Oh dear, Obama's the Antichrist again ... *sigh*

Whilst that's shocking, earth-shattering news in itself – as is the fact that it's now being plastered over the walls of WorldNutDaily, and that he's being hailed as an "American Christian" (a title equal to hero-worship for the WND) – what's actually interesting is how the nutjob in question, an anonymous YouTuber, arrived at such a conclusion. It's really quite amusing, in its own way.

His 4-minute video focuses on the direct quote: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." (Luke 10:18)

[YouTube vid]

"When I started doing a little research, I found the Greek word for 'lightning' is 'astrape', and the Hebrew equivalent is 'Baraq,'" said YouTube contributor "ppsimmons," a self-described Christian with a theological education and many years in the ministry, who spoke to WND under condition of anonymity out of concern for members of his local church. "I thought that was fascinating."

As he continued looking into the rest of the words in the phrase, he focused on "heaven," and found that it can refer not just to God's dwelling place, but also "the heights" or "high places."

He then recalled Isaiah 14:14, where Lucifer, another name for Satan, is quoted as saying, "I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."

"I wondered what the word 'heights' is," said ppsimmons, "and I looked it up in the dictionary, and it's 'Bamah.'"

Thus, on the video, the announcer notes, "If spoken by a Jewish rabbi today, influenced by the poetry of Isaiah, He (Jesus) would say these words in Hebrew ... 'I saw Satan as Baraq Ubamah.'"

"Gosh, was Jesus giving us a clue or was this just a freak coincidence?" thought the filmmaker at the time of his research.

... Or, allow me to condense that into a three-sentence-long, court version:

Prosecution: Well, Mr. the Defendant, what is your evidence for President Obama being the Antichrist?

ppsimmons: Uh ... some archaic words that sorta sound a bit similar to his name, taken from a random Biblical phrase that doesn't really mean anything ...?

Prosecution: *Stares* ... then *headdesk*

Seriously, if you're gonna indict Obama with being the Antichrist, you might wanna come up with some stronger evidence than words with loose resemblances to someone's name, taken from some random Biblical sentence. Hmm.

PS – Why the Céline Dion hate, Ed Brayton? =( I bet you're just jellin'!

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)