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George W. Bush: Messiah or Anti Christ?

The President granted members of the Washington "Times” a rare Oval Office interview yesterday. Drawing the most fire were his comments about religion. But as some of the newspaper’s writers have said on TV, Bush himself seems to create a Messianic parallel when talking about himself. So while others have tried to connect eschatological visions in the Bible (such as the Apocalypse) to Bush as the putative Anti-Christ, more striking are the President's comments in the interview compared with the Gospel of John, Chapter 5:19-44

19 Jesus answered and said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, a son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees his father doing; for what he does, his son will do also. 20 For the Father loves his Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. 21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. 22 Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to his Son, 23 so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life.

25 Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. 27 And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation.30 I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

31 "If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony cannot be verified. 32 But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. 33 You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. 34 I do not accept testimony from a human being, but I say this so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. 36 But I have testimony greater than John's. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.

37 Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. 40 But you do not want to come to me to have life. 41 "I do not accept human praise; 42 moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. 46 For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

The passage is significant not because of some hidden of magical prophecy, but because it may have a great impact on the psychology of the President. Notice versus 19 and 20 describe a person who can only continue, but exceed or finish what his Father. And the realization is not that Bush sees himself as serving his own father in this sense but the Almighty Father through continuing his biological father’s agenda. Verse 30 is even more revealing, about a person who cannot do anything on his own but judges with “what I hear”.

True or not, the reason that Bush sounds perilously like the Anti-Christ is the forty-third verse. Jesus is suggesting that people will believe a false prophet who “comes in his own name” over Jesus. This is to point out the fact that Jews had hoped in earlier Biblical works for a powerful military leader to expel the Greeks, Syrians and Romans from Israel. Instead there the human version of the tent used to hide the Tabernacle. Looked like nothing important, but looks are deceiving. So again, the translation hints that a person who comes with regalia, power and glory in the name of God would not be the savior. And in the First Letter of John describes such a person as one of many Anti-Christs.

So while the Gospel of John provides little proof that “Dubya” is Beelzebub, it does speak to things Bush brought up himself in the Washington “Times” interview.

posted by Thomas at 10:13 PM 0 comments