries International| url=http://www.jvim.com/}}</ref> in ''The Great Escape''<ref>{{cite web| title=The Great Escape| url=http://www.e316.com/Great-Escape-Jack-Van-Impe/0849940737.htm| author=Jack Van Impe| publisher=Word, Nashville: Nashville, 1998, pp. 206-7, ISBN: 0849940737}}</ref> indicts America as the fulfillment of Jeremiah 50-51<ref>{{cite web| title=Jeremiah 50-51| url=http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%2050-51%20;&version=50;| publisher=New King James Bible}}</ref> and Revelation 18:1-24. In one of the more exhaustive indictments against America as the seat of Antichrist, R. A. Coombes, in ''America, the Babylon: America’s Destiny Foretold in Biblical Prophecy''<ref>{{cite web| title=America the Babylon| url=http://www.americathebabylon.com/| author=R. A. Coombes| publisher=Real Publishing, Liberty, 1998; especially pp. 55-58 and 182-86, ISBN 1-890622-33-8}}</ref> presents thirty-three identifying markers which he claims identify America as the Babylon of the End Times, the seat of Antichrist; also, Coombes lists sixty-six points in another segment of his text (pp. 182-86) in which New York City is the perfect bastion of Babylon the Great.
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| − | Mark Hitchcock, in his 2009 text, ''The Late Great United States, What Bible Prophecy Reveals About America's Last Days''<ref>{{cite web| title=The Late Great United States, What Bible Prophecy Reveals About America's Last Days| url=http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781601421401| author=Mark Hitchcock| publisher=Multnomah Books, Colorado Springs, CO, 2009, pp. 17-21, ISBN 978-1-60142-140-1}}</ref> rejects the eschatologists who suggest that America is ''Mystery, Babylon the Great'' (Revelation 17:5) and claims, instead, that modern-day [[Iraq]] is the literal Babylon the Great of the latter days (pp. 17-21). Scores of authors now flood the American apocalyptic marketplace with America’s role in Bible prophecy and most tie in the final Antichrist as the leader of that proposition.<ref>{{cite web| title=America in Prophecy - Contemporary American authors address America in Bible Prophecy| url=http://www.armageddonbooks.com/america.html}}</ref> Those Evangelicals who dispute America’s role as the Babylon of the Last Days, and as the seat of Antichrist, have been resisted by the likes of John Walvoord<ref>{{cite web| title=Walvoord| url=http://www.walvoordhistory.com/John%20F.%20Walvoord.html| author=Scott Anthony Walvoord}}</ref> of Dallas Theological Seminary<ref>{{cite web| title=Dallas Theological Seminary (Home Page)| url=http://www.dts.edu/}}</ref>, R. L. Hymers, Jr. of the Los Angeles Baptist Tabernacle.<ref>{{cite web| title=The Fall of America in Bible Prophecy| url=http://www.rlhymersjr.com/Online_Sermons/2008/102608PM_AmericaInProphecy.html| author=R. L. Hymers of the Los Angeles Baptist Tabernacle}}</ref> and Tim LaHaye<ref>{{cite web| title=the Coming Peace in the Middle East| url=https://timlahaye.com/| publisher=Tim LaHaye Ministries}}</ref> of the famed ''[[Left Behind]] Series''.
| + | The idea was propounded in 1859 by Frances Rolleston in ''Notes on the Apocalypse, as Explained by the Hebrew Scriptures: The Place in Prophecy of America and Australia Being Pointed Out''.<ref>{{cite web| title=Notes on the Apocalypse, as Explained by the Hebrew Scriptures: the Place in Prophecy of America and Australia Being Pointed Outurl| url=http://www.books.google.com/books?id=IXoaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1293&lpg=PA1293&dq=Frances+Rolleston+The+Place+in+Prophecy+of+America+and+Australia+Being+Pointed+Out&source=bl&ots=ziK45_MuIm&sig=qG5DgNL7ag6fMQ4K5IHBaC4h94U&hl=en&ei=KKrFScveGZmMsQPi9dkk&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA1294,M1| publisher=Rivingtons, London 1858}}</ref> |
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| − | In his e-book ''Antichrist - Reflections on the Desolator''<ref>{{cite web| title=Antichrist - Reflections on the Desolator| url=http://www.the-tribulation-network.com/ebooks/antichrist_reflections_on_the_desolator/antichrist_intro.htm| author=Doug Krieger| publisher=The Tribulation Network}}</ref> Doug Krieger asserts that The Antichrist is not a Jew, the Pope, Islam nor a New-Age figure. Antichrist will be (according to Krieger) the leader of the West and the "protector of the Jews in a regathered Israel" - it is this figure who will make a "defense pact" to defend Israel's majority for seven years but, like other Biblical Futurists, will break his covenant with Israel and declare himself as "God, in the temple of God" (II Thessalonians 2:4). Also, Antichrist receives the Biblical entitlement of ''the Beast'' in the middle of Daniel's final 70th Week. This is accomplished when Antichrist receives "a wound in his head" - his body will then be entered into by Satan himself who will parody the resurrection of Jesus; thereafter, he is entitled ''the Beast''. Therefore, [[Satan]] will not only desecrate a rebuilt [[Third Temple]] by declaring himself as God in the Temple of God but he will desecrate the Antichrist's body (i.e., the "temple of man") and, as "Satan entered into [[Judas]]" to betray Jesus, he will enter into Antichrist - both Judas and Antichrist are entitled ''The Son of Perdition'' (John 17:12; II Thessalonians 2:3). | + | [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]] expositor Uriah Smith in 1884 authored a text entitled ''The United States in the Light of Prophecy; or, An Exposition of Rev. 13:11-17''<ref>{{cite web| title=The United States in the Light of Prophecy; or, An Exposition of Rev. 13:11-17| url=http://www.books.google.com/books?id=0dziN9QI3SgC&dq=The+United+States+in+the+Light+of+Prophecy%3B+or,+An+Exposition+of+Rev.+13:11-17&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=6-CGmRJvUX&sig=iD-5yIDPNhHfMz9trznrpc2W9AI&hl=en&ei=POHFSeOwDIKqsAPK18X9Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result| author|Uriah Smith}}</ref> Smith was insistent that America was the beast of Revelation 13:11-17. |
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| | + | In 1968 Dr. S. Franklin Logsdon, Senior Pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago, suggested that the USA was Babylon the Great.<ref>{{cite web| title=U.S. in Bible Prophecy| url=http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:tN8J-JOJDS8J:www.lib.ucdavis.edu/dept/specol/news/fundamentalism/+U.S.+in+Bible+Prophecy+Logsdon+Armageddon+Books&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us| author=S. Franklin Logsdon, Sr. Pastor, Moody Church, Chicago, Illinois| publisher=Zondervan, 1968, pp. 59-60, ISBN-10:0974476498}}</ref> |
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| | + | In 1998, R. A. Coombes, in ''America, the Babylon: America’s Destiny Foretold in Biblical Prophecy''<ref>{{cite web| title=America the Babylon| url=http://www.americathebabylon.com/| author=R. A. Coombes| publisher=Real Publishing, Liberty, 1998; especially pp. 55-58 and 182-86, ISBN 1-890622-33-8}}</ref> presents thirty-three identifying markers which he claims identify America as the Babylon of the End Times, the seat of Antichrist. He finds sixty-six reasons why New York City is the bastion of Babylon the Great. |
| | + | ===Other identifications=== |
| | + | Mark Hitchcock, in his 2009 text, ''The Late Great United States, What Bible Prophecy Reveals About America's Last Days''<ref>{{cite web| title=The Late Great United States, What Bible Prophecy Reveals About America's Last Days| url=http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781601421401| author=Mark Hitchcock| publisher=Multnomah Books, Colorado Springs, CO, 2009, pp. 17-21, ISBN 978-1-60142-140-1}}</ref> rejects the eschatologists who suggest that America is ''Mystery, Babylon the Great'' (Revelation 17:5) and claims, instead, that modern-day [[Iraq]] is the literal Babylon the Great of the latter days (pp. 17-21). |
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| | + | In his e-book ''Antichrist - Reflections on the Desolator''<ref>{{cite web| title=Antichrist - Reflections on the Desolator| url=http://www.the-tribulation-network.com/ebooks/antichrist_reflections_on_the_desolator/antichrist_intro.htm| author=Doug Krieger| publisher=The Tribulation Network}}</ref> Doug Krieger asserts that The Antichrist will be the leader of the West and the "protector of the Jews in a regathered Israel" - it is this figure who will make a "defense pact" to defend Israel's majority for seven years but, like other Biblical Futurists, will break his covenant with Israel and declare himself as God. |
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| | ==Titles of the Antichrist== | | ==Titles of the Antichrist== |