13% of Americans Believe President Obama Is the Anti-Christ

13% of Americans Believe President Obama Is the Anti-Christ

April 2, 2013

National Journal - Are you part of the 4%? The 4% of Americans who believe that shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies? If you're not, you may be a touch aghast by the (still low) number. But according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling, the conspiracy theorists are strong among us.

In a survey of 1,247 registered American voters from March 27-30 (conducted through automated telephone interviews), Public Policy Polling (PPP) found some choice nuggets about the things that we do and do not believe. Some highlights from the survey (pdf):

• Did we ever really land on the moon? 7% of those surveyed thought Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took not one giant leap.
• Is Osama Bin Laden still out there? Well, the vast majority of respondents here thought not. But 11% aren't quite sure.
• Was the CIA "instrumental" in dealing crack cocaine into America's inner-cities in the 1980s? 14% of respondents say yes.
• Does the media or government add "secret mind-controlling techonology" to television broadcasts? 15% of those surveyed think Brian Williams and the rest are up to something more nefarious than the just delivering the nightly news.

PPP didn't just stop with the more outlandish beliefs, however. The survey also covered some political conspiracy theories that are a bit more in the mainstream:

• Do you believe the Bush administration intentionally misled the U.S. about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to promote the war? 44% or respondents said yes, 45% said no.
• Do you believe Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11? 28% of respondents thought he was, while 51% thought he was not.
• Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone in the assasination of John F. Kennedy? Only 25% of those surveyed thought he acted alone. 51% thought there was a larger conspiracy.
• Is global warming is a hoax? 37% of respondents think it is, 51% think it is not.
• And, of course: Do you believe that a "secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government, or New World Order?" Suprisingly, 28% of those surveyed thought yes. This includes a plurality (38%) of people who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012.

Related: 

• Obama, the False Prophet, Seems Destined to Win Reelection
• The Power of the Second Beast, the False Prophet 

The figure of the antichrist [the beast] represents a great political world power with its government as its head.

There has been a great controversy all throughout the ages of the new dispensation about whether this beast, or the antichrist, is a person or a power or a system or a kingdom, but it seems to me that this controversy is not necessary. Daniel tells us that the beast is both the kingdom and the king. Or to speak just a little more generally, the beast represents both the world power and its government.

I would say that this beast neither represents merely a person (who by personal power and personal strength—without any aid—conquers, subdues and controls the whole world and all that it contains) or only a kingdom or dominion without its head and government. Instead, it represents both. And not only do we find it so in Daniel, but it stands to reason and lies in the very nature of the case.

A king is powerless without his kingdom, and a kingdom without a king is inconceivable: the two are inseparable. Therefore, we come to the conclusion that this beast is the symbol of a political government as we know it. I care not whether you are thinking now of a kingdom, empire, republic, or a worldly dominion as it naturally culminates and is represented by its head. Again, I care not whether you conceive of this head as a king, emperor, president, or even as a group or body of persons

[...]

The second beast works through the hearts and minds of men to influence, bewitch and charm them so that they worship the first beast and so that they admire him and submit themselves gladly to him.

What power, then, does this second beast represent? We will find no difficulty in identifying him. Scripture itself tells us: in the nineteenth chapter of Revelation, we find a reference to this same beast. In Revelation 19:20 we read:

"And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire that burneth with brimstone."

And in Revelation 20:10 we find mention of him once more:

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are."

The beast that is mentioned in these passages is evidently the first beast, and the false prophet is none other than this second beast, with the two lamb’s horns, who speaks as the dragon. Therefore, we come to the conclusion that this second beast is called the false prophet.

What is a prophet? We must banish from our minds the popular conception that a prophet is chiefly a man who foretells the future. True, a prophet also foretells the future, but that is not his only work. We find from Scripture that a prophet is characteristically a person who speaks for someone else. Aaron is called the prophet of Moses when they together go to Pharaoh and Aaron expressing the message instead of and for Moses. We see this also with the prophets of God among Israel. The prophets are men who speak for God and bring His message; they appeal to the minds and hearts of men; they speak to Israel in behalf of Jehovah and His covenant and cause.

God’s prophets teach and speak and reveal the will of God, and they try to persuade men so that they may embrace His cause. Now this second beast is also a prophet in that he speaks for someone else and he tries to influence the minds of men, to persuade them, to gain them for the cause of him in whose interest he speaks. However, he is a false prophet in that he does not preach the truth; rather, he speaks the lie. He persuades men and teaches them, and by doing so he deceives them so that they believe the lie. And if we compare this with what we find in the words of the passage that we are now discussing, we shall find that this is actually his character.

His very appearance is deceiving. He looks like a lamb: one would receive the impression, therefore, that he is in some way affiliated with Christ, the great Prophet, and that the words he speaks are the words of Christ. However, he speaks like the dragon: he derives the contents of his prophecy and teaching not from Christ, but from the devil, from hell itself.

He is a prophet so he speaks for someone else, but the one for whom he speaks is the first beast, who receives and exercises all the authority of the devil. In the devil's presence and in behalf of him, he speaks and exercises his authority. In the devil's sight and in his behalf, he does his great signs and wonders. He persuades men to establish an entire worship and erect an image, and he causes all who refuse the image to be killed.

This second beast, the false prophet, is the exact opposite of what Elijah was among Israel. Elijah stood before Jehovah, but this false prophet stands for the opponent of Jehovah. Elijah spoke the truth of God, but this false prophet speaks the lie of the dragon. Elijah persuaded men to break down the image of Baal and serve and worship the true God, but this false prophet persuades men to forsake Jehovah and make an image for the first beast and the dragon. Elijah persuaded men to kill the priests of Baal, but this false prophet persuades men to kill the saints of the Most High.

• Has Obama Found True Faith in the White House or Is He a Deceiver?

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." (Matthew 7:15)

"And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." (Matthew 24:11)

"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." (Matthew 24:24)

"For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." (Mark 13:22)

But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. (2 Peter 2:1)