Q. There are rumors going around on the Internet that Barack Obama could be the Antichrist. What is your view on this?

A. Right off, Mr. Obama is not the Antichrist, who I will refer to as the False Messiah which is closer to its meaning. Over the years many politicians have been accused of that including Prince Charles, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Henry Kissinger and many others. But, the subject of the False Messiah is very comprehensive in the Scriptures and it is a subject that has been talked about for several thousand years. Some of the Rabbi’s of the first century believed that he would be Jewish from the tribe of Dan. A good source to study this subject can be found in the Jewish encyclopedia under “False Messiah” and it is very well developed and actually has a lot to say on the subject. I will go into some of the Scriptures concerning him but some back-ground in Eschatology will have to be laid first. In Prophecy, some of the countries today will have an ancient counterpart. For instance, Europe will be symbolized by Egypt. Egypt was called the “iron furnace” in Deuteronomy and where Israel was held captive, and Europe was where Israel was held captive and the iron furnaces are well known to those who are familiar with the holocaust. Europe will also be known as
Kittim” in prophecy and we will get to that. Russia will be pictured by Assyria, the United States by the Land of Babylon, the Kings of the East by the army of Babylon. To develop this out takes many hours and in our congregation I take about a month every fall and teach nothing but prophecy, using the festivals, idioms, phrases found in Scripture to develop out Biblical eschatology. The false Messiah of course is an end-time eschatological character that must be understood. So, with that in mind let’s look at a few Scriptures to get an idea of who he is. Leviticus 24.10-16 gives a good picture. The son of an Israelite woman (Jewish) and an Egyptian man(European) struggles with a man of Israel (Messiah-Gen 3.15). He blasphemes the name of the Lord (Dan 7.8-11, 11.32, 2 Thes 2.4). His mother’s name is Shelomith which means “peaceful”, the daughter of Dibri which means “my word” from the tribe of Dan. He is eventually killed because of his blasphemy and so will the False Messiah (2 Thes 2.4-8). Daniel 9.26 describes the False Messiah as “ a prince from the people that will come” who we know will be the Romans, which is referring to Europe. There is a concept found in the prophets about a creature named Leviathan. The Jewish Encyclopedia also has a lot to say about this creature. Isaiah 27.1-2 describes what will happen to this creature in the day of the Lord, and he is described here as a “tannin” or sea monster who is destroyed. If you compare this with Ezekiel 29.3-7 and 32.2-8 you will see how this dragon is referred to as Pharaoh, king of Egypt, or Europe again. In Dan 11.30 there is a prophecy about Antiochus Epiphanes. He is the Greek king in the Chanukah story who made war with the Jewish people and forced them to stop observing the Torah. In v 30 it talks about ships from Kittim coming against him to help the Macabees. We know from history that Rome came to the aid of Israel and so we know Kittim means Rome, or Europe. The False Messiah will attempt to help Israel in the birth-pains but will eventually turn on her, just like Rome did. So again, the False Messiah will come out of Europe. In Ezekiel 21.25-27 there is a prophecy about a wicked prince of Israel whose day of judgment has come and his ruler-ship is ended. In the literal, the prophecy concerns Zedekiah but Zedekiah is also a picture of the False Messiah. But notice he is a “prince” and Dan 9 calls the False Messiah a “prince”. There is a small prophecy in Micah 2.4 where it says that God will give Israel over to the “apostate”. Now to be an apostate means he is away from the biblical faith. The False Messiah is described as the “lawless one” ( 2 Thes 2.1-12) and when you look up the word it means “no Torah” or “Torah-less”. The religion of Europe is apostate Christianity and we know from Revelation 12.17 that the False Messiah will make war on anyone who believes that Yeshua is the Messiah and keeps the commandments of God. So, he will be against Torah observance as most of Israel’s enemies have been. There is so much more that can be said about this but in conclusion the False Messiah will be Jewish, probably from the tribe of Dan and come out of Europe. It is very dangerous to accuse anyone living today of being the False Messiah and the Scriptures say that he won’t be identified until after the catching away of the believers on earth at Rosh ha Shanah anyway (2 Thes 2.1-3). There may be many reasons not to vote for Mr. Obama and that is up to the individual, but being the False Messiah shouldn’t be one of them.