From a reader:
Jonah,
Now this is a phrase I don’t use in general public, but Obama’s talk
of making a “new creation” and his treatment by Oprah as “the one”
would qualify him as an anti-Christ, at least if you use a translation
of anti- from the Greek to mean “as if” or “in place of,”
“substitute.” This is the translation a number of Eastern Orthodox
priests use (I’m EO) when they refer to certain pursuits in life as
“anti-Christic.” Just to be clear, I certainly don’t think Obama is
the Devil.
I can’t stand seeing Christianity used on the political stump, and
Mike Huckabee bothers me almost as much as Obama (perhaps more, I
don’t know him well enough). That said, no Christian who understands
anything about his faith would ever suggest that any of us men can
make a “new creation” the way Obama did in one speech (I can’t
remember the exact words, but he clearly borrowed his language from
the New Testament).
I would just say there’s a huge difference between believing that God
sent you to be his President (Pat Robertson, maybe Huckabee), or using
Christian language to promote yourself as a kind of Christ (Obama),
and a President who is also a Christian (Bush or Reagan). If Bush has
put thing in the terms you describe (I don’t know), then you are
certainly right about a line being crossed. But its one thing to say
it’s America’s role versus saying its America’s Christian
responsibility, which would be way off base.