Title: 'I saw Satan as Baraq Ubamah.' Did Jesus actually reveal name of the 'antichrist'? Source:
[None] URL Source:[None] Published:Jul 30, 2009 Author:Joe Kovacs Post Date:2009-07-30 21:57:23 by A K A Stone Keywords:None Views:4936 Comments:57
For centuries, many have wondered about the identity of a biblical leader who will do Satan the devil's bidding, trying to thwart the plans of Jesus Christ shortly before His prophesied return to Earth.
That character has come to be known as "the antichrist," even though the Bible never uses that word to describe any single person.
Now, after endless speculation suggesting Presidents John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush could possibly by the End Times Bad Boy, there's a new viral video placing the current occupant of the White House into the club.
An American Christian has produced a brief film for YouTube that connects one statement by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke to President Barack Obama.
His 4-minute video focuses on the direct quote: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." (Luke 10:18)
"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. "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.
"I want to emphasize I'm not ashamed of what I put there," he told WND. "I'm not proclaiming he is the antichrist, or that I'm some kind of a Hebrew expert, but the word associations are indisputable. The Hebrew word for lightning is 'Baraq' and the word for heights or high places is 'Bamah.'"
The movie has a prominent disclaimer stressing the film does not declare "BHO" [Barack Hussein Obama] to be the antichrist, but is merely pointing out the Hebrew words and their "striking" correlations to Jesus' statement.
Obama is far from being the first public figure to have his identity tied to Bible prophecy. For instance, President Reagan was considered by some to be a potential merely because each of his names – Ronald Wilson Reagan – has six letters, prompting some to think of 666, the "number of the beast" in the Book of Revelation.
Modern books such as "Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession" and "Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of the Human Fascination with Evil" have chronicled a wide variety of other suspects including Henry Kissinger, Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Italy's Benito Mussolini, Juan Carlos of Spain, Israel's Moshe Dayan, Egypt's Anwar Sadat, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Elvis Presley and ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, perhaps for his famous birthmark on his head that some thought could be "the mark" of the beast mentioned in Revelation.
When WND asked if people should take the video seriously or with a grain of salt, its producer said, "I take the middle road. I don't take it with a grain of salt, but I don't use the Bible like a Ouija board either. It's not like a magical crystal ball. Clear prophecy is one thing. Making word associations is another. Just look at it. I wouldn't take it super serious and say that's the proof we need. It's a little weird."
With the video posted now in several locations on YouTube and more than 75,000 total views, there has been plenty of reaction, with comments such as:
* Anyone who knows multiple languages, which I do, and attempts to translate from one to the other knows that some meaning and inflection is lost in the translation. Here, we're translating three times: from Aramaic to Greek, and Greek to English, and English to Hebrew. A lot to be lost.
* If I went through thousands and thousands of pieces of text about the devil (the whole bible!), I could find things to say [Fox News anchor] Glenn Beck is the antichrist.
* It was Michael Jackson. No wait. It was George Bush. No wait. It was Paris Hilton! What the [expletive] is wrong with you people? Grow up. I bet you don't worship the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, too. Do you?
...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.
Mmmm...yes, I can see why he would remain anonymous.
Let's examine Isaiah 14 in context to determine who is being described.
Isa 14:2-28 KJV And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. (3) And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, (4) That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! (5) The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. (6) He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. (7) The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. (8) Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. (9) Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. (10) All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? (11) Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. (12) How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! (13) For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: (14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (15) Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. (16) They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; (17) That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? (18) All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. (19) But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. (20) Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned. (21) Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. (22) For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD. (23) I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts. (24) The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: (25) That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. (26) This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. (27) For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? (28) In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Quite obviously, it is the kings of Babylon, the superpower of the ancient world and oppressor of the Jews (and everyone else) who are described. The Catholics no longer deliberately mistranslate this passage but there are a lot of charismaniacs and Baptists and evangelicals who continue to misuse it, following along the old Catholic fraudulent readings. To a large degree, this is a carryover of the prophetic commentary in the Scofield Bibles, widely circulated in America starting 100 years ago.
The "Lucifer" described in Isaiah 14 was a mocking title for the king of Babylon, a reference to the planet Venus which was commonly called the morning star in ancient times. The title referred to the ambition of the Babylonian kings who desired to have power and glory comparable to God. One can find references in the Old Testament not only to lucifer (Venus) but also to lucifers which means other morning stars and/or planets. This was an era in which astrology played a very large part in the lives of the peoples of the Babylonian empire, even the Jews.
Luke 10 is a passage where Jesus continues somewhat the passage in Isaiah (demonstrating yet again his familiarity with scripture) but molds the message to assure His disciples that they shall prevail over Satan as the current prince of Earth.
You can find the good angels referred to in Job 38:7 as morning stars and find Jesus called the bright and morning star in Rev 22:16 (as you probably know).
I'm searching my references and cannot find the other Hebrew word used in plural to designate the stars that appear(ed) at dawn in ancient times in the Babylonian empire. I'm looking at ISBE and other sources and not finding the passage I'm after.
I'll keep looking. I researched this a few years back when a local preacher waded through Isaiah 10, repeating the most ignorant stuff you ever heard. I think I sent an email to a friend about it and I'll try to recover that if I can find it. So far no luck finding it! But it might be on my old computer.
The planet Venus is more distinctly referred to in Isa_14:12 : “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!” (the King James Version). The word here rendered Lucifer, that is, “light-bearer,” is the word helel corresponding to the Assyrian mustelil, “the shining star,” an epithet to which the planet Venus has a preëminent claim. Mars and Mercury, the two remaining planets, are not mentioned as such in Old Testament, but the deities connected with them, Nergal = Mars (2Ki_17:30) and Nebo = Mercury (Isa_46:1), both occur.
Interesting bits from ISBE. ISBE has a detailed discussion of all these different ancient systems of astrology and ties some of the references in the OT and in other Jewish writings and in the writings from other sources to these ancient systems.
In ancient times, astrology was important, to an extent I think we can scarcely grasp in the modern era. Of course, it's still hooey but we have to recognize its influence to understand many many passages of scripture.